Aims of Course:

The course is designed to teach you to look thoughtfully and sensitively at works of twentieth-century European art within their historical, social, and cultural contexts. I will emphasize both major figures and movements of European classical modernism through 1945 (fauvism, cubism, futurism, German and Russian expressionism, international post-World War I abstraction, dada, and surrealism), but will also consider the critique of modernism formulated by its contemporaries and by post-modernists. I will end with a short survey of a few contemporary figures in France, Germany, Spain, and Italy.

I am far less interested to have you amass a large body of facts and information than to have you learn to see, read, and talk about these works in context. I want to teach you to see, analyze, and understand the works of art, and to articulate how their complexities of form and meaning are related to the time and place in which they were produced. To this end, I will give much importance to learning to look. I will also place much emphasis on writing & revising as they help you to clarify and discipline your thoughts and to put art historical practices to work. All of you will write short responses to specific issues or questions, as well as quizzes, final examinations, and an optional paper on an original work of art (in lieu of 10-week quiz for most students, required for 4th-credit students). Through this emphasis on writing and through class discussion, I hope to engage you regularly as active participants & facilitators of our exploration of this period.

Required Texts (tentative):
AH351 Reader (available at Bob's, University Square)
Arnason, History of Modern Art (4th edition)
Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art
Brettell, Modern Art 1851-1929
Chipp, Theories of Modern Art
Harrison & Wood, Art in Theory, 1900-1990

Recommended Texts (tentative):
Fer et al., Realism, Rationalism, Surrealism
Harrison et al., Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction
Stiles & Selz, Theories & Documents of Contemporary Art

P: So. standing & AH 202 or consent of instructor.