Contemporary art 112



contemporary art 112

Spring 2008

TTh 1:30-2:45 pm

Kadema 145

Professor: Elaine O'Brien

Office: Kadema 190

Hours: M 4:30-6PM, Th 4:30-6PM

Email: eobrien@csus.edu

Website:

Course description:

This course offers an overview of art produced from the late modern period (c.1940s-1960s), through the postmodern (c.1960s-1990s) to 21st century globalism. We begin with American Abstract Expressionism and European Existential figuration that mark the end of the Age of Europe and the rise of American cultural hegemony following WWII. Then we focus chronologically on the contemporary period internationally from Pop and Minimal art in the 1960s to now. You will see how the art of our time sustains art traditions of every time and place, how it reinvents Western modernism in postmodern and now global contexts. Readings, assignments, lectures, and discussions are meant to shed light on the contexts and ideas behind the aesthetic (and anti-aesthetic) choices artists have made and that continue to shape visual culture today.

Because contemporary art is a product of our information age, characterized by continual flux and every kind of border crossing, it is more challenging, exciting, and necessary to comprehend than any other art in history. Indeed, contemporary art is not “history” at all. Its time is now and its era is our own. You will be able to imagine your place in this story.

Prerequisite: Modern Art 109 or equivalent with instructor’s consent. Please see me if you have not had an upper-division course in modern art history.

Note: You are required to attend one hour of the Festival of the Arts art history symposium on Saturday, March 15. Please mark your calendar and make arrangements now.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain a body of knowledge about contemporary art: artists, concepts, institutions

• Develop an understanding of why contemporary art looks like it does, distinct from the art of any other time and place

• Develop an understanding of the relationship between artworks and artists’ personal and historical situations

• Develop skills and vocabulary for formal analysis and exhibition review

• Develop critical thinking skills and worldliness

• Gain an appreciation for multiple interpretations of artworks and overcome the mistaken notion that there is one “right” interpretation

• Make visiting art museums and other art spaces a normal part of your life

• Develop an understanding of the role of the artist and art institutions in society

To help you achieve these objectives and earn an A in this and other courses see:

• “Tips on Becoming a Successful student” by art history Professor Kathleen Cohen of San Jose State:

• Dartmouth College Academic Skills website:

• Another good academic skills website:

Required texts:

• Jonathan Fineberg. Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being, second edition, 2000

• Gil Perry and Paul Wood, editors, Themes in Contemporary Art, 2004

• Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing about Art, 8th edition, 2005

Email and Website access: You must be able to access PowerPoint lectures and other information on the course website. I may also send important course information to your email address via My Sac State. You are responsible for checking it.

Recommended:

• Subscriptions to international contemporary art magazines, such as Artforum, Art in America, Parkett, October, and Art Journal (These are also available in the current periodical stacks of the CSUS library and/or through the library databases)

• Student membership in the College Art Association

Course Requirements and Grade Basis:

▪ Participation 10%

▪ Bay Area Exhibition Review 10%

▪ Reading and video responses 15%

▪ Quizzes: 50%

▪ Final exam proposal 5%

▪ Final exam 10%

Total 100%

10% participation: Good participation is how much you help others learn: a positive, questioning, engaged attitude toward the material the class. This is evident in attendance, being on time, attentiveness (sitting up in the chair, feet on the ground), and note taking.

• Note taking: Information presented in lecture contains the central concepts of the course and the material likely to be included on exams. We only recall 50% of what we hear and that 20-30% is incorrect. Therefore, taking good notes is crucial for success in college. Please review these directions on note taking:

o I may occasionally collect your notes and grade them with a check, check plus, or check minus.

• Attendance policy

• I will use the quizzes and occasional roll call will record attendance. Two unexcused absences reduce your grade by half a letter grade; three reduce it by one letter grade; each subsequent absence reduces your grade by a whole letter. Five unexcused absences result in automatic failure. Chronic (more than 3 times) lateness or leaving early can reduce your grade by one letter.

Scheduled appointments, transportation problems, and job demands are not excused. Illness and family/childcare emergencies are excused. Absence due to illness requires a medical excuse from a doctor or the CSUS student health clinic. Inform me of family emergencies or any situation that will keep you from class or affect your ability to learn. Do not hesitate to come to see me during my office hours or make an appointment, and feel free to email me.

• NOTE: Use of cellphones, laptops, all electronic gadgets and communication equipment distracts other students. Please keep everything turned off and out of sight during class. Otherwise I will ask you to leave the class and count you as absent.

• NOTE: Sleeping in a dark art history lecture room can be a problem. Sleeping in class, however, means you aren’t learning; it lowers the class energy level and morale, including mine. I will ask you to leave class and count you as absent.

• Note: No eating please. Drinks are okay.

If you have a disability and require accommodations, you need to provide disability documentation to SSWD, Lassen Hall 1008, (916) 278-6955. Please discuss your accommodation needs with me after class or during my office hours early in the semester.

15% Bay Area exhibition review (Due May 8):

• Following the format in “Writing a Review of an Exhibition” in Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing about Art, write a 5-page review (1400 words, 12 font, double-spaced, 1” margins) of a Bay Area exhibition of contemporary art.

• Research and include in your paper background information from at least one credible source – book or article - about the artist(s) and/or artwork. (Wikipedia is not credible because the authors are unknown.) Footnote the information correctly using Chicago style. See Sylvan Barnet’s guide for information on credible sources and formatting.

• IMPORTANT: Attach a photograph of you inside the museum at the entrance to the exhibition as proof you were there. Only papers with an attached printed photograph are accepted.

• Any of the exhibitions below are fine for this assignment. See me about exceptions. If you are traveling to a cosmopolitan center like LA or New York, you can see an exhibition there.

Asian Art Museum of San Francisco: On Gold Mountain: Sculptures from the Sierra by Zhan Wang, February 15 - May 4, 2008

CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts: Paul McCarthy’s Low Life Slow Life: Part 1, Logan Galleries, February 8-April 5

Lecture by Paul McCarthy: (free, public) Tuesday, Feb. 12, 7 pm, Timken hall, CCA, 1111 Eighth Street (at 16th and Wisconsin) San Francisco

M. H. de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park: Gilbert & George, February 16 - May 18, 2008

California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park: Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005, March 1- May 25, 2008

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (across the street from Yerba Buena, below)

• Take your time: Olafur Eliasson, through February 24

• Douglas Gordon: Pretty Much Every Film and Video Work from about 1992 until Now, through February 24

• An-my Lê: Small Wars, January 26 - May 04

• Gabriele Basilico, January 26-June 15

• Friedlander, February 23 - May 18

University of California, Berkeley Art Museum

• Joan Jonas: The Shape, the Scent, the Feel of Things, through July 20 New video work by pioneer of performance and video art

• Tomás Saraceno: Microscale, Macroscale, and Beyond: Large-Scale Implications of Small-Scale Experiments, through February 17

• Enrique Chagoya: Borderlandia, February 13-May 18.

▪ Artist’s Lecture, Sunday, February 17, 3 pm, Museum Theater

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts:

• The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama

Dec 1, 2007–Mar 16, 2008

• The Way That We Rhyme: Women, Art, and Politics, features collaborative practices of younger women artists, March 29-June 29

Grading basis for exhibition review:

o Quality of observation, analysis, and critical thinking: 40

o Quality of writing: 30

o Quality and effective use of research sources: 20

o Correct style and citation format: 10

A=100-90; B=90-80; C=80-70; D=70-60; F=60 and below

15% 1-page response papers: For each video assigned and each chapter of Themes of Contemporary art write a one-page (300-word, typed, 12-font) response paper. Papers are due the class following date of assignment unless otherwise specified. They are given a check plus, check, or check minus. Late papers are automatically given a check minus unless you have an excused absence.

Format:

For videos,

• Take notes while watching, from beginning to end, at least two pages

• Write your name, the date, the name of the author, and the title of the video at the top of the page.

• Write a synopsis of the topic of the video, just a few sentences is fine.

• Copy from your notes the facts and ideas that stood out for you.

• Attach your typed response paper (300-word, typed, 12-font) to your hand-written notes and turn them in together.

For Themes in Contemporary Art,

• Read the chapter slowly all the way through until you understand it, this would be at least two times. Some parts will require more than that. Underline important passages as you read.

• Write your name, the date, the name of the author, and the title of the chapter in Themes in Contemporary Art at the top of the page.

• First, find the author’s thesis statement (argument) and copy it at the beginning of your paper with quotation marks. Put the page number next to the quote in parentheses.

• Second, paraphrase the thesis to show that you understand the author’s argument.

• Then find and quote two key points that support the author’s argument. Copy only one or two sentences for each quote and explain in your paraphrase whatever is needed for full understanding.

• After each quotation, paraphrase it concisely and add your own comment or question. Prove that you understand each point and how it supports the main argument (thesis).

• Approximately one third of the response paper should be quotes from the author and two thirds your own paraphrases, comments, and questions.

NOTE: The quality of response papers depends on how well you understand the material and the intentions of the writers and artists. Critical thinking is thinking in questions, not answers. It is open to new insights, skeptical, and analytical, but not cynical.

50% Quizzes: On most Tuesdays, class begins with a (timed) 10-15 minute slide identification and essay quiz. Cancellations are announced in class. Identify an artwork from the previous lecture: 1) full name and nationality of artist, 2) title of artwork, 3) date, 4) medium, and 5) art movement if relevant. You will be asked to discuss the significance of the artwork, showing what you learned from the readings, videos, and previous class lecture(s).

• Scoring is on a scale from 1-10 points based on mastery of the material.

▪ Points will be totaled and averaged at the end of the semester.

▪ Keep your quizzes for possible discrepancies at the end of the semester.

▪ No makeup quizzes will be given, but one “free” quiz (missed or low score) is be subtracted from the total.

• Students with an overall average of 9 or 10 are excused from the final exam.

Suggestions on how to study for an art history quiz:

• Form a study group or get a study partner

• Review the description of the quizzes on the syllabus.

• Go to the PowerPoint lectures (Art 112/212 “Lectures”)

• Make flashcards – one for every artwork that was shown in lecture.

1) On the front of the card draw a thumbnail sketch of the artwork. On the back, write down the ID – title, artist’s full name, date, medium, movement (or movements), one-sentence “significance.”

2) Note what you have read or heard in lecture about this work or similar works. Write titles and names of related artists.

• For the essay question, think about what question you would ask about this work if you were the professor. What are the main arguments and points made in readings and lectures?

5% Final Exam Proposal: Due May 15,

Throughout the semester, as you study for quizzes, take notes for your final exam proposal. As if you were the professor, write a final exam for this class following the format below.

• Final exam proposal is typed in 12-font and has two parts:

1. A list of the 10 most important works of contemporary art presented in lecture. Write a brief explanation of why you selected it as a top ten.

2. 2 essay questions, approximately 100 words each, on a theme that runs through the history of contemporary art from mid-20th century to the present.

3. Staple your pages together and write, “Final Exam Proposal: Contemporary Art 112,” your name, and the date on the top right of the first page.

• Proposals are NOT accepted late.

• For the in-class final review on May 15, small groups will collaboratively write one brilliant final exam question derived from individual proposals and be able to defend it. Each group will list on the board the titles and artists of 10 most important artworks and be able to defend their choices.

• The final exam is written (by me) from the class review. Identification questions are drawn from student collaborative lists of most important artworks. I will email the exam essay question(s) to all students via “My Sac State” email.

10% Final Exam Tuesday, May 22, 12:45 - 2:45 pm: Comprehensive exam with 6-10 identification questions and one essay question

Schedule (subject to changes announced in class or by email):

General notes about assignments:

o Unless otherwise noted, assignments are due the class after they appear on the schedule.

o Read the textbook, Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being, for essential background and reference to help you understand lectures, videos, and readings.

o Quizzes will be on the previous lectures with associated videos, exhibitions, guest lectures, and readings in Themes of Contemporary Art.

o The lectures will be available on the website after I give them.

o Note that on Saturday, March 15, you are required to attend one hour of the Visual> ................
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