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Art in the Western World: From Renaissance to Present

Art 1B, Spring 2010

Section 2: TuTh 10:30-11:45 pm

Section 3: TuTh 4:30-5:45 pm

Kadema 145

Professor Elaine O'Brien Ph.D.

Office: Kadema 190

Office Hours: TuTh 1:30-3 pm

eobrien@csus.edu



Teaching Assistant:

Lisa Young: lklyoung@

Course Description:

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the history of the art of the West (Europe and the United States) from the Renaissance to the present day. It begins with the transformation of culture that will characterize Western art for centuries: the shift from the medieval era, ideologically dominated by Catholicism, to the “re-birth” of Classical Greco-Roman culture in the Renaissance, emerging first and remaining centered in Italy. Northern Europe and the art of the Protestant Reformation, Spain and the art of Conquest, Counter Reformation and the Baroque are studied. In the 18th and 19th century the center of Western culture shifts to Paris, then to New York City after the Second World War. The course concludes in the 21st century with contemporary art and its many cultural centers.

Art 1B is a General Education course in Area C-2 (Introduction to the Arts). It is also a prerequisite for most upper division art history classes. There are no prerequisites, but it is recommended that Art 1A be taken before Art 1B.

Required textbook: Kleiner, F., C. Mamiya. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective, Vol II, 12th edition

o Textbook website: I will take multiple choice quiz questions from the “Tutorial Quiz” for each chapter.

Objectives: This course offers you an opportunity to:

• Gain a body of knowledge of great monuments of post-Medieval Western art

• Develop an understanding of how art is tied to historical contexts

• Develop skills and vocabulary for formal analysis

• Develop critical thinking skills by asking questions such as why an artwork work or artist is famous (canonical) and others are not

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

• Make visiting art museums a normal part of your life

• Develop confidence to evaluate artworks and a sense of the value of art in general outside the academic environment and the bachelor’s degree requirement

• Develop an understanding of the role of the artist in society

• Gain some of the worldliness needed for our era of globalization

To help you achieve your learning objectives in this and other courses see:

• Tips for Successful Students: Guidelines for Academic Success:

• Dartmouth College Academic Skills website:

• Note: For an “A” grade college courses require a minimum of 6 hours per week of study outside of class (time for reading, writing papers, preparing projects, and test preparation). Click here for standard academic time requirements and management tips.

Course Requirements and Grade Basis:

Participation 10

Quizzes 65

Final exam proposal 5

Final 10

Crocker Art Museum paper 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, arriving on time (and not leaving early), 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 recall only 50% of what we heard and 20-30% of that is incorrect. Therefore, taking good notes is crucial for success in college. Review these directions on note taking:





• Attendance policy

I will use the quizzes and short response papers to 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 with a written excuse from your doctor or the student health clinic. Inform me of family emergencies or any situation that will keep you from class. Do not hesitate to come see me during my office hours or by appointment, and feel free to email me. My job is to help you.

• 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. Laptops for note taking are permitted in the first two rows only.

• Note: A dark art history lecture room is soporific. Sleeping in class, however, means you aren’t learning. It lowers the class energy level and morale, including mine. If you fall asleep, I will ask you to leave class and count you absent.

• Note: No eating please.

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.

NOTE: See me during my office hours or by appointment (not before or after class) for discussions that will take time, such as your progress in class, or situations that are affecting your performance. Feel free to email me. Exchange contact information with two students sitting next to you in lecture.

Take advantage of University student services:

o Writing center:

o Library instruction

65% Quizzes: Most Tuesday classes begin with a (timed) 15-minute quiz. Quiz cancellations and format changes are announced in class.

Two quiz formats:

• Identification of one or two artworks from the previous week’s lectures and possibly one from any previous lecture:

• Format: Identify 1) full name and nationality of artist, 2) title of artwork, and 3) date (the century until 1800; quarter century until 1900; and for the 20th and 21st centuries, know the decade), 4) medium, and 5) historically significant points about the artwork.

• Several quizzes might be essays on a question given in the previous class. This will be announced in class.

• Unless otherwise announced, each quiz will also have two multiple choice questions taken from the Art through the Ages textbook website “Tutorial Quiz” for each chapter. A link to the online “Tutorial quiz” is also on the course website.

• Scoring is on a scale from 1-10 points based on how much mastery of the material is demonstrated. Write all the facts; display what you have learned.

• Points will be totaled and averaged at the end of the semester. Students with an overall average of 8 or higher are excused from the final exam. Your final exam score will be your quiz average. If you got an average of “8,” for example, your final exam score will be an “8” (B)

▪ 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.

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 Art 1B PowerPoint 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 with no written information.

2) On the back, write down information you will need to know about that artwork. Note information from Art Through the Ages and lecture about this work and similar works. Write titles and names of related artists.

3) Review textbook website Tutorial Quiz and use its other study aids

4) For essay questions, think about what question you would ask about this work if you were the professor. What are the main points of readings and lectures?

5% Final Exam Proposal: Due May 14, typed, 12-font, double spaced

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 has two parts:

1. A list of the 10 most important works of art presented in lecture. Write a brief explanation of each work’s historical significance – why you selected it. Look at your notes and the book.

2. 2 essay questions, loosely 100 words each, on a theme that runs through the history of Western art from the Renaissance to the present.

• Proposal is NOT accepted late.

• For the in-class final review on May 13, small groups will collaboratively write one brilliant final exam question derived from individual proposals and be able to defend the collaborative one. 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:

Section 2: Thurs., May 20, 10:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. Kadema 145

Section 3: Thurs., May 20, 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Kadema 145

Note: you may take your final either time.

The final is a two-hour cumulative exam consisting of 6 identification questions (using the quiz format) and one or two essay questions derived from student proposals and discussion.

o NOTE: If you have averaged 8 (B) on the quizzes the final is optional. If you hope to get an “A” in the class and you have earned a “B” on your quizzes, you may take the final exam to raise your course grade. The final will count 10% of the course grade in this case as well. In other words, it can also lower your grade.

10% Crocker Art Museum assignment: Due April 6

You may substitute an art museum in San Francisco or another cosmopolitan city like LA or New York, and get extra credit. The museum assignment will be somewhat different if the museum is larger than the Crocker. See me about that. You are highly encouraged to visit museums in the Bay Area. Check out hours, maps and other directions, and current exhibitions at their websites before you go:

• Asian Art Museum of San Francisco - San Francisco

• M. H. de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park and the Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco

• The Jewish Museum - San Francisco

• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art - San Francisco

• Yerba Buena Center for the Arts – San Francisco

The Crocker Art Museum is located at 216 O Street, between 2nd and 3rd Streets. See website for map, hours, and other information. Bring quarters for parking meters and $3 for admission with valid student ID.

1. Review pp XL –XLV of Gardner on “The Words Art Historians Use” for two-dimensional art.

2. Print out a copy of the “Worksheet Companion to Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking” available on the course website. Take it with you to the museum and read it before you go to make sure you understand the terms. Look up all unfamiliar terms in the Gardner glossary before you go, or take the textbook with you.

3. Take a friend or family member only if they are interested in the art and the museum. Otherwise it’s much better to go alone. Take a pencil (not pen) for notes and an unlined drawing pad. You will have to check big bags or backpacks. Don’t worry if the guards watch you or ask you to step away from the art works. That’s what they are paid to do and they do it to everybody.

4. Gatekeeper requirement: BRING a CAMERA and create a photo-diary of your visit - at least 4 photographs. Important: Get someone to take your picture inside the museum. You must include at least one photograph of you in a gallery and not the lobby or in front of the building). Your paper will not be accepted without a printed photograph of you with the art. Ask the receptionist where photographs are permitted, which should be the gift shop and the permanent collection galleries. Photographs are generally not allowed in traveling exhibitions.

5. Pick up a museum map in the lobby.

6. Stroll through all the galleries. On the museum map, write down the title of your favorite artwork in each gallery, the name of the artist, and the year the work was made.

7. Draw a 15-minute sketch of your favorite European or American painting dated after 1500 in the entire museum. Do not use children’s art or non-Western art. Start by drawing an outline of the outside dimensions of the painting (frame). Write down the artist’s name, title, and medium of the artwork. This information is on the wall label.

8. For the same painting as you sketched, fill in “Worksheet Companion to Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking.” See #2, above.

9. Conclusion: This is an important part of this assignment. Give it careful consideration. Write a 300-400 word narrative about your visit to the Crocker museum. How much time did the museum visit take? Did you go with anyone? What impressed you most and least? Why? Characterizes the collection and how the artwork is displayed from a critical (questioning) perspective.

10. Make a cover page. Securely assemble all the parts of your museum visit assignment into a flat binder (no rings) with your name on all parts, including photographs. Make sure photos will not fall out. Note: museum assignments not securely fastened in flat binders will be returned to you to resubmit and marked late unless you get them back to me on the same due date.

Grading basis for Crocker Art Museum Paper:

o Worksheet: thoroughness, accuracy, spelling, grammar: 40

o Sketch: how much care is evident: 15

o Gallery map: completeness: 10

o Conclusion: observation, critical thinking, and quality of writing: 20

o Format and presentation: 15

A=100-90; B=89-80; C=79-70; D=69-60; F=60-

Extra Credit:

o Extra credit opportunities are activities that will raise your understanding of art and visual culture, such as attending artist lectures, additional museum reports, reports on art documentaries and artist biography films available in the campus library, etc. You can think up your own learning activity, but see me if you aren’t sure it qualifies.

o Extra credit points (5 or 10) are recorded right next to your name in the grade book.

o Extra credit points are not averaged into quiz or other scores for required assignments, but they can make a significant difference at the end of the semester. If your grade is on the border – between a B+ and an A, for example – extra credit points can move you to the higher grade. They can also make up for an unexcused absence, but you must discuss that intention with me first.

Schedule: subject to changes announced in class

GENERAL NOTES ABOUT ASSIGNMENTS:

o Lectures are available on the course website after I give them in class.

o Note that you have a Crocker Art Museum assignment due on April 6. You may want to visit the museum and complete the assignment early in the semester.

January 26: Introduction

Assignment:

• Look at each of the reproductions in your textbook, Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, and count 1) total number of artworks reproduced, and 2) number of artworks by women in each chapter. Some names are unisex, so read the information about that picture to find out if the author refers to the artist as “he” or “she.”

Read: “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” – an article written by American art historian Linda Nochlin in 1970. Print out the Nochlin essay, underline her thesis statement and supporting points and bring the article to class for discussion.

NOTE: Do not read this essay as if it were written today. It’s a historical document. In 1970, when Nochlin wrote it, there were relatively few women artists living or dead. Today there are (almost) as many women artists as men and art historians write about women artists (almost) as much as they do male artists. What do you think has made the difference?

NOTE: On the first quiz, I will ask you to give 2 numbers: the total number of reproductions and the total number by women artists. I will also ask you to write Linda Nochlin’s thesis statement in one or two sentences.

January 28: Discuss Nochlin // watch episode of Guns, Germs, and Steel

February 2: Quiz on course requirements (syllabus), the number count of artworks in Gardner by women, total number of artworks, and Linda Nochlin’s thesis.

Read: Gardner “Introduction” and Chapter 14

February 4: In-class assignment / O’Brien Furlough Day

Read: Gardner Chapter 15

February 9: No quiz / Renaissance

February 11: Renaissance

Read: Gardner Chapter 16

February 16: Quiz

February 18:

Read: Chapter 17

February 23: Quiz // 16th Century

Read Chapter 18

February 25: O’Brien furlough // in-class assignment

March 2: Quiz // Baroque

Read: Chapter 19

March 4: Baroque

March 9: Quiz // Late Baroque

Read: Chapter 20

March 11: Rococo// Naturalism & Enlightenment

March 16: Quiz // Neoclassicism

March 18: Romanticism

❖ March 20: Saturday, 1-5 pm, Mariposa 1000. Festival of the Arts art history symposium, Revisiting the Art & Craft Divide. Extra credit opportunity: Write a question for each speaker you hear. Five points more for asking your question out loud during the Q&A. Write down the speaker’s answer. Turn it in after the symposium or in class next week.

March 23: Quiz // Romanticism

March 25: O’Brien furlough day / In-class assignment

Read: Chapter 21

March 29-April 4: Spring Vacation

April 6: Crocker museum paper due /19th Century Modernism

Read: Chapter 22

April 8: 19th Century

April 13: Quiz // 19th Century Modernism

April 15: 20th Century Modernism

April 20: 20th Century Modernism

April 22: 20th Century

Read: Chapter 23

April 27: Quiz // 20th Century

April 29: Contemporary

May 4: Contemporary

May 6: Contemporary

May 11: Quiz // Art in the 21st Century - video

May 13: Final Exam Proposal Due // Class creates exam from proposals

Final Exam: Note: you may take your final either of these times:

Section 2: Thurs., May 20, 10:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. Kadema 145

Section 3: Thurs., May 20, 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Kadema 145

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Viewing a work by Marlene Dumas, Museum of Modern Art, New York, February, 2009

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