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Takashi Murakami, “Hiropan,” 1997
 

Description 

This class is the second of a two-part lecture course on contemporary art and architecture.  It focuses on the history of art and architecture in Europe, the United States and Japan, 1965 to the present.  Topics include: the transformation of art as a result of Roland Barthes’ “Death of the Author” and Michel Foucault’s “What is an Author?,” theory and Conceptualism in art and architecture, the politics of the body and spatiality, gender and sexuality in the 1970s and 1980s, postmodernism in art and architecture, the philosophy of Deconstruction and its effects on art and architecture, video, installation art, British art in the 1990s, the death drive of painting, painting in the new millennium and the new flatness.  Together we will investigate the greater political economy of individual objects, buildings and events of the recent past, our goal being an understanding of how they are constitutive of the greater political, social and economic network of forces in which we live today.  The course is made up of weekly lectures and readings, a film, museum visits, three written assignments, and a midterm and final examination.

Lectures and Readings

You are required to attend every lecture that is scheduled on the syllabus and complete the assigned reading prior to class.  The reading assignments come from your two textbooks as well as other books that are on reserve at the library.  The following two texts are available for you to purchase at the bookstore:

1.) David Hopkins.  After Modern Art, 1945-2000.  London: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 019284234X
2.) Diane Ghirardo.  Architecture after Modernism.  London: Thames & Hudson, 1996.  ISBN 050020294X
3.) Alicia Imperial.  New Flatness: Surface Tension in Digital Architecture.  Birkhauser, 2000.  ISBN 3764362952

The following texts are available for you on reserve at Hamon Arts Library:
1.) Roland Barthes.  Image, Music, Text.  New York: Noonday Press, 1977.  ISBN 0374521360
2.) Takashi Murakami, Ed.  Little Boy Art: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture.  New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005.  ISBN 0300102852
3.) Tracey Warr, Ed.  The Artist’s Body.  London: Phaidon, 2000.  ISBN 0714835021
4.) Donald Preziosi, Ed.  The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0192842420
5.) Lucy Lippard.  Six Years: The Dematerialization of the art Object from 1966 to 1972.  Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997.  ISBN 0520210131
6.) Peter Eisenman.  “Notes on Conceptual Architecture: Towards a Definition.”  Casabella (1971) 359-360.
7.) Nana Last.  “Conceptualism’s (Con)quests: On Receiving Art and Architecture.”  Harvard Design Magazine Number 19 (Fall 2003/Winter 2004).
8.) Charles Harrison.  Essays on Art and Language.  Oxford: Blackwell Press, 1991.  ISBN 0631178171
9.) Jean Baudrillard.  Simulacra and Simulation.  Trans. Sheila Faria Glaser.  Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1994.  ISBN 0472065211
10.) Robert Venturi, Steven Izenour and Denise Scott Brown.  Leaning from Los Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form.  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1977.  ISBN 026272006X
11.) Norman Rosenthal.  Sensation.  London: Thames & Hudson, 1998.  ISBN 0500280428
12.) Michael Rush.  Video Art.  London: Thames & Hudson, 2003.  ISBN 0500203296
13.) Frederic Jameson.  Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.  Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991.  ISBN 0822310902
14.) Margaret Iverson.  Mary Kelly.  London: Phaidon Press, 2001.  ISBN  0714836613
15.) K.Michael Hays, Ed.  Architecture Theory since 1968 Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998.  ISBN 0262581884
16.) Yve-Alain Bois, Ed.  Endgame: Reference and Simulation in Recent Painting and Sculpture.  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986.  ISBN 0262521180
17.) Barry Schwabsky.  Vitamin P: New Perspectives in Painting.  London: Phaidon Press, 2004.  ISBN 0714844462

Museum Visits and Written Assignments

There are three short written assignments that are organized in conjunction with exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center.   For each, you must choose a work of art and write a critical analysis.  The focus of the first will be a work of sculpture by Alberto Giacometti in The Women of Giacometti at the Nasher Sculpture Center; the second a painting by Robert Ryman in Robert Ryman at the Dallas Museum of Art; and the third a video by Miguel Angel Rios in Concentrations 49: Miguel Angel Rios.  While describing is essential to these assignments, your end product in each instance should be synthetic.  That is to say, you should make a statement about the work of art – take a position – and write about the elements of the work as they relate to your argument.  Your description should be part of your main idea.  By “taking a position” your argument might take up one of the following points:

-what the work of art means
-how the work of art makes meaning
-how the work of art relates to the artist’s life
-how the work of art relates to our contemporary world
-how the materials carry or don’t carry the intent of the artwork
-how the artwork is or is not political
-how the artwork functions as “form”

Each essay must comply with the following requirements:
-identification of the work by title and date
-double-spacing, 10 or 12 pt. font
-1” margins
-2-3 pages

The essays are due on the following dates:
-Assignment #1 on Alberto Giacometti – February 21
-Assignment #2 on Robert Ryman – March 21
-Assignment #3 on Miguel Angel Rios – April 18

Tips: 
In terms of writing style, please avoid the passive voice, hyperbole and cliché.  Simplistic and unfounded descriptions of art, such as “it is beautiful,” “he is a genius,” or “this is an amazing masterpiece,” are banned from this writing assignment.  Your textbooks will be helpful to you.  Though it is not mandatory, you are welcome to do extra research on the artists.  In preparation for these written assignments you should familiarize yourself with the art criticism of the New York Times.  It is the voice and stance of the critic (art, architecture, film and book) that you will assume for this writing.  Remember that plagiarism is grounds for expulsion from the university.  The written assignments must be submitted in paper: I will not accept electronic documents.

Exams

There are two exams in the course:  a mid-term that will be held Thursday, March 9 during regular class time and a final which will be held Tuesday, May 9, 8:00-11:00.  The exams will consist of slide identification, multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank and matching.  The exam material will be culled from the lectures, reading assignments and class discussions.  The final exam will be cumulative.
 

NOTE ON DATES

Please sign the bottom of the sheet at the back of the syllabus declaring that you have read the dates of the exams and due dates of the essays and noted them in your calendar.  Submit it to the TA.  There are absolutely no make-up exams for people who mis-schedule the exam.  I do not accept late papers.
Graduate Students
In addition to fulfilling all of the requirements of the class, graduate students are required to write a 17-page research paper on a topic approved by the professor.  It is due on the last day of class.  Please meet with the professor during office hours to discuss your topic.


Grading

Your grade in the course will be calculated from the following percentages:

Policy on Make-ups, Lateness, and Attendance

Students are expected to attend all class sessions.  If you will not be able to attend a specific session, you must make arrangements with another student to get copies of notes, etc.  You are allowed two unexcused absences, after which your grade will be lowered one half grade.  Assignments must be turned in on time; for each 24-hour period an assignment is late, one full grade will be deducted (e.g., an “A” paper will become a “B” paper).  Appropriate medical and family excuses will be accepted in order to establish new dates for assignments.  Make-ups for the Final Exam will require substantial justification.  Students participating in an officially sanctioned, scheduled University extracurricular activity will be given the opportunity to make up class assignments or other graded assignments missed as a result of their participation.  It is the responsibility of the student to make arrangements with the instructor prior to any missed scheduled examination or other missed assignment for making up the work.  (University Undergraduate Catalogue)  Religiously observant students wishing to be absent on holidays that require missing class should notify their professors in writing at the beginning of the semester, and should discuss with them, in advance, acceptable ways of making up any work missed because of the absence.  (See University Policy No. 1.9.)

1.) Hopkins, 65-93
2.) Ghirardo, 7-41
3.) Barthes, “The Death of the Author,”142-148
4.) Foucault, “What is an Author?,” in Preziosi, 299-314

Tuesday-Thursday January 24-26:  Bodies in Space

1.) Hopkins, 37-64
2.) The Artist’s Body, 16-47
3.) Mark B. N. Hansen, “Seeing with the Body: The Digital Image in Postphotography,” Diacritics 31.4 (2001) 54-82;  Available through PROJECT MUSE at the SMU library website: http://muse.jhu.edu.proxy.libraries.smu.edu/journals/diacritics/v031/31.4hansen.html

Tuesday-Thursday January 31-February 2:  Conceptualism I: Language and the Sign

1.) Hopkins, 161-196
2.) Lippard, Six Years; The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972, pages TBA
3.) Harrison, Art and Language, pages TBA

Tuesday-Thursday February 7-9:  Conceptualism II: Art, Architecture and Language, or, the Dawn of Theory

1.) Eisenman, “Notes on Conceptual Architecture,” pages TBA
2.) Last, “Conceptualism’s (Con)quests: On Receiving Art and Architecture,” pages TBA

Tuesday-Thursday February 14-16: Gender and Sexuality in the 1970s 1.) Mary Kelly and Paul Smith in Preziosi, “No Essential Femininity,” 370-382
2.) Iverson, Mary Kelly, pages TBA

Tuesday-Thursday February 21-23: Gender and Sexuality in the 1980s

1.)Julia Kellman, “HIV, Art and a Journey toward Healing: One Man’s Story,” The Journal of Aesthetic Education Vol. 39, No. 3 (Fall 2005) 33-43; Available through PROJECT MUSE at the SMU library website:
http://muse.jhu.edu.proxy.libraries.smu.edu/journals/the_journal_of_aesthetic_education/v039
/39.3kellman.html
2.) Peggy Phelan, “Serrano, Mapplethorpe, the NEA and You: ‘Money Talks’: October 1989,” TDR (1988-) Vol. 34, No. 1 (Spring 1990) 4-15; Available through JSTOR at the SMU library website: http://www.jstor.org.proxy.libraries.smu.edu/

*ESSAY #1 on Alberto Giacometti Due Tuesday February 21

Tuesday-Thursday-Tuesday February 28-March 2-March 7: Postmodernism I:
Pictures, Simulations and Neo-Expressionism

1.) Hopkins, 197-232
2.) Baudrillard, “The Precession of the Simulacra,” 1-42
3.) Bois, Endgame, pages TBA
4.) Douglas Crimp, “The Photographic Activity of Postmodernism,” October Vol. 15 (Winter 1980)  91-101; Available through JSTOR at the SMU library website: http://www.jstor.org.proxy.libraries.smu.edu/
5.) Richard Calvocoressi, Review ‘Zeitgeist’ at the Martin-Gropius-Bau. Berlin, The Burlington Magazine Vol. 125, No. 959 (Feb. 1983) 118, 120, 123; Available through JSTOR at the SMU library website: http://www.jstor.org.proxy.libraries.smu.edu/

Thursday March 9: MID-TERM EXAMINATION

Tuesday-Thursday March 14-16: SPRING BREAK

Tuesday-Thursday March 21-23: Postmodernism II: Signage, Urbanism and Space

1.) Ghirardo, 171-228
2.) Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, pages TBA
3.) Venturi, Scott and Brown, Learning from Las Vegas, pages TBA
*ESSAY #2 Due on Robert Ryman Tuesday March 21

Tuesday-Thursday March 28-30: Deconstruction and the Arts

1.) Preziosi, “Deconstruction and the Limits of Interpretation,” 397-400
2.) Derrida, “Point de folie – Maintenant l’architecture,” in Hays, ed., Architecture Theory since 1968, pages TBA
3.)Mary McLeod, “Architecture and Politics in the Reagan Era: from Postmodernism to Deconstructivism,” in Hays, ed., Architecture Theory since 1968, pages TBA

Tuesday-Thursday April 4-6: Performance, Video and Installation

1.) Hopkins, 233-245
2.)Rush, Video Art, pages TBA

Tuesday-Thursday April 11-13: British Art in the 1990s

1.)Richard Shone, “From ‘Freeze’ to House: 1988-94,” in Rosenthal, Sensation, 12-25
2.)Lisa Jardine, “Modern Medicis: Art Patronage in the Twentieth Century in Britain,” in Rosenthal, Sensation, 40-48

Tuesday-Thursday April 18-20: The Death Drive of Painting and Painting
in the New Millennium

1.) Bois, Endgame, pages TBA
2.) Francess Colpitt, “Dumb Painting: The End of Representation,” Artl!es, (Summer 2005)  Available at www.artlies.org
3.) Schwabsky, Vitamin P, pages TBA

*ESSAY #3 Due on Miguel Angel Rios Tuesday April 18

Tuesday-Thursday-Tuesday April 25-27: The New Flatness

1.) Murakami, Little Boy Art, pages TBA
2.) Alicia Imperiale, New Flatness: Surface Tension in Digital Architecture, 1-96
3.) Screening of Interstella 5555 on Thursday

Tuesday May 2:  The New Flatness (continued)
*GRADUATE STUDENT ESSAY DUE Tuesday May 2

Tuesday May 9: FINAL EXAM, 8:00-11:00 a.m.

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