AH 350 Survey of Modern Art Fall 2002
JOURNAL ENTRIES
1. Response to Brettell Introduction, pp. 1-7.
2. What is art? What is modern? What is modern art? (turned in)
3. Reaction to Thomas Kinkade.
4. What is academic art? Pick an example of academic art and discuss.
5. Response to reserve reading assignment, "For Lack of a Better Name," from Romanticism, by Hugh Honour.
6. OPTIONAL: Response to 9/11 and skyscraper lecture.
7. Is modern art Romantic? Pick an example of modern art and discuss.
8. Response to Brettell, Conditions of Modern Art, pp. 49-78.
9. Is the "City of Brevard" a modern city?
10. Response to Megan Wolfe.
11. Assess the importance of Courbet's solo show and the Impressionist exhibitions on the development of modern art. What is the impact of the solo exhibition on modern art? What is the role of galleries today?
12. Response to reserve reading by Charles Baudelaire, selections from "The Painter of Modern Life."
13. Response to Courbet, selections from his "Realist Manifesto"
14. Response to Brettell, "Sexuality and the Body"
15. Response to Britt, Chapter 1 "Impressionism"
16. What is the "science" of Impressionism? Pick an Impressionist art work and discuss.
17. Response to Brettell, "Representation, Vision and Reality" pp. 83-97.
18. Pick an artist who worked in the Impressionist style but rejected it in favor of something else (say, Renoir, Cezanne, Gauguin, Seurat, etc) and select an art work that represents this rejection of Impressionism. Discuss why the artist rejected Impressionism, and how your artwork demonstrates this rejection.
19. Response to Britt, chapter 2.
20. Response to Brettell, "Social Class and Class Consciousness", pp. 155-178. What is the impact of class consciousness on Seurat?
21. Is "Impressionism" a good name for the movement? Is "Post-Impressionism" a good term for categorizing the work that came next? Pick representative examples of art (both Impressionist and Post-Impressionist) and explain why or why not.
22. Define: (1) Neo-Impressionism; (2) Pointillism; (3) Divisionism, and give an example of each. How are the terms related? How are they different?
23. Slightly reworked question (either version is OK): Is the art of Vincent van Gogh expressive of the values of Symbolist art? Pick a painting and discuss.
24. OPTIONAL (EXTRA CREDIT): Discuss your responses to Toulouse-Lautrec and Cézanne.
25. Discuss the use of color in Expressionism. Select a work of art from an Expressionist artist (e.g., Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck, Kirchner, Schmidt-Rottluff, Marc, Kandinsky, etc.) and examine how color is used by the artist. How is the Expressionist use of color different from what came before? For example, how is different from Impressionist color?
26. Response to Britt chapter 3.
27. Response to Britt chapter 4.
28. Explain Cubism. Select a work by Picasso or Braque and discuss. In addition, try to make a Cubist sketch of an object or person. What do you learn about making Cubist art from this experiment?
29. Man and Myth: Explore the cult of genius surrounding Pablo Picasso. In your opinion, was Picasso an artistic genius? Will he be remembered in centuries to come as the most important artist of the twentieth century? Select (and identify, photocopy etc) representative works and discuss.
30. Put yourself into the early 20th century. What was modern back then? How is it different from today? How is it the same? What was the role of fine art in defining modernism? Pick an example and discuss.
31. Why was the Armory Show in New York City met with such outrage? Select a piece of art that was shown at the Armory Show (you can use the web page: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MUSEUM/Armory/armoryshow.html) and explore the goals of the artist as compared its reception by the American audience.
32. What is Dada? Can we call it "conceptual art"? Select an example and discuss.
33. Response to Britt, chapter 5.
34. Try automatic writing or drawing. Or record a dream. Can you tap into your sub- conscience mind?
35. Response to Brettell, pp. 211-217. How is modern art historicized? What does that mean for artists today?
36. Response to T. Tzara, from "Dada Manifesto, 1918" (on reserve in Jones Library)
37. Response to Andre Breton, from the First Manifesto of Surrealism, 1924 (on reserve in Jones Library).
38. Response to Adolf Hitler, from his speech inaugurating the "Great Exhibition of German Art" (on reserve in Jones Library). What is the role of censorship in art today? Should there be "public watchdogs" today? Check the internet for information on Rudolph Giuliani's "decency panel," and comment.
39. Jackson Pollock on art. Review the recollection of Jackson Pollock's demonstration of what art is (from Week 2 of class). "Guston remembers a weekend when he and Tomlin visited Pollock in Springs while Lee was away. It was a good weekend. Jackson's mood was gentle....However, at some point in the course of their discussion of Renaissance art, Jackson picked up a very large nail and drove it into the living-room floor, saying, "Damn it, that's art." (B. H. Friedman, 1973, quoted in The Grove Book of Art Writing, p. 567.)
Do you agree with this statement? Is all action art? Pick an example of Abstract Expressionist art and explain.
40. Response to Britt, chapter 6.
41. Response to Brettell, chapter 7.
42. Response to Britt, chapter 7.
43. What is the cultural significance of Pop Art? Pick an example and discuss.
44. What is Postmodern? Try to define the term in your own words. Pick a work of art from the 1970s or 1980s and discuss how it is Postmodern, rather than Modern. Does the term "Postmodern" help to illuminate trends in art of recent decades, or does it merely confuse the viewing public even more?
45. Assess the following proposed break-down of periods in Modernism: Early Modern, c. 1800 - 1860; High Modern, c. 1860-1960; Postmodern, c. 1960 - now. What are the strengths and weaknesses of such a structure? How would such definitions shape our view of Modern art?
46. Revisit these questions: What is art? What is modern? What is modern art? How has your experience in this course altered or shifted your earlier ideas about art -- and more specifically, on modern art?
Journals are due on Friday, December 13, 2002.