Art 264: MODERN ART: THE AVANT-GARDES, 1890-1930
MW 1:30-2:45, film screenings M 7-9
© Molly Nesbit
fall 2000
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Delicate contrats, parallel lines,
workman's craft, |
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sometimes the object itself, sometimes
and indication |
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of it, sometimes an individualized
enumeration, less |
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sweetness than plainness. In modern art one does
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not choose, just as one accepts
the fashion without |
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discussion. Painting...an astonishing
art whose light |
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SCHEDULE OF LECTURES, READINGS, AND FILMS
Modern art plainly broke with the classical culture of the picture. Friends
and defenders did their best to minimize the damage. They immediately explained
the break in the most friendly and positive terms: modern art, they said, was
part of a great drive toward the linear, universal, philosophically honed, but
aesthetically confined picture, in a word, abstraction. Modern art is now known
by this abstraction. And inversely, abstraction is considered to be the sign
of modernity. Break and drive have assumed a general significance.
Yet modern art was also very particular, quite intent upon declaring not only
its own modernity but also very specific connections to the industrialized twentieth
century. Its use of the latest form was knowing and sly; it saw the potential
for developing new critical positions in sheerly visual ways. Modern artists
said so. They knew that the power of their art lay in the small and pointed
details as well as in the great luminous schemes.
This course, then, will set itself to taking the generalities of abstraction
back to their particular history, to the little magazines, nocturnal conversations,
new technologies, world wars, love affairs, and western economies. All in the
interest of art.
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All of the required reading for the course is on reserve in the Art Library.
The following books are available for purchase at the Vassar Cooperative Bookstore:
Roland Barthes, Mythologies.
Walter Benjamin, Illuminations.
Michel Foucault, The Order of Things.
Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams.
F. de Saussure, Course in General Linguistics.
As you can see from this list, there is no textbook per se for this course because
we have a better option, the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Visit the galleries devoted to our course material. There is no substitute for
looking at the original works of art. Learn as much as you can from them.
Avant-gardes 2 As for the papers, they will be due on October 23rd and December
6th respectively and there will be topics assigned for each. The papers should
be short (10 pages), tightly argued essays, not research papers, though you
will want to do some additional reading to sharpen and clarify your points.
The material presented in this course is to be considered, not memorized, and
you should do your work with this in mind.
At the end of the term there will be avant-garde films screened on Monday evenings.
You should consider these screenings to be part of your required work for the
course and reserve the time in your schedule. Not all of these films are available
on video.
There will be a one hour final exam at the scheduled exam time based on questions
that you will be given ahead. The exam itself however is to be written without
benefit of notes.
My office hours will be held on Mondays, 4 - 6 p. m. and by appointment. The
phone number there is 437-5224; messages may be left for me at the Art Department
office, 437-5220. My e-mail address is: monesbit@vassar.edu. A website for this
course is in preparation.
SCHEDULE OF LECTURES, READINGS, AND FILMS
