Arts and Politics: Modernism and Modernity in European Art

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Level: 
Master's
CEU credits: 
2
ECTS credits: 
4
Academic year: 
2009/2010
Academic year: 
2010/2011
Academic year: 
2011/2012
Semester: 
Winter
Start and end dates: 
9 Jan 2012 - 30 Mar 2012
Co-hosting Unit(s) [if applicable]: 
Department of History
Stream/Track/Specialization/Core Area: 
Culture, Religion and Intellectual History in a Comparative Perspective
CEU Instructor(s): 
Ilona Sarmany-Parsons
Additional information: 
The focus will be on artistic production ( through case studies of outstanding works) in its social, cultural and political contexts . The methodologies of the new art history with a special focus on the relationship of art and politics, and on that between art and the art market, will illuminate the precarious situation of modern art in its changing social context.
Learning Outcomes: 
These are the more specific achievements of the students as they leave the course. They should be related to the course goals (ie be designed so that fulfilling the learning outcomes means fulfilling to a large degree the goals) and should be assessable. 1./ The students should develop skills that enable them to identify the main artistic styles and trends of the 20th century. 2/ They should become familiar with the methodologies of the cultural history of the visual arts, specifically with that of painting and architecture as coded language.
Assessment : 
Short class presentations (ten minutes talk about a remarkable 20th century artist) are 40% of the grade. The rest of the grade is the result of the test at the end of the course.
Full description: 

Content of the reader:

Richard Brettel: Modern Art 1851-1929 [pdf]

David Cottington: Modern Art [ pdf ]

Jurgen Tietz: The Story of Architecture of the 20th Century [ pdf ]

Concepts of Modern Art [pdf]

Cynthia Freeland: Art Theory [ pdf ]

Robert Hughes: Nothing if not Critical [ pdf ]

 

1/ The increasing antagonism between the artistic establishment and experimental art in the 1890`s and its consequences. (This includes discussion of official forums, the newly established art market and the marginalised status of the avant-garde).
Readings: Shearer West: Fin-de-siècle. London 1993.Pp. 33-68.  G.H. Hamilton: Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1880-1940. Pp. 105-118, 131-153.

2/ Secession and Modernism in the Austro-Hungarian Empire: in Vienna, Prague, Cracow and Budapest. The relationship of these Central European art centres to those in Western Europe.
Readings: Carl E. Schorske: Fin-de-siècle Vienna. NY. 1981. Pp. 208-278. Ilona Sármány-Parsons: Austrian Painting in the 19th Century. Bp 1987. Pp. 7-32.
Optional: Jeremy Howard: Art Nouveau. 1996. Manchester/NY.

3/ The Coming of the radical avant-garde generation: Fauvism and Expressionism. France, Germany, Austria and the impact of their art on the rest of Europe.
Readings: Shearer West: Fin-de-sècle Pp. 122-140. Norbert Lynton: The Story of Modern Art. Pp. 25-54. Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century (Yale, 1993) Pp. 46-86. G.H. Hamilton op cit : Pp. 157-234 and 487-494.

4/ The final break with tradition: Cubism in Paris, Futurism in Italy and related tendencies elsewhere in Europe.
Readings: G.H.Hamilton Pp. 235-271 and 279-291. Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction Pp. 87-183. Norbert Lynton: The Story of Modern Art Pp. 55-73.

5/ Abstraction: Experiments in the creation of a new visual language. "Zero hour" for modern art. Kandinskij, Malevich, Mondrian.
Readings: Hamilton op cit Pp. 303-331. Primitivism etc. op cit Pp. 184-264. N. Lynton op cit Pp. 74-122. Camilla Gray op cit Pp.

6/ The attraction of war for certain artists and the multiple crises of the creative ego: Dadaism, Surrealism and individual contemporary artists not belonging to any movement. Readings: Hamilton op cit Pp. 365-420. Realism. Rationalism etc op cit Pp. 19-61, 171-249. N. Lynton op cit Pp. 147-200.

7/ The heritage of the early radical avant-garde in historical perspective.
Readings: Lynton op cit Pp. 201-225. Hamilton op cit Pp. 331-340, 425-438, and on Klee 494-499.

8/ Realistic tendencies between the two World Wars and the special artistic profile of totalitarian regimes.
Readings: Realism, Rationalism etc op cit Pp. 250-332. Lynton op cit Pp. 123-146 and 169-200. Hamilton op cit Pp. 331-340 and 473-484.

9/ Modernism in architecture. The pioneers of International Style, Frank Lloyd Wright, Corbusier and others.
Readings: Patrick Nuttgens: The Story of Architecture. London 1983. Pp. 259-270. Mark Girouard: Cities and People. Pp. 325-382.

10/ New stylistic trends after the Second World War. The influence of the defeat of Nazism and Fascism on the development of cultural policy in the Western European states. The new art market and its effect on art production. New stylistic trends: Lyrical Abstraction, Pop Art, Minimal Art, Op Art, Hard Edge, Conceptual Art, Post-Modernism, Land Art,  and some recent tendencies. 
Readings: N.Lynton op cit Pp. 226-282, if possible up to 316. Modernism in Dispute: Art since the Forties op cit Pp. 1-170.  Optional reading: Edward Lucie-Smith: Movements in Art since 1945. London 1997. Pp. 7-24, if possible to 201.

11/ The international art exhibitions. Trends since the 1980s. The effect of the new media. Post-Modernism. The influence of the art market on contemporary art production.
Readings: Modernism in Dispute op cit Pp. 170-237. Nuttgens op cit Pp. 271-281. Lynton op cit Pp. 317-364. Lucie Smith op cit Pp. 202-290.

There will be an excursion to the Hungarian National Gallery.
In May we will have an excursion to Vienna, to visit both its museums and outstanding architectural sights.
  
Compulsory Reading:
(The texts are collected in the reader for the course)

  • E.H. Gombrich: The Story of Art. London, 1992. pp. 442-475.
  • H.Honour & J. Fleming: A World History of Art. London, 1982. pp. 564-621.
  • R.Rosenblum & H.W. Janson: Art of the Nineteenth Century. London,  pp. 428-463.
  • Jürgen Tietz: The Story of Modern Architecture of the 20th Century. (Cologne 2000.) 1-99.
  • N.Lynton: The Story of Modern Art, London, 1992. pp. 1-225.
  • Richard R. Brettel: Modern Art. 1851- 1929. Oxford, 1999. 1-88.
  • Mark Girouard: Cities and People. New Haven, London 1995. pp. 343-382.
  • George H. Hamilton: Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1880-1940. New Haven, London, 1993.


These books are also the basic sources for the pictures and styles discussed during the course.The examples for identification composing the test will be chosen from their illustrations.

Optional Reading:

  • Nikos Stangos (Ed.): Concepts of Modern Art. New York, 1974.
  • Camilla Gray: The Russian Experiment in Art 1863-1922. London 1975.
  • Robert Hughes: The Shock of the New: Art and the Century of Change. London, 1980.
  • Alan Colquhoun: Modern Architecture. Oxford, 2002.
  • Edward Lucie-Smith: Movements in Art since 1945. London 1997.
  • David Hopkins: After Modern Art 1945-2000.  Oxford. 2000.

Open Univeristy Textbooks:
Modern Art Practices and Debates (Series edited by Frascina et al.): 

  • Modernity and Modernism: French painting in the Nineteenth Century. New Haven, London 1993.
  • Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century. New Haven, London 1994.
  • Realism, Rationalism, Surrealism: Art since the Wars. New Haven, London. 1995.
  • Modernism in Dispute: Art since the Forties. New Haven, London. 1993.
  • The Challenge of the Avant-Garde. New Haven, London. 1999.
    Gender and Art. New Haven, London 1999.