Twentieth Century Art in America Europe 1945 to Now Fall 2004 Prof Rebecca Butterfield Teaching Fellows Melissa Ho and Erika Tapp WATU Affiliated Course Description This course will cover the major movements and developments in the art of the last 50 years from the cool art of the Cold War to the hot art of the recent culture wars The issues we ll consider include post studio practices materials and techniques the function of art in a multicultural society and global economy the relation between art and politics and the clash of modernism and post modernism Warning Label The contemporary art we will be covering in this course includes images and performances that are sexually explicit dealing with hetero homo and auto eroticism or politically provocative Some individuals may find these works disturbing or even offensive Such works are included because they were significant events in the history of art They presented important challenges to artistic traditions and conventions to social mores to standards of beauty and taste and ultimately to definitions of art Students will not be asked to subscribe to any particular definition of art nor will they be required to like all the works shown However if you choose to take this course you will be expected to understand the issues involved and why they are important If you have any special concerns please discuss them with me Texts The following books are available at the Penn Book Center 130 S 34th Street Jonathan Fineberg Art Since 1940 Strategies of Being Prentice Hall 2000 Kristine Stiles Peter Selz eds Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art There will also be a Reading Packet available at Campus Copy 3907 Walnut St Additional readings may be posted to the Blackboard site for this class Course Schedule Tentative Mon 1 12 Setting the Stage The 1930s and 1940s Required Fineberg 20 38 Wed 1 14 Abstract Expressionism Gesture Painting Required Harold Rosenberg The American Action Painters 1952 in The Tradition of the New 23 39 Clement Greenberg American Type Painting 1958 in Art and Culture 208229 Artists statements in Stiles and Selz Pollock 22 24 de Kooning 197 199 Mon 1 19 Martin Luther King Jr Day No Class Wed 1 21 Abstract Expressionism Color Field Painting Required Fineberg 98 115 Bradford Collins Life Magazine and the Abstract Expressionists 1948 51 A Historiographic Study of a Late Bohemian Enterprise The Art Bulletin 73 June 1991 283 308 Artists statements in Stiles Selz Newman 24 26 Rothko 26 Frankenthaler 28 31 Noland 94 98 Recommended Max Kozloff American Painting During the Cold War and Eva Cockcroft Abstract Expressionism Weapon of the Cold War in Francis Frascina ed Pollock and After The Critical Debate 1985 Mon 1 26 Sculpture at Mid Century Required Fineberg 115 127 Rosalind Krauss Tanktotem Welded Images in Passages in Modern Sculpture 147 71 Artists statements in Stiles Selz Smith 33 37 Bourgeois 38 41 Wed 1 28 Assemblage Environments Happenings Required Fineberg 188 199 Alan Kaprow The Legacy of Jackson Pollock Art News October 1958 24 26 55 57 Artists statements in Stiles Selz Nevelson 511 513 Kaprow 709 714 Mon 2 2 Robert Rauschenberg Required Fineberg 177 187 Leo Steinberg The Flatbed Picture Plane excerpt of Other Criteria 1972 in Other Criteria 82 91 artist statement in Stiles Selz Rauschenberg 321323 Wed 2 4 Jasper Johns Required Fineberg 206 221 Leo Steinberg Jasper Johns The First Seven Years of His Art 1962 in Other Criteria 17 54 Artist statement in Stiles Selz Johns 323 326 Mon 2 9 Early British American Pop Art Required Fineberg 237 241 250 261 Clement Greenberg Avant Garde and Kitsch 1939 in Art and Culture 3 21 Artists statements in Stiles Selz Oldenburg 335 337 Lichtenstein 337 339 Warhol 340 346 Rosenquist 347 349 Wed 2 11 Pop Art Required Fineberg 199 206 261 266 Benjamin Buchloh Andy Warhol s One Dimensional Art 1956 1966 in Andy Warhol A Retrospective Kynaston McShine ed 1989 30 61 Recommended Thomas Crow Saturday Disasters Trace and Reference in Early Warhol Art in America 75 May 1987 129 136 Mon 2 16 Post Painterly Abstraction Required Fineberg 154 158 Clement Greenberg Modernist Painting Art and Literature 4 1965 repr in F Frascina and C Harrison eds Modern Art and Modernism A Critical Anthology 5 10 Artists statements in Stiles Selz Stella 113 114 Judd 114 117 Flavin 125126 Smith 126 128 Wed 2 18 Minimalism Required Fineberg 294 306 Michael Fried Art and Objecthood Artforum June 1967 repr in G Battcock ed Minimal Art A Critical Anthology 116 147 Anna Chave Minimalism and the Rhetoric of Power Arts Magazine 64 January 1990 44 63 Mon 2 23 Grids Modernism and Postmodernism Required Fineberg 307 310 Rosalind Krauss The Originality of the Avant Garde A Postmodernist Repetition October Fall 1981 repr in The Originality of the Avant Garde and Other Modernist Myths 151 170 Artists statements in Stiles Selz Reinhardt 86 91 Kelly 92 94 Martin 128 138 Wed 2 25 Mind Over Matter Conceptual Art Required Fineberg 222 236 Thomas McEvilley Yves Klein Messenger of the Age of Space Artforum 20 January 1982 38 51 Joseph Kosuth Art After Philosophy Studio International 178 October 1969 134 137 Artists statements in Stiles Selz Manzoni 79 80 Klein 81 LeWitt 822 827 Kosuth 840 847 Baldessari 890 894 Mon 3 1 Midterm Exam Wed 3 3 Process Art Required Fineberg 311 315 318 323 338 346 Benjamin Buchloh Beuys The Twilight of the Idol Preliminary Notes for a Critique Artforum 18 5 January 1980 35 43 Artists statements in Stiles and Selz Beuys 633 644 Hesse 593 597 Serra 600 603 Mar 8 14 Spring Break Mon 3 15 Earthworks Required Fineberg 323 332 Artists statements in Stiles Selz de Maria 526 530 Smithson 530 533 Heizer Oppenheim Smithson 534 536 Holt 536 540 Wed 3 17 Site Specific Art Required Fineberg 356 365 398 405 Elizabeth Hess A Tale of Two Memorials Art in America 71 April 1983 121 128 Robert Storr Tilted Arc Enemy of the People Art in America 73 September 1985 90 97 Artists statements in Stiles Selz Christo 547 556 Aycock 558 560 Long 563 566 Irwin 572 574 Turrell 574 576 Mon 3 22 Performance Art Required Fineberg 346 349 351 354 David Bourdon An Eccentric Body of Art 1973 in Gregory Battcock ed The Art of Performance 183 193 Artists statements in Stiles Selz Acconci 759 767 Burden 768 773 Recommended Christine Poggi Vito Acconci s Bad Dream of Domesticity in Christopher Reed ed Not at Home The Suppression of Domesticity in Modern Art and Architecture 1996 237 252 Henry Sayre Three Performances Laurie Anderson