ARTH 541

Spring 2008 All Classes

All Classes

Seminar in Modern Art

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Credit: 4 hours.

Investigation of special problems in the history of twentieth-century art. Students present reports of their research.

May be repeated to a maximum of 12 hours. Prerequisite: Consent of instructor.

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ARTH 541 class schedule data for spring 2008
	CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
	45861	Lecture	JM	1:00PM -3:40PM	M	210A Architecture Building	Vazquez, O	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/14/08-04/30/08 Section Info: Topic: Degeneration, Decadence And Fin De Siecle Cultures. Integral to the trope of Modernity has been the notion of ruptures (often violent) with past traditions and structures. Yet, those dramatic breaks have often been seen to be prefigured by, or composed of transitional moments dubbed degenerative or �decadent�. These moments of decadence and crisis, therefore signal and are even conflated with endings and, of course, the immanence of death, whether personal or apocalyptic. Indeed, from Lombroso and Morel to Nordau and other "Degeneration" theorists; from trans-continental debates over the destruction or reform of academies to Entartete Kunst (�Degenerate Art�); from France's concepts of fin de si�cle decadence and Spain's turn-of-the- century angst to past debates over racial and ethnic (in)equality or inferiority in Latin America and the "Black Legend," interpretations of decline have played, and continue to play, integral roles in the histories of art and modernity�s breaks with the past. However, why and how specific theories of degeneration have been (and continue to be) employed in the discourses of visual cultures, and how these relate to disruptive moments or ruptures in the construction of history, is the focus of this seminar. What conditions have prompted theories of decline (as opposed to rebirths) in the arts? What have been the theoretical responses to an understanding of impending endings or past major breaks in the visual systems of societies? Participants will explore the ways in which modern theories of degeneration or decadence have been manipulated as dialectic of varied socio-political conditions manifesting themselves through institutional debates, criticisms, and the histories of art.
	49504	Lecture-Discussion Lecture-Discussion	PCG PCG	10:00AM -11:30AM 6:00PM -8:00PM	W T	Location Pending Location Pending	Bandy, L Hudson, S Bandy, L Hudson, S	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 01/14/08-04/30/08 Special Approval: Instructor Approval Required Section Info: Topic: Abstract Art. This course will investigate key movements and artists -- ranging from Paul C�zanne, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, and Piet Mondrian to Robert Ryman, Richard Tuttle, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres -- with particular focus on the historical and aesthetic origins of abstraction and on significant models of abstraction as they developed in the twentieth century. Students explore the emergence of nonrepresentational painting; the political and spiritual aims of the Russian Constructivists; the rise of abstraction in an American context with Abstract Expressionism; the formal refinement and centrality of materials in Minimalism; and the persistence of abstraction in contemporary art. Enrollment is restricted to students accepted into the Illinois at the Phillips Collection program in Washington D.C. Course meets in Carriage House Conference Room, The Phillips Collection. Class will not meet on March 18 or 19. Graduate Section. Restriction(s): Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign.