ARTH 550

Fall 2009 All Classes

All Classes

Seminar in American Art

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Credit: 4 hours.

Investigation of selected problems in the history of American art.

May be repeated to a maximum of 12 hours. Prerequisite: ARTH 350 and ARTH 351, or consent of instructor.

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ARTH 550 class schedule data for fall 2009
CRN	Type	Section	Time	Day	Location	Instructor	Section Details
30115	Conference Conference	1 1	10:00AM -11:00AM 6:00PM -8:00PM	W T	Location Pending Location Pending	Lang, K Greenhill, J Lang, K Greenhill, J	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/24/09-12/09/09 Section Info: During the cultural reinvention that followed the Civil War, the market for humor expanded in the U.S.--with the new platform comedians of the 1860s, the large format comic periodicals of the 1870s and '80s, and the swelling comic back pages of elite journals like Scribner's. This investment in humor--which would erupt into a full-scale �plague of jocularity� by the end of the century--inspired many conservative critics to try to contain it in the realm of high art, a category very much under construction in these years. But why was humor so viral, so threatening? What kinds of humor were out of bounds and for whom? How might ambitious art be formulated through an engagement with humor? What role does humor play in art of the early twentieth century and can we see this work as related to--instead of fundamentally cut off from--the visual culture of the previous century? We will explore these and other questions by examining a range of material: from painting and sculpture to single-sheet cartoons and early film. In an effort to discern how the grotesque, deadpan, nonsense, irony, and other comic idioms find form in visual media, we will look in depth at the work of Alfred Jacob Miller, Winslow Homer, John George Brown, William Holbrook Beard, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John Haberle, Francis Picabia, and Marcel Duchamp, among others. Period criticism and more recent theory will be fundamental to our consideration of the challenges these works present. Literature from the period will also be a crucial component of the course, and we will fold texts by Artemus Ward, Mark Twain, and others into our analyses. Enrollment is restricted to students accepted into the Illinois at the Phillips Collection program -- all classes in Washington D.C. UIUC and credit students will also meet Wednesdays 10:00am to 11:00am. Graduate Section. Undergraduates register for ARTH 491. First class meeting Tuesday, September 8. Restriction(s): Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign.
40571	Lecture-Discussion	A	1:00PM -4:00PM	M	Location Pending	Higgins, H Lang, K	Part of Term: 1 Date Range: 08/24/09-12/09/09 Section Info: This course examines the art, social life and legacies of Black Mountain College, a small experimental college near Ashville, North Carolina from 1933-1956. During its short life, this college fostered several historic events; the first happening, the founding of Merce Cunningham's dance company, Robert Rauschenberg's making and display of the white paintings, summer institutes by (among others) Willem and Elaine DeKooning and Clement Greenberg, and Buckminster Fuller's first geodesic dome of 1948. As shown here, this last event forms a particularly useful lens through which to view the college, since it was a spectacular failure. Made of window blind slats, it was too soft to stand and was named 'the supine dome' by Elaine de Kooning. This course asks several questions of these achievements. First, since the art program was brought to Black Mountain when Josef and Anni Albers fled the Nazi's just before the closure of the Bauhaus in 1933, we will look at connections between Black Mountain and the structure and pedagogical ideals of the famed interdisciplinary Grundkurs of the Bauhaus. Second, we will study what was added to this legacy by the tradition of American liberalism in education associated with Black Mountain College board member, John Dewey. Third, we will study how the extreme poverty of the school contributed to its can-do spirit of experimentalism. And, finally, we will study the extent to which these threads became part of the formats of postwar art and art education as faculty from Black Mountain, in particular the composer John Cage, brought experimentalism into the classroom. There is substantial secondary literature available on the Bauhaus, Black Mountain, and Cal Arts, where Cage's student, Allan Kaprow established his interdisciplinary arts program. Weekly meetings will focus on these readings, however research for papers and projects in this course will use primary materials as much as possible, in particular the microfilm Black Mountain College Papers at the Archives of American Art of the Smithsonian. Enrollment is restricted to students accepted into the Illinois at the Phillips Collection program -- all classes in Washington D.C. Graduate Section. Undergraduates register for ARTH 491. 1st class meeting Monday, September 14 (no class on Labor Day). Restriction(s): Restricted to Graduate - Urbana-Champaign.
52580	Lecture-Discussion	AO	1:00PM -4:00PM	M	ARR Washington DC	Higgins, H Lang, K	Date Range: 09/14/09-12/14/09 Section Fee: Graduate - Urbana-Champaign OCE Tuition $309.00 per Bill Hour, Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign OCE Tuition $277.00 per Bill Hour, and OCE Fees $45.00 per Bill Hour. Section Title: Long Shadow of the Supine Dome Section Info: Academic Outreach restrictions and assessments apply, see http://www.outreach.uiuc.edu. Class will not meet during the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Thanksgiving break which occurs between November 23 and November 27. Restriction(s): Restricted to NDEG:Grad Nondegree-CE-UIUC or NDEG:Undergrad Nondeg-CE-UIUC.
54816	Lecture	PC	6:00PM -8:00PM	T	ARR Washington DC	Lang, K Greenhill, J	Date Range: 09/08/09-12/15/09 Section Fee: Graduate - Urbana-Champaign OCE Tuition $309.00 per Bill Hour, Undergrad - Urbana-Champaign OCE Tuition $277.00 per Bill Hour, and OCE Fees $45.00 per Bill Hour. Section Title: American Humor 1850 to 1915 Section Info: Academic Outreach restrictions and assessments apply, see http://www.outreach.uiuc.edu. Class will not meet during the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Thanksgiving break which occurs between November 23 and November 27. Restriction(s): Restricted to NDEG:Grad Nondegree-CE-UIUC or NDEG:Undergrad Nondeg-CE-UIUC.