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Art Since 1940

3-0-9 units. HASS-A · Undergraduate

Critical examination of major developments in European, Asian, and American art from 1940 to the present. Surveys the mainstream of art production but also examines marginal phenomena (feminism, identity politics, AIDS activism, net art) that come to change the terms of art's engagements with civic culture. Visits to area art museums and writing assignments develop skills for visual analysis and critical writing.

Fall 2010

This subject focuses on the objects, history, context, and critical discussion surrounding art since World War II. Because of the burgeoning increase in art production, the course is necessarily selective. We will trace major developments and movements in art up to the present, primarily from the US; but we will also be looking at art from Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, as well as art "on the margins" — art that has been overlooked by the mainstream critical press, but may have a broad cultural base in its own community. We will ask what function art serves in its various cultures of origin, and why art has been such a lightning rod for political issues around the world.

Readings

  • [AMA] = Hopkins, David. After Modern Art 1945-2000 . Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780192842343.
    Required
  • [NYS] = Ashton, Dore. The New York School: A Cultural Reckoning . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780520081062.
    Required
  • [MIS] = Jones, Caroline A. Machine in the Studio: Constructing the Postwar American Artist . Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780226406497.
    Required
  • [AAA] = Johnson, Ellen. American Artists on Art from 1940-1980 . New York, NY: Westview Press, 1982. ISBN: 9780064301121.
    Recommended
  • [TAP] = Sandler, Irving. The Triumph of American Painting: A History of Abstract Expressionism . New York, NY: Praeger Publishers, 1970. ISBN: 9780269027437.
    Recommended
  • Lippard, Lucy. Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America . New York, NY: Pantheon, 1990. ISBN: 9780394577593.
    Recommended
  • Owens, Craig. Beyond Recognition: Representation, Power, and Culture . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780520077409.
    Recommended
  • [AT] = Siegel, Jeanne. Art Talk: The Early 80s . New York, NY: Da Capo Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780306804144.
    Recommended
  • Cook, Sarah, Beryl Graham, Verina Gfader, and Axel Lapp, eds. A Brief History of Working with New Media Art: Conversations with Artists . Berlin, Germany: The Green Box Kunstedition, 2010. ISBN: 9783941644212.
    Recommended
  • Stallabrass, Julian. Contemporary Art: A Very Short Introduction . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780192806468.
    Recommended
  • [NYS], Introduction and chapters 4-7.
    Required
  • Hofmann, Hans. “The Search for the Real in the Visual Arts.” Pp. 40-48 in Search for the Real, and Other Essays . Edited by Sara T. Weeks, and Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1967. ISBN: 9780262580083.
    Required
  • [NYS], chapters 8-11, 13, and 15.
    Required
  • Greenberg, Clement. “‘American-Type’ Painting.” Pp. 208-229 in Art and Culture: Critical Essays . Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1971. ISBN: 9780807066812.
    Required
  • Rosenberg, Harold. “Parable of American Painting” and “American Action Painters.” In The Tradition of the New . Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780306805967.
    Required
  • Phillips, Lisa. The Third Dimension: Sculpture of the New York School . New York, NY: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1984. (Read pp. 9-44 plus entries) ISBN: 9780874270020.
    Recommended
  • Jones, Caroline A. Bay Area Figurative Art 1950-1965 . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989. Read chapter 1. ISBN: 9780520068421.
    Required
  • Kachur, Lewis. “The View from the East: The Reception of Jackson Pollock among Japanese Gutai Artists.” Pp. 152-162 in Abstract Expressionism: The International Context . Joan Marter, ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780813539744.
    Required
  • Albright, Thomas. Art in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-1980 . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1985. Skim chapters 1-4. ISBN: 9780520055186.
    Recommended
  • Munroe, Alexandra. Japanese Art After 1945 . New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, 1994. Read pp. 83-99. ISBN: 9780810925939.
    Recommended
  • Roberts, James. “Painting as Performance.” Art in America 80, no. 5 (1992): 112-120.
    Recommended
  • Guilbaut, Serge. “Disdain for the Stain: Abstract Expressionism and Tachisme.” Pp. 29-50 and notes in Abstract Expressionism: The International Context . Joan Marter, ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780813539744.
    Recommended
  • Ashton, Dore, ed. Twentieth-Century Artists on Art . New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 1986. Read pp. 122, 186, and 203. ISBN: 9780394734897.
    Recommended
  • Jones, Caroline A. “Coca-Cola Plan, or, How New York Stole the Soul of Giuseppe Panza.” In Panza: The Legacy of a Collector . Los Angeles, CA: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1999. Read pp. 25-30. ISBN: 9780914357735.
    Required
  • Tomkins, Calvin. Off the Wall: Robert Rauschenberg and the Art World of Our Time . Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1980. Read chapters 8, 11, 15, and 21. ISBN: 9780385124706.
    Required
  • Jones, Caroline A. Bay Area Figurative Art 1950-1965 . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989. Read chapter 2, skim and consult pictures in chapters 3-5. ISBN: 9780520068421.
    Required
  • Tomkins, Calvin. The Bride and the Bachelors: Five Masters of the Avant-Garde . New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1976. Read chapters on Cage, Tinguely, and Rauschenberg. ISBN: 9780140043136.
    Recommended
  • Albright, Thomas. Art in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-1980 . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1985. Skim and consult pictures, chapters 5-6. ISBN: 9780520055186.
    Recommended
  • Schulze, Franz. Fantastic Images: Chicago Art Since 1945 . Chicago, IL: Follett Publishing Co., 1972. Skim and consult pictures.
    Recommended
  • Phillips, Lisa. “Beat Culture.” In Beat Culture and the New America . New York, NY: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1995. Skim text and pictures throughout. ISBN: 9782080136138.
    Required
  • Ginsberg, Allen. “Prologue.” In Beat Culture and the New America . New York, NY: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1995. ISBN: 9782080136138.
    Required
  • Jones, Caroline A. “Tyranny of the Eye.” Chapter 7 in Eyesight Alone: Clement Greenberg’s Modernism and the Bureaucratization of the Senses . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780226409535.
    Required
  • Haskell, Barbara. Blam! The Explosion of Pop, Minimalism, and Performance: 1958-1964 . New York, NY: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1984. Skim and consult pictures. ISBN: 9780874270006.
    Recommended
  • [MIS], pp. 98-105 (section of chapter 2 on “Painters Painting”); and pp. 105-113 theoretical conclusion (extra credit).
    Required
  • De Antonio, Emile, and Mitch Tuchman. Painters Painting: A Candid History of the Modern Art Scene, 1940-1970 . New York, NY: Abbeville Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780896594180.
    Recommended
  • [MIS], pp. 114-188 (chapter 2, “Frank Stella, Executive Artist”); and pp. 189-267 (chapter 4, “Warhol’s Factory”).
    Required
  • Rosenblum, Robert. “Pop Art and Non-Pop Art.” 1964. Anthologized in Pop Art Redefined . John Russell and Suzi Gablik, eds. New York, NY: Praeger, 1969, pp. 53-56.
    Required
  • Meyer, James. Minimalism: Art and Polemics in the Sixties . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004. (An excellent detailed history and additional background) ISBN: 9780300105902.
    Recommended
  • Lobel, Michael. Image Duplicator: Roy Lichtenstein and the Emergence of Pop Art . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002. (More good background) ISBN: 9780300087628.
    Recommended
  • Legg, Alicia, Sol LeWitt, Lucy Lippard, et al. Sol LeWitt: the Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art, 1978. ISBN: 9780870704277.
    Recommended
  • Van Bruggen, Coosje. John Baldessari . New York, NY: Rizzoli, 1990. ISBN: 9780847811823.
    Recommended
  • Livingstone, Marco. Pop Art: An International Perspective . New York, NY: Rizzoli, 1992. (Skim and consult pictures) ISBN: 9780847814756.
    Recommended
  • [MIS], pp. 268-343 (chapter 5).
    Required
  • Boettger, Suzaan. Earthworks: Art and the Landscape of the Sixties . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780520241169.
    Recommended
  • Matilsky, Barbara. Fragile Ecologies . New York, NY: Rizzoli, 1992. ISBN: 9780847815920.
    Recommended
  • Schimmel, Paul. Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979 . New York, NY: Thames and Hudson, 1998. ISBN: 9780500280508.
    Recommended
  • Lippard, Lucy. Interviews with Eva Hesse and Judy Chicago. Pp. 214-230 in From the Center: Feminist Essays on Women’s Art . New York, NY: E.P. Dutton, 1976. ISBN: 9780525474272.
    Required
  • Cooper, Helen, et al. Eva Hesse: A Retrospective . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780894670596.
    Recommended
  • Jacob, Mary Jane, ed. Gordon Matta-Clark: A Retrospective . Chicago, IL: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1985. ISBN: 9780933856202.
    Recommended
  • Holloway, Robert. Matta-Clarking . Ebook, 2008. ↗
    Recommended
  • Jones, Amelia, ed. Sexual Politics: Judy Chicago’s ‘Dinner Party’ in Feminist Art History . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996. (Read Jones’ essay) ISBN: 9780520205666.
    Recommended
  • Foster, Hal. “Re: Post.” Pp. 175-187 in Art After Modernism: Rethinking Representation . Brian Wallis, ed. New York, NY: New Museum, 1984. ISBN: 9780879236328.
    Required
  • Owens, Craig. “The Discourse of Others: Feminists and Postmodernism.” Pp. 166-190 in Beyond Recognition: Representation, Power, and Culture . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780520077409.
    Required
  • Wodiczko, Krzysztof. Critical Vehicals . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780262731225. ↗
    Recommended
  • Lippard, Lucy. Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America . New York, NY: The New Press, 2000. ISBN: 9781565845732.
    Recommended
  • Crimp, Douglas, and Adam Rolston. AIDS Demo Graphics . Seattle, WA: Bay Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780941920162.
    Recommended
  • Robins, Corinne. “Art and Politics.” Pp. 37-75 in The Pluralist Era: American Art, 1968-1981 . New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1984. ISBN: 9780064301374.
    Recommended
  • Linker, Kate. Love for Sale: The Words and Pictures of Barbara Kruger . New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, 1990. ISBN: 9780810912199.
    Recommended
  • Thompson, Nato, and Gregory Sholette. The Interventionists: Users’ Manual for the Creative Disruption of Everyday Life . North Adams, MA: MassMoCA, 2006. Skim entire book, read pp. 113-118 (Atlas Group and Critical Art Ensemble). ISBN: 9780262201506.
    Required
  • Carpenter, Ele. Interview with Gregory Sholette and Nato Thopmson. Pp. 111-127 in A Brief History of Working with New Media Art . Sarah Cook, et al., eds. Berlin, Germany: The Green Box, 2010. ISBN: 9783941644212.
    Required
  • Stallabrass, Julian. “New World Order.” Pp. 19-49 in Contemporary Art: A Very Short Introduction . New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780192806468.
    Required
  • Abe, Stanley K. “No Questions, No Answers: China and A Book from the Sky.” Boundary 225, no. 3 (1998): 169-192.
    Required
  • There is no one textbook for this course, but there are extensive readings from several books. Other recommended texts are useful for background or for further reading. All readings will be available on the course Web site or held on reserve in the MIT libraries. A complete list of readings by session can be found in the readings section. ↗
    Listed reading

Prerequisites & course information

Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-A

Sources