Course detail

International art after 1945

FaVU-1SU1945Acad. year: 2019/2020

The lectures will present the main trends, movements and tendencies in art after 1945. The "Western" canon will be emphasised, yet it will accompanied with relevant excursions into the art of the countries of the former East-bloc, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

Language of instruction

Czech

Number of ECTS credits

3

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Learning outcomes of the course unit

Students will be able to distinguish between early manifestations of particular tendencies and their new formulation in postwar art. They will be able to see the differences between the central discourse of the western history of art and its regional alternatives.

Prerequisites

Students should have an overall knowledge of art before 1945.

Co-requisites

Not applicable.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

Lectures accompanied by projection of visual or audiovisual material.

Assesment methods and criteria linked to learning outcomes

Written exam - a combination of multiple-choice test (40% of the grade) and open-ended questions.

Course curriculum

1. Artistic responses to WWII. Cold war, cultural imperialism. Abstract painting in the West vs. the doctrine of Socialist realism in the East. developmental lines of abstract painting. Documenta Kassel 1955.
2. Black Mountain College (Joseph Albers, John Cage), other artistic schools in the USA. the formation of the neoavantgarde. neodada. Raising interest in the everyday culture. New Realism.
3. Artistic response to culture industry and popular (visual) culture. The Independent Group, Pop, its tradition into the 90s.
4. The various forms of "action art." Jackson Pollock and Gutai. Allan Kaprow and happenings. Yves Klein.The forms of performance and its periodical and local metamorphoses. (Fluxus, Joseph Beuys, Chris Burden, Richard Serra, Marina Abramovic…).
5. Minimalism and postminimalism (Carl Andre, Donald Judd, Robert Morris, Eva Hesse). Conceptual art in its historical phase. Institutional critique; politically/socially engaged forms of conceptualism (Hans Haacke etc.).
6. Site-specific art, public art, new genre public art – developments of art in public space. Land art and its representatives (Robert Smithson, Walter de Maria, Helen and Newton Harrison, Agnes Denes).
7. New media art. The beginnings of video art. Experiments in Art and Technology. Art and TV. Digitalization and its consequences. From net.art to post-internet. New media art and art world institutions.
8. Photography in contemporary art. Conceptual art and photography. (Ed Ruscha, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Düsseldorf school, Gabriel Orozco…). "Monumental photography" – Andreas Gursky, Jeff Wall. Photography, subjectivity, identity (Cindy Shermann). Subjective archive - blog. Richter's Atlas, Wolfgang Tillmans.
9. Returns of figural painting. New figuration of 1960s, hyperrealism, neoexpressionism, Neue Wilde, Transavantguardia, postmodern painting, critical and historical painting.
10. Figurative sculpture 1945. Humanistic reinterpretation of surrealism and abstraction (David Smith, Henry Moore); existencialism (Alberto Giacometti); hyperrealism (Duane Hanson, Ron Mueck); Young Brittish Artists (Jake and Dinos Chapman, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Marc Quinn); "sculpture today" (Mark Manders, Franz West, Rachel Harrison...).

Work placements

Not applicable.

Aims

The main objective of the course is to give an overview of the main trends, movements and styles in fine arts after 1945, emphasizing the canon of "Western art".

Specification of controlled education, way of implementation and compensation for absences

Attendance at lectures is not mandatory.

Recommended optional programme components

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Yves-Allan BOIS – Benjamin BUCHLOH – Hal FOSTER – Rosalind KRAUSSOVÁ, Umění po roce 1900, Praha: Slovart, 2007. (CS)

Recommended reading

Kolektiv autorů, Dějiny umění / 12, Praha: Balios a Knižní klub, 2002. (CS)
Terry SMITH, What is contemporary Art?, University of Chicago Press, 2009. (EN)

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme VUB Bachelor's

    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-D , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-D , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-D , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

26 hod., optionally

Teacher / Lecturer