Course detail
Art After 1989 1
FaVU-2U1989-1Acad. year: 2024/2025
The course introduces selected themes and tendencies in contemporary art in the period 1989 - 2020.Since it is not possible to take a sufficient distance to speak of an "art history", the course does not aim to create a timeless canon, but rather to examine the selected themes and tendencies from the perspective of their current relevance. The content of the course is divided into two semesters, which have an internally identical structure: the selected themes/trends are first introduced in the form of a lecture, followed by a seminar in which the topic is discussed in greater depth on the basis of a common reading of texts or viewing audiovisual documentation of works of art.
Language of instruction
Number of ECTS credits
Mode of study
Guarantor
Entry knowledge
Knowledge of art history of the second half of the 20th century.
Rules for evaluation and completion of the course
Credit is awarded based on attendance and active participation in seminars. The exam is taken by submitting an essay of approximately 1500 words. The essay will be assessed using the criteria of factual and linguistic correctness, ability to reason, and to work with sources and literature.
Teaching takes place in the classrooms of the FFA BUT in the hours determined by the schedule. Attendance is compulsory (2 unexcused absences allowed). Higher number of absences can be compensated by submitting an alternative assignment after agreement with the teachers.
Aims
The aim of the course is to introduce students to the themes, tendencies and approaches that have had a significant place in contemporary art, or in its development after 1989. Knowledge of current artistic practice and themes as they have appeared in major exhibitions and publications reflecting the development of contemporary art should help students to critically articulate their own position and artistic approach.
Students will gain an overview of the changes in the institutional operation of art over the last 30 years, both in a global context and in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. They will be familiar with the major personalities and events in art of the 1990s. They will be aware of artistic tendencies that seek social relevance of art and the involvement of the audience in the process of creation of the work. They will understand the causes of (n)ostalgia for state socialism and will be able to identify its representatives and its manifestations in the art of Central and Eastern Europe.
Study aids
Prerequisites and corequisites
Basic literature
Boris BUDEN, Konec Postkomunismu. Praha: Rybka publishers, 2013. (CS)
Jan ZÁLEŠÁK, Minulá budoucnost / Past Future. Brno – Praha: FaVU VUT v Brně – tranzit, 2013. (CS)
Pavlína MORGANOVÁ – Martin ŠKABRAHA (eds.), Umění a emancipace. Výběr z textů Piotra Piotrowského. Praha: VVP AVU 2022. (CS)
Pavlína MORGANOVÁ – Terezie NEKVINDOVÁ – Dagmar SVATOŠOVÁ – Jiří ŠEVČÍK (eds.), České umění 1980-2010: texty a dokumenty, Praha: Akademie výtvarných umění v Praze, Vědecko-výzkumné pracoviště, 2011. (CS)
Tomáš POSPISZYL, Posledních padesát let, Hradec Králové: Galerie moderního umění, 2021. (CS)
Zbyněk BALADRÁN – Vít HAVRÁNEK – Věra KREJČOVÁ (eds.), Atlas transformace. Praha: Tranzit, 2009. (CS)
Recommended reading
Elena FILIPOVIC – Marieke VAN HAL – Solveig ØVSTEBO (eds.), The Biennial Reader, Hatje Cantz, 2010. (EN)
Jan ZÁLEŠÁK, Umění spolupráce, Praha: VVP AVU – Brno: MU, 2011. (EN)
Lucia KVOČÁKOVÁ – Piotr SIKORA (eds.), The New Dictionary of Old Ideas, Praha: Meetfactory, 2020. (EN)
Maria HLAVAJOVA – Simon SHEIKH, Former West: Art and the Contemporary After 1989, MIT Press, 2017. (EN)
Rachel WEISS – Luis CAMNITZER, Making art global: the third Havana Biennial 1989 / (Part 1). London: Afterall, 2011. (EN)
Terry SMITH, Contemporary art: world currents, London: Laurence King, 2011. (EN)
Classification of course in study plans
- Programme VUM_M Master's 1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
- Programme DES_M Master's 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
2 year of study, winter semester, elective
1 year of study, winter semester, elective
2 year of study, winter semester, elective
1 year of study, winter semester, elective
2 year of study, winter semester, elective
1 year of study, winter semester, elective
2 year of study, winter semester, elective - Programme VUM_M Master's 1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
Type of course unit
Lecture
Teacher / Lecturer
Syllabus
- Developments in the institutional structure of the art world after 1989. The rise of the biennial format of contemporary art and the "birth" of curatorial stars. The emergence of the institution of the contemporary art museum and the "new institutionalism". The expansion of the art market - the art fair as a distinctive alternative to the international contemporary art exhibition.
- Developments in the institutional structure of the art world in the post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe after 1989, with an emphasis on the establishment of international networks and organizations oriented to support the production, exhibiting and collecting of art from this region.
- Young British Artists and other 'stars of the 1990s' - a survey of selected personalities and events of a decade characterised by a series of contradictory phenomena and hardly fulfilled expectations.
- The New Genre Public Art, Relational Aesthetics and the Social Turn in contemporary art - different approaches to understanding art as a socially relevant activity. Introduction of basic terminology, representatives of art practice and its theoretical and curatorial reflection.
- (N)ostalgia and contemporary art from post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe reflecting the experience of ambivalent nostalgia for the period of socialist modernity.
(Each of these five themes is followed by a seminar in which a selected text, or a selected artwork or exhibition, is critically analysed in a guided discussion.)