23-6650 Contemp Painting & Sculpture

A seminar/practicum style course that will survey the major concepts and methods of 20th Century art theory and criticism from the early formalism of Roger Fry and Clive Bell to the mid-century late Modernist theories of Clement Greenberg as well as other art-historical points of view such as stylistic analysis, iconography, structuralism and semiotics, and the social history of art. The more contemporary critical positions of postmodernism will also be discussed. These will include poststructuralist attitudes and responses to late 20th Century art: deconstructionalist, feminist, neo-marxist, and psychoanalytic critical methodologies. The course will cover a broad area of visual production that includes traditional fine art (painting/sculpture), as well as photography, performance/installation, video, and even areas of pop culture, i.e. advertisements, rock videos, commercial television and film, etc.

3 Credits