Visual Studies 290A:Art History: Theory, History and Methods Fall 2011, Monday 12:00-2:50, HG 2200 Professor Ccile

Whiting cwhiting@uci.edu Humanities Gateway, Office 2216 Office Hours: Wednesdays 1:00 2:00 and by appointment. DESCRIPTION The first of three required core seminars for students in the Ph.D. Program in Visual Studies, this course will examine the history of Art History. We will consider the ways in which the discipline has changed and remained the same from the eighteenth century to the twenty-first. Because the course is intended to complement the other core courseswhich focus on recent decadesour course is weighted somewhat more toward the past. Yet the syllabus also includes recent readings in order to highlight the ongoing relevance of methodological practices established in the past. READINGS All readings are available as PDFs on our course website. The website password is arthistory. The course work is focused on your reading and preparation for discussion. WRITING ASSIGNMENTS There are two types of writing assignments. 1. Come to seminar each week having selected what you consider to be a key passage from each of the assigned readings. Write down a sentence or two about why you think the passage is important. Is it the moment in the text where the argument collapses? A metacritical moment where the author reflects on his or her own project? The thesis of the article/chapter? Come prepared not only to turn in this write-up of your selected passages but also to discuss the passages. Your selections will be an important part of our discussion in the first half of each class. On October 31st and November 14th, you will turn in short papers instead of key passages. You should select an optional article listed for that session and assess its methodological approach. You are evaluating the article as a model of art historical scholarship, or as a way of working or thinking through a problem. Analyze the goals of the study and the means used by the art historian to obtain them. These papers should be approximately 5 pages in length.

2.

LEADING CLASS DISCUSSIONS The second half of each class discussion will be led by two students. I would like this part of the discussion to focus as much as possible on visual

materialin conjunction with the readingspresented in the form of a PowerPoint by the discussion leaders. Many of the readings contain references to specific works of art. Presenters can focus exclusively on works introduced in the readings, but you are also free to introduce other visual material that you feel will further the discussion in one way or another. Some weeks readings refer to few specific works of art, which means you will have to be creative about coming up with visual material. Each student will be responsible for leading TWO discussions during the course of the quarter. 1. Gather visual material (not too much) in the form of a PowerPoint presentation that is compatible with a Mac computer. Bring the presentation to class on a Memory Stick. (If you want to show a video or film clip or anything else that doesnt belong in a PowerPoint, thats fine too. Just make sure it can be shown on the department computer we will be using. Begin collecting your material early. Make sure your jpegs are big enough that your images wont be pixilated messes. And remember that ILL takes forever!) 2. Briefly introduce the material to the class. 3. Engage the class in a discussion of the visual material in conjunction with the readings. REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING Participation in class discussion: 30% Weekly reading responses and two short papers: 40% Leading class discussion: 30%

Sept. 26: Introduction Oct. 3: Representation/Simulacrum/Originality David Summers, Representation, in Critical Terms for Art History ed. R. Nelson and R. Shiff (Chicago, 1996): 3-16. Michael Camille, Simulacrum, Critical Terms for Art History, 31-44. Richard Shiff, Originality, Critical Terms for Art History, 103-115. Oct. 10: Aesthetics Immanuel Kant, The Critique of Judgment (1790) in Philosophers on Art from Kant to the Postmodernists ed. Chrisopher Kul-Want (Columbia, 2010): 21-39. Luc Ferry, The Revolution of Taste (1993), 7-32. Jean-Francois Lyotard, Answering the Question: What is Postmodernism? (1979) Philosophers on Art, 237-49. Oct. 17: Style and History Winckelmann,Reflections on The Imitation of Greek Works in Painting an Sculpture, in D. Presziosi, The Art of Art History, 27-34. Alex Potts, Winckelmanns Construction of History, in Art History 5 (1982), 377-403. Alois Riegl, Leading Characteristics of the Late Roman Kunstwollen, (1893) The Art of Art History, 155-161. Margaret Iversen, Introduction: The Concept of the Kunstwollen, in Alois Riegl: Art History and Theory (1993): 3-18, 71-73, 76-80. Oct. 24: Iconography and Semiotics Erwin Panofsky, Iconography and Iconology, The Art of Art History, 220-235. Hubert Damisch, Semiotics and Iconography (1975), The Art of Art History, 236242. Yves-Alain Bois, Formalism and Structuralism (2004), in Art Since 1900: 32-39. Rosalind Krauss, In the Name of Picasso, October 16 (Spring 1981): 5-22. Oct. 31: Social History Meyer Schapiro, The Social Bases of Art (1936), in Worldview in PaintingArt and Society (1995): 119-128. Robert L. Herbert, Preface, in Impressionism: Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society (1988): xii-xv. T.J. Clark, On the Social History of Art (1973), in The Image of the People: 9-20. SHORT PAPER#1: Analyze one of the following articles, each of which exemplifies a historical analysis of works of art. Some questions you might consider in assessing the methodological approach of the article you have

chosen: Is the work of art the primary datum for the social art historian? How does the social art historian define historical context? What is the precise relation between history and the work of art? Does art have agency in defining history? T.J. Clark, The Environs of Paris, in The Painting of Modern Life, p.147-204. Kenneth Silver, Purism: Straightening Up After the Great War, Artforum (March 1977): 56-63. Alexander Nemerov, Interventions: The Boy in Bed: The Scene of Reading in N.C. Wyeths Wreck of the Covenant, Art Bulletin 88 (March 2006): 7-27. Nov. 7: Feminism and Queer Theory Griselda Pollock, Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity, Vision and Difference (1988): 50-90. Craig Owens, The Discourse of Others: Feminists and Postmodernism The Art of Art History, 335-351. Judith Butler Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: an essay in phenomenology and feminist theory, The Art of Art History, 356-366. Jennifer Doyle, Queer Wallpaper, The Art of Art History, 391-401. Nov. 14: Post Colonialism William Pietz, Fetish (2003), The Art of Art History, 109-112. Homi Bhabha, Of Mimicry and Man: The ambivalence of colonial discourse, in The Location of Culture, 85-92. Homi Bhabha, Postmodernism/Postcolonialism, Critical Terms, 307-322. SHORT PAPER #2: Choose one of the following articles to assess a postcolonial interpretation of works of art or museum exhibitions. Some questions you might consider as you analyze the methodological approach of the article: How does the author put pressure on the terms Primitivism and/or Orientalism. How are these terms used, and what do they mean? What relationship does the author posit between Western Europe and other geographical locations around the globe? Hal Foster, The Primitive Unconscious of Modern Art, (1985): 45-70. Timothy Mitchell, Orientalism and the Exhibitionary Order (1989), The Art of Art History, 409-423. Nov. 21: Perspective and the Spectator Erwin Panofsky, Perspective as Symbolic Form (1927): 27-72. Christopher Wood, Introduction to Panofksys Perspective as Symbolic Form (1991): 7-24. Norman Bryson, "The Gaze and the Glance," Vision and Painting: The Logic of the Gaze (1983), 87-131.

Svetlana Alpers, Introduction to The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the 17thc, xvii-xxvii. Nov. 28: Deconstruction Martin Heidegger, The Origin of the Work of Art (1935), The Art of Art History, 284-295. Meyer Schapiro, The Still Life as a Personal ObjectA Note on Heidegger and Van Gogh (1968), The Art of Art History, 296-300. Jacques Derrida, Restitutions of the Truth in Pointing [Pointure] (1978), The Art of Art History, 301-315.