492 syllabus

ART HISTORY 492: CONTEMPORARY ART (c1965 – present) Fall 2005

Instructor: Jerry D. Meyer

Office: TBA

Office Hours: 11:00-12 Noon, Tuesday & Thursday, or by appointment

Course content and evaluation:

The content of ArtH 492 (Contemporary Art) will concentrate primarily on the meaning(s) as well as stylistic, historical, and theoretical developments of painting, sculpture, mixed media works, some conceptual and performance art, installation, and non-traditional photography and video/film extending from about 1965 to the present. While some of the artists featured in class may come from Asian and “Third-World” contexts, the class will focus principally on the avant-garde as understood in the context of contemporary art as primarily shaped by the impact of American and European culture and ideas, or, reaction to these ideas. The outline will serve as a "wish" list, and not all artists on the outline (especially those from the last outline pages) will be discussed in class. I will indicate whether or not specific selections from the outline list will be excluded as the semester progresses.

ArtH 492 is available for both upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level credit. Class evaluation will be determined by the composite score of three exams, each weighted with the same maximum value (100 points) and administered at approximately one‑third intervals throughout the semester. The third exam, which will not be comprehensive, will be given during the final exam period as established by the university's final exam schedule: for the fall semester the exam time has been set for Tuesday, December 6, at noon.

The text for the course is: Brandon Taylor, Contemporary Art: Art Since 1970. Upper Saddle River (NJ): Prentice-Hall, 2005; also recommendated, but NOT REQUIRED, is Irving Sandler, Art of the Postmodern Era: From the Late 1960s to the Early 1990s, New York: Harper Collins, 1996. I have also placed a copy of the Sandler book on overnight reserve in Founders Library and on reserve in the School of Art’s Visual Resources Library, room 217. Additionally, a copy H.H. Arnason, History of Modern Art (Fifth Edition, 2004) will also be on reserve in the Visual Resources Library. This latter book will be useful as a guide for students whose knowledge of artistic developments during the first half of the twentieth century is very limited or totally absent.

Students taking this course for credit will be required to purchase three blue, large format exam booklets and turn them in to me prior to the first test. Please do not put your name on the booklets.

Extra Credit Project: Student may elect to research and write an extra credit paper (a minimum of 6 pages of text). The topic of the paper must focus on some aspect of art since 1965 and be approved in advance by me. Other parameters of the paper will be given to those who elect to do the extra credit paper at the time of the request. The paper will be worth between 0 and 5 points, depending on its quality as determined by me, with those points (if any) added to the composite score of the three exams at the end of the semester. The composite sore will determine the final course grade. The decision to do an extra credit paper must be made no later than Friday, October 28.

Please note also: The content and images of some works shown in this course may be very disturbing to some students enrolled in this class. Graphic violence, alternate life styles, and explicit sexuality are themes pursued by some contemporary artists. By remaining in this course you are obligating yourself to discussion and viewing of such works.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ACCESSING IMAGES ON THE WEBPAGE:

Most of the course images referenced in specific exam questions or needed for completing exam essays will be made available on the course’s Image Bank Web Page. To access this image bank:

Type in the URL web page address (all lowercase):

http://dig.lib.niu.edu/art/course/

When the information boxes appear, type:

arth492-1 in the box for course# and section (all lower case, no spaces between letters & numbers).

fall2005 in the box for semester/year (no spaces between fall and year).

contart (short for “contemporary art”) in the box for password.

Then press Enter and the course and topic options will appear. Click on to a topic heading to access images. Images may be enlarged by clicking on the image itself.

Additional material including the course outline, suggested readings, and exam study questions will be made available as the semester progresses on my webpage within the School of Art Webpage, accessed by selecting Faculty and then under Faculty selecting Emeriti Faculty. Click on to Jerry D. Meyer and proceed from there.

Course Outline

Instructor: Jerry D. Meyer (Professor Emeritus), Ph D

Course Title: ARTH 492: CONTEMPORARY ART: c1965‑Present

I. Introduction: Concepts of Modernism and general character of the period evolving after 1950.

II. The Dicotomy of the late 1950s and the 1960s: Modernist Abstraction and References to Figuration and Pop Culture.

A. MODERNIST PAINTING AND SCULPTURE:

1. THE NEW YORK SCHOOL OF ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM and POST-PAINTERLY ABSTRACTION: Jackson Pollock (d. 1956), Barnett Newman (d. 1970), Mark Rothko (d. 1970), Helen Frankenthaler (b. 1928), Morris Louis (d. 1962), and Cy Twombly (b. 1928).

2. HARDEDGE AND MINIMALIST PAINTING: Ellsworth Kelly (b. 1923), Kenneth Noland (b. 1924), Ad Reinhardt (d. 1967), Frank Stella (b. 1936), and Agnes Martin (d.2004).

3. STRUCTURALIST AND MINIMALIST SCULPTURE: David Smith (d. 1965), Mark di Suvero (b. 1933), Anthony Caro (b. 1924), Donald Judd (d. 1994), Robert Morris (b. 1933), and Dan Flavin (d. 1996).

B. NEO‑DADA, POP ART AND RELATED TENDENCIES IN THE LATE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES:

Richard Hamilton (b. 1922), David Hockney (b.1937), Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1925), Jasper Johns (b. 1930), Allan Kaprow (b. 1927), Roy Lichtenstein (d. 1997), Andy Warhol (d. 1987), James Rosenquist (b. 1933), Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929), George Segal (d. 2000), and Edward Kienholz (d. 1994).

2. Richard Serra (b. 1939)

3. Eva Hess (d. 1970)

B. INSTALLATIONS, EARTH WORKS, SITE ART, AND THE INFLUENCE OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE NATURAL SCIENCES ON SCULPTURAL FORMS: LATE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES:

1. Robert Smithson (d. 1973)

2. Michael Heizer (b. 1944 )

3. Richard Long (b. 1945)

4. Nancy Holt (b. 1938)

5. Christo (Javachef) (b. 1935)

6. Mario Merz (b. 1925)

IV. CONCEPTUAL, PERFORMANCE ART, INSTALLATION IN THE LATE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES:

A. Sol Lewitt (b. 1928)

B. Joseph Kosuth (b. 1945)

C. Joseph Beuys (d. 1986)

D. Hans Haacke (b. 1936)

E. Viennese/German Performance: Uses of Violence and the Orgiastic: Gunter Brus (b. 1938); Rudolf Schwarzkogler (d. 1969); Hermann Nitsch (b. 1938)

F. Chris Burden (b. 1946)

G. Nam June Paik (b.1932)

H. Bruce Nauman (b.1941)

I. Carolee Schneemann (b.1939)

V. THE RISE OF FEMINIST CONCERNS IN ART (1960s-1970s)

A. Louise Bourgeois (b. 1911)

B. Lynda Benglis (b. 1941)

C. Miriam Schapiro (b. 1923), the Womanhouse Project, and the Pattern and Decoration (P & D) Movement in the 1970s

D. Judy Chicago (1939‑ )

VI. THE EMERGENCE OF POSTMODERNISM AND THE RESSERTION OF PAINTING IN THE SEVENTIES AND EIGHTIES:

A. Survival of Figurative Painting in the Late ‘60s and ‘70s

1. Lucien Freud (b. 1922)

2. Philip Pearlstein (b.1924)

3. Chuck Close (b. 1940)

4. Alfred Leslie (b. 1927)

5. Leon Golub (d. 2004)

6. Philip Guston (d. 1980)

B. GERMAN/AUSTRIAN NEO‑EXPRESSIONIST/NEO-ROMANTIC PAINTING:

1. Sigmar Polke (b. 1941)

2. Gerhard Richter (b. 1932)

3. George Baselitz (George Kern) (b. 1939)

4. Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945)

C. ITALIAN TRANS-AVANTGARDE PAINTING: Francesco Clemente (b. 1952)

D. THE RISE OF AMERICAN NEO-EXPRESSIONISM AND NEW FIGURATION IN THE LATE 1970S AND 1980S:

1. Susan Rothenberg (b. 1945)

2. Julian Schnabel (b. 1951)

3. David Salle (b. 1952)

VII. THE POST‑MODERNIST PASTICHE, APPROPRIATION, AND RELATED DIRECTIONS IN PAINTING AND SCULPTURE IN THE EIGHTIES AND NINETIES

A. Sherrie Levine (b. 1947)

B. Mark Tansey (b. 1949)

C Mike Bidlo (b. 1953)

D. Komar and Melamid (Vitaly Komar (b. 1943)(Alexander Melamid (b.1945)

E Jeff Koons (b. 1955)

VIII. USES OF THE PHOTO/DIGITAL IMAGE AND VIDEO FROM THE EIGHTIES INTO THE 21^ST CENTURY: IDENTITIY, POLITICAL THEMES, AND CONTENT VARIATIONS

A. Cindy Sherman (b. 1954)

B. Gilbert (b. 1943 - ) and George (1942 - )

C. Robert Mapplethorpe (d. 1989)

D. David Wojnarowicz (d. 1992)

E. Andres Serrano (b. 1950)

F. Yasumasa Morimura (b. 1951)

G. Christian Boltanski (b. 1944)

H. Jeff Wall (b. 1946)

I. Lorna Simpson (1960- )

J. Collier Schorr (b. 1963)

K. Bill Viola (b. 1951)

L. Matthew Barney (b. 1967)

IX. THE INFLUENCE OF GRAFFITI, CARTOONS, AND RELATED NEO-POP SOURCES IN 2-D WORK,1980s INTO THE 21^ST CENTURY:

A. Keith Haring (d. 1989)

B. Jean-Michel Basquiat (d. 1988)

C. Peter Halley (b. 1953)

D. Raymond Pettibone (b. 1957)

E. Robert Williams (b. 1943)

F. Barbara Kruger (b. 1945)

F. Lari Pittman (b. 1952)

G. Kara Walker (b. 1969)

H. William Kentridge (b. 1955)

I. Yoshitomo Nara (b. 1959)

J. Chris Ofili (b. 1968)

X. SCULPTURE, ENVIRONMENTS, AND INSTALLATIONS: LATE 20^TH-EARLY 21^ST CENTURIES

A. Magdalena Abakanowicz (b. 1930)

B. Martin Puryear (b. 1941)

C. Judy Pfaff (b. 1946)

D. Antony Gormley (b. 1950)

E. Andy Goldsworthy (b. 1956)

F. Robert Gober (b. 1954)

G. Kiki Smith (b. 1954)

H. Mike Kelley (b. 1954)

I. Paul McCarthy (b. 1945)

J. Nancy Rubins (b. 1952)

K. Charles Ray (b. 1953)

L. Felix Gonzalez-Torres (d. 1996)

M. Mona Hatoum (b. 1952)

N. Tim Hawkinson (b. 1960)

O. Jake & Dinos Chapman (b. 1966, 1962)

P. Damien Hirst (b. 1965)

Q. Rachel Whiteread (b. 1963)

R. Janine Antoni (b. 1964)

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