A survey of 60 years of American Art. The course will introduce the realist schools of painting at the end of the 19th century. Then it will explore the modernist movements of the 1920’s, the escape to Regionalism in the 30’s, the rise of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism in the 40’s and 50’s and finally Pop Art. Attention will be paid to the social and economic problems of the Big City (New York), the Depression and the New Deal.

NO PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE OF ART HISTORY IS NECESSARY.
1.Art History terms and vocabulary. A survey of weeks to come.
2. Winslow Homer and Thomas Eakins - late 19th century Realism. The Group of Eight and the Ashcan School of 1908.
3. The origin of the skyscraper : the Chicago School. Alfred Steiglitz and the Gallery 291, New York.
4. Cubism, The Armory Show of 1913, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray.
5. The origins of abstraction : Stanton McDonald Wright. The abstract painting of Marsden Hartley and John Marin.
6. The Machine Age: Charles Sheeler and Charles Demuth.
7. The Depression of 1929: Regionalism and the American Scene. Photographers Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans - the aesthetics of poverty.
8. Edward Hopper - solitude and the urban landscape.
9. Biomorphism: the sculpture of Alexander Calder.
10. The Harlem Renaissance: Jacob Lawrence, James van der Zee.
11. Stuart Davis - abstraction related to jazz.
12. Abstract Expressionism: Jackson Pollock, Action Painting and the New York School.
13. Pop Art: Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Tom Wesselmann.
14. Post W.W. II Americans in Paris, Ellsworth Kelly and Joan Mitchell.

Bibliography: Sam Hunter: American Art of the 20th Century, Thames and Hudson. Susan Sontag: On Photography, Dell Publishing Lucy Lippard: Pop Art, Thames and Hudson Irving Sandler: The New York

School: the painters and sculptors of the fifties, Harper and Row Art Encyclopedia monographs of American Artists on Internet Students are required to partipate in class, give one 20 minute presentation on an artist and write one type-written 6 page term paper comparing 2 works of art. There are two marks out of 20: one oral (presence, participation and presentation) and one written (term paper). The final mark is an average of the oral and written marks.

Dernière mise à jour : mercredi 8 avril 2009