111-265 French Avant-Gardes. Post-Impressionists to Surrealists

Note

Available as 111-365 at 3rd-year level.

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Subject Description

A subject on the series of French avant-gardes over the half-century from 1885 to 1935. An examination of theories of avant-garde culture will lead to a focus on institutions (e.g. the Salon des indépendants), artists' groups (e.g. Nabis, Surrealists), individualists (e.g. Rousseau, Duchamp), and the dealer-critic system. Issues like the relation of art to politics, the body and sexuality, the discourse of abstraction, and the crisis of the art object will be considered in relation to new scholarship in areas like Pointillism, Cézanne's legacy, the Fauves, Cubism, collage, abstract sculpture, Dada, post-War realism, and Surrealist art and photography.

Assessment

Written work which may comprise class papers, essays, visual tests, or take-home examinations totalling about 5000 words.

Prescribed Texts

• Chipp, Herschel (ed), Theories of Modern Art. Berkeley, any ed.
• Harrison, Carles and Paul Wood (eds), Art in Theory, 1900-1990: an Anthology of Changing Ideas. Oxford, 1992.