Art 340: History and Theory of the Avant-Garde
Full course for one semester. This course examines the history, ideology, and practice of artistic avant-gardism from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth century. To be explored are the aesthetic practices characteristic of avant-gardism, the group dynamics of avant-garde movements, and their relationship to the institutions of art, to social elites, and to radical politics. Issues addressed include the problem of the autonomy of the art object, the relationship of the avant-garde to mass culture, the modernist presumption of originality, and the role of avant-gardism in postmodernity. Prerequisite: Art 201 or consent of instructor. Lecture-conference
Art 3xx: History and Theory of Photography:
Full course for one semester. History of photography as an idea as well as practice from the late eighteenth century to the present. Initial focus on the problem of photography's origins, ontology, and relation to theories of truth and knowledge will allow us to identify and outline photography's multiple histories. The course will then trace the politics of photographic representation through method and medium from the camera obscura, daguerreotype, calotype, clich-verre, collodian, stereoscope, gelatin plate, to color and digital. Close consideration of photographic practice in relation to the rhetoric of art and science as well as to the history of cinema and the development of mass culture. Prerequisite: Art 201 or consent of instructor. Lecture-conference
