Course detail

20th Century History Seminar – Networks, Politics, Concepts

FaVU-1SDU20Acad. year: 2023/2024

Based on the reading of key texts and discussions of theoretical concepts, the course familiarizes students with the genesis of concepts and approaches in the history of 20th century art, such as style, nation, canon, agency, function, structure of the work, meaning, as well as with the context of the birth of modern institutions: museums of modern art or modern art criticism. The course shows that terms that we take for granted in the artistic vocabulary arose under certain circumstances, went through historical development and can acquire connotations that may not always be desirable.

Language of instruction

Czech

Number of ECTS credits

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

PhDr. Ladislav Jackson, Ph.D.

Department

Department of Art History and Theory (KTDU)

Entry knowledge

None.

Rules for evaluation and completion of the course

For passing the course there are the following conditions:

Active presence (50% attendance)
Individual presentation of a summary of a selected text.

Teaching takes place in the classrooms of the FFA BUT in the hours determined by the schedule. Attendance is compulsory (2 unexcused absences allowed). Higher number of absences can be compensated by submitting an alternative assignment after agreement with the teacher.

Aims

The aim of the course is to familiarize students with the key concepts of the history and theory of art of the 20th century. Students will be able to critically harness concepts such as style, function, gesture, genius, institution. They will be capable of analysis from the positions of post-colonial studies, gender studies and critical race studies.

Completion of the course should help students strengthen the ability of analytical thinking, conduct interdisciplinary dialogue and articulate a critical view of the canon of art history and its practice in the present.

Study aids

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Heinrich Wölfflin, Základní pojmy dějin umění: Problém vývoje stylu v novověkém umění, Praha: Academia 2020
Heinrich Wölfflin, Renaissance and Baroque, Cornell University Press, 1967
Heinrich Wölfflin, Prolegomena zu einer Psychologie der Architektur, Mnichov 1886, on-line: https://www.cloud-cuckoo.net/openarchive/Autoren/Woelfflin/Woelfflin1886.htm
Alois Riegl, Moderní památková péče, Praha: NPÚ, 2003
Alois Riegl, Historical Grammar of the Visual Arts, Princeton University Press, 2021
Max Dvořák, History of Art as The History of Ideas, Routledge & Kegan Paul 1984
Josef Strzygowski, Die Altslavische Kunst: Ein Versuch ihres Nachweises, ‎ Augsburg: Benno Filser, 1929
Hans Sedlmayr, Art in Crisis: The Lost Center, Londýn: Hollis & Carter, 1957
Hans Sedlmayr, Demolovaná krása, Praha: Státní ústav památkové péče, H+H, 1992
Ernst Gombrich, Umění a iluze: Studie o psychologii obrazového znázorňování, Praha: Argo 2019
Ernst Gombrich, Smysl pro řád: Studie o psychologii dekorativního umění, Praha: Argo, 2021
Ernst Gombrich, O renesanci 1: Norma a forma. Symbolické obrazy, Praha: Argo, 2021
George Kubler, Tvar času: Poznámky k dějinám věcí, Praha: PositiF 2018
Milena Bartlová (ed.), Michael Baxandall, Inteligence obrazu a jazyk dějin umění: Výbor z textů, Praha: UMPRUM 2019
Ladislav Kesner, Vizuální teorie: Současné anglo-americké myšlení o výtvarných dílech, Praha, H+H 2005
Michael Baxandall, Patterns of Intention: On the Historical Explanation of Pictures, Yale University Press 1985
Timothy J. Clark, Farewell to an idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism, Yale University Press 1999
Clement Greenberg, Art and Culture, Beacon Press, 1961
Clement Greenberg, Homemade Esthetics: Observations on Art and Taste. Oxford University Press, 1999.
Rosalind Krauss, The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1985
Rosalind Krauss, Passages in Modern Sculpture. Cambridge Mass: The MIT Press, 1977
Roland Barthes, Smrt autora, 1962, on-line: https://monoskop.org/images/d/de/Barthes_Roland_1968_2006_Smrt_autora.pdf
Michel Foucault, What Is An Author?, 1969, on-line: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/pluginfile.php/624849/mod_resource/content/1/a840_1_michel_foucault.pdf
Frederick Antal, Florentské malířství a jeho společenské pozadí, Praha: SNKLHU 1954.
Arnold Hauser, The Social History of Art, Routledge, 1999
Arnold Hauser, Filosofie dějin umění, Praha: Odeon, 1975
Martina Pachmanová (ed.), Neviditelná žena: antologie současného amerického myšlení o feminismu, dějinách a vizualitě, Praha: One Woman Press, 2002
Alfred Gell, Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory, Oxford University Press, 1998, on-line: https://monoskop.org/images/archive/4/4d/20150328075023%21Gell_Alfred_Art_and_Agency_An_Anthropological_Theory.pdf
Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005
Horst Bredekamp, Image Acts. A Systematic Approach to Visual Agency, Berlin, Boston: de Gryuter, 2017
Hans Belting, Konec dějin umění, Praha: Mladá fronta 2000

Type of course unit

Seminar

26 hours, compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

PhDr. Ladislav Jackson, Ph.D.

Syllabus

Heinrich Wölfflin and modern art history
Viennese school: nation versus the Zeitgeist
Hans Sedlmayr and structuralism
Style from Gomrbich to Kubler
Visions from Gombrich to Baxandall
Social History of Art from Antal to T. J. Clark
Clement Greenberg and the Birth of Criticism
Rosalind Krauss and the Myth of Modernity
Death of the Author from Foucault to Barthes
Linda Nochlin, Laura Mulvay and Griselda Pollock: Say Where Are the Women?
Alfred Gell and Bruno Latour: Agency
The end of art history and Bildwissenschaft