Course detail
20th Century History of Art Overview 2
FaVU-1PDU20-2Acad. year: 2023/2024
This course concludes the series of surveys of art history taught in the first to third year of the BA. It follows closely the survey of 20th century art history prior to 1945. The end of the Second World War constitutes an important symbolic turning point in the history of the last century; however, the development of post-war art is in many ways related to the ideas and creative achievements of modernism and the artistic avant-gardes. The course design combines lectures presenting the main artistic movements and movements of the second half of the 20th century (with an emphasis on developments in the Global North) with lectures focusing on the developmental aspects of selected media, as well as lectures tracing selected issues and themes that conditioned the development of artistic practice (developments in the media, developments in the institutional operation of art, the civil rights movement, feminism...).
Language of instruction
Number of ECTS credits
Mode of study
Guarantor
Entry knowledge
Orientation in art history of the first half of the 20th century and basic awareness of the history of the second half of the 20th century.
Rules for evaluation and completion of the course
Oral exam. In the exam, learners draw lots to choose one of the topics to be discussed. For each area, a combination of a basic understanding of the overall subject matter of the area and a detailed knowledge of the work of one selected artist is expected.
Teaching takes place in the classrooms of the FFA BUT in the hours determined by the schedule. Attendance is compulsory (3 unexcused absences allowed). Higher number of absences can be compensated by submitting an alternative assignment after agreement with the teachers.
Aims
The aim of the course is to provide students with a basic orientation in the history of art after 1945. The course is intended to introduce students to the more traditionally understood canon, i.e. the sequence of artistic movements and movements and important representatives, but also to the background of social and political changes that largely determined the artistic practice of the period, as well as the significant developmental changes of institutions shaping the art world.
After completing the course, students will be oriented in the history of art after 1945. They will be familiar with the key artistic movements, their periodicity and their principal representatives. They will have an awareness of what political events, what social changes and what movements of thought influenced the development of artistic practice in the second half of the 20th century.
Study aids
Prerequisites and corequisites
Basic literature
Recommended reading
Mary GABRIEL, Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2018.
Štěpán GRYGAR, Konceptuální umění a fotografie. Praha: AMU, 2004.
Amelia JONES (ed.), A Companion to Contemporary Art Since 1945. Wiley-Blackwell, 2006.
Dana MILLER – Adam D WEINBERG, Whitney Museum of American Art: handbook of the collection. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 2015.
Piotr PIOTROWSKI, Významy modernismu. Hradec Králové: Galerie moderního umění, 2022.
Tomáš POSPISZYL (ed.), Před obrazem. Praha: OSVU, 1998.
Tomáš POSPISZYL, Asociativní dějepis umění: poválečné umění napříč generacemi a médii (koláž, intermediální a konceptuální umění, performance a film), Praha: Tranzit, 2014.
Phoebe ADLER – Tom HOWELLS – Nikolaos KOTSOPOULOS, Contemporary art in Latin America. London: Black Dog Publishing, 2010.
Pavlína MORGANOVÁ – Terezie NEKVINDOVÁ – Dagmar SVATOŠOVÁ – Jiří ŠEVČÍK (eds.), České umění 1980-2010: texty a dokumenty, Praha: Akademie výtvarných umění v Praze, Vědecko-výzkumné pracoviště, 2011.
Type of course unit
Lecture
Teacher / Lecturer
Syllabus
1. Continuity and rehabilitation of modernism after World War II. The Cold War and cultural imperialism – implications for the art world. Post-war abstraction in Europe and the USA vs. the doctrine of socialist realism. Sub-branches of painterly abstraction and its representatives.
2. The continuity of the European avant-garde in the USA. Definition of the term neo-avant-garde. Neo-avant-garde in the USA and Europe, French "New Realism".
3. Artistic response to the post-war development of the culture industry and popular (visual) culture. The Independent Group, Pop art in Britain and the USA. Postmodern mimicry of the culture industry, interest in the theme of kitsch.
4. The forms of "action art". From action painting to happenings to performance art. Prominent artists, selected collectives in the USA and Europe. Specifics of action art in Eastern European countries.
5. Minimalism and post-minimalism. Conceptual art in its historical phase (1965-1972) and conceptualism in different forms (institutional critique, socially and politically engaged positions of conceptualism) and regions.
6. Site-specific art, public art, New Genre Public Art: forms and politics of art in public space. Land art and eco-art: forms and politics of art on the border of nature and culture.
7. New media in art. New media aesthetics: transformations of artistic practice, modes of display and reception of art. Video art and moving image art in the second half of the 20th century. Net art as.
8. Photography in contemporary art. Conceptual art and photography. The Düsseldorf School. Photography and postmodernism: a critical reflection on subjectivity and identity (photography and gender).
9. Postmodern painting and sculpture. Returns of figurative work since the 1960s: hyperrealism, (neo)expressionism, bad painting, transavantgarde, critical and historical painting.
10 a 11. A transregional perspective: contemporary art in the former Eastern Bloc countries from the 1960s to the end of the 20th century. Neo-Avant-Garde and Conceptualism in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary. The period of transformation after 1989. Contemporary art in Latin American countries from the 1960s to the end of the 20th century. Search for developmental parallels and differences.
12. Excursions to selected collections (for exhibitions) of modern and contemporary art according to the current offer of art museums in the wider region.