Revolutionary France and the Birth of Modern Art, 1789-1900
ARHA 240
Spring 2021
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
RL&L 240, COL 240 |
This course examines the birth of modern art in the wake of the French Revolution and traces the evolution of modern art throughout what would prove to be an extraordinary century of social transformation and formal experimentation, ending in the Dreyfus Affair and Post-Impressionism. The story of modern art is one in which timeless ideals and triumphal narratives were continually put under pressure by the imperative to model the contingency of experience, and in which collective ideals gave way to expanded individual freedoms. Themes we will explore in this class include the advent of a public sphere for art-making and the relationship between artistic advance and appeals to an ever-widening public; painting and revolution; history painting; the persistence of classical ideals and their relationship to modern subjects and experience; the new focus on sensation and the rise of landscape painting; the decline of narrative in painting in favor of form and surface; the relationship between modern art and academic practice; the rise of feminism and attempts on the part of women artists to find their own voice in a masculine practice; the conflict between the unabashed pursuit of artistic individualism and the need to define collective values and experience; the fragmentation of the visual arts into fine and applied arts and attempts at the end of the century to reunify them. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ART |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (ARHA-MN)(ARHA)(ARST)(COL)(FRST-MN)(FRST) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Charles Harrison, Paul Wood, and Jason Gaiger, ART IN THEORY, 1815-1900 (Blackwell Publishing, 1998)
Francis Frascina et al, MODERNITY AND MODERNISM. FRENCH PAINTING IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY (Yale University Press, 1993)
Articles and book chapters made available via ereserve
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Examinations and Assignments:
4-page paper, 8-page paper, peer critique, mid term and final exams, in-class participation |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Instructor uses enrollment requests and does not respond to emails prior to the beginning of class. All interested students should attend the first day of class. |
| Instructor(s): Kuenzli,Katherine M. Times: .M.W... 08:00AM-09:20AM; Location: FISK208; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 19 | | SR major: 3 | JR major: 3 | | |
| Seats Available: 9 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 5 | FR: 4 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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