America and Americans in 20th-century Art 4219-SD0041
The course will discuss the roots of American culture of the 20th century (search for an American identity, Native-American and African-American problems) and socio-historical events (Great Depression, WWII, immigration etc.) and its influence on American Art. The aim of the course is to show how the patchwork construction of American society has been mirrored (or not) in art.
It was no surprise that after WWII the capital of art has moved from Paris to New York - a city for all. Different influences coming from Europe, but also from the Wild West, African-American and Native-American circles enriched American culture resulting in art movements later praised all over the world. Lately the Asian and Mexican cultures are also finding its way into American popular culture and art.
The course aims at depicting how the demographic, historic and social situation have influenced and shaped art in the United States of America.
1. Introduction. Defining terms “art”, “culture”, “society”. Discussion on American Art - what do we mean by this term.
2. Immigration history, American society in the 20th century. Depicting main problems in American Society (formation of the new common and independent identity, Native-American people and their situation, African-American movements, immigration after WWII, connections to Europe)
3. Turn of the century art: American Romantism vs. American Realism, American Scene and Precisionists (Normal life, poverty, dirt of the city, boredom of life)
4. Native -American art and influences. Indian art, American Southwest
5. African-Amerian society and its impact on American art scene. Harlem Renaissance
6. Economic reality of the 30s and its depiction in art - New Deal Art, Regionalism and beginnings of what will become Abstract Expressionism
7. WWII - propaganda art
8. Immigration - New York becomes the art capital of the World
9. Abstract Expressionism
10.Popular culture and its representation in art - Pop art
11. Depiction of freedom in Minimal Art
12. Women in American art of the XX century - feminist movement
13. Immigration challenge - Asian and Mexican Art influence America
14. Discussion on the question “What is American about American art?”
Type of course
Mode
Prerequisites (description)
Learning outcomes
After completing the course, students will:
1. KNOWLEDGE
Students will be able to identify facts and ideas typical of particular American artistic movements/schools in the 20th century and locate them in connection to the more broadly understood American culture and society.
2. SKILLS
Students will be able to apply their knowledge in a number of extra-artistic contexts, to demonstrate affinities between artistic practices and related social phenomena.
3. SOCIAL SKILLS
Students will be able to discriminate between the nuances of artistic attitudes, and associate artistic facts and ideas with more social categories, and – finally – to assess the quality of artworks in terms of their significance for the development of American art.
Assessment criteria
Final grade consists of:
project (prepared in pairs) and semester paper - 50%
final exam - 30%
taking active part in class disscussion - 20%
Students are allowed 2 unexcused absences.
Bibliography
Emily Ballew Neff, The Modern West: American Landscapes, 1890-1950, Yale University Press, 2006
Casey Nelson Blake, An Atmosphere of Effrontery. Richard Serra, Tilted Arc, and the Crisis of Public Art, [in:] Richard W. Fox, T.J.Jackson Lears, The Power of
Culture. Critical Essays in American History, Chicago & London 1993
Neil Campbell, Alasdair Kean, American Cultural Studies. An introduction to American Culture, 2006
Henry Steel Commager, The American Mind, New Haven & London, 1962
Wanda M. Corn, The Great American Thing. Modern Art and National Identity, 1915-1935, University of California Press, Los Angeles, 1999
Holland Cotter, A Lesser-Known Modernism Inspired by African-American Culture, New York Times, October 1st, 2015
Jim Cullen, The American Dream, Oxford 2004
John Davis, Jennifer A. Greenhill,Jason D. LaFountain, A Companion to American Art, 2015
Christopher Grabowski, Pursuits of happiness : the American dream, civil society, religion and popular culture, Lublin, 2008
Serge Guilbaut, How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art: Abstract Expressionism, Freedom and the Cold War, University of Chicago Press, 1983.
George Hutchinson, The Cambridge companion to the Harlem Renaissance, Cambridge University Press, 2007
Christos M. Joachimides and Norman Rosenthal, American Art in the 20th Century. Painting and Sculpture 1913-1933, Munich, 1993
Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism. A double-edged sword, New York & London, 1996
Luther S. Luedtke, Making America: The Society & Culture of the United States, UNC Press Books, 1992
Eric J. Sandeen, Picturing an Exhibition: The Family of Man and 1950s America, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995.
Emily D. Shapiro, American Art, Chicago, 2009
Roberta Smith, A Mélange of Asian Roots and Shifting Identities, New York Times, September 8th, 2006
Edmund White, Why Can’t We Stop Talking About New York in the Late 1970s?, New York Times, September 10th, 2015
Woodrow Wilson, The Ideals of America, [in:] David A. Hollinger, Charles Capper, The American Intellectual Tradition, Volume II, New York, Oxford 2001
Additional readings in Polish:
Józef Chałasiński, Kultura amerykańska : formowanie się kultury narodowej w Stanach Zjednoczonych Ameryki, Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, 1962
Marek Gołębiowski, Dzieje kultury Stanów Zjednoczonych, Warszawa, 2004
Julia Hartwig, Dziennik amerykański, Warszawa 2015
Gertrude Himmelfarb, Jeden naród, dwie kultury, Warszawa, 2007
Wojciech Karpiński, Amerykańskie Cienie, Warszawa 2013
Tadeusz Paleczny, Współczesne społeczeństwo amerykańskie w perspektywie socjologicznej : zarys podstawowych zagadnień, Kraków, 2002
Tomasz Płudowski, Społeczeństwo, Kultura, Polityka series, Torun 2008
Roger Kimball, Długi Marsz. Jak rewolucja kulturalna z lat 60. zmieniła Amerykę, Elbląd 2008
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: