Course Description
The creation of radical forms of artistic expression in relation to World War I, the modern city, and revolutions in space, time, and technology. Special emphasis will be placed on the diverse group of artists mentored by Alfred Stieglitz.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will be expected to produce an extensive
research paper on specific works or issues related to the field
and the methodologies appropriate to the topic under
consideration in the course. This paper will be a detailed,
in-depth consideration of the student's chosen theme requiring
not only a demonstration of advanced research skills (including
the ability to read and use material presented in foreign
languages), but also an articulation of the student's ability to
understand and manipulate the critical apparatus of art history
in connection with American Modernism 1900-1946.
Athena Title
AMERICAN MODERNISM
Prerequisite
Two ARHI 3000-level courses and permission of major
Semester Course Offered
Not offered on a regular basis.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946), both as an innovator in the new "art" of photography and as mentor/financier/friend to a diverse group of artists and patrons, fundamentally shaped American modernism during the first half of the twentieth century. Beginning with the Ashcan Painters' renditions of New York City as the American city, we will proceed to study how Stieglitz and his circle pioneered America's distinct reception to and recreation of European modernism. Students will discover that certain philosophical themes and visual motifs came to dominate America's brand of early 20th century modernism. In addition to being exposed to the important paintings, photographs, architecture, sculpture, movies, advertisements, illustrations, critical reviews, and aesthetic treatises of the era, students will be made aware of the extraordinary intellectual, social, political, scientific, and religious revolutions influencing early twentieth-century American thought and creativity. Assignments require students to synthesize lectures and readings into their own researched exhibition.
Topical Outline
I. The American City--New York: World of The Ashcan Painters: Robert Henri, George Bellows, Everett Shinn, George Luks, William Glackens, John Sloan II. Modernist Rumblings: The Armory Show, 291, and Greenwich Village: Walt Kuhn, Arthur Davies, Mabel Dodge, Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Marius De Zayas, Paul Haviland III. Camera Work: Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Paul Strand, Lewis Hine, & Edward Weston IV. Nature as Form, Frenzy, and Transcendence: Georgia O'Keeffe, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Joseph Stella V. New York Goes Dada: Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Florine Stettheimer, Morton Schamberg, Man Ray, Charles Demuth VI. The World of Tomorrow: The New York World's Fair of 1939 and Orson Welles's
Syllabus