Art 126: Foundations of Art History II
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| Professor Michelli | |
| Location: Tuesday, Thursday; 11.00 am - 12.15 pm |
Final Exam: Tuesday, May 8th, 2001; 10.30-12.30 |
BRING THIS BOOK TO CLASS
Many people are confused about art. Did you know that the avante garde is also confused? Actually, the avante garde doesn't exist any more. It went into crisis about art in the late 1960s and resigned. Since then it's been chaos: too many different art forms, very few of them going anywhere, and many of them offensive. Since the 1980s artists, scholars and the public have seen the need for a new history of art that can unite the art of today with the heritage of artistic endeavor that went before it. But this is difficult because many artists reject that heritage as irrelevant. People want to make sense of it all, but it seems to be impossible.
Well, there may be a way forward after all. In this course I am seeking to achieve that reconciliation with the past by presenting a series of spiritual paradigms through which to examine western art and our ideas about it.
So far, I have isolated four paradigms, which I call Pluralism, Classicism, Sensualism, and Quietism. The Plural paradigm is probably the oldest, and it was so strongly overlaid by the others that it is difficult for us to recover it now. But we will need to do so towards the end of the course. The Classical paradigm is the next oldest and also the most obvious to us - it is at least 2,500 years old, and because it was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church its methods and values are deeply ingrained in western consciousness. It is primarily intellectual, and emphasizes skill and beauty as criteria for the evaluation of art. Many people approve of this. The Sensual paradigm is much younger - it is only about 500 years old. It too was exploited by the Church, and although its orientation is primarily physical and emotional it harmonizes with Classicism in that skill and beauty are still the main ways to evaluate it. Many people approve of this too, and the two paradigms act as complements and validations for each other. After this, though, it gets difficult.
The Quietist paradigm is the youngest - about 140 years old at most. This paradigm has not had time to become natural to us, and it has not been exploited by the Church either. Furthermore, because Quietism emphasizes neutrality and intuition, and seeks to stimulate these by withdrawal or challenge, its values are in conflict with Classicism and Sensualism. So art produced under the Quietist paradigm can be difficult to evaluate, which upsets and annoys people. But this whole way of thinking becomes much easier to understand when it is seen as the "flip side" of the much older Pluralist paradigm. That one is about the paranormal, and the art produced under it is evaluated through meaning and symbolism. Once we have this bunch of values to use, we don't worry so much about skill and beauty and the art becomes worthwhile again. But we'd forgotten them, remember?
So you can see that there are good reasons for the modern discontent with art and artists, and for the confusion over how to evaluate their products and how to look ahead. None of the paradigms goes away when it loses its leading edge. It merely becomes part of our subconscious assumptions and values, and these enrich or conflict with the currently leading paradigm. Today, we have four major paradigms to contend with, and we can only find our way forward by making them conscious.
In this course, then, we will examine the paradigms through the art produced under their influence, and also through some of the written legacy of the people who helped to formulate them. Thus we will think about Plato's definition of art and beauty and their purposes, Castiglione's thoughts on style, Kant's and Schopenhauer's redefinition of art and beauty and their purposes, and Danto's and Belting's conviction that the history of art has ended, and we'll see what the Pope is trying to do about it all. We will also look at the ways in which an image or building draws on our living experience in order to communicate to us: the effects of composition, color, completeness or non-completeness, and optical illusion. These areas are often dismissed as "art appreciation", with the assumption that we analyze them only in order to recognize "great" art (and you already know that's irrelevant today). But they are more usefully understood as methods by which artists make aspects of thought and reality perceptible to us. As such, they are the indispensable tools of the art historian.
There will be a short-answer in-class quiz every week to keep you up to date. Plan on gaining a passing grade for every one. Prepare for the quizzes by listening attentively in class, reading the specified Paradigmatic History of Art material, and practicing on the anonymous "lightning tests". Your grades will be averaged for your course grade. Missed quizzes count as zero and will bring down your average.
Extra Credit is "banked" in advance, and you may use it twice only. If you miss or fail a quiz, you may "cash" an extra credit for a 75% (C) passing grade for the problem quiz. You may do this twice only. A better way to use the extra credit is to take and pass all the quizzes. You may then "cash" the extra credit for a 3% grade improvement on your two lowest grades. Extra credit can only be used once on any individual quiz. So note: if you miss or fail more than two quizzes, there are no further chances. The grade you get for this course is the grade you will have earned.
Plan on getting all this right first time. Come to all the classes. Listen attentively. Take all the quizzes. Study for them. Then keep them all carefully. In the event of any queries, the professor's decision is final unless you can produce the original documentation.