Mon-Wed. 3:00 Devlin 227
Required Texts:
Charles Alexander, Here the Country Lies: Nationalism and the Arts in Twentieth Century America, Bloomington, Indiana, 1980.
Robert Muccigrosso, Celebrating the New World: Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893, Chicago, 1993.
Steven C. Dubin, Arresting Images: Impolitic art and Uncivil Actions, London and New York, 1992.
Stephen Watt and Guy Richardson, American Drama: Colonial to Contemporary, Harcourt Brace, 1995.
2 papers: 1) due Feb. 25th (preliminary proposal due Feb. 11th) and
2) April 8th (preliminary proposal due earlier)
Presentation (informal) - last week of class
Final project, due date of final exam
II. Art and Democracy
III. Currents of Tradition and Modernism
V. Art and Conflict
| Prof. Alan Lawson | Prof. Jeffery Howe | Prof. Stuart Hecht |
| Haley House
552-8457 alan.lawson@bc.edu |
Devlin 430
552-8586 jeffery.howe@bc.edu |
Robsham Theater
2-4612 stuart.hecht@bc.edu |
| Office Hours: MW 10:30-12, & by appt. | Office Hours: Tu-W-Th, 11-12, & by appt. |
Web Site for this Class:
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/arts_in_america.html
Schedule of Readings:
Henry James, "The Real Thing," short story (photocopy)
Robert Hughes, American Visions, ch. 3: "The Wilderness and the West," pp. 137-205.
Charles Colbert, "Asher B. Durand," photocopy
Plays, in American Drama: Colonial to Contemporary:
"The Contrasts;" "Fashion, or Life in New York" (1845), pp. 80-116.
Reserve Readings:
Alan Gowans, Styles and Types of North American Architecture, pp.Introduction: pp. xi-xiv; ch 1: Utilitarian Building: Infrastructure of Civilization, pp. 1-13; ch 3: An Arcadian land and its Classical Revival Styles, pp. 83-129. (reserve)
Whittaker, Architecture and the American Dream, 1996, ch.: "American Dreams make American Patterns"
William H. Truettner, ed., The West as America: Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier, 1820-1920, Washington D.C. and London, 1991. Browse.
Themes: Individual vs. the Group, the Place of Art in a Democracy, Populism vs. Elite, High and Low in Art and Society, Ideal Cities vs. the Real (slums), the World's Fair of 1893, Mass Media and Film
Charles Alexander, Here the Country Lies: Nationalism and the Arts in Twentieth Century America, ch. 1
Robert Hughes, American Visions, ch. 4: "The American Renaissance," pp. 207-269; ch. 5: "The Gritty Cities," pp. 371-335.
Robert Muccigrosso, Celebrating the New World: Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893.
Plays, in American Drama: Colonial to Contemporary: "The Octaroon" (1859), pp.116-146.; "The Great Divide" (1906), pp. 265-297.
Reserve Readings:
Alan Gowans, Styles and Types of North American Architecture, ch 6: A World Power and it Academic Architecture, c. 1890-1930, pp. 211-269.
Bruce McConachie, Melodramatic Formations: American Theater and Society, 1820-1870,
John McCoubrey, American Art 1700-1960, Bingham, Eakins, Homer, James, pp. 148-168
Boime, Albert, "Blacks in shark-infested waters: visual encodings of racism in Copley and Homer," Smithsonian Studies in American Art (U.S.A.). vol. 3. pt. 1. (Winter 1989) p. 18-47.
Guy C. McElroy, Facing History: The Black Image in American Art 1710-1940, Washington DC: Corcoran Gallery, 1990. Browse.
WWW Site on World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 (University of Virginia): http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/WCE/
The Dream city; a portfolio of photographic views of the World's Columbian Exposition. With an introd. by Halsey C. Ives. St. Louis, N.D. Thompson Pub. Co. [1893]
Montgomery Schuyler, "Last words about the World's Fair, 1894" in Leland M. Roth, ed., America Builds, Source Documents in American Architecture and Planning, New York: Harper Collins, 1983, pp. 427-438.
Rydell, Robert W., All The Worlds a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916, Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1984.
Themes: Preservation or change? What is Modernism? The Armory Show (1913), Theater, the International Style in Architecture
Robert Hughes, American Visions, ch. 6: "Early Modernism," pp. 337-401; ch. 7: "Streamlines and Breadlines," pp. 403-463.
Charles Alexander, Here the Country Lies,
Plays, in American Drama: Colonial to Contemporary: "Waiting for Lefty" (1935), pp. 485-602.
Reserve Readings:
John McCoubrey, American Art 1700-1960, "The Armory Show," pp. 192-197; Abstract Art: pp. 208-226.
Alan Gowans, Styles and Types of North American Architecture, ch 7: American Imperial
Modern, c. 1950-c. 1980, pp. 270-317.
Louis Sullivan, "Characteristics and Tendencies of American Architecture, 1885" in Leland M. Roth, ed., America Builds, Source Documents in American Architecture and Planning, New York: Harper Collins, 1983, pp. 335-339.
William J.R. Curtis, Modern Architecture since 1900, 3rd ed., Prentice Hall, 1996. 2: "Industrialization
and the City: the Skyscraper as type and Symbol," pp. 33-51
Adele Heller & Lois Rudnick, 1915: The Cultural Moment.
Recommended Readings - not on reserve:
Max Kozloff, Eva Cockcroft, David and Cecile Shapiro, Serge Guilbaut, Fred Orton and Grisdelda Pollock: "II. History: Representation and Misrepresentation -- the Case of Abstract Expressionism," Francis Frascina, ed., Pollock and After: The Critical Debate, New York: Harper & Row, 1985, pp. 91-184.
Cernuschi, Claude, Jackson Pollock : meaning and significance, New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992, pp.
Kirk Varnedoe, High and Low: Modern Art, Popular Culture, New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1990.
Themes: War, Propaganda, Memorials, Art and Social Conflict, Fears of Degeneration, Art and Public Policy: 1) the WPA, 2) the NEA, Post-Modernism
Robert Hughes, American Visions, ch. 8: "The Empire of Signs," pp. 465-541.
Film: Maya Lin, P.O.V., 1995. (to be shown in class)
Plays, in American Drama: Colonial to Contemporary: "The Iceman Cometh" (1946), pp. 525-612; "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" (1984), pp. 912-954.
Reserve Readings:
Danto, Arthur Coleman, Playing with the edge : the photographic achievement of Robert Mapplethorpe, Berkeley : University of California Press, c1996.
Dubin, Steven C., Arresting Images: Impolitic Art and Uncivil Actions, New York, Routledge, 1992.
Robert Hughes, The Culture of Complaint,: the Fraying of America, New York: Oxford U Press, 1993.
Homi K. Bhabha, "Postmodernism/Postcolonialism," in Robert S. Nelson and Richard Shiff, eds., Critical Terms for Art History, U. of Chicago Press, 1996, pp. 307-322.
Recommended Readings - not on reserve:
Karal Ann Marling, Wall to Wall America: A Cultural History of Post-Office Murals in the Great Depression, University of Minnesota Press, 1982.
George H. Roeder, Jr., The Censored War, American Visual Expression During World War Two, Yale U. Press, 1993.
Robert Hughes, American Visions, ch. 9: "The Age of Anxiety," pp. 543-620.
Charles Alexander, Here the Country Lies,
Reserve Readings:
Alan Gowans, Styles and Types of North American Architecture,ch. 9: New Opportunities
and Expectations: Post-Modern Styles, c. 1975- , pp. 349-373.
Frank Lloyd Wright, " The Art and Craft of the Machine," in Leland M. Roth, ed., America Builds, Source Documents in American Architecture and Planning, New York: Harper Collins, 1983, pp. 364-376.
William J.R. Curtis, Modern Architecture since 1900, 3rd ed., Prentice Hall, 1996. 18: Nature and the Machine: Mies van der Rohe, Wright and Le Corbusier in the 1930s," pp. 305-307; 35: "Technology, Abstraction and Ideas of Nature," pp. 657-684.
Recommended Readings - not on reserve:
William Stott, Documentary Expression in 1930s America
Siegfried Giedion, Mechanization Takes Command,
Margot Lovejoy, Postmodern Currents: Art and Artists in the Age of Electronic Media, Prentice-Hall, 1997
Miles Orvell, After the Machine: Visual Arts and the Erasing of Cultural Boundaries, University of Mississippi Press, 1995.
General:
Neil Harris, The Artist in American Society, The Formative Years 1790-1860, Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1982.
Helen Horowitz, Culture and the City: Cultural Philanthropy in Chicago from the 1880s to 1917, 1976.
John Kouwenhoven, The Arts in Modern American Civilization, New York: Norton, 1967.
Norbert Lynne, The Tastemakers,
Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden; Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America, New York, 1967.
McDonald, William Francis, Federal relief administration and the arts; the origins and administrative history of the arts projects of the Works Progress Administration, [Columbus] Ohio State University Press [1969].Art History and Society
Norman Cantor, Twentieth Century Culture. Modernism to Deconstruction (1988)
James Curtis, Mind's Eye, Mind's Truth: FSA Photography Reconsidered (1989)
Trevor Fairbrother, In and Out of Place: Contemporary Art and the American Social Landscape (1993)
William H. Gerdts and Mark Thistlethwaite, Grand Illusions: History Painting in America (1988)
Jonathan Harris, Federal Art and National Culture: The Politics of ldentity in New Deal America (1995)
Francis Haskell, History and Its Images: Art and the Interpretation of the Past (1993)
Michael Kammen, "Culture and the State in America", Journal of American History (Dec. 1996)
Gary 0. Larson, The Reluctant Patron: The United States Government and the Arts, 1943-1965 (1983)
David M. Lubin, Picturing a Nation. Art and Social Change in Nineteenth-Century America (1994)
Alice Goldfarb Marquis, ArtLessons: Learning from the Rise and Fall of Public Arts Funding (1995)
Guy McElroy, Facing History: The Black Image in American.Art, 1710-1940 (1990)
Richard McKinzie, New Deal for Artists (1973)
Marlene Park, Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal (1984)
Howard Risatti, ed., Postmodern Perspectives. Issues in Contemporary Art (1990)
David Shapiro, Social Reahsm: Art as a Weapon (1973)
Elizabeth Hutton Turner, American Artists in Paris, 1919-1929 (1988)
Paul Von Blum, The Critical Vision: A History of Social and Political Art in the U.S. (1982)
Nicholas Fox Weber, Patron Saints. Five Rebels Who Opened America to a New Art, 1928-1943 (1995)Art and Literature
David C. Miller, ed., American Iconology. New Approaches to Nineteenth-Century Art and Literature (1993)
Painting:
John Singleton Copley in America, Carrie Rebora ... [et al.]; with contributions by Morrison H. Heckscher, Aileen Ribeiro, Marjorie Shelley. New York : Metropolitan Museum of Art: Distributed by H.N. Abrams, c1995.
Serge Guilbaut, How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art. Abstract Expressionism, Freedom, and the Cold War, Chicago & London: U of Chicago Press, 1983.
Powell, Earl A., Thomas Cole, New York : H.N. Abrams, 1990.
Winslow Homer, Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Franklin Kelly with contributions by Judith Walsh and Charles Brock. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1995.
Winslow Homer : a symposium, edited by Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Washington : National Gallery of Art, 1990.
John Wilmerding, ed., Thomas Eakins, Washington, DC : Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993.Modernism - Painting:
Clement Greenberg, "Avant-garde and Kitsch," in Francis Frascina, ed., Pollock and After: The Critical Debate, New York: Harper & Row, 1985, pp. 21-34. (originally published in Partisan Review, 1939)
____. "Towards a Newer Laocoon, " Ibid., pp. 35-46. originally published in Partisan Review, 1940)
T.J. Clark: "Clement Greenberg's Theory of Art," in Francis Frascina, ed., Pollock and After: The Critical Debate, New York: Harper & Row, 1985, pp. 47-64.
Michael Fried: "How Modernism Works: A Response to T.J. Clark," in Francis Frascina, ed., Pollock and After: The Critical Debate, New York: Harper & Row, 1985, pp. 65-80.
T.J. Clark: "Arguments about Modernism: A Reply to Michael Fried," in Francis Frascina, ed., Pollock and After: The Critical Debate, New York: Harper & Row, 1985, pp. 81-88.Architecture:
Donald Albrecht, Designing Dreams: Modern Architecture in the Movies (1986)
William J.R. Curtis, Modern Architecture since 1900, 3rd ed., Prentice Hall, 1996.
Paul Goldberger, The Skyscraper, New York, 1981, chs. 1-3, pp. 3-48.
William Jordy, "The Laconic Splendor of the Metal Frame: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's 860 lake Shore Apartments and His Seagram Building," in American Buildings and their Architects, vol. IV, The Impact of Modernism the mid-Twentieth Century, Garden City, NY, 1972, pp. 220-278.
James O'Gorman, H.H. Richardson, Architectural Forms for an American Society, Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1987.
Leland M. Roth, ed., America Builds, Source Documents in American Architecture and Planning, New York: Harper Collins, 1983.
Remembering the Future: The New York World's Fair from 1939-1964, R. Rosenblum, Rosemarie Haag Bletter, New York: Rizzoli, 1989.
Vincent Scully, Frank Lloyd Wright, New York, 1960, pp. 11-32.
Douglas Shand Tucci, Built in Boston. City and Suburb, 1800-1950
Robert Twombley, Power and Style. A Critique of Twentieth-Century Architecture in the United States
Thomas Wolfe, From Bauhaus to Our House, New York, 1981.Art, Symbolism and National Character
Martha Banta, Imaging American Women: Idea and Ideals in Cultural History (1987)
John Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (1992)
Stephen Daniels, Fields of Vision: Landscape Imagery and National Identity in England and the United States (1993)
Michael Kammen, Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture (1991)
Michael Kammen, Meadows of Memory, Images of Time and Tradition in American Art and Culture (1992)Art and Conflict
Richard Bolton, ed., Culture Wars. Documents from the Recent Controversies in the Arts
(1992)
D.J.R. Bruckner, Art against War: 400 Years of Protest in Art (1984)
Steven C. Dubin, Arresting Images: Impolitic Art and Uncivil Actions (1992)
Jane DeHart Matthews, "Art and Politics in Cold War America," American Historical Review, 81 (Oct.1976), 762-87
Anthony Rhodes, Propaganda: The Art of Persuasion: World War 11(1976)
George Roeder, The Censored War: American Visual Experience during World War II (1993)Art Exhibits and Museums
Philip Fisher, Making and Effacing Art Modern American Art in a Culture of Museums
(1991)
Hilliard T. Goldfarb, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. A Companion Guide and History (1995)Theater:
Andrew Bergman, We're in the Money, 1971.
Robert Brustein, Dumbocracy in America. Studies in the Theatre of Guilt, 1987-1994 (1995)
Lew Eherenberg, Stepping Out, 198
Hallie Flanagan, Arena
David Grimstead, Melodrama Unveiled, 1968.
Rachel N. Klein, "Art and Authority in Antebellum New York City: The Rise and Fall of the American Art-Union", Journal of American History (March 1995)
Jane DeHart Matthews, The Federal Theatre
Robert Sklar, Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies, 1994.
Robert Toll, Blacking Up, 1977.
Robert Toll, On with the Show, 1976.
Film, Photography and Television
Julie K. Brown, Contesting Images: Photography and the World's Columbian Exposition, (1994)
Mark C. Carries et al, eds., Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies (1995)
Karal Ann Marling, As Seen on TV: the Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s (1994)
Robert Rosenstone, Visions of the Past: The Challenge to Our Idea of History (1995)
Nicholas Natanson, The Black Image in the New Deal: The Politics of ESA Photography (1992)
Alan Trachtenberg, Reading American Photographs: Images as History, Mathew Brady to Walker EvansMusic
Kenneth J. Bindas, ed., America's Musical Pulse. Popular music in Twentieth Century Society (1992)
Essays on jazz and culture in Stanley Crouch, The All-American Skin Game (1995)
Lawrence Kramer, Music as Cultural Practice (1993)
John Warthen Struble, The History of American Classical Music (1995)
WWW Sites:
General list of links:
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/Artweb.htmlAmerican Architecture:
Digital Archive of Architecture
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/