Undergraduate Course: Transatlantic: American and British Art c. 1940-2000 (HIAR10121)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | History of Art |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | The course will address affinities, divergences and interactions since around 1940 between two artistic cultures separated by an ocean but joined by a language and by the increasing potential for artists, works and reproductions to travel between them. The wider context for artistic interplay is close military, political and commercial relations between the two countries, as well as the import and export of literary and architectural ideas, musical idioms (jazz, pop), and other forms of popular culture (film, television, books, magazines). In art, as in these other areas, responses in one culture to the other ranged from enthusiasm and emulation to resistance and distaste. Given the dominance of the ¿national school¿ model in art history, what can we learn about British and American art during this period from looking at the two narratives in conjunction? |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
1. 1/ a broad knowledge and understanding of the evolution of art in the UK and the US, with particular reference to points of affinity and connection between the two cultures
2. 2/ a capacity to construct close critical descriptions of works of art, through comparison with ostensibly similar production from a different culture
3. 3/ an understanding of the role of critical discourse in framing creative practice for both local and remote audiences
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Assessment Information
1 x 2000 word essay (50%)
1 x 2 hour examination (50%) |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
The seminars will move chronologically through a selection of thematic case studies in which transatlantic parallels and connections are apparent, considering both broad approaches/movements and also the work of notable, representative artists. |
| Syllabus |
Weekly sessions will consider broad themes/movements, focussed on the juxtaposition of artists working in the UK and the US who may or may not have been aware of one another¿s work.
Week 1: Introduction and the legacy of the wartime alliance
Week 2: Imagery of myth and nature in the 1940s: Sutherland and Gorky, Bacon and Rothko
Week 3: The New Sculpture: Paolozzi and Smith
Week 4: Abstraction: Davie and Pollock, Lanyon and De Kooning
Week 5: Realism: Freud and Neel
Week 6: Pop: Hamilton and Rauschenberg, Hockney and Warhol
Week 7: Post-Painterly Abstraction: Riley and Stella
Week 8: 60s sculpture: Caro and Andre, Flanagan and Morris
Week 9: Land and Conceptual Art: Long and Smithson, Gormley and De Maria
Week 10: Photographic masquerades: Spence and Sherman
Week 11: Found object sculpture: Hirst and Koons
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| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
David Anfam, Abstract Expressionism (London: 1990)
David Batchelor, Minimalism (London: 1998)
Neil Campbell et al, Issues in Americanisation and Culture (Edinburgh: 2004)
Penelope Curtis and Keith Wilson, Modern British Sculpture (London: 2011)
Frances Follin, Embodied Visions: Bridget Riley, Op Art and the Sixties (London: 2004)
Mark Francis and Hal Foster, Pop (London: 2010)
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| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Martin Hammer
Tel: (0131 6)50 4119
Email: |
Course secretary | Mrs Sue Cavanagh
Tel: (0131 6)51 1460
Email: |
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