New Courses for Fall 2012: Topics in Art and Theory, Architecture, Film and Visual Culture

As registration for Fall 2012 academic courses begins soon, I wanted to provide more information about new and rotating courses I will be teaching in September. Please see detailed descriptions below including a new special topics class in the History of Architecture (Part One will be offered this Fall, while Part Two will be offered in the Spring semester). If you have any specific questions that are not answered here or in the links I provide you to the registration for the courses, you can contact me directly. I look forward to another rich and engaging semester with both new and familiar faces.

Kwantlen Polytechnic University (Tuesdays 4:00-6:50pm, Room Fir 3414)

ARTH 3100: Special Topics-- History of Architecture I

Thomas Struth, Pergamon Museum 1, Berlin (2001)

This course traces the history of architecture from early developments in the Paleolithic Age through the Renaissance, approaching architecture as a unique medium with its own visual vocabulary and spatial codes. The various formal languages, designs, and theories that have shaped the history of architecture will be explored through the close examination of select buildings and spatial environments set within specific cultural, social, political and economic contexts of their planning and construction. The broader purpose of this course is to provide students with the ability to critically evaluate and recognize how the history and theory of architecture of the early eras of Western culture, within the framework of a broader visual culture and art history, continue to impact our collective spatial, visual, intellectual and cultural environments today.

All of the buildings under examination (which will introduce and cover aspects of architecture and spatial planning from Prehistoric Europe, Ancient Egypt, the Aegean, Ancient Greece, the Roman Republic, Early Christian and Islamic cultures, and the period of the Medieval, Gothic and early Renaissance in Europe) will be related to their original contexts and functions, but also raise questions about the range of functions that architecture might fulfill within different societies. While the primary focus of the course will be on Western architecture and culture, the architecture of the Middle East, Asia, the Americas and Africa will also be explored through targeted readings and lectures. The course will therefore not just be about following a chronological and progressive trajectory of “great buildings” but will instead address broad issues related to political power, gender, sexuality, race, and the formation of individual and group identities. In this way, the ideas raised in this course will also draw attention to the dynamics and ongoing debates of what it means to make a building and design a space in any cultural context.

Kwantlen Polytechnic University (Mondays 4:00-6:50pm, Room Fir 128)

ARTH 3100: Special Topics-- Artworks, Theories, Contexts

Joseph Kosuth, Art as Idea as Idea (1967)

This course offers a critical examination of selected art works in connection to key theoretical and historical turning points in art history and critical theory. Focusing on international visual art and culture from the early 20th century to the present, each class is designed to explore specific and well-known key art artists and their art practice, while pinpointing the specific conversations, theories, and histories that have made those art practices and objects so important to the understanding of the contemporary art world. Artists under examination include, but are not limited to, Pablo Picasso, Gustav Klimt, Diego Rivera, Brassai, Le Corbusier, Marcel Duchamp, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Eva Hesse, Robert Smithson, Gerhard Richter, Martha Rosler, Jeff Wall, Marina Abramovic, Damien Hirst, Mike Kelley, Banksy, Stan Douglas and more recent art projects examined in recent international exhibitions like Documenta and the Venice Biennale.This format will provide a launching off point to explore the range of associated historical events, factors of patronage and institutions, as well as changing attitudes to making and approaching art in modern and postmodern contexts. Throughout the course, we will consider traditional media forms alongside the addition of new media practices of recent decades. 

The assignments and final take-home project for this course will be developed closely with student input to help support existing art practices and/or specific interests students have in the field of art history. A critical component of this course will also include visits and discussion concerning local and international art exhibitions and recent developments in the art world so that students can gain a more informed sense of how they fit (if an artist) and/or understand (if interested in the art world) the shifting visual culture shaping up around them.Ultimately, our attention will be on the network where art is made, presented to and reacted to by different parties, and to the ways that portions of the art system―such as art history and critical theory―have conceived of and explained the workings of such a system and the society it exists within. 

Kwantlen Polytechnic University (Fridays 1:00-4:50pm, Room Fir 128)

ARTH 1130: Introduction to Film Studies

Students will study the history and development of world cinema, and the comprehension and theory of film as a visual language and art-making practice from its inception in the late nineteenth century to the present. The goal of the course is to introduce students to the critical interpretation of the cinema and the various vocabularies and methods with which one can explore the aesthetic function, together with the social, political, and technological contexts and developments, of moving pictures. The weekly format of this course (as a 4 hour block) will normally entail a 1.5-2 hour lecture and the screening of a full-length film. Each film will thus serve as a starting point and gateway for discussion about the course’s weekly theme.

Simon Fraser University—Harbour Centre, Vancouver (Thursdays 2:30-5:20pm, Room HCC1800)

FPA 167: Visual Art and Culture I

Edouard Degas, At the Cafe (1875-77)

This course provides an introduction to the complex ways in which social and political change, and ideologies of gender, class, race and ethnicity, worked to shape aspects of 19^th century visual culture in Europe and North America. Emphasis will be placed on the roles played by industrialization, political revolution, rapid urban growth, global commerce, and the new media technologies of an expanding consumer culture in defining a wide range of visual culture. Throughout the term we will also examine different representations and debates around the idea of modernity and the “modern.” Since the time period under investigation has often been called “The First Modern Century”, we will pay particular attention to shifting ideas related to labour and leisure, urban social space and spectacle, and issues bearing on Euro-American expansion of empires in relation to indigenous populations, throughout the 19^th century to turn of the twentieth century up to WWI.

Importantly, this class is not intended to be all-inclusive in which each and every monument contributing to the “canon” of Western art is studied. Therefore, we will also consider the constructed nature of the discipline of art history in order to trouble assumptions, both historical and contemporary, regarding the nature of art, its relation to different social and political institutions, and issues of patronage and viewing publics. Furthermore, through an introduction to critical and historical methods, students will develop the basic tools and terminology for analyzing visual culture, a skill set of crucial importance in understanding the barrage of images and technological stimulus at play in our postmodern world.

Weekly Twitter Round-Up

I know I am a little late to the party on this, but I couldn't help posting the obvious art historical  reference to Maggie Sutherland's painting. It was burning up the Twitter feed around Victoria Day weekend! Left: Sutherland, Emperor Haute Couture (2012) Right: Manet, Olympia (1863)

What a whirlwind month! The Paris Field School pre-trip classes have been a fantastic experience so far. Teaching in such a condensed way can be a real challenge, but the students have truly stepped up their game to produce critical and well-thought out writing and art projects. With just a week left before we depart for Europe, there is a real excitement building for all the art work and contexts we will experience after intensive study for 3-4 weeks (including Manet's Olympia cited in the above juxtaposition-- you gotta love happy coincidences!). While on hiatus, I did continue keeping an eye on Twitter and here are some favourites I wanted to pass along and share.

P.S. Happy Birthday Brian!! Enjoy the rest of your trip in NYC! See you soon :)

Will PhDs for artists make their art any better? 

Why I don't want my kids to be the next Steve Jobs

"Facebook is not only on course to go bust, but will take the rest of the ad-supported Web with it." MIT throws down

East Village and Lower East Side Celebrate Life of Adam Yauch

I think graduates can handle the truth. In fact, they deserve it

To be modern is to be suspicious of authority telling you how to choose

The Idea TED Didn’t Consider Worth Spreading. Was TED Censoring? Or Being Selective? Watch

Blog Overhaul: Spring Cleaning and Digital Clutter

Clearing clutter is seriously therapeutic-- my blog was long overdue for a cleaning!

Welcome to the new, improved, and freshly cleaned up Avant-Guardian Musings! My blog has been long overdue for an overhaul and I finally found the time this week to think about how I wanted to streamline and deliver information in a more minimalist and clutter-free way. Lately, I have been most inspired by the much cleaner design and intuitive gesturing trends in blogging that have transformed with the advent of computer tablets and other small touch-screen devices. As a result, I have eliminated a great deal of text from my home page and incorporated a new "dynamic view" (which you can customize when you visit my blog with the drop down menu at the top left hand corner of the home page-- my default is the "Magazine View") and simplified gadget bar with icons (always floating on the right hand side of the screen) that the Blogger platform launched last year.

These new templates do not allow the same level of customization as the older platform working on HTML coding, so I was forced to spend a good deal of time hunting around on programming blogs and other online resources to learn how to hack the template to make it look closer to my final vision. In the end I am quite pleased and hope users find my blog more visually inviting and easier to navigate. Some new features: for foreign visitors to my blog, I have added a Google translate icon to the gadget bar; I have moved all of the social media links to the same bar and incorporated a set of quick links under the camera icon for fast access to my blog pages and student Moodle and WebCT logins. At the same time, I have maintained certain elements of my original blog, such as the Resources and Readings page on the navigation bar that students often utilize during the academic year. Have fun looking around and happy browsing!

As I was finishing up the blog re-design and de-cluttering, I thought it would also be useful to share some other steps I took this week to clear other forms of digital clutter from my day-to-day routine:

1. Desktop Computer Clutter: I tackled my home computer first since I have a tendency to accumulate documents, student papers, administrative memos/minutes, assignments and all sorts of random miscellaneous e-paperwork over the course of a semester on my home computer. Last year I streamlined to create "In Process" and "Completed" folders on my desktop and worked with Dropbox to eliminate the need to print physical copies of these many documents, and as a result I now have to weed through these folders to delete unnecessary files. It is still a work in process.

2. Bookmarks and Other E-Notes Clutter: I went back through my Endnote, Pinterest, and Google Reader files to look over the collected links (articles, recipes, images) that I had earmarked to read later or file for research and sorted them into categories to tackle over the summer. I try to do this at least once a month, but it is not always easy to figure out which items are potentially important or to simply need to be deleted (how many recipes for for the crock pot do I need?).

3. Social Media Clutter: I love Twitter, but realized this year that I would have to begin sorting all of the people I follow into some more manageable categories. The same can be said for my Pinterest boards and the necessary housekeeping on my Facebook feed to ensure I was seeing the information that I wanted and eliminating the unnecessary.

4. Smartphone Clutter: This one is hard for me since I actively avoid dealing with all of the unused apps and other random stuff I have sitting on my phone for fear of needing that information at some later date. I finally cracked down and got pretty ruthless with figuring out what I actually need and use on a daily basis. Turns out that I only use a handful of apps and I am happy to have streamlined my phone to fit my routine.

5. Image Clutter: I confess I am still working on this one and I still haven't figured out the best way to sort and manage all of my photographs, video, and lecture/blog material into some workable system. Another work in progress, although not very far along.

Here is another great link to consult in the quest to clear the digitial debris from your life:

25 Areas of Digital Clutter to Minimalize by becomingminimalist.com

Location | New York: The Steins Collect at the Met

Entrance to "Steins Collect" Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC (author's photograph)

screen capture of Kathy Bates playing Gertrude Stein (debating Picasso) in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris (2011)

For those of you who had a chance to see Woody Allen’s most recent film Midnight in Paris, there is a remarkable set of scenes that feature Kathy Bates playing a charismatic and energetic Gertrude Stein at the peak of her powers in 1920’s Paris. Stein, who acted as patron for artists who today read as a who’s who of the early twentieth century modern art and literary movement (think Hemmingway, Picasso, Dali, Matisse etc...) is introduced to the audience through Bates’ captivating performance. More than just an astute collector, we see Stein in her element --in her salon-- as mentor and friend, critic and passionate advocate, acting as catalyst for modern art’s ascendancy into the mainstream, a woman who helped unite and provide emotional and professional support to artists who may never have had the chance to gain wider recognition. Getrude Stein was of course not alone, but part of a larger American family (including brothers Leo and Michael, sister-in-law Sarah, and her life partner Alice Toklas) who formed a nucleus of support for artists experimenting on the margins of a new modern art.

A Man Ray photograph of Gertrude Stein sitting in front of the famous painted portrait done of her by Picasso in the 1920's

It was with these thoughts in mind that I walked into the Metropolitan Museum’s much anticipated exhibition "The Steins Collect: Matisse,Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Garde.” More than just an accumulation of the Steins’ art collection—some 200 on display—the exhibition successfully conveys the passion, risk, and commitment of a family supporting a form of art that pushed the envelope of what was deemed legitimate and worthy of serious cultural consideration in its time. Walking through room after room of priceless and now well-known pieces associated with the canon of art history (including the famous cubist portrait of Gertrude Stein by Picasso reprinted in every survey modern art history text on the planet-- see image above), it could have been hard to remember this. The visitor, however, is reminded in well placed wall panels and items of personal correspondence concerning how this particular form of visual production, in its historical moment, incited radical political and social positions both in defense and condemnation of its continued existence.  At the same time, the exhibition managed to balance such gravitas with the sense of intimacy and "insider" view one would expect of a personal family art collection.  

No doubt, the Stein family is part of a larger chapter in the history of art collecting that is often obscured by the huge personalities and narratives of artistic and avant-garde genius that are associated with the very men the Steins helped make famous through their patronage. Not surprisingly, discussions surrounding the financial side of art often remain taboo in discourses concerning the avant-garde—it complicates the notion of rejecting institutional supports, an idea at the core of the movement-- but it is an aspect of modern art history that bears closer scrutiny and conversation if we are to understand the dynamics, mechanisms, and strange paradoxes that have evolved into what we see today in the strange workings of the contemporary art market.

The Metropolitan Museum has collected a series of scholary talks devoted to the exhibition in one rich YouTube video that can be viewed below. The talks featured here include:

"I am having the time of my life": Leo Stein in Paris, 1903--6

Rebecca Rabinow, curator, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, MMA

The Stein Salons in Context
Emily Braun, Distinguished Professor, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, The City University of New York

Portraiture and the Making of Gertrude Stein
Wanda M. Corn, Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor Emerita in Art History, Stanford University

"So I went on looking at pictures all the time": Gertrude Stein's Last Decade
Edward M. Burns, professor of English, William Paterson University

Gertrude Stein: The Inheritance
Richard L. Feigen, Richard L. Feigen & Co

Further Reading:

Duncan, Michael. "Stein's Way." Art In America 100.2 (2012): 87-91. 

Haselstein, Ulla. “Gertrude Stein's Portraits of Matisse andPicasso.” New Literary History , 34. 4 (2003): 723-743.

Location | New York: Cindy Sherman's Contemporary Grotesque at MoMA

My hiatus went longer than expected as I completed the spring term marking and then prepared and taught the first part of the Paris Field School in a condensed format over the past three weeks. As a result, some of the posts for my recent New York trip were sidelined. I am happy to be presenting them here over the next few days after which time I will be completing a blog overhaul and re-design (it is long overdue!) and introducing a new face to Avant-Guardian Musings just in time for the Paris and Documenta trip. Stay tuned as I will be posting a daily blog (students and my own reflections and pictures) from the Field School on my website. If you have not been to Paris and/or Documenta and want a cheaper way to see it, this will provide one way to experience it vicariously through the blog! And for those of you heading to NYC this summer, do not miss Cindy Sherman on until mid-June at MoMA.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #474 (2008) courtesy of MoMA via artblogbybob

I had incredibly high hopes for the Cindy Sherman exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. It was on the top of my gallery visits agenda heading to New York in April and I was hoping to see something there that would cut through so much of the hype and misunderstood celebrity that has accumulated around Sherman in the past several years. From the recent record sale of one of her iconic photographic film stills, to her controversial collaboration with MAC Cosmetics (stories I have blogged about here and here), Sherman has come to the attention of a very broad public and not always for the best of reasons. But from my perspective, living and working in Vancouver-- a city with such a photo-based interest in contemporary art-- I was also coming with some emotional investment as Sherman’s practice has informed and provided context for innumerable conversations and teaching moments in my own career.

Entrance to Sherman retrospective at MoMA (author's photograph)

Walking into MoMA’s top floor gallery, I could not help comparing it on sight to the Jeff Wall retrospective that had been installed in the same space only a few years ago. At that time, I had wondered aloud why Sherman had not yet received the same full retrospective treatment for her photo works. No doubt her early film stills series and other early projects did not necessarily possess the same visual appeal as Wall’s back lit photographs on the gallery walls, but the omnipresence of Sherman’s face in virtually every image was in itself something quite extraordinary, leaving visitors constantly aware of her own investments in the pictures, and also the hard-to-ignore reality that the images were also tracking the physical changes and signs of aging in Sherman’s own body right before their eyes. It is a decisive quality of Sherman’s pictures to bring awareness to the dynamic tensions in how women are represented by others and then re-presented through their own performative interpellation of society’s many “roles” for modern women. 

Interior shot of Society Portraits (on blue walls)

Sherman’s most recent series of photographic Society Portraits (2008), colossal images that feature Sherman dressed and performing a cross-section of New York’s Upper East Side women “of a certain age,” mirror back to us even more dramatically the disconnect between how people truly look and how they wish to appear. Lacking the photo shop and good lighting that is usually reserved for portraiture of this type, Sherman’s photos are intentionally grotesque and reveal tell-tale signs of extensive plastic surgery, botched make-up jobs, and ill-fated attempts at body contouring to hide signs of aging.  In this sense, Sherman invites us to look very closely, perversely close, and examine the subjects’ every pore for evidence of just how disconnected these images are from what is likely intended. In the process, the audience is made uncomfortably aware of their own image management, especially in today’s social media fuelled world. It is also a world of pictures all too reminiscent of the broader spectacle played out on the high definition landscape of “reality” television, 24/7 celebrity news, and era of constant and unremitting “self-improvement.”  As I walked out of the gallery, I was left with a strong sense of the unresolved nature of these images—what were these monstrous pictures saying to us about our society and ourselves? How do these pictures connect to Sherman's own artist celebrity and the larger gaps and interests between women of the 1970’s feminist era and those of the current “Real Housewives” period?   

I think Hal Foster sums it up best in his exhibition review of Sherman’s show published in the London Review of Books (worth reading in full here). He pinpoints and describes that very real sense of time passing, the terms of contemporary art production shifting, and Sherman’s ability to reveal something quite anxiety-inducing to both the lay public and public intellectuals alike—something we would rather hide from than confront as unflinchingly as Sherman has in her many “self-portraits”:

“It is not just that, as the series roll by, we glimpse the artist age behind all the make-up; it is that the arc of her subjects from ingénue to dame is not unlike that of her own life – from the young artist new to the city to a cultural figure in her own right. The images also trace this trajectory in their production, from small black and white faux film stills (galleries were modest then too) to large colour pictures produced digitally on the scale of paintings (Sherman has spoken of her wish to compete with the grand installations of some of her male colleagues). In this social story there is also a political allegory: those of us who started out as the postmodernist generation, eager to build on the advances of the 1960s and 1970s in art, theory and other domains, had that future hijacked by a reactionary turn in almost all things. That painful narrative can also be read here.”

MoMA has produced the following introductory video to Sherman which can be found along with others on their website: