Undergraduate Course: Art Noir (HIAR10059)
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 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | History of Art |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
http://www.arthistory.ed.ac.uk |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | The course will explore a particular phase in the history of the modern artistic sensibility. Modern art has been informed at various times by utopian visions of social and personal liberation. However during the period encompassing the rise of Fascism, the Second World War, the Cold War and the Indo-China conflict, it seemed difficult not to take a more despairing, even tragic, view of the human condition, which seemed to be characterised by spiritual crisis, violence, and a poignant sense of the solitude of the individual.
Art Noir, based on the term Film Noir, is a loose umbrella term that brings together for comparative analysis the diverse, late Modernist manifestations of this outlook. The artistic exploitation of black and white is a frequent feature, beginning with Picassos Guernica. From a starting point in the late 1930s, we shall look at developments in painting, such as British War Art (Sutherland, Moore), US Abstract Expressionism (Pollock, Rothko, Kline), post-war French and Italian painters (Fautrier, Dubuffet, Fontana), the School of London (Bacon, Freud, Kossoff); in sculpture (Giacometti, the Geometry of Fear aesthetic); and in photography (Miller, Brandt). Aspects of the work of Warhol, Richter and Arbus in the 1960s provide a suitable terminus. The visual material ranges, then, from fine art to photography; figuration to abstraction; European to American. The common thread is more in terms of attitudes and underlying content.
The philosophy of Existentialism, and its literary corollaries (Sartre, Beckett etc), provide a valuable context for approaching such visual developments, as indeed does contemporary cinema, such as Film Noir. The course will seek to disentangle the subtle connections between the art of this period and the wider cultural and historical context.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
Students will acquire knowledge and develop understanding of:
the work of major artists and artistic movements in the mid twentieth century
key theoretical accounts of modernism in this period;
key claims which have been made for art and its relation to society in the twentieth century;
methodological and theoretical trends in recent and contemporary art history;
Through their work on the course students will develop abilities to:
look closely at works of art;
read critically and with understanding;
write well and clearly;
analyse ideas and arguments;
debate with their peers;
prepare and organize their work effectively to deadlines.
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Assessment Information
| 1 two-hour examination paper (50%) and 1 extended 2,500 word essay (50%) |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Martin Hammer
Tel: (0131 6)50 4119
Email: Martin.Hammer@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Sue Cavanagh
Tel: (0131 6)51 1460
Email: Sue.Cavanagh@ed.ac.uk |
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