Undergraduate Course: Twenty Artists of the Twentieth Century (LLLA07161)
Course Outline
| School | Centre for Open Learning |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 7 (Year 1 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | Explore the complexities of 20th century art through studying the aims and methods of key individual artists. This course takes a pair of artists each week ¿ Picasso and Braque, Pollock and Rothko, Duchamp and Bourgeois, amongst others ¿ to assess their motivations and creative processes, and their contributions to modern art. |
| Course description |
The following list is indicative; weekly content may alter slightly from year to year, depending on current exhibitions etc.
1. Paul Cezanne and Pierre Bonnard
2. Henri Matisse
3. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque
4. Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee
5. Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko
6. Alberto Giacometti and Giorgio Morandi
7. Marcel Duchamp and Louise Bourgeois
8. Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys
9. Eva Hesse and Richard Long
10. Gerhard Richter, Sean Scully and Robert Ryman
Although the history of 20th century art has often been summarized as a succession of movements or ¿isms¿, such convenient labels can obscure the fact that each of the most significant artists of the period found it necessary to find their own personal ¿voice¿ by virtually inventing their own visual language. This course follows such an individualistic approach by focusing on the aims, beliefs and creative processes of twenty innovative figures, both analyzing their key works and setting their achievements in a broader cultural context, particularly with reference to the fundamental concepts of ¿modernism¿ and ¿postmodernism¿.
Students should be able to display the above learning outcomes through the essay submitted at the end of the course. Students¿ progress with these learning outcomes will also be assessed in the formative exercise (non-compulsory) mid-way through the course.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | 0 |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate, through the summative assessment, a critical understanding of the important developments in 20th-century art.
- Demonstrate, through the summative assessment, the ability to assess critically the motivations and creative processes underlying works by key individuals.
- Demonstrate, through the summative assessment, the ability to ¿read¿ and interpret works of art that use an unfamiliar visual language.
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Reading List
Nikos Stangos (ed.), 1994. Concepts of Modern Art: from Fauvism to Postmodernism. London: Thames and Hudson.
Robert Hughes, 1991. The Shock of the New: Art and the Century of Change. London: Thames and Hudson.
Hal Foster and Rosalind Krauss (eds.), 2004. Art Since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism and Postmodernism. London: Thames and Hudson.
John Golding, 2000. Paths to the Absolute. London: Thames and Hudson.
Charles Harrison and Paul Wood (eds.) 2002. Art in Theory 1900-2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. London: Wiley-Blackwell.
Jonathan Fineberg, 1995. Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being. London: Laurence King Publishing.
David Sylvester, 2002. About Modern Art: Critical Essays 1948-2000. London: Pimlico.
There are good introductory monographs on many of the individual artists concerned in Taschen¿s ¿Basic Art¿ series. There are also valuable collections of artists¿ own statements, for example:
Paul Klee, 2013. Creative Confession, and other writings. London: Tate Publishing.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Synthesis of a large body of material; handling of sources; analysis of sources; oral communication. |
| Special Arrangements |
N/A |
| Study Abroad |
N/A |
| Keywords | 20th-century art; modernism; post-modernism |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Sally Crumplin
Tel:
Email: Sally.Crumplin@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Benjamin McNab
Tel: (0131 6)51 4832
Email: Benjamin.Mcnab@ed.ac.uk |
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