Contextual and Critical Studies
Stage 1
Semester 2
Jan to May
2008
Reading Images
and Objects
‘Isms’
• 1882
• Manet
• Bar at the FolieBergeres
• ImpressionISM
The STORY of Art
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Pre-history
The Classical Period
Medieval Art
The Renaissance
The Baroque
The Neo Classical
Romanticism………….
Ad infinitum
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Impressionism
Post Impressionism
Fauvism
Expressionism
Cubism
Surrealism
Abstract Expressionism
Minimalism
Ad infinitismismismism…
• MODERNISM
• POST-MODERNISM
• POST-POST-MODERNISM…
“The End of the History of Art ”
Hans Belting – 1984
“- the commitment to the
concept of all-embracing,
universal ‘history of art’ –
suddenly strikes us as
peculiar”
(H. Belting. The End of the History of Art. 1984)
“Contemporary art is too pluralistic in
intention and realization to allow itself to
be captured along a single dimension”
Danto. 1997.
there is “a recent loss of faith in a
great and compelling narrative, in the
way things must be seen” Belting. 1984.
the objects and images of the past
can be, and have been, “read” in
an increasing number of different
ways - “no single approach can
be definitive” (L. Schneider
Adams. 1996)
“When an article analyses the
images of women in paintings
rather than the qualities of the
brushwork, or when a gallery
lecturer ignores the sheen of the
Virgin Mary’s robes, the new art
history is casting its shadow”
Rees, A. and Borzello, F. 1986
Returning the male ‘gaze’
….society uses design as a mode
of social communication”
Contesting contemporary power
Hans Belting
“Our theme is rather the emancipation from
received models of the historical
presentation of art….”
(AND design)
The End of the History of Art ? 1984.
Looking and Seeing
more than before….?
Some writers, some perspectives
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Clement Greenberg
Le Corbusier
Roland Barthes
Robert Venturi
Walter Benjamin
John Berger
Lecture and Seminar 1
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Lecture 1
Monday, 4 February
1.00pm
Lecture Theatre 225, Business School
• Seminar 1
• Wednesday 6 Feb or Wednesday 13 Feb
• Come prepared, having done the reading