MODERN AMERICAN ART
Art History 368, Fall 2016
Monday and Thursday, 11:30am-12:50pm, Zimmerli Maxwell Multi-purpose Room
Professor Isabel Taube
E-mail: [email protected]
PRELIMINARY SYLLABUS: SUBJECT TO CHANGE
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will explore painting, sculpture, and photography produced by American
artists at home and abroad from the 1820s to the mid-1940s, a period that encompasses
the rise to prominence and institutionalization of art in the United States. Topics will
include the role of antebellum art in shaping national identity; the portrayal of the Civil
War; the shifting representation of race during a time of nation building and immigration;
the late nineteenth-century embrace of a cosmopolitan spirit; The Armory Show and the
development of Modernism; and the search for roots and artistic heritage during a period
of rapid modernization in the 1920s and 1930s. We will address representative works by
both canonical and lesser known artists, such as William Sidney Mount, Lily Martin
Spencer, Frederic Edwin Church, Matthew Brady, Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins,
John Singer Sargent, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Augustus Saint Gaudens, Robert Henri,
Georgia O’Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz, Thomas Hart Benton, and Jacob Lawrence. Rather
than an exhaustive survey, this class will consider a relatively small number of key works
by each artist. The lectures will be supplemented by critical readings that approach the
course material from diverse perspectives.
COURSE FORMAT
Although this is a lecture course, you will be encouraged to participate in class
discussions, which will be factored into your grade. You must come to class prepared to
discuss the readings.
COURSE TEXTS
The following textbook may be purchased at the Rutgers Book Store or online:
Angela M. Miller, Janet C. Berlo, Bryan J. Wolf, and Jennifer L. Roberts, American
Encounters: Art, History, and Cultural Identity (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall,
2008).
All other readings will be available on-line at the Sakai site for the course or on reserve at
the Art Library, Voorhees Hall. Questions about the readings will be included on both
exams, so it is imperative that you keep up with the readings.
COURSE IMAGES
All the images for which you are responsible will be available as Powerpoint files on the
course website on Sakai under Resources each week after Thursday’s class lecture.
Modern American Art, Art History 368, Fall 2016, Taube
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ASSIGNMENTS
1) 2 Short Writing Assignments
2) Reading Response Paper (a separate assignment sheet will be handed out in class; 3-4
pages, typed and double-spaced)
3) Visual Analysis or Exhibition Review Paper (a separate assignment sheet will be
handed out in class; 4-5 pages, typed and double-spaced; you will be required to go to
ONE of these museums: the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers, The Newark Museum,
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, or The Philadelphia Museum of Art
to complete the paper)
4) Midterm Exam: the exam will include 1 take-home essay and 3 pairs of images that
you must compare/contrast, using the material you have learned in class and from the
readings. The in-class portion of the exam will be open note.
5) Final Exam: the exam will include 1 cumulative take-home essay and 3 pairs of
images that you must compare/contrast, using the material you have learned in class and
from the readings. The in-class portion of the exam will be open note.
EVALUATION
All assignments must be completed to pass the course.
Grades will be calculated as follows:
10% attendance and class participation
10% 2 short writing assignments
20% reading response paper
20% visual analysis or exhibition review paper
20% midterm exam
20% final exam
ADDITIONAL COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND POLICIES
CONDUCT CODE:
The Department of Art History expects all its students to attend every class, except in
cases of illness, serious family concerns, or other major problems. We expect that
students will arrive on time, prepared to listen and participate as appropriate, and to stay
for the duration of a meeting rather than drift in or out casually. In short, we anticipate
that students will show professors, teaching assistants, and fellow students maximum
consideration by minimizing the disturbances that cause interruptions in the learning
process. This means that punctuality is a “must,” that cell phones be turned off, and that
courtesy is the guiding principle in all exchanges among students and faculty.
* Turn off cell phones before class begins.
* No walking in or out. If you must leave class early, please let me know in advance and
sit in the back of the room.
* No distracting behavior: i.e. texting, conversations, surfing the web, or email.
* No cheating on any assignment. Instant failure for that assignment.
* No plagiarism on the papers. Instant failure for that paper.
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CLASS PARTICIPATION: Attendance is mandatory and will be taken at the
beginning of each class. Students must attend all classes, complete all assigned readings
before each class, arrive on time, participate in discussions, and take notes. Much of the
class material is not repeated elsewhere, and you are responsible for all concepts
presented in class.
PAPERS: Late papers will be marked down half a grade. Deadline extensions will be
given only when students present the instructor with compelling justification before the
due date of the paper.
EXAMS: Make-up exams will only be given if there is a death in the immediate
family or the student has a very serious illness (proof is required in either case). If
you have a documented disability, you may be eligible for accommodations in academic
classes. Please see me or email me at the beginning of the semester to discuss whether
you qualify for extra time on exams.
CHEATING/PLAGIARISM: Cheating on exams, plagiarizing (copying another
person’s work and claiming it as your own), and all other forms of academic
dishonesty will not be permitted and will result in the receipt of a failing grade for
the course. Please familiarize yourself with Rutgers’ official Academic Integrity Policy:
http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/academic-integrity-policy.
COURSE SCHEDULE AND READINGS (subject to change)
Important Due Dates:
Sept. 22:
Short writing assignment #1
Oct. 3:
In-class short writing assignment #2, practice for midterm exam
Nov. 3:
Midterm Exam
Nov. 14:
Visual Analysis or Exhibition Review Paper
Dec. 5:
Reading Response Paper
Dec. TBD:
Final Exam
***Readings should be completed for the class meeting under which they are listed.
Sept. 8: Introduction and Antebellum Sentimental Visual Culture
No readings for this class
Sept. 12: Antebellum Sculpture and Genre Painting
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, Preface, xii–xvii; Part 2: Forging a New Nation, 1776–1865, p.
133; chap. 6: 171–192. Required textbook.
2) Kirsten P. Buick, “The Ideal Works of Edmonia Lewis: Invoking and Inverting
Autobiography” in American Art 9, no. 2 (Summer 1995): 4–19.
Sakai, Buick_Lewis.pdf
Sept. 15: Antebellum Genre Painting
Readings for this class:
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1) American Encounters, chap. 6: 193–207.
2) Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar” and W. Alfred Jones, “A Sketch of
the Life and Character of William Sidney Mount,” reprinted in Sarah Burns and John
Davis, American Art to 1900: A Documentary History (2009): 309–313.
Sakai, Emerson_Mount.pdf
Sept. 19: Antebellum Images of the West
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, chap. 7: 209–230 (stop at “Native Arts of Alaska”).
2) John L. O’Sullivan, “The Great Nation of Futurity,” reprinted in in Sarah Burns and
John Davis, American Art to 1900: A Documentary History (2009): 424–426.
Sakai, O’Sullivan_GreatNation.pdf
3) Kathryn S. Hight, “‘Doomed to Perish’: George Catlin’s Depictions of the Mandan” in
Reading American Art: 150–162. Sakai, Hight_Catlin.pdf
Sept. 22: Antebellum Landscape: Hudson River School
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, chap. 8: 241–266 (stop at “Representing War”).
2) Thomas Cole, “Essay on American Scenery,” American Monthly Magazine n.s. 1
(January 1836), reprinted in Sarah Burns and John Davis, American Art to 1900: A
Documentary History (2009): 264–271. Sakai, Cole_AmericanScenery.pdf
Short Writing Assignment #1 Due
Sept. 26: Representing the Civil War and Its Aftermath: Part 1
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, chap. 8: 266–277.
2) Alan Trachtenberg, “Albums of War: On Reading Civil War Photographs” in
Representations 9 (Winter 1985): 1–32.
Sakai, Trachtenberg_CivilWarPhotographs.pdf
3) Browse the Civil War photographs on the Library of Congress’s website:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/cwp/
Sept. 29: Representing the Civil War and Its Aftermath: Part 2
Readings for this class:
1) Reviews of Winslow Homer’s Prisoners from the Front, reprinted in Sarah Burns and
John Davis, American Art to 1900: A Documentary History (2009): 526–528.
Sakai, Homer_Prisoners_Reviews.pdf
2) Marc Simpson, “The Bright Side: ‘Humorously Conceived and Truthfully Executed’”
in Winslow Homer: Paintings of the Civil War (San Francisco: Fine Arts Museum of San
Francisco, 1988), 47–63. Sakai, Simpson_Homer.pdf
Oct. 3: Winslow Homer
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, Part 3 and chap. 9: 279–295 (stop at “The Persistence of the
Past: The Colonial Revival”).
In-class Short Writing Assignment #2, practice for midterm exam
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Oct. 6: Thomas Eakins
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, chap. 11: 371 (start at “Thomas Eakins: Restoring the (Male)
Self”)–377 (stop at “Reasserting Cultural Authority”).
2) Martin A. Berger, “Modernity and Gender in Thomas Eakins’s “Swimming”” in
American Art 11, no. 3 (Autumn 1997): 32–47. Sakai, Berger_Eakins.pdf
3) “Thomas Eakins on the Teaching of Art” in Art in Theory, 1815–1900, 647–651.
Sakai, Eakins_Teaching.pdf
Oct. 10: Henry Ossawa Tanner
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, chap. 10: 321–338 (stop at “The New American Architecture”).
2) Jennifer J. Harper, “The Early Religious Paintings of Henry Ossawa Tanner: A Study
of the Influences of Church, Family, and Era,” American Art 6, no. 4 (Fall 1992): 68–85.
Sakai, Harper_Tanner.pdf
Oct.13: James Abbott McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent
Readings for this class:
1) James Abbott McNeill Whistler, “The Action” in “The Gentle Art of Making Enemies,
1890,” 10–18. Sakai, Whistler_GentleArtofMakingEnemies.pdf
2) “Whistler’s Ten O’Clock,” reprinted in Sarah Burns and John Davis, American Art to
1900: A Documentary History (2009): 803–804. Sakai, Whistler_TenO’Clock.pdf
3) Henry James, “John S. Sargent,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine 75 (October 1887),
reprinted in Sarah Burns and John Davis, American Art to 1900: A Documentary History
(2009): 813–818. Sakai, James_Sargent.pdf
Oct. 17: William Merritt Chase and The Artful Interior
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, chap. 11: 366 (start at “Feminine/Masculine: Gender and Late
Nineteenth-Century Arts)–371 (stop at “Thomas Eakins: Restoring the (Male) Self”).
2) Clarence Cook, selections from The House Beautiful reprinted in Sarah Burns and
John Davis, American Art to 1900: A Documentary History (2009): 947–950.
Sakai, Cook_HouseBeautiful.pdf
Oct. 20: Trompe l’Oeil
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, chap. 11: 357–365.
2) Judith A. Barter, “True to the Senses and False in Its Essence: Still-Life and Trompe
l’Oeil Painting in Victorian America” in Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 31, no.
1 (2005): 32–43; 91–92. Sakai, Barter_Still-Life.pdf
Oct. 24: The World’s Columbian Exposition
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, chap. 11: 377 (start at “Reasserting Cultural Authority”)–383.
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2) Robert Rydell, “The Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893,” in All the
World’s A Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), 38–71.
Sakai, Rydell_ColumbianExposition.pdf
3) “World’s Columbian Exposition” in Encyclopedia of Chicago online:
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1386.html
Oct. 27: The New York Realists
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, chap. 11: 384–387; Part 4, 389; and chap. 12: 391–401 (stop at
“The Road to Abstraction”).
2) Rebecca Zurier, “The Setting: Another Look at the Ashcan School” in Picturing the
City: Urban Vision and the Ashcan School (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London:
University of California Press, 2006), 23–44. Sakai, Zurier_PicturingtheCity.pdf
Oct. 31: New York Realists continued and Alfred Stieglitz and His Circle, including
Arthur Dove, John Marin, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Paul Strand
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, chap. 12: 401 (start at “The Road to Abstraction”)–419.
2) Anna C. Chave, “O’Keeffe and the Masculine Gaze” in Reading American Art: 350–
370. Sakai, Chave_O’Keeffe.pdf
Nov. 3: Midterm Exam
Nov. 7: The Armory Show and Its Impact
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, chap. 13: 421–440 (stop at “Sculpture: The Primitive and the
Modern”).
2) Browse the exhibition website for “The Armory Show at 100: Modern Art and
Revolution” at the New-York Historical Society and read “About”
(http://armory.nyhistory.org/about/) and these blog posts (you will need to scan down the
page to find all of them):
http://armory.nyhistory.org/category/blog/:
“Walter Pach: European Agent for the Armory Show”
“The Villain of the Armory Show”
“A Dialogue of Nudes”
“The European Avant-Garde: Insane or Insincere?”
“Remembering the “Armory” in the Armory Show”
“The Armory Symbol”
“Henri Matisse, Armory Show Radical”
Nov. 10: American Modernism and World War I
Readings for this class:
1) Barbara Zabel, “Stuart Davis’s Appropriation of Advertising: The Tobacco Series,
1921–1924” in American Art, 5, no. 4 (Autumn 1991): 56–67. Sakai, Zabel_Davis.pdf
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Nov. 14: New York Dada, Duchamp, and the Readymade
Readings for this class:
1) Marcel Duchamp, “The Richard Mutt Case” in Art in Theory, 252.
Sakai, Duchamp_RichardMuttCase.pdf
2) “A Complete Reversal of Art Opinions by Marcel Duchamp, Iconoclast,” Arts and
Decoration 5, no. 11 (September 1915): 427–428, 442 (see last paragraph).
Sakai, Duchamp_ArtOpinions.pdf
Visual Analysis or Exhibition Review Paper Due
Nov. 17: Precisionism and Machine Art: Charles Demuth, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Charles
Sheeler
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, chap. 14: 451– 477 (stop at “The Margins of the Modern:
Edward Hopper and Charles Burchfield”).
Nov. 21: Precisionism and Machine Art
Readings for this class:
1) Karal Ann Marling, “My Egypt: The Irony of the American Dream,” Winterthur
Portfolio 15, no. 1 (Spring 1980): 25-39. Sakai, Marling_Demuth_MyEgypt.pdf
Nov. 22 (TUESDAY): American Scene: Edward Hopper and Charles Burchfield
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, chap. 14: 477 (start at “The Margins of the Modern: Edward
Hopper and Charles Burchfield”–480 (stop at “The Dream-Life of Popular Culture”).
Nov. 24: No class. Happy Thanksgiving!
Nov. 28: Regionalism: Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry, and Grant Wood
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, chap. 15: 485–494 (stop at “Art Colonies and the Anti-modern
Impulse”).
2) Van Wyck Brooks, “On Creating a Usable Past” in The Dial 64, no. 764 (April 11,
1918): 337–341. Sakai, Brooks_UsablePast.pdf
Dec. 1: Regionalism continued
Readings for this class:
1) Wanda M. Corn, “The Birth of a National Icon: Grant Wood’s American Gothic” in
Reading American Art: 387–408. Sakai, Corn_Wood.pdf
Dec. 5: The Harlem Renaissance
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, chap. 15: 507 (start at “The ‘New Negro’ Movement and
Versions of a Black Art)–515 and chap. 16: 526 (start at “Epics of Migration”)–529.
2) Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” in The Nation (June
23, 1926). Sakai, Hughes_TheNegroArtistandtheRacialMountain.pdf
Reading Response Paper Due
Modern American Art, Art History 368, Fall 2016, Taube
Dec. 8: Social Realism and the Influence of Mexican Muralism
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, chap. 16: 517–526 (stop at “Epics of Migration”)
Dec. 12: Works Progress Administration (WPA) and New Deal Art;
Abstract Expressionism Introduced
Readings for this class:
1) American Encounters, chap. 16: 533 (start at “Federal Patronage: Roosevelt’s Works
Progress Administration (WPA)”)–540 (stop at “Design and Architecture in the 1930s:
Corporate Patronage and Individual Genius”); chap. 17: 551–567 (stop at “Beyond
Abstract Expressionism”).
2) Selections from Art for the Millions: Essays from the 1930s by Artists and
Administrators of the WPA Federal Art Project, Francis V. O’Connor, ed. (Greenwich,
CT: New York Graphic Society Ltd., 1973). Sakai, ArtfortheMillions.pdf
TBD: FINAL EXAM
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