Tinkler FSEM 047.02 - Art+Ideas+East+West

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FSEM 047.02: Art+Ideas+East+West

Fall, 2011
Michael Tinkler

Houghton House Room 211
Telephone: (315) 781-3489
Email: tinkler@HWS.edu
Fall 2011 office hours - Houghton House - Wednesday 10.10-12.00
Houghton House - Friday 10.10-12.00
Scandling Center Cafe - Tuesday, 11.30-12.30
or by appointment

the course

Course description:

This class, which will be co-taught with Professor Lara Blanchard, will focus on the ideas that artists attempt to express visually in both Asia and Europe. My section will focus on Western art, and Professor Blanchard’s section will focus on Asian art. Each section will meet separately periodically for discussion (ancient, medieval, and renaissance European art in our section, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian art in Professor Blanchard’s section), but both sections will meet together at least once a week to learn about a common issue in both artistic traditions and how it is approached differently (or similarly) in Asia and Europe. Broad topics will include how artists represent the real world or an idealized world, how social class impacts artistic practice, how men and women participate in artistic production, and how the “other” is represented in both artistic traditions. We will consider the connections between art, religion, philosophy, politics, literature, and society.

Course objectives:

We will explore through study of formal techniques and the varied philosophical concepts that inform artistic production how visual means can be used to express difference, and we will make comparisons to literature. Students will gain experience in analyzing art in the context of diverse world cultures and will write short papers, journal entries and create a thematic exhibition.

Weekly Schedule
Artist biography assignment
Weekly Journal
Exhibition proposal
How to write a catalogue entry
Exhibitions
Class Blog

Schedule for FSEM 047.02 - Fall 2011

ORIENTATION.

Fri., Aug. 26. The HWS curriculum and other stuff we think you should know.
Introductions, syllabus, etc.

WEEK 1: FORMAL APPROACHES TO ART.

First conference with Writing Colleague occurs this week, and you make an appointment to meet with him weekly throughout the semester. Send your written assignments in advance to kevin.bates@hws.edu.
Wed., Aug. 31. Comparing and contrasting Asian & European art (meet together).
Choose artist/architect for biography assignment.
Readings:

SGWA chaps. 3-4. When SGWA assignments occur, please bring your copy to class.

Fri., Sept. 2. Discussing Asian & European art (meet together).
Draft of artist’s biography due to Writing Colleague.

WEEKS 2 & 3: PERCEPTION + CONCEPT.

Wed., Sept. 7. Comparing and contrasting perception in Asian & European art (meet together).
Readings:

Jonathan Hay, “The Mediating Work of Art,” The Art Bulletin 89, no. 3 (September 2007): 435-59.
Edgerton, Samuel Y., Jr. “Alberti's Perspective: A New Discovery and a New Evaluation,” The Art Bulletin, 48, No. 3/4 (Sep. – December, 1966): 367-378.

Fri., Sept. 9. Discussing perception in European art (meet separately).
Artist’s biography assignment due in class.
Draft of first journal entry due to Writing Colleague.
Readings:

Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, selection from Piero della Francesca (New York: Viking Press, 1972)

Wed., Sept. 14. Comparing and contrasting conceptual approaches to Asian & European art (meet together). Readings:

Eugene Wang, “Response: ‘Picture-Idea’ and Its Cultural Dynamics in Northern Song China,” The Art Bulletin 89, no. 3 (September 2007): 463-81.
John Onians, “Idea and Product: Potter and Philosopher in Classical Athens,” Journal of Design History 4, no. 2 (1991): 65-73.

Fri., Sept. 16. Discussing conceptual approaches to European art (meet separately).
First journal entry due in class.
Draft of next journal entry due to Writing Colleague.
Readings:

Thierry de Duve and Rosalind Krauss, “Yves Klein, or The Dead Dealer,” October 49 (Summer, 1989): 72-90.

WEEKS 4 & 5: ICON + NARRATIVE.

Wed., Sept. 21. Comparing and contrasting iconicity in Asian & European art (meet together).
Proposals for exhibition themes due in class.
Readings:

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, “The Origin of the Buddha Image,” The Art Bulletin 9, no. 4 (June 1927): 287-329.
Manolis Chatzidakis and Gerry Walters, “An Encaustic Icon of Christ at Sinai,” The Art Bulletin 49, no. 3 (September 1967): 197-208.

Fri., Sept. 23. Discussing iconicity in European art (meet separately).
Journal entry due in class.
Draft of next journal entry due to Writing Colleague.
Readings:

Sally Stein, “The President's Two Bodies: Stagings and Restagings of FDR and the New Deal Body Politic,” American Art, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Spring 2004): 32-57.

Wed., Sept. 28. Comparing and contrasting narrative in Asian & European art (meet together).
Readings:

Vidya Dehejia, "On Modes of Visual Narration in Early Buddhist Art," The Art Bulletin 72, no. 3 (September 1990): 373-392.
Thomas F. Mathews, “The Magician,” chapter 3 of The Clash of Gods (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995), 54-91.

Fri., Sept. 30. Discussing narrative in European art and textual sources (meet separately).
Journal entry due in class.
Draft of next journal entry due to Writing Colleague.
Readings:

Selections from the Gospel according to Matthew and the Gospel according to Thomas.

WEEK 6: RESEARCH + WRITING.

Wed., Oct. 5. How to write a catalogue entry (meet together).
Readings:

SGWA chaps. 5, 6, 10.

Fri., Oct 7. Library research session. Meet at the Reference Desk of the Library at 1:25pm.
[Oct. 8-11, FALL RECESS begins after Friday classes]

WEEKS 7 & 8: WORK + PLAY.

Wed., Oct. 12. Comparing and contrasting work in Asian & European art (meet together).
Readings:

James Cahill, “The Painter’s Livelihood,” chapter 2 of The Painter’s Practice: How Artists Lived and Worked in Traditional China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994), 32-70.
Véronique P. Day, “Portrait of a Provincial Artist: Jehan Gillemer, Poitevin Illuminator,” Gesta 41, no. 1 (2002): 39-49.

Fri., Oct. 14. Discussing work in European art (meet separately).
Journal entry due in class.
Draft of next journal entry due to Writing Colleague.
Readings:

Leslie Ross, “The Medieval Architect?: Villard de Honnecourt,” chapter 4 of Artists of the Middle Ages (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2003), 61-79.

Wed., Oct. 19. Comparing and contrasting play in Asian & European art (meet together).
Readings:

Britta Erickson, “Language as Intellectual Game,” chapter 3 of Words without Meaning, Meaning without Words: The Art of Xu Bing (Washington, D.C.: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 2001), 46-57.
Malcolm Jones, “Magical Metal, Silly Saints and Risible Relics: The Art and Artefacts of Popular Religion,” chapter 2 of The Secret Middle Ages (Westport, Ct.: Praeger Publishers, 2002), 13-33.

Fri., Oct. 21. Discussing play in European art and literature (meet separately).
Journal entry due in class.
Draft of next journal entry due to Writing Colleague.
Readings: TBA

WEEKS 9-11: HIGH + LOW (AND FIELD EXPERIENCE).

Wed., Oct. 26. Comparing and contrasting “high art” in Asia & Europe (meet together).
Object list for exhibition due.
Readings:

Andrew Solomon, “Don’t Mess with Our Cultural Patrimony!” The New York Times Magazine (17 March 1996): 30-37, 44, 52, 58, 64.
TBA: Elgin Marbles packet.

Fri., Oct. 28. Discussing “high art” in Europe (meet separately).
Journal entry due in class.
Draft of next journal entry due to Writing Colleague.
Readings:

M. Cecilia Gaposchkin, “The King of France and the Queen of Heaven: The Iconography of the Porte Rouge of Notre-Dame of Paris,” Gesta, 39, No. 1 (2000): 58-72.

[Sat., Oct. 29, DAY OF SERVICE]

[Oct. 31-Nov. 4, ADVISING WEEK]

Wed., Nov. 2. Preparation for field experience (meet together).

Fri., Nov. 4. Travel to Washington, D.C.; 11:30am departure.

[Sat., Nov. 5. Museum visits in Washington, D.C.]

Wed., Nov. 9. Comparing and contrasting “low art” in Asia & Europe (meet together).
Readings:

Theodore R. Bowie, “Hokusai and the Comic Tradition in Japanese Painting,” College Art Journal 19, no. 3 (Spring 1960): 210-225.
Paul Hardwick, “Masculinity and Power,” chapter 4 of English Medieval Misericords, the Margins of Meaning (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell & Brewer, 2011), 85-109.

Fri., Nov. 11. Discussing “low art” in Europe (meet separately).
Journal entry due in class.
Draft of next journal entry due to Writing Colleague.
Readings:

David Kunzle, “Bruegel's Proverb Painting and the World Upside Down,” The Art Bulletin, 59, No. 2 (Jun., 1977): 197-202.

WEEKS 12-13: OLD + NEW.

Wed., Nov. 16. Comparing and contrasting “old” approaches in Asian & European art (meet together).
Draft of catalogue entries due to Writing Colleague.
Readings:

Richard Barnhart, “Li Kung-lin’s Use of Past Styles,” in Artists and Traditions: Uses of the Past in Chinese Culture, ed. Christian F. Murck (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976), 51-71.
Michael Camille, “The Très Riches Heures: An Illuminated Manuscript in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Critical Inquiry 17, no. 1 (Autumn 1990): 72-107.

Fri., Nov. 18. Discussing the importance of the “old” in European art (meet separately).
Journal entry due in class.
Draft of next journal entry due to Writing Colleague.
Readings:

Richard Cleary, "Texas Gothic, French Accent: The Architecture of the Roman Catholic Church in Antebellum Texas," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 66, no. 1,(March 2007): 60-83.

[Nov. 23-27, THANKSGIVING RECESS]

Wed., Nov. 30. Comparing and contrasting “new” approaches in Asian & European art (meet together).
Readings:

Nicolai Ouroussoff, “In Changing Face of Beijing, A Look at the New China,” The New York Times (13 July 2008).
“Architectural Monuments in a Reshaped Beijing,” The New York Times (16 April 2011).
TBA: Zaha Hadid packet

Fri., Dec. 2. Discussing the importance of the “new” in European art (meet separately).
Final journal entry due in class.
Readings: * TBA

WEEK 14 – FINALS WEEK: EXHIBITIONS.

Wed., Dec. 7. Group workshops.

Fri., Dec. 9. Group workshops.
Exhibitions posted online by this date.

Tues., Dec. 13. Group presentations.

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