Course Outline for Art History 6
Art History - Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Art

Effective: Fall 2022
SLO Rev: 09/12/2021
Catalog Description:

ARTH 6 - Art History - Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Art

3.00 Units

This course presents a chronological history of the 20th- and 21st centuries in the West (and at times, beyond), using iconic artworks that embody the conditions and values of the people who created them. We examine artworks created in a wide variety of media and targeting a broad range of subjects. Our focus is on major movements and influential ideas of this period, which—more than any other art historical period—were shaped by women artists, indigenous artists, disasporic artists, and artists of color. This course is especially appropriate for visual learners.
1002.00 - Art
Optional
Type Units Inside of Class Hours Outside of Class Hours Total Student Learning Hours
Lecture 3.00 54.00 108.00 162.00
Total 3.00 54.00 108.00 162.00
Measurable Objectives:
Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:
  1. identify and establish an argument for the cultural significance of, and historical values embodied in, artwork from the twentieth century;
  2. identify and establish an argument for the cultural significance of, and historical values embodied in, artwork from the twenty-first century;
  3. identify and establish an argument for the art style, cultural significance, and historical value of original artwork viewed in museums (in person or virtually).
Course Content:
1. Introduction: Setting the 20th Century Stage
A. legacy of industrial revolution
B. Europe in crisis
C. Scientism and Existentialism
 
2. Expressionism
A. key ideas
a. legacy of Post-Impressionism
b. Theosophy
c. Nazism and “Degenerate Art”
B. key artists
a. Hilma af Klint (woman pioneer of non-representational art)
b. Wassily Kandinsky
c. Franz Marc
d. Egon Schiele

3. The Armory Show and Early Modernism
A. key ideas
a. Modern art on America shores
b. “The Shock of the New” 
B. key artists
a. Marcel Duchamp
b. Henri Matisse
 
4. Cubism
A. key ideas
a. reconsidering Cezanne
b. Analytic and Synthetic Cubism
B. key artists
a. Paul Cezanne
b. George Braque
c. Pablo Picasso

5. Dada
A. key ideas
a. World War I
b. Dada philosophies and manifestos
B. key artists
a. Marcel Duchamp
b. Hannah Hoch
c. John Heartfield

6. Surrealism 
A. key ideas
a. Freud and the unconscious mind
b. Surrealist methods of communication
i. automatism
ii. dreams
iii. juxtaposition
B. key artists
a. Meret Oppenheim
b. Salvador Dali
c. René Magritte
 
7. Regionalism and the Harlem Renaissance
A. key ideas
a. Great Depression
b. U.S. isolation and nationalism
c. Harlem Renaissance and Black modernism
d. Federal intervention: the WPA
B. key artists
a. Georgia O’Keeffe
b. Thomas Hart Benton
c. Aaron Douglas
d. Carl van Vechten
e. Dorothea Lange

8. Mexican Muralism
A. key ideas
a. Mexican Revolution
b. patronage and censorship 
B. key artists
a. Diego Rivera
b. José Clemente Orozco
c. David Alfaro Siqueros

9. Abstract Expressionism
A. key ideas
a. post-war freedom and Existentialism
b. Action Painting, Color-field Painting
c. Pollock and Krasner: a mid-century gender dynamic
B. key artists
a. Lee Krasner
b. Jackson Pollock
c. Norman Lewis

10. Pop Art
A. key ideas
a. post-war consumerism
b. commodity culture
B. key artists
a. Andy Warhol
b. Roy Lichtenstein
c. Marisol

11. Minimalism
A. key ideas
a. John Cage, Four Minutes, Thirty-Three Seconds
b. Japanese Zen philosophy
B. key artists
a. Donald Judd
b. Agnes Martin
c. Richard Serra
d. Isamu Noguchi

12. Earthworks / Land Art
A. key ideas
a. Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring"
b. the Ecological movement
c. anti-commercialism
B. key artists
a. Nancy Holt
b. James Turrell
c. Robert Smithson

13. Video Art
A. key ideas
a. Information Age
b. experimental technologies
B. key artists
a. Nam June Paik
b. Martha Rosler
c. Bill Viola

14. Conceptual Art
A. key ideas
a. Counterculture
b. anti-formalism, anti-war, anti-commodification
B. key artists
a. Yoko Ono
b. Fluxus
c. Joseph Kosuth

15. Activist Art
A. key ideas
a. Civil Rights movement
b. Black, Chicano, and Native American self-actualization
c. second-wave feminism
d. systemic bias

B. key artists
a. Melvin Edwards
b. Ester Hernandez
c. Royal Chicano Air Force
d. Judy Chicago
e. Guerilla Girls

16. Performance Art
A. key ideas
a. the personal is political
b. time, space, body, and presence
B. key artists
a. Yoko Ono
b. Ana Mendieta
c. Marina Abramovic
d. Guillermo Gomez-Pena & Coco Fusco

17. The Present, Part I: Post-Modern Art
A. key ideas
a. economy of late Capitalism
b. critical theory: race, gender, queer
B. key artists
a. Cindy Sherman
b. Barbara Kruger

18. The Present, Part II: Contemporary Art
A. topics could include:
a. art and the climate crisis
b. art and Black Lives Matter
c. art and #MeToo
B. artists could include:
a. Sadie Barnette
b. Damian Hirst
c. David Hammons
d. Banksy

19. The Present, Part III: Globalism
A. topics could include:
a. globalization
b. worldwide web/mass media/social media
B. artists could include:
a. Ai Weiwei
b. Wendy Red Star
c. Zanele Muholi
Methods of Instruction:
  1. Classroom activities
  2. Distance Education
  3. Large and small group discussion
  4. Museum or gallery visit
  5. Slide- and video-illustrated lecture
Assignments and Methods of Evaluating Student Progress:
  1. Define the following concepts and cite specific artworks in which they can be found: abstraction, non-representationalism, automatism, New Deal, Zen, ecological philosophy, feminism, systemic bias, critical theory.
  2. Choose a work of art on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and write a four-page essay correctly identifying the art movement it belongs to based on its style and subject matter.
  1. Exams requiring slide identification, short- and long answer essays
  2. Written assignments
  3. Art museum visit assignment
  4. Research Projects
  5. Final Examination or Project
Upon the completion of this course, the student should be able to:
  1. identify and establish an argument for the cultural significance of, and historical values embodied in, artwork from the twentieth century;
  2. identify and establish an argument for the cultural significance of, and historical values embodied in, artwork from the twenty-first century;
  3. identify and establish an argument for the art style, cultural significance, and historical value of original artwork viewed in museums (in person or virtually).
Textbooks (Typical):
  1. Moro, Simonetta (2021). Mapping Paradigms in Modern and Contemporary Art Routledge.
  • When taken online, students will require a computer with internet access, and they must be registered for the Canvas MLS, which is provided free for students.
Abbreviated Class Schedule Description:
This course presents a chronological history of the 20th- and 21st centuries in the West (and at times, beyond), using iconic artworks that embody the conditions and values of the people who created them. We examine artworks created in a wide variety of media and targeting a broad range of subjects. Our focus is on major movements and influential ideas of this period, which—more than any other art historical period—were shaped by women artists, indigenous artists, disasporic artists, and artists of color. This course is especially appropriate for visual learners.