Module manager: Dr Rebecca Starr
Email: R.Starr@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2024/25
At least 20 credits from ARTF1003, ARTF1004, ARTF1014, ARTF1015, ARTF1023, ARTF1041, ARTF 1045, ARTF1046, or ARTF2000
| ARTF1003 | Introduction to Cultural Analysis 1 |
| ARTF1004 | Introduction to Cultural Analysis II |
| ARTF1014 | Elements of Visual Culture I |
| ARTF1015 | Elements of Visual Culture II |
| ARTF1023 | Cultural History |
| ARTF1045 | A Story of Art I |
| ARTF1046 | A Story of Art 2 |
| ARTF2000 | Stories of Art:An Introduction |
This module is not approved as a discovery module
The New York School module aims to examine aspects of the shift of the metropolitan centre of the avant garde from Paris to New York at the end of the 1930s, the art and art criticism associated with it, and the ways that art and art criticism was developed, contradicted and transcended in the post war period 1947-1958/9. Artists considered will include Jackson Pollock, Elaine de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner, Kenneth Noland, Norman Lewis and Robert Rauschenberg , amongst others. The idea of the Cold War, contemporary politics, formalist theory and contemporary debates on the nature of 'American Art' will provide the context for the understanding of the practices and reception of such artists. Following on from this, students will be encouraged to critically appraise and articulate the connections, contradictions and continuations between the Modernist art criticisms and practices associated with the New York School, and those of the Postmodernist artists and theorists.
On completion of this module, students will be able to understand and analyse the critical themes and issues which follow through Modernist art practices and criticisms into those of postmodernism.
Students will also comprehend the wider social, cultural and historical contexts within which such criticisms and practices took place and developed.
On completion of this module students will be able to -
- Demonstrate the ability to analyse works of art, specifically those produced by the artists working under the art historical grouping of the ‘New York School’.
- Demonstrate the understanding of the wider social, cultural and historical contexts, specifically the Cold War
- Demonstrate the understanding of the criticisms of art as published and debated during the time period, specifically those of Greenberg and Rosenberg.
- Demonstrate the understanding of Modernism and Postmodernism as critical forms of analysis.
- Verbal and written fluency in constructing a logical and coherent argument
- Use of audio visual aids
- Participation in group discussions
- Co-ordination and dissemination of a range of historical, contextual visual information
- Using bibliographies and databases.
The syllabus will work through a particular set of themes. This may include some or all of the following:
Introduction to The New York School
The Criticism of Harold Rosenberg and Clement Greenberg
Action Painting
Beyond Cubism? The Gestures of Elaine de Kooning and Willem de Kooning
The Sublime is Now’: Questioning Colour Field Painting
Reading and Development Week – no module teaching
Revising the Modernist Canon: Womxn, Gender and Abstract Expressionism
Beyond the Stain: Helen Frankenthaler and the Washington Colour School
Revising the Modernist Canon: Norman Lewis
The Neo-Avant-Garde: Queering Representation
Module Review and Essay Workshop
Teaching may also include practical workshops as a way in which to better understand the processes of artistic creation and its relationship to the theoretical and historical contexts studied.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workshop | 2 | 1.5 | 3 |
| Lecture | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| Seminar | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| Private study hours | 177 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 23 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
180 hours - class/essay/presentation/exam preparation and further reading.
- attendance at seminars
- registers taken
- Contribution to class discussions.
- Students will have mid-semester assessment, to be handed in during week 18. Feedback for this will be given in week 22.
Participation in seminars.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Essay | 1x 1500 word essay | 40 |
| Essay | 1x 3000 word essay or critical exercise | 60 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 4/29/2024
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team