GRADUATE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS SPRING 2012
ART History
ART H 602
Research Methods of Art History
The 1960s: Painting into Object/ Chamberlin, Judd, Flavin, Oldenburg,
and their Friends
We will survey the methods and history of art historical research and writing, and apply them to
the study of the 60s in America with a special focus on (and field trips to) the Morgan Library
show, Dan Flavin: Drawing, The Guggenheim Museum show, John Chamberlain: Choices,
MoMA, the Met, and the longterm view galleries of Dia: Beacon. We start with the single object,
researching it thoroughly and placing it in the context of the artist's life and work and in the
history of modern art. In class progress reports and a final written paper.
ART H 602
Prof. Klich(sect. 01):
Research Methods of Art History
Students will learn to research an art object and compose a comprehensive catalogue entry in two
parts. The first is full factual documentation (provenance, exhibition history, bibliography, and
conservation); the second is a detailed interpretative essay (12-15 pages) on all aspects of the
work written in a publishable, expository style. The course provides fundamental training for
academic and curatorial work by emphasizing foundational tools and means of research in the
field. It also offers pragmatic instruction in determining appropriate theoretical frameworks and
viable methods of critical interpretation. Strategies for writing—the organization of information,
the clear articulation of ideas, logical structure of argument, and developing an authoritative
voice—will be stressed.
The course will focus on the role of the so-called masterpiece in the development of the field of
modern (i.e. pre-WWII) Latin American Art. Students will be assigned individual works of art
from New York museums in order to have the opportunity to contribute new research and
analysis. There will be instructional sessions in libraries, working with professional staff in order
to master searches in both print and electronic media. Students will also learn by doing through a
series of technical tasks involving information retrieval and analysis pertinent to their object. The
seminar covers a variety of methodological approaches, beginning with connoisseurship, through
historiography and recent approaches in art history. In addition to the final catalogue entry and
weekly tasks, students will also give a class presentation on progress and problems in their
research.
ART H 622
Modern Art II
Prof. Weintraub:
This course focuses on a select number of artists and art movements from the first half of the
20th century, with the goal of examining the development of key aesthetic strategies--as well as
their art historical and theoretical precedents--that will come to both define and challenge the
concerns and the rhetoric of high modernist art and theory by mid century. Course readings will
focus on primary texts, but will also include a selection of secondary sources that have
shaped our critical understanding of the period in question.
ART H 626
Modern Art III
Prof. Siegel:
This class will explore the art of the past twenty years. It will be organized thematically; every
class meeting will cover a different topic or strategy of interest to contemporary artists. Topics
might include abstraction, trash, failure, crowds, music, celebration, and distortion. Each week
we will read critical texts and artists’ writing appropriate to the subject, focusing on three or four
artists. The artists will typically include people like Mike Kelley, Sigmar Polke, Tomma Abts,
David Hammons, Aernout Mik, Jessica Stockholder, and Gabriel Orozco. This is a lecture
course, and the requirements are attendance, doing the readings, and writing several short papers.
ART H 627
Prof. Montgomery:
Latin American Art
Avant-Gardes and Neo-Avant-Gardes, a Comparative Approach to Latin
America
Avant-garde art made by Latin Americans has long been admired for attempting and
accomplishing social projects achieved by neither European nor U.S. artists. Damian Bayon has
argued that adopting avant-garde tactics during the 1920s helped Latin Americans resist cultural
colonialism; Mari Carmen Ramírez has argued that during the 1960s Latin American
conceptualists’ political aims exceeded those of their U.S. and European counterparts because,
instead of limiting their critiques to institutions, they addressed a realpolitik; and Cuauhtémoc
Medina has asked if contemporary, socially-engaged Latin American art can, in fact, affect social
change or if its politics are neutralized by the global circuit in which it is shown and collected.
Focusing on key moments during the 1920s, the 1940s, the 1960s-70s, and the last decade, this
course will examine Latin American artists’ avant-garde and neo-avant-garde practices, and their
impact on the global scene. Looking at manifestations of Futurism, Conceptualism, and other
“isms” in Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil, we will ask how and why Latin American avant-gardes
have produced art that differs from their counterparts in Europe and the United States, and what
those distinctions mean. For instance, Futurist experiments in Mexico City and Buenos Aires
during the 1920s will be examined alongside European Futurism, and Neo-concrete engagements
with interactivity and the dissolution of the art object in Brazil with be compared with North
American Minimalism. Readings will include critical, theoretical, and historical texts. In addition
to familiarizing ourselves with the relevant historical and contemporary artists and movements,
our task will be to consider how Latin American art compels us to revise theories of the avantgarde and neo-avant-garde.
This is a lecture class. Attendance and completing the readings are mandatory. Assignments
include participation in class discussions, a short paper, and mid-term and final exams.
ART H 630
Prof. Chou:
Buddhist Art
Devotional Space in Buddhist art of China and the Himalayas
This course considers the purpose and function of Buddhist art by examining the role of
Buddhist images in situ. How are images used in religious practices, and how do assemblies of
images create and define the devotional space? We begin with early archaeological sites in
northern India from second century B.C.E, follow Buddhism’s paths of dissemination to Central
Asia and China, and conclude with temples in the Himalayas that are still in active use today.
Major sites of study include stupas of Sanchi and Amaravati, cave shrines of Ajanta,
Bamiyan, Dunhuang, Yungang, Longmen, Xiangtangshan, and Dazu, monastic complexes at
Wutai Shan, Alchi, and Tabo, as well as temples in the Potala Palace and the Forbidden Palace.
Topics to be covered include representations of the lives of the Buddha, veneration of relics and
reliquaries, visualization of scriptures, portraits of saints and eminent masters, mapping of
Buddhist cosmology, and manifestations of
divine kingship.
ART H 635
Prof. Richter:
Venetian Ptng Carpaccio to Titian
This lecture course will focus on the great age of Venetian painting from the late fifteenththrough the sixteenth-centuries. Venice at this time remained the sole independent city state in
central and northern Italy governed by a doge from the patrician class and an elected senate.
Venetian colorito also represented the first direct challenge to the primacy of Florentine drawing,
or disegno. Genres examined will include portraiture, landscape, and the altarpiece with the
emphasis placed on the great horizontal, narrative tableaux which decorated the churches, private
palaces and scuole (charitable lay confraternities) of the city. These impressive narrative cycles,
devoted to Sts. Ursula, George, Mark, Roch, and even San Giobbe (Job), offer up splendid
panoramic urban vistas filled with the pageantry, diplomacy, and ceremony that are unique to La
Serenissima. Utilizing a contextual approach, these cycles will be examined within the artistic,
social and historical conventions of Renaissance Venice. We will also concentrate on the
ornamentation of the great Palladian-like villas scattered throughout the terra firma. An
examination of the techniques of Venetian painting, including the study of new glazes, will help
to demonstrate why many scholars consider Titian to be the greatest oil painter of the
Renaissance. Artists featured include Carpaccio, the Bellini (Jacopo, Gentile, and Giovanni),
Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese
ART H 734
Prof. Norden (section 01):
Prof. Jaudon (section 02):
Theory and Criticism
ART H 780.1A
Self Portraiture
Prof. Weinberg:
This course will focus on the history of self-portraiture and modes of self-identity from the
vantage point of feminism, queer theory and post-modernist critiques of the so-called author
function. The goal will be to explore and critique the hold that the autobiographical impulse has
on the modern imagination. Even if we agree to dispense with biography, the author function is
still central to questions of attribution and value in art history. What are the limitations and
advantages of biographical interpretations of works of art? Is it possible to maintain a
conception of identity and self-hood, without falling into the trap of equating the work of art with
the artist’s biography? To what degree have modern artists themselves contributed to the postmodern conception of identity as inherently unstable and socially constructed? What are the
political and social repercussions of dispensing with traditional concepts of identity? We will
look closely at self-portraits by artists ranging from Rembrandt van Rijn and Albrecht Dürer to
Cindy Sherman and Barkley Hendricks. We will read excerpts from the autobiographies of St.
Augustine, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Gertrude Stein. Students will be asked to research selfportraits in relationship to their own written and visual autobiographies. A particular interest
will be the cult of the artist that has formed around such figures as Vincent van Gogh and Frida
Kahlo. We will read memoirs and letters by artists, as well as essays by Barthes, Bataille,
Krauss, Foucault, and Goffman.
ART H 780.1B
Public Architecture in France
Prof. de Beaumont:
The use of public space as a theatre of political power reached an unprecedented level of subtlety
and refinement in Paris during the 17th and 18th centuries. Conceived as expressions of
centralized royal control vis-à-vis the nobility, municipal authorities, and populace alike, many
of these squares survive today, largely unaltered, as eminently elegant, habitable, and viable
settings of contemporary urban life. From the Place des Vosges (formerly Place Royale) built by
the ill-fated Henri IV (assassinated in 1610), to the succession of handsome public squares built
under Louis XIV, to the Place Louis XV (now Place de la Concorde) that would witness the
bloody end of the Ancien Régime, architecture, national politics, and the changing intellectual
and cultural ideals of French society, were intricately intertwined. Often equally important are
the many great unrealized projects—culminating in the visionary schemes of Boullée and
Ledoux—that serve as an essential subtext to the process of transformation that was leading
inevitably to revolution and modernity. Important developments in other French cities will be
considered. The history and symbolism of renovations to the Louvre palace will be examined in
detail. The flowering of book illustrations and theoretical texts concerning architecture and
patriotism will be explored. Intensive study of primary sources, as well as recent scholarship in
the field, will be involved, and some reading knowledge of French will be a considerable asset.
Requirements for the course include mid-term and final exams in essay format and a term paper
on a subject of special interest to the student, to be determined in consultation with the instructor.
ART H 780.1C
Prof. Avcioglu:
Special Topics:
The Islamic City from the Pre-Modern to the Era of Globalization
The concept of the city is as important as it is difficult to define. A rigorous definition of the
Islamic city has also proven uneasy to establish among historians and critics, since it elides any
essentialist characterization, even that of the reductive “non-western” identity. This course aims
to study Islamic cities as a palimpsest through a genealogical approach to their architectural
fabric. The course will examine several major cities: Baghdad, Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus,
Istanbul, Fatehpursikri, Tehran, and Dubai, among others. We will seek to understand how the
layers of the city are organized and how they interact with one another to form a coherent whole,
while remaining distinct from other cities. The focus will be on the intrinsic relationship between
the city and a particular architectural feature - such as the citadel, the palace, the mosque, the
garden, the monument, the museum, the house - at particular moments in the city’s historical
development and narrative.
ART H 780.1D
Prof. Dey:
Rome After Empire (3000-1000AD)
At the beginning of the first millennium AD, Rome was the teeming metropolitan capital of the
world greatest empire. At millennium end, it was a town shrunken twentyfold, with a militia
barely sufficient for its own defense, and a spiritual empire that carried the influence of the popes
far into regions where Roman arms had never penetrated. Just as the topography and
infrastructure of the city evolved over time, so too did the manifold varieties of Rome created,
disseminated, and shared both by locals and by a far greater number of people who never
experienced the city firsthand: popes and prelates, local aristocrats and foreign potentates,
pilgrims, merchants, Byzantines, barbarians, and so on, not to mention everyday Romans
themselves, the plebs romana or, later, the plebs dei. We will examine the architecture and
topography of the eternal city itself, as well as the figurative arts (mosaics, reliquaries and icons,
frescoes, luxury goods, etc.) produced both in Rome and perhaps also about Rome, in an attempt
to come to grips with how the city that, in a sense, killed Christ
transformed itself into the capital of the Christian world.
ART H 780.1F
Prof. Agee :
Old Age Art from Michelangelo to de Kooning
Old- Age Art from Michelangelo to de Kooning, including some attention to other old masters
such as Rembrandt and Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso but with primary focus on 20th Century
Americans including Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper, John Marin, Arthur Dove, Georgia O'Keeffe,
and others, including de Kooning. In their late years artists have often evolved into a distinctly
different type of work with new characteristics and a more intense emotional pitch. Often their
late art has been overlooked; the course seeks to define this work and place it in the context of
the times. Open to undergrads and grads. In class progress reports and a final written paper.
ART H 780.05
Cages on Impact on Contemporary Art
Prof. Pissarro :
John Cage is allegedly the most important artist of the second half of the 20th century. A
composer, poet, thinker, draughtsman, painter, professor, collector, musical director of the Merce
Cunningham Dance Company, Cage's creative (or maybe non-creative) impact on generation of
artists, then and today, is colossal.
This seminar will focus in part on Cage's artistic biography to address the impact he has had
(and continues to have) on generations of artists of all media from the 1950s until today (from
Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Ellsworth Kelly, to Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono, and the
Fluxus group, through to today's film maker Manon de Boer). This is a curatorial class that will
lead to an exhibition (Spring 2012) that will offer a brief survey of Cage’s continuous aura on
today’s art scene – not only in Europe and North America, but also on the Latin American
continent. Some of the artists whose works will be examined in relation to Cage will be: Rivane
Neuenschwander, Cildo Meireles, Lygia Clark, Matthew Deleget, Allora & Calzadilla, Rafael
Lozano-Hemmer.
ART H 780.08
Prof. Huberman:
The Artist’s Institute Seminar
The Artist's Institute: Rosemarie Trockel
A newly launched initiative at Hunter, The Artist's Institute is a research institute and an
experimental curatorial platform for contemporary art (see www.theartistsinstitute.org). Each
semester, the Institute uses a single artist as its point of departure and examines the broader field
of contemporary art and ideas through the lens of that artist's work. Stepping outside the
academic context and sharing its research with the general public, the Institute maintains a
storefront space on the Lower East Side and hosts exhibitions and events. As "research fellows,"
students explore the themes and ideas through ongoing readings, discussions, visiting artists, and
through active involvement in the Institute's public programming. For the Spring 2012 season,
The Artist's Institute will be dedicated to the German artist Rosemarie Trockel. (Professor
permission required for registration)
ART H 780.14
Curatorial Methods
Prof. Huberman:
This seminar proposes an in-depth examination of the curatorial process and introduces
contemporary perspectives and approaches to exhibition-making, with a focus on epistemology
and the nature of “knowledge” in art. The class is supported by historical references to landmark
exhibitions, visits to museum and gallery exhibitions, and presentations by visiting curators and
artists. Students consider to what extent an exhibition---with its themes, politics, juxtapositions,
experiments, and pedagogies---can be a site for knowledge production, and the nature of the
exhibition experience.
ART H 780.88
Topics in Ancient Egyptian Art & Architecture
Prof. Bleiberg :
This graduate course explores problems in understanding ancient Egyptian art and architecture
from pre-history through the end of Egypt’s New Kingdom about 1075 B.C.E. The course
proceeds chronologically beginning approximately 3500 B.C.E. with questions about the origins
of Egyptian art. The problems addressed in class concern typical art historical issues such as
royal versus middle class patronage, the nature of Egyptian style, and the emergence of Egyptian
iconography in various periods. The course concludes with discussions of the current antiquities
market, Egyptian collections in museums, and issues of cultural patrimony.
Thingness and Materiality in Medieval Objects –Seminar, Graduate Center
Prof. Hahn
Tues. 9:30-11:30 a.m.
Art history has returned to the object and "materiality" with enthusiasm. Nevertheless, our
approach to the object is not/cannot be unmediated. This course will explore medieval
materiality through the use of "Thing Theory," a multi-disciplinary consideration that will
include the "social life of things," philosophy's "speculative realism," and historical
investigations of matter and material. We will read Appadurai, Bynum, Harman, and others.
Students will choose an object or group of objects to re-vision using these methodological
approaches, examples might include reliquaries and other art objects of "use" from the Middle
Ages. Students will present a reading, deliver an oral presentation and write a paper.
Bryant, Levi, Nick Srnicek, and Graham Harman, eds. The Speculative Turn: Continental
Materialism and Realism. Victoria, Australia: re.press, 2011.
Bynum, Caroline. Christian Materiality : an Essay on Religion in Late Medieval Europe . New
York: Zone Books, 2011.
STUDIO ART
Art CR 640/641/642
Prof. Beattie :
Graduate Drawing
Art CR 651/652/653
Seminar in 2-D
Prof. Crile (sect 03):
In this seminar we will use the critique of the individual's work as the starting point to create a
dialogueaesthetic, cultural and political. The student will show his or her work two or three
times; And mid semester, I will do individual studio visits. To augment the critique, each student
will select a reading that relates to his or her work, has relevance to that work, and will help
frame a larger discussion. There will also be a paper required, a precursor of the final thesis, in
which the student will write critically about his or her art. We will also look at and discuss
current exhibitions, with the emphasis on, but not limited to, major Museum exhibitions.
Seminar in 2-D
Prof . Lisa Corinne Davis (sect 01):
According to Rosalind Krauss, " The greatest challenge to grasp of the art of the 1970's was the
need to assemble the diverse threads of newly invented mediums (such as video, performance,
body art or the 'dematerialization' of conceptual art) into coherent enterprises, related to one
another by what could be understood as a common goal and a concerted projection of
meaning." This seminar will examine the goals/concepts, common and not, between twodimensional mediums: painting and drawing, painting and photography, photography and video,
etc. Cross-disciplinary exchanges will be explored through the discussion of student work,
readings, and exhibitions. Requirements include assigned topical readings, occasional directed
assignments and a final project.
Art CR 661
Prof. Bozhkov (sect. 01):
Seminar in Combined Media
Prof. De Jong (sect. 02):
Prof. Weaver (sect. 03):
This seminar, concentrating on group critiques of individuals students’ work, welcomes any and
all media. During the course of the semester each student will present their work at least twice,
and the work will be the subject of in-depth analysis by the group. Each class period will consist
of discussions of two or three bodies of student work, and a portion of each class will be given
over to discussions of current exhibitions, relevant critical readings, and student reports. The
aim of the seminar will be to develop a contemporary critical vocabulary as well as an
understanding of individual work.
Prof. Sanchez( sect.04)
ART CR 751.19
Sculpture Methods
Prof. Mongrain:
This course will introduce traditional and non-traditional techniques of sculptural ceramics and
mixed media casting. Demonstrations will include several clay modeling methods, plaster mold
casting of slip, wax, and rubber, and rubber mold casting with a variety of materials. The objects
created during this course must be oriented to each students primary studio investigation.
Classes the first half of the semester will begin with slides and demonstrations. The second half
of the semester will be mainly individual tutorials to discuss ideas and give technical assistance.
A studio technician will be available approximately 10 hours per week to give further assistance.
ART CR 751.53
Photography Project
Prof. Leist:
The architecture of the medium of Photography: a workshop
The focus of this workshop will be on those who want to determine how the photographic
apparatus can be at the center of their work by examining its various layers such as its aesthetic,
representative, technological and political functions.
Workshop participants will learn to understand the various layers of the photographic process
including and beyond practical instruction in basic black and white techniques, digital imaging,
fundamentals of 35mm camera operation, film exposure and development, and darkroom
printing. Combines practical instruction, readings, lectures, field trips, visiting artists and group
discussions.
Student-initiated term projects are continuously presented in a critical forum.
Participants in this workshop will undertake research and development of their concepts that are
highly sensitive to the context of their work. There will be a mid-term review and a final review.
Projects can be either individual or collective. Teams may be composed of students of different
skills and interests. Situational and environmental interventions are also welcome. Production
time outside class is absolutely essential.
This class requires a lab fee towards the Photography Collective (the MFA Darkroom is student
operated, TBA – previously lab fee was $150 for limited lab use and $350 for unlimited lab use)
and your own camera equipment. Work time outside of class period is absolutely essential with a
minimum of 6 hours lab time per week. Cost of materials will vary, but can be substantial.
Please bring some of your work to the first class.
ART CR 751.56
Apprenticeship
Students may apply for an apprenticeship with an artist approved by the MFA Faculty
Committee. Students must work a minimum of 150 hours per semester. The department requires
that artists
participating in this program pay the apprentice at least a minimum hourly wage and submit a
program defining the nature of the apprenticeship and a short statement of review at the end of
the semester. Approval of the project must be obtained in advance of registration from the
graduate advisor.
NoteApprenticeship Forms are available in the Art Department office, room 11054 HN.
ART CR 751.58
Prof. Sanford Wurmfeld:
Color Seminar
This is a course for which both studio MFA and art history MA students are eligible. The goal is
to investigate color in art and most specifically in painting. The approach to color will be limited
to its study as a sensation, that is to say, the effects of the psychophysical relation between work
of art and the viewer. The semantic use of color in art, such as the use of color as an
iconographic device, will not be covered. The course will entail the learning of color
terminology, color ordering systems, modes of appearance of color and many other controllable
perceptual or sensory effects of the use of color in art. Weekly assignments will require the
student to read texts and to complete color exercises to sharpen their analytic skills. There will be
assigned short papers on the analysis of color in specific works of art, a mid-term, and a final
project. Students will have the option to do a studio based final project or a term paper. Since the
material is presented in class in a sequential manner, attendance is required. Unexcused absences
will be reflected in the final grade and more than three absences will result in a failing grade. The
goal of the course is to foster an understanding of color use that will further the ability of the
student to analyze more specifically all works of art and to provide a creative and analytic tool
that will lead to new critical and creative directions in art.
ART CR 751.62
Art Public Context
Prof. Blum:
Description
Art in the Public Context is not a course on Public Art, rather it is a Seminar designed to consider
what a work is, relative to the context in which it is sited. The format of the seminar will be more
like a research-based workshop.
There will be 3 project assignments during the semester. The first assignment will address ways
public space is claimed. The second assignment will address ways an audience can be identified.
The third assignment will address ways a work can impact a site & meaning. Each project will be
analyzed formally and conceptually and will be accompanied by research done on like-minded
artistic & cultural precedents. The form of the presentation is open and can include written
proposals, maquettes, actions, performances, lectures, etc).
Films , texts & relative projects addressing architectural space, social interface, and artistic
voice will be a weekly component of the seminar. Out-of-class activities (site visits, lectures &
conferences ) will be planned in accordance with the particular direction of the seminar.
Final Review:
A presentation ( DVD) that includes the three assignments (including edits) identifying the
conceptual approach, the completed projects (either theoretical or actualized), and a paper
analyzing the artistic process.
ART CR 751.72
Prof. Moss:
Live Art in the Visual Environment
“LIVE ART IN THE VISUAL ENVIRONMENT: INTEGRATED PERFORAMNCE
AND MEDIA PRACTICE” taught by performance and video artist DEAN MOSS ARTCR
751.72 Permission from the instructor required for registration. e-mail
rmoss@hunter.cuny.edu
A primary goal of the entire class is to open participants to a greater sense of possibility in their
art making. To challenge them to question the paradigm by which they see, categorize and make
work. Over the duration of the semester the course will require the participants to make several
live art works some in as little as five minutes. This is to encourage a more direct approach to
ideas and discourse while minimizing the limiting effects of self critical judgments. These short
works are seen by the participants and myself as a physical extensions of the classroom dialogue
and as such meant as a deepening articulation or questioning of the subjects and speakers in
conversation.
ART CR 751.74
Collage Logic
Prof. Carreiro:
Collage is central to contemporary artistic practice and is fundamentally different than other
methodologies.
"Collage Logic" considers an expanded scope of the category, following collage and
photomontage into an array of digital practices and time awed work and acknowledges the
development of assemblage into combined media works and installation.
The class will function within a seminar format, will include reading and writing assignments
and will consider works that can be said to emanate from a "collage logic".