FA 350: Art Theory and Criticism
Introduction
Art doesn't happen in a vacuum, but life can proceed in a hole... allow me to
explain:
Through a series of deceptions, the lead character in Hiroshi Teshigahara's 1964
classic film, "Woman in the Dunes," ends up imprisoned for life in a large hole with just
one other person as his companion. Peculiar circumstances, to say the least. As a result,
the protagonist develops a new way of thinking, a new way of knowing, and finally a new
way of being. If he were an artist, one assumes he would also develop a new way of
making art. So even though he lives in a hole, that hole is not a vacuum, and his art, like
his consciousness, will be shaped by it.
In a way, we all live in a "hole." Our lives are bounded by material conditions and
social factors which put limits on our experience. Generally speaking, we remain
unaware of those limits until circumstances contrive to press us against them in some
way. Only then do we become conscious of what can and cannot happen, what we can
and cannot do. We react to those limitations accordingly. From time to time, we may
even transcend them.
This situation is what art exposes and helps us understand. In many ways, artists
locate the edges and limits of experience - the "hole" in which we live. In this capacity as
navigator, map maker and surveyor, the artist can be quite expansive and her work quite
philosophical in nature. That zone of knowledge where art overlaps with our general
understanding of reality is what critical theory is about.
What the artist and the theorist have in common here is a shared interest in
parameters. The parameters may be expressed as the limits of our experience, or as a way
we willfully organize reality, or as just a way to make certain decisions and judgments
both as artists and as people. In any case, many of the questions that come up re the same.
Are those parameters given or are they contrived? Are the fixed or flexible? How are they
established and why? How do they affect our consciousness? Can they be manipulated?
We can think of the way art has changed historically as a reaction to the way
those parameters have moved. Or we can think of art as a factor that has helped move
them. Either way, we are placing art within a larger context: the history of ideas and the
history of consciousness. That history is what the critical theorist tries to articulate. In this
class, our focus will be on developments in the 20th Century. We will consider general
theories put forth by philosophers, social scientists, and cultural commentators, we will
look directly at films, fiction, plays, and poetry as well as visual art to see how it fits into
that intellectual context, and we will consider closely the musings of art critics
themselves on the subject. The approach will be chronological, but our chronologies will
be contained by three major themes with which everyone (theorist, art critic, artist, and
layperson) is intimately involved. Those themes are:
1) Just how much can I know about reality?
2) Who is "I" that can be said to "know" something?
3) How does this "I" then go on to relate to other people?
FA 350: Art Theory and Criticism
Fact Sheet
Professor…………………… Carmine Iannaccone
e-mail ……………………... iannacco@usc.edu
Course code………………… Fine Arts 350, 4 units
Semester..................................
Required texts ……………… 1. University Bookstore Custom Publishing,
Readings for an Introduction to Art Theory & Criticism
2. University Bookstore Custom Publishing,
Theory Made Visible
3. Laurie Schneider Adams, The Methodologies of Art
4. David Hopkins, After Modern Art
Meeting time………………...9 – 11:50 AM, Friday or 2 – 3:50 PM, Friday
Meeting place…………….....
Office hours…………………Every Friday after class; meet either in the classroom or the
Roski Main Office - Watt Hall 104
Grading criteria……………..The final grade will be calculated as follows:
Two part essay – 20% (Hard copies only please)
Midterm examination – 20%
Praxis assignment – 20%
Final examination – 20% (No make-ups possible)
Quiz average – 20% (No makes-ups for missed quizzes)
Attendance: Attendance is mandatory to every class session, including field trips.
Because an open-book quiz will be part of every class meeting, and because you cannot
make-up any missed quizzes, absences will adversely affect your grade by lowering your
cumulative quiz average.
Study note: your assigned readings are a crucial part of this class. On the syllabus you’ll
find one reading assignment for every week of the semester, including those weeks when
the class does not meet. Don’t get behind! The readings are incremental and closely tied
into the flow of ideas. The open book quizzes will highlight main points in each text and
the discussions that follow will help you digest the information. If you don’t do the
reading on schedule, you lose the benefit of all these aids.
FA 350: Art Theory and Criticism
Three statements from USC
Statement for Students with Disabilities
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to
register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of
verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the
letter is delivered to me (or to TA) as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in
STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number
for DSP is (213) 740-0776.
Statement on Academic Integrity
USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic
honesty include the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the
expectation that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an
instructor, and the obligations both to protect one’s own academic work from misuse by
others as well as to avoid using another’s work as one’s own. All students are expected to
understand and abide by these principles. Scampus, the Student Guidebook, contains the
Student Conduct Code in Section 11.00, while the recommended sanctions are located in
Appendix A: http://www.usc.edu/dept/publications/SCAMPUS/gov/. Students will be
referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards for further
review, should there be any suspicion of academic dishonesty. The Review process can
be found at: http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/SJACS/.
Roski admissions information
For information and an application to become a Fine Arts minor, please visit
http://roski.usc.edu/minors/ Please contact Antonio Bartolome at anbartol@usc.edu or
213-740-7567 with any questions about a minor in the Fine Arts. To become a Fine Arts
major, please visit http://roski.usc.edu/undergraduate_programs/ Please contact
Penelope Jones at Penelope@usc.edu or 213-740-9153 with any questions about
majoring in FA. Applications are due October 1st and March 1st every year.”
FA 350: Art Theory and Criticism
Syllabus Part One:
What Do You Know? [Meaning, Knowledge, Truth]
Meeting one
Introduction to the class
Lecture: “Eye of the Mime; Mimetic Theory from Plato to the Romantics”
Artist in motion: Hiroshi Teshigahara, "Woman in the Dunes," Part I
Reading for next session: Methodologies of Art, Chapter 1
After Modern Art, Chapter 1
Assignment: Part I of essay topic announced, Praxis topics announced
Meeting two
Lecture: “Were You Born That Way or Do You Practice? DeSaussure, Barthes and the
Structuralist Principle”
Artist in Motion: Hiroshi Teshigahara, "Woman in the Dunes," Part II
Discussion and quiz
Reading for next session: Dave Hickey, Learning from Los Angeles
After Modern Art, Chapter 2
Assignment: Establish Praxis teams
Meeting three
Lecture: "The New Pygmalion; Derrida, Baudrillard and Post-structuralism"
Artist in motion: John Barth, "Title"
Discussion and quiz
Reading for session five: Vic Muniz, Surface Tension
After Modern Art, Chapter 5
Assignment: a) Essay part I due in two copies b) Schedule mandatory appointment for
writing workshop next week
Meeting four
WRITING WORKSHOP; ONE HOUR SESSIONS BY APPOINTMENT
Reading for session five: Methodologies, Chapter 7 pp. 145-154, Chapter 8 to p. 169
Assignment: a) Praxis groups meet and discuss their proposed presentation
b) Part II of essay topic announce
FA 350: Art Theory and Criticism
Syllabus Part Two:
Who Am I? [Identity, Self, and Subjectivity]
Meeting five
Lecture: “Arise the Mind; Rene Descartes and Rationalism”
Artist in motion: Ana Mendietta, Richard Long
Discussion and quiz
Reading for next session: Sol Lewitt, Paragraphs on Conceptual Art
After Modern Art, Chapter 3
Meeting six
Lecture: “All Cracked Up: Sigmund Freud and the Structuralist Psyche”
Artist in Motion: Kitty Johnson, Strawberry Envy; Suri Krishnamma, "A Man of No
Importance," Part I
Discussion and quiz
Reading for session eight: Methodologies, Chapter 9 pp. 183 - 194
After Modern Art, Chapter 4
Assignment: a) Essay part II due in two copies b) Schedule mandatory appointment for
writing workshop next week
Meeting seven
WRITING WORKSHOP; ONE HOUR SESSIONS BY APPOINTMENT
Reading for session eight: Methodologies, Chapter 5 to page 86
Bernard Welt, The Nature of Drag
Assignment: Praxis groups meet and draft an outline for proposed presentation
Meeting eight
Lecture: “Scripted Impulses: Lacan and Post-structural psychology”
Artist in Motion: Suri Krishnamma, "A Man of No Importance," Part II
Discussion and quiz
Reading for next session: Clement Greenberg, Modernist Painting
Midterm examination review
Assignment: Praxis outlines due
FA 350: Art Theory and Criticism
Syllabus Part Three:
Who Is That? [Society, Consensus, and Resistance]
Meeting nine
MIDTERM EXAMINATION; OPEN BOOK, OPEN NOTEBOOK
Lecture: "Prisoners of our own Device; Kant and Dawn of the Modern(ist) Age"
Reading for next session: Stuart and Elizabeth Ewen, Reading Culture
Meeting ten
Praxis presentation: "Lettin' it all hang out;" Talk Show Psychology
Midterm exams returned
Discussion and quiz
Reading for next session: Methodologies, Chapter 4 to page 69
After Modern Art, Chapter 6
Meeting eleven
Lecture: "Cogs in the Machine; Karl Marx and Structuralist Economies"
Artist in motion: Michael Moore, Roger and Me
Discussion and quiz
Reading for next session: Bertolt Brecht, Alienation Effects in Chinese Acting
Meeting twelve
Praxis presentation: "You are there;" History Revisited
Discussion and quiz
Artist in Motion: "Copycats"
Reading for next session: bell hooks, Talking Back and Marginality as Site of Resistance
After Modern Art, Chapter 7
THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
Meeting thirteen
Lecture: "Power Plays; Foucault and the Post-structural Anti-Institution"
Artist in motion: David Antin, Talking at the Boundaries; "Infiltrators"
Discussion and quiz
Reading for next session: Wolfgang Schirmacher, Homo Generator: Media and
Postmodern Technology (sections I and III only)
After Modern Art, Chapter 8
Meeting fourteen
Praxis presentation: "And that's the way it is;" Objectivity and the Evening News
Discussion and quiz
Final examination review and sample test
FINAL EXAMINATION TO BE SCHEDULED; OPEN BOOK, OPEN NOTEBOOK