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Lecturer(s)
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Kreuzzieger Milan, PhDr. RNDr. Ph.D.
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Course content
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Topics of the lectures: 1. Introduction Introduction of the course programme, the topics of the lectures and the requirements for passing the course and the exam. 2. What is visual culture Polarity of history of art and visual culture. What is visual culture? What are visual culture studies? Various approaches to the study of visual culture. Comparing of various interpretations of visual culture (J. Herbert, N. Mirzoeff). 3. Canon and museum. Art in context. What is a canon? Can canon cause that some groups are preferred and others are prevented from visual representation? What is context according to N. Bryson? 4. Terminological and methodological problems of the study of history of art and visual culture. What is iconology and iconology? Who represents this method? 5.-6. An excursion into the Collections of Modern and Contemporary Art of the National Gallery in Prague, along with a presentation of selected artists and works (a four-hour excursion). Veletržní palace - the building, history of the National Gallery, exposition of the 19th till 21st century. 7. Landscape painting, the nature - culture relation and its possibilities of expression in the visual culture. Landscape painting in the run of the 19th and 20th century. German Romanticism. Barbizon school. Impressionism. Expressionism. Surrealist countryside. Environment, land art, actions in nature in the 1960 and 1970. Present day expressions and forms of nature. 8. Visual culture and gender I. (Gender studies - introduction) Women artists from the 19th till 21st century. Women's art groups - Kruh výtvarných umělkyň (KVU, The circle of women artists), and others. Problems in the relation to the visual culture: - reassessment of the role of women - artists in the history of art. Feminisms and canon. - reassessment of the practices and psychology traditionally connected to women. Evolution of the women's emancipation movement at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, process of democratization of the society. Chronology of feminism from the 1960s in the "western" world. 9. Visual culture and gender II. (gender and queer studies, studies of LBGTI, multiculturalism, intercultural clashing). 10. Nation and its visual representation I. Various definitions and understanding of the concept of nation in the 19th and 20th century. Nation, mythicisation and heroisation of the history. Nation and nationalism. National theatre and artists which took part in its design and decoration. 11. Nation and visual representation II. Various definitions and understanding of the concept of nation in the 19th and 20th century. Art in the process of national and post-colonial emancipation. 12. Art in public space I. Monuments and memorials, memory and trauma. Sculptures and sculptural groups in public spaces. Function of memorials, festivity. 13. Art in public space II. Memorials after 1989 and present day visual culture. Change of the meaning and function of art work in public space. Sculptures and sculpture groups in public spaces. Function of monuments, festivity in connection to various regimes. Countermonument. 14. Presentation of seminar papers, final discussion.
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Learning activities and teaching methods
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unspecified, unspecified, unspecified, unspecified, unspecified
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Learning outcomes
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The target of the course is to give the students a basic overview and orientation in the problematic and topic of visual culture of the 19th to 21st century and its important performers - artists and art groups. This cycle of lectures would like to discuss the traditional understanding of the history of art (based on the analyses of style and on chronological development) and newer approaches to interpretation of art. Today, a piece of art is understood in a wider complex of diverse relations and connections (inter-cultural, social, political, etc.). It is closer to an inter-disciplinary analysis of visual culture than to autonomous history of art. Attention will be paid to the operation and function of institutions (e.g. fine art academies, galleries, museums, art groups) which formed the value criteria and created a specific discourse. As a part of the course we will visit the Collections of the Modern and Contemporary art in the National Gallery in Prague where the students can grasp the European art of the 19th and 20th century.
The student should understand and be able to analyze a professional text in oral and written form and in his seminar paper he should try to describe, put into context and interpret a work of art. During the semester the students will work on their seminar paper - a thorough analysis of one work of art on which they demonstrate their ability to adequately work with the terminology and make use of the biographical data and other information, but they are also able to use their own interpretational strategies, methodological and analytic tools they learned during the course and in the literature they have read. We will concentrate on these basic skills: - development of individual and critical thinking oriented to a wider complex of visual culture, which arises and gains meaning in specifically situated personal, social, political and historic contexts. - Managing a register of topics, theories, approaches and collections of knowledge, mastering of the technical terms and theoretical tools. Mainly we will focus on these skills: 1) Compilation of texts from various sources. 2) Analysis of a specialized text. 3) Individual processing of a specialized text where the student shows his ability to find an interpretational strategy, to structure a text, to use technical terms and endnotes.
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Prerequisites
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The advantage of absolving the course of history is basic historical overview. Also, knowledge of at least one foreign language, mainly English, is very helpful.
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Assessment methods and criteria
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unspecified
Attendance to the excursion in gallery or museum is required, we will also evaluate the ability to understand a text on the subject and work with it individually. The students will elaborate a seminar paper which will be presented at the end and this will show the level of individual work, the ability to have critical opinion and use the professional terms, concepts and theories.
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Recommended literature
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