2018: Contemporary Issues in the Visual Arts
(and beyond…)
ARTS 724. Mondays, 6 – 9 PM in Klapper Hall 672.
presentation research topic sign up sheet
Gregory Sholette: instructor. Email: <gsholetteSTUDIO@gmail.com>
Why would someone make an all black painting? Who cares if the Nike swoosh or the Google logo is more recognizable to most Americans than a map of the Middle East? Must everyone in a democracy have an equal right to his or her own cultural expression? Just how can the artist relate to contemporary society with its rapidly accelerating technology, crowd-sourced imagery and click-happy attention deficit disorder? Is there such a thing as art at all? Or oneself for that matter? This research seminar examines these issues as well as questions of ethics, beauty, cultural inclusion, and critical resistance among other topics including the transformation of art into a global marketplace where a few artists command huge sums of money, and the vast majority are ignored, and yet still expected to help maintain the existing art system as is, no questions asked. Tailored to the needs of working artists as well as curators and historians this seminar is structured around weekly readings and lectures. Students are responsible to read, enter into discussion, engage in their own research and present their insights by leading one class discussion on a selected date.
Download a PDF copy of the Syllabus here: Sholette_Syllabus.Arts724
Please use this online Google.doc form to submit your weekly questions:
Art as History? Art as Thinking? Art as Research? Art as Work?
This seminar seeks to:
- Build scaffolding for engaging with debates about contemporary art and culture.
- Create a space of research to more deeply explore ones practice & ideas.
- Provide a basic overview of the discourse & terminology of art theory.
This seminar asks:
What does it feel like to think?
This seminar wants you to find X:
- What is the value of X for you?
- What system or machine will you build to derive the value of X?
- How will your X machine morph over the course of the semester and beyond?
REQUIREMENTS
Your participation in all class discussions is essential. Always have at least one specific question ready about each week’s readings linked to a specific paragraph in the assigned text.
An oral presentation/project on your research topic (to be scheduled starting mid-semester) and a ten to fifteen page, footnoted research paper (turned-in end of semester).
RULES OF CONDUCT
1. More than three unexcused absences will result in a grade point loss.
2. No more than three unexcused lateness allowed without penalties
3. Cell phone use and emailing are not permitted during class time.
GRADE COMPOSITION
1. Attendance and engagement in class discussions 50%
2. Research project 50%
THE SYLLABUS
01/29: Week One: Introductions & Other minds: Portia & homo economicus:
We meet at the classroom
We will introduce ourselves to each other, describe our interests and expectations for the class, and agree on how to accomplish these goals over the course of the seminar. Dates will be selected for your presentation (see c. below.)
Readings for first session:
Peter Fleming excerpts from The Death of Homo Economicus: Work, Debt and the Myth of Endless Accumulation Theater of Loss
Listen to this story: Excerpt of Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
EXTRAS:
And you can check out these videos if you like:
Watch video: Fleming speaking
02/5 Week Two: The Artist as Public Enemy? One would think a scholar dead many hundred years would have little to offer contemporary culture, but think again. Socrates, according to Plato, wanted to ban artists from his ideal notion of the Republic and we want to know today, is there any kind of culture that should perhaps be excluded from society or civilization?
Readings for next week: Plato Book Ten (selection)
Meet in the atrium at 590 Madison Avenue at 57th Street
Reading for TWO Weeks: (in 2 weeks): Beauty and the Sublime Kant_Sublime
02/12 NO CLASS TODAY
02/20 Week Three: CLASS IS ON TUESDAY This Week Only: Kant: aesthetic of the sublime Meeting at the Grad Center or nearby CUNY Graduate Center. (365 5th Ave: details to follow.) Kant on the Sublime.
02/26 Week Four: Guest Stephen Wright: Duchamp and the Reverse Readymade
Street Corner meeting: 210 West 14th Street, 5th Floor (where Duchamp kept a studio until death)
Reading: Stephen Wright: Towards a Lexicon of Usership
Possible meeting spot: Jefferson Market Library at 10th Street & 6th AVE
03/5 Week Five: Marx: world viewed upside down/camera obscura
Reading: Marx.Ideology.excerpt.
Meeting at Tump Tower
03/12 Week Six: Critical Theory
Reading:
- Theodore Adorno, “Black as an Ideal.” PDF: AdornoBlackIdeal
Meeting at Queens College Room Klapper 672 (assuming it is open)
03/19 Your Art World Experience Coming Right Up
- “Art Advisors,” Mia Fineman, The New York Times, 2006. CLICK
- “The Function of the Dealer,” Edith G. Halpert, College Art Journal, 1949. CLICK
- “When is a Day Job a Work of Art?,” Juri Lynn Keyser, 2006. CLICK
- “Looks Brilliant on Paper. But Who, Exactly, Is Going to Make It?,” M. Fineman, NYTimes, 2006. CLICK
- “Summary: A portrait of the arts…” Rand Corp., 2005. CLICK
- G. Sholette, “Lets Talk About the Debt Due…” 2015 CLICK
You should also visit the website of
- W.A.G.E. http://www.wageforwork.com/
Additional readings:
- Making ‘Exclusive’ Exclusive Again Marc E. Babej and Tim Pollak, Forbes, 2006. CLICK
03/26 Week Eight: TBD
04/2 NO CLASS: SPRING RECESS
04/9 Week Nine: Special Guest Kurt Kauper at MoMA
Professor Kurt Kauper at the MoMA
4/9 Week Nine: Special guest Professor Kurt Kauper will lead a discussion about the “return” of Abstract Expressionism at the Museum of Modern Art starting 2PM.
2PM SHARP at the Museum of Modern Art MoMA: The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building at 4 West 54 Street [just west of 5th Ave]
Readings for two weeks from now on April 9 with Kurt Kauper:
David Geers (Peter Rostovsky):
- “Dear David” Geers PDF
- “Neo-Modern” 2013 Page 24 of Golden Age PDF
Roland Barthes (selections): The Neutral R. Barthes:
- Session of February 18, 1978, pp. 1-19
- Session of March 11, 1978, pp. 47-61
- Session of April 29, 1978, pp. 107-121
- Session of June 3, 1978, pp. 182-195
See also: Geers blog: http://spinninggeers.tumblr.com/
04/23 Week Eleven: MEET AT KLAPPER
READINGS:
“The Course on General Linguistics,” Ferdinand de Saussure (1916) 20 pages. Saussure.GeneralLinguistics.
“The World of Wrestling, “ from Mythologies, Roland Barthes (1957) 4 pages. BarthesWrestling.
————————-END OF READINGS —————————————–
04/30 Week Twelve: MEET AT KLAPPER
05/7 Week Thirteen:MEET AT KLAPPER
5/7 Week Twelve: PRESENTATIONS: MEET AT KLAPPER
SPECIAL EVENT
Thursday May 10 Art as Social Action book launch The 8th Floor, Rubin Foundation
17 West 17th Street bet. 5th & 6th Avenues.
Fri, Sat & Sunday May 11 to 13: Open Engagement at Queens Museum
SPECIAL FINAL CLASS: Friday, May 18:
2PM PERFORMANCE EVENT ** Important notice: performance and presentation re-scheduled for the following Friday May 18 on Wall Street, Manhattan
