What is (modern) Art? - European College of Liberal Arts, Berlin

Aya Soika (office: P 98)
Contact: a.soika@ecla.de
Times: Wednesday, 13:30 – 15:00 (ECLA); Friday: 13:30 – 15:00 (ECLA and museums)
Concentration requirements: Arts and Aesthetics
Distribution Requirements: Periods/Places
What is (modern) Art?
This class discusses the changing significance of art in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. In addition to acquainting students with new modes of pictorial
representation and the re-definition of artistic practices, one of its goals is to introduce
students to the historical conditions and problems connected with the advent of
modernism in the visual arts. Definitions of what constitutes the 'modern' or 'avantgarde'
status of works of art are manifold. Primary sources, such as contemporary
reviews, artists’ letters and manifestos shed light on the intentions, rhetoric and public
reception of radical artistic projects at the emergence of modernism. Later art historical
interpretations - ranging from formalist approaches to investigations into the social and
political conditions of modern life – help to establish conceptual frameworks within
which individual works can be placed and understood. Visits to Berlin’s major
collections of modern art are an integral part of the course syllabus.
Above: The original Fountain by Marcel Duchamp, 1917, photographed by Alfred Stieglitz.
1

READING & OTHER TASKS
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
For this class attendance is mandatory. Reading assignments have to be done in advance of class.
In addition to the general preparatory reading, there will be a variety of tasks, such as the
preparation of paintings or text passages before some classes. Students will be provided with
several relevant books which provide further (voluntary) background reading in addition to the
weekly reading assignments.
VISUAL ART EXERCISE
There will be one visual art analysis exercise in mid-term which will feature a range of works
discussed in class and in museums. Discussions of individual slides should be short and relevant,
in the form of bullet points, rendering specific information which relate to class discussion,
readings and further context.
PRESENTATIONS
Each student will deliver two presentations, in class or/and in the museums. One of the
presentations will introduce a specific text from the weekly reading, the other will focus on the
visual analysis and interpretation of a particular work. The presentations also reflect upon the
work in the larger context of shifting notions of representation and, in the case of the text, on the
historical context in which the text was written. Presentations should last no longer than fifteen
minutes.
ESSAY
There will be a long essay (4.200 words minimum), due towards the end of term. Students
will discuss a clearly confined topic – which they are free to choose in consultation with me -
with reference to specific art works and some of the texts we have read.
EVAULATION
Seminar Grade = Attendance/Participation/Preparation of Art Works and Texts & Tasks
Seminar Grade (weeks 1-7): 20%
Seminar Grade (weeks 8-14): 20%
Visual Analysis exercise I: 15%
Presentations I & II (together): 15%
Grade for Final Paper: 30%
2

WEEKLY SCHEDULE
Week 1 (5 th September)
Introduction, with Geoff Lehman (Concentration Seminar Leader of the Spring
Semester)
Works:
Kasimir Malevich, Red Square. Painterly Realism of a peasant woman in two Dimensions, 1915
Magritte’s The treachery of images, 1928-29
John Baldessari, Everything is purged from this painting but art, no ideas have entered this work, 1966-
1968
Reading:
For this semester you have been provided with various course books (Belting, Danto, Wood, Eisenman,
Gombrich), two anthologies and a reader (see bibliography and list of course books at the end of this
document). Please use the first week to start familiarising yourself with the structure and themes of the
books, and with the different approaches outlined in them. Although we will only be able to discuss
selected chapters of these books in class you are encouraged to gain further background by exploring
some of the themes in greater depth on your own.
[Friday, 7 th : Aya in Canterbury, no class – there will be a double session in week 3]
René Magritte, The treachery of images, 1928-29. Los Angeles County Museum of Art
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Week 2
(12 th /14 th September)
After the End of Art: Retrospective Reflections by Arthur Danto
An Introduction to art history’s “Master Narratives”
Reading:
Arthur Danto: Introduction: Modern, Postmodern, Contemporary. In: After the End of Art, pp. 2-19
Plato, Book X of the Republic (in the reader)
Hans Belting’s Art Historiography
Reading:
Hans Belting, Epilogues for Art or for Art History?. Chapter 1 in: Hans Belting, Art History after Modernism,
(English translation) Chicago 2003, pp. 3-6;
Hans Belting, The Meaning for Art History in today’s Culture. Chapter 2 in: Hans Belting, Art History after
Modernism, (English translation) Chicago 2003, pp. 7-16;
Hans Belting, Art Criticism versus Art History. Chapter 3 in: Hans Belting, Art History after Modernism,
(English translation) Chicago 2003, pp. 17-25;
Hans Belting, Art Historiography as Tradition. Chapter 13 in: Hans Belting, Art History after Modernism,
(English translation) Chicago 2003, pp. 126-136
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Week 3
(19 th /21 st September)
The Reading of Images and the Role of Context
Erwin Panofsky: Iconography and Iconology
Reading:
Erwin Panofsky, Studies in Iconology. Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance, Introduction, pp.
4-31 (Reader)
Visit to Gemäldegalerie
Double Session to make up for Week 1
Works in the “Northern” section:
Westphalian Crucifixion Altarpiece from Soest, ca. 1230/40
Hans Multscher, The Wings of the Wurzach Altar, 1437
Master of the Housebook, The Washing of the Apostles’ Feet
The Last Supper, ca. 1475/80
Albrecht Dürer, The Madonna with the Siskin, 1505
Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Fountain of Youth, 1546
Hans Holbein the Younger, The Merchant Georg Gisze, 1532
Jan van Eyck, The Madonna in the Church, ca. 1425
Works in the Italian section:
Giotto di Bondone, The Entombment of Mary, ca. 1310
Gentile da Fabriano, Mary enthroned with the Child, Saints and Donor, 1837
Piero della Francesca, The Penitent St. Jerome, 1450
Domenica Veneziano, The Adoration of the Kings, ca. 1439/41
Piero del Pollaiuolo, The Annunciation, ca. 1470
Background Reading:
Ernst Gombrich, Chapters on the Renaissance. In: The Story of Art
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Week 4
(26 th /28 th September)
The romantic Vision in Context: Art and the Nation
Works:
Georg Friedrich Kersting, The Wreath Binder (Die Kranzbinderin), 1815
Georg Friedrich Kersting, On Outpost Duty, 1815
Georg Friedrich Kersting, Friedrich in his studio, 1819
Caspar David Friedrich: Monk by the Sea, 1808-10
Caspar David Friedrich: Abbey in the oak forest, 1809-10
Caspar David Friedrich, Chalk Cliffs of Rügen, ca. 1818-19
Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, ca. 1819
Caspar David Friedrich, Woman at the Window, 1822
Theodore Gericault, The Raft of the Medusa, 1819
Eugene Delacroix, The 28 th of July: Liberty leading the people, 1830
Eugene Delacroix: The Bark of Dante and Virgil, 1822
Reading:
Caspar David Friedrich: Observations on viewing a collection of paintings…, ca. 1830. In: Art in Theory,
1815-1900, ed. C. Harrison, pp. 48-54;
Francoise Forster-Hahn: Art without a national centre. German painting in the nineteenth century. In:
Spirit of an Age, 2001, pp. 19-39;
Thomas Crow: Classicism in Crisis: Gros to Delacroix. In: Stephen Eisenman: Nineteenth Century Art… .
Visit to Alte Nationalgalerie (Nazarenes vs. C. D. Friedrich)
Works:
Karl Friedrich Schinkel: Medieval City on a River, 1815
Karl Friedrich Schinkel: A view of Greece in the Golden Age, 1825
Caspar David Friedrich: Monk by the Sea, 1808-10
Caspar David Friedrich: Abbey in the oak forest, 1809-10
Caspar David Friedrich: Oak Tree in the Snow, 1829
Caspar David Friedrich, Woman at the Window, 1822
Caspar David Friedrich, The solitary Tree, 1822
Caspar David Friedrich, Moonrise over the Sea, 1822
Reading:
Romantic Landscape/Catalogue. In: Spirit of an Age, 2001, pp. 58-77
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Week 5
(10 th / 12 th October)
The Birth of the Avantgarde in 19 th century Paris and Berlin: Realism
Paintings:
Gustave Courbet, The Stonebreakers, 1850
Gustave Courbet, The Studio of the painter: A real Allegory summing up seven years of my artistic Life,
1854-5
Gustave Courbet, A Burial at Ornans, 1849
Gustave Courbet, The meeting, 1854
Gustave Courbet, Peasants of Flagey returning from the Fair, 1849
Reading:
T. J. Clark on Courbet, On the social History of Art. In: Image of the people. Gustave Courbet and the 1848
Revolution. London 1973, pp. 9-20;
Text: Max Buchon: On Courbet’s Stonebreakers and Burial at Ornans, 1850. In: Art in Theory, 1815-1900,
ed. C. Harrison, pp. 364-6.
Background Reading:
Paul Wood: The avant-garde from the July Monarchy to the Second Empire. In: Paul Wood (ed.), The
Challenge of the Avant-Garde. New Haven 1999, pp. 35-55.
Stephen Eisenman: The Rhetoric of Realism: Courbet and the origins of the Avant-Garde. In: Nineteenth
Century Art…
Visit to Alte Nationalgalerie (Realism and Impressionism)
Paintings:
Adolph Menzel, Balcony Room, 1845
Adolph Menzel, The Berlin-Potsdam Railway, 1847
Adolph Menzel, Flute Concert, 1850-2
Adolph Menzel: Iron Rolling Mill, 1872-5
Adolph Menzel: The Foot of the Artist, 1876
Claude Monet, St. German l’Auxerrois, 1867
Claude Monet, Summer, 1874
Claude Monet, View of Vétheuil, 1880
Edouard Manet, In the conservatory, 1879
Edouart Manet, Mansion in Rueil, 1882
Reading:
Jason Gaiger: Modernity in Germany: the many sides of Adolph Menzel. In: Paul Wood (ed.), The Challenge
of the Avant-Garde. New Haven 1999, pp. 91-111;
Catalogue/Colour, Light and Air; Catalogue/The Kaiserzeit. In: Spirit of an Age, 2001, pp. 94-115; 128-141;
Embracing the French Avant-garde. In: Spirit of an Age, 2001, pp. 166-175
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Week 6
(17 th / 19 th October)
Critical Approaches and Reception History: Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
The Painter of modern Life
Paintings:
Edouard Manet, The Old Musician, 1862
Edouar Manet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1863
Edouard Manet, A Balcony, 1868-9
Edouard Manet, Olympia, 1863
Edouard Manet, Argenteuil, les canotiers (The Boaters, Argenteuil), 1874
Edouard Manet, In the Winter Garden, 1879
Edouard Manet, A Car at the Folies-Bergère, ca. 1882
Reading:
T. J. Clark, Preliminaries to a possible treatment of „Olympia“ in 1865. In: Screen, vol. 21, 1980, pp. 18-41
(Reader);
Charles Baudelaire, from “The Painter of Modern Life”, 1859-63. In: Art in Theory, 1815-1900, ed. C.
Harrison, pp. 493-506
Background Reading:
Stephen Eisenman, Manet and the Impressionists. In: Nineteenth Century Art…
A critical discussion of the term “Post-Impressionism” / The case of Paul Gauguin
Paintings:
Emile Bernard, Breton Women at the Pardon, 1888
Emile Bernard, The Buckwheat Harvest, 1888
Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret, Le Pardon en Bretagne (The Pardon in Brittany), 1886
Paul Gauguin, Two fighting Boys, 1888
Paul Gauguin, The Vision after the Sermon. Jacob wrestling with the Angel, 1889
Paul Gauguin, Agony in the Garden: Christ in the Garden of Olives, 1889
Reading:
Griselda Pollock & Fred Orton: Post-Impressionism: Les Donnes Bretonnantes: La Prairie de la
Representation. In: Art History, 3, 3, 1980, pp. 314-344 (Reader).
Background Reading:
Gill Perry, Exhibiting “les Independants”: Gauguin and the Cafe Volpini show. In: Paul Wood (ed.), The
Challenge of the Avant-Garde, pp. 164-181;
Stephen Eisenman: Symbolism and the dialectics of retreat (relevant sections). In: Nineteenth Century
Art…. (sections on Britanny).
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Week 7
(24 th / 26 th October)
Modern Times: Primitivism and Colonialism
Works:
Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d`Avignon, 1907, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Henri Matisse, Nu bleu. Souvenir de Biskra (Blue Nude. Souvenir of Biskra), 1907, Philadelphia Museum
Henri Matisse, Bathers with a Turtle, 1908, St Louis Art Museum
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Bathers at Moritzburg, 1909/1926, Tate Gallery London
Emil Nolde, Papua Boys, 1914, Neue Nationalgalerie
Reading:
Franz Marc, The Savages of Germany, and Two Pictures. In: Charles Harrison & Paul Wood (eds), Art in
Theory. 1900-2000. An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Oxford 2002, Ib/9;
Paul Wood, The avant-garde in the early twentieth century. In: Paul Wood (ed.), The Challenge of the
Avant-Garde, pp. 183-203;
Hal Foster, “Primitive Scenes”. In: Critical Inquiry, vol. 20, no. 1, 1993, pp. 69-102 (available via Jstor);
Hans Belting, Marco Polo and other Cultures. Chapter 20 in: Hans Belting, Art History after Modernism,
(English translation) Chicago 2003, pp. 192-200.
Further background:
[Hal Foster, The “Primitive” Unconscious of Modern Art. In: October, vol. 34, 1985, pp. 45-70 (available on
Jstor);
Anna C. Chave, New Encounters with Les Demoiselles d’Avignon: Gender, Race, and the Origins of Cubism,
in: The Art Bulletin, 76, no. 4, 1994, pp. 596-611 (available via Jstor)]
Modern Times: Futurist Visions and reactions to the First World War
Works:
Umberto Boccioni, The City Rises, 199 x 301 cm, 1910, Moma New York
Umberto Boccioni, The Street enters the House, 1911, Sprengel Museum Hannover
Umberto Boccioni, States of Mind I: The Farewells, 1911, Moma New York
Umberto Boccioni, States of Mind II: Those who go, 1911, Moma New York
Giacomo Balla, Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, 1912, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
Gino Severini, Suburban Train arriving in Paris, 1915, oil on Canvas, Tate Gallery London
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Potsdamer Platz, 1914
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Self Portrait, 1915
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Artillery Men in the Shower, 1915
Otto Dix, Der Krieg, Series of Etchings, 1923
Reading:
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, The Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism. In: Art in Theory, 1900-2000
(IIa/6);
Umberto Boccioni et al., Futurist Painting: Technical Manifesto. In: Art in Theory, 1900-2000 (IIa/7);
The Futurists: Transcontinental avant-gardism. In: Paul Wood (ed.), The Challenge of the Avant-Garde, pp.
204-225
9

Week 8
(31 st October / 2 nd November)
Greenberg’s Modernism and its Limits
Map:
Alfred Barr, Chart of the Exhibition Catalogue Cover: Cubism and Abstract Art, 1936, Museum of Modern
Art New York
Reading:
Clement Greenberg: Modernist Painting. In: Art and Literature, 4, 1965, pp. 193-201.
Arthur Danto: Modernism and the Critique of Pure Art: The Historical Vision of Clement Greenberg. In:
After the End of Art, pp. 60-78
Visual Art Quiz
Responses to Greenberg
Reading:
[Arthur Danto: Introduction: Modern, Postmodern, Contemporary. In: After the End of Art, pp. 2-19];
Arthur Danto: Modernism and the Critique of Pure Art: The Historical Vision of Clement Greenberg. In:
After the End of Art, pp. 60-78
10

Week 9
(7 th / 10 th November)
Monochrome and Abstract Painting
Works:
Kasimir Malevich, An Englishman in Moscow, 1913-1914, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
Kasimir Malevich, Black Square, 1915, Tretyakov Gallery Moscow
Wassily Kandinsky, Improvisation 19, 1911, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus München
Works by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Yves Klein, Lucio Fontana
Reading:
Kasimir Malevich, From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: The New Realism in Painting, 1915-16. In:
Charles Harrison & Paul Wood (eds), Art in Theory. 1900-2000. An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Oxford
2002, Part IIA/14;
Wassily Kandinsky, On the Spiritual in Art. In: Charles Harrison & Paul Wood (eds), Art in Theory. 1900-
2000. An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Oxford 2002, Ib/7
Background Reading:
Arthur Danto, The historical Museum of monochrome Art. In: After the End of Art, pp. 153-173.
Saturday: Visit to Museum Berggruen & Collection Scharf-Gerstenberg [Double Session]
Week 10
(14 th November)
Montage and the Readymade
Works:
Hannah Höch, Schnitt mit dem Küchenmesser Dada durch die letzte Weimarer Bierbauchkulturepoche
Deutschlands (Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch of
Germany), 1919-1920, Neue Nationalgalerie
Raoul Hausmann, Mechanical Head: The Spirit of Our Age, 1921, Musee d’art moderne, Paris
Marcel Duchamp, Bottle Rack, 1914
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917
Marcel Duchamp, L. H. O. O. Q., 1941-42
Reading:
Marcel Duchamp, The Richard Mutt Case, 1917. In: Art in Theory, 1900-2000 (IIIb/2)
Tristan Tzara, Dada Manifesto 1918, In: Art in Theory, 1900-2000 (IIIb/3);
Richard Huelsenbeck: First German Dada Manifesto, 1918;
Richard Huelsenbeck and Raoul Hausmann: What is Dadaism and what does it want in Germany?, 1919;
Richard Huelsenbeck: En Avant Dada, 1920. All in: Charles Harrison & Paul Wood (eds), Art in Theory.
1900-2000. An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Oxford 2002, pp. 257-263;
Background Reading:
Hans Belting, The Unwelcome Heritage of Modernism: Style and History. Chapter 4 in: Hans Belting, Art
History after Modernism, (English translation) Chicago 2003, pp. 26-36.
16 th November, Friday: No class
11

Week 11
(21 st / 23 rd November)
Representing the Unconscious: Surrealism
Works (Selection):
Salvador Dali, Metarmorphosis of Narcissus, 1934, Tate Gallery London
Salvador Dali, The Phenomenon of Ecstasy, photomontage from Minotaure, 3-4, Deecember 1933
Brassai and Salvador Dali, Involuntary Sculptures, from Minotaure 3-4, 1933
Max Ernst, Europe after the Rain I, 1933
Max Ernst, Europe after the Rain, 1940-1942
Max Ernst, The Horde, 1927
Reading:
Louis Aragon et al., Declaration of the Bureau de Recherches Surrealistes, 1925. In: Art in Theory, 1900-
2000 (IVc/3);
Andre Breton, Surrealism and Painting 1928. In: Art in Theory, 1900-2000 (IVc/4);
Paul Wood, The Revolutionary Avantgardes: Dada, Constructivism and Surrealism. In: Paul Wood (ed.),
The Challenge of the Avant-Garde, pp. 226-256 (part on Dada, Constructivism and Surrealism).
Further background reading:
Rosalind Krauss, The Photographic Conditions of Surrealism. In: October, vol. 19, 1981, pp. 3-34 (available
via Jstor)
The Politicisation of Art (Walter Benjamin,1936)
Works:
Collages by John Heartfield, e. g. War and Corpses – Last Hope of the Reich, AIZ, 18, 1932, Heartfield
Archiv, Adk Berlin;
Introduction of Luis Bunuel, Le Chien Andalou and excerpts from Battleship Potemkin
Reading:
Walter Benjamin, Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of mechanical Reproduction (1936). In: Art
in Theory, 1900-2000 (IVD/6).
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Week 12
(28 th / 30 th November)
Art and Propaganda
Reading:
Clement Greenberg: Avantgarde and Kitsch. 1939. In: Art in Theory, 1900-2000 (IVD/10);
Paul Wood, Conclusion: for and against the avant-garde. In: Paul Wood (ed.), The Challenge of the Avant-
Garde, pp. 257-271;
Adolf Hitler: Speech inaugurating the “Great Exhibition of German Art” 1937. In: Charles Harrison & Paul
Wood (eds), Art in Theory. 1900-2000. An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Oxford 2002, pp. 439-441.
Background Reading:
Neil Levi: “Judge for Yourselves!"-The "Degenerate Art" Exhibition as Political Spectacle. In: October, Vol.
85, (Summer, 1998), pp. 41-64 (available via jstor)
Visit to Neue Nationalgalerie: “Der geteilte Himmel”
Reading:
Selected artists’ texts from the anthology “Art in Theory” (TBC)
Week 13
(5 th / 7 th December)
Pop and Consumer Culture (Warhol, Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg, Twombly)
Works:
Andy Warhol, Mona Lisa, 1963
Andy Warhol, Brillo Box, 1964
Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962
Visit to Hamburger Bahnhof
Works:
Andy Warhol, Advertisement, 1960
Andy Warhol, Do It Yourself (Seascape), 1962
Andy Warhol, Ambulance Destaster, 1963
Andy Warhol, Mao, 1973
Andy Warhol, Camouflage, 1986
Roy Lichtenstein, Femme dans un fauteuil, 1963
Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled, 1951-1952
Robert Rauschenberg, Pink Door, 1954
Robert Rauschenberg, Stripper, 1962
Reading (both sessions):
Andy Warhol, Interview with Gene Swenson. In: Art in Theory, 1900-2000 (Via/12);
Roy Lichtenstein, Lecture to the College Art Association. In: Art in Theory, 1900-2000 (Via/13);
Arthur Danto, Pop Art and Past Futures. In: Arthur C. Danto, After the End of Art, pp. 116-133.
13

Week 14
(12 th / 15 th December)
Conceptual Positions (Art after Philosophy)
Works:
Joseph Kosuth, One and three Chairs, 1965
John Baldessari, What this Painting aims to do, 1967
Reading:
Joseph Kosuth, Art after Philosophy. In: Art in Theory. 1900-2000 (VIIa/10);
Sol Le Witt, Paragraphs on Conceptual Art, 1969; Sol Le Witt, Sentences on Conceptual Art, 1969. In: Art in
Theory. 1900-2000 (VIIa/7,8).
Saturday: Visit of Hoffmann Art Collection, 10:50. Meet in courtyard of Hoffmann Art
Collection, Sophie-Gips-Höfe, Aufgang C, Sophienstr. 21, 10178 Berlin - Mitte
14

BOOKS
Hans Belting, Art History after Modernism. Chicago 2003
Arthur C. Danto, After the End of Art. Contemporary Art and the Pale of History.
Princeton 1997
Stephen F. Eisenman (ed.), Ninetenth century Art: A critical History. New Haven 1994
Ernst H. Gombrich, The Story of Art, London (various editions)
Charles Harrison and Paul Wood (eds), Art in Theory, 1900-2000, An Anthology of
Changing Ideas. Oxford 2002
Charles Harrison, Paul Wood (eds): Art in Theory. 1815-1900. An Anthology of Changing
Ideas. Oxford 1993
Spirit of an Age: Nineteenth century painting from the Nationalgalerie, Berlin. Ed.
Françoise Foster-Hahn. London 2001
Paul Wood (ed.), The Challenge of the Avant-Garde. New Haven 1999
READER
T. J. Clark, Image of the People: Gustave Courbet and the 1848 revolution. Berkeley 1999
T. J. Clark: Preliminaries to a possible treatment of „Olympia“ in 1865. In: Screen, vol. 21,
1980, pp. 18-41
Clement Greenberg, Modernist Painting. In: Art and Literature, 4, 1965, pp. 193-201
Erwin Panofsky, Panofsky, Studies in Iconology. Humanistic Themes in the Art of the
Renaissance, Introduction, pp. 4-31
Griselda Pollock & Fred Orton: Post-Impressionism: Les Donnes Bretonnantes: La
Prairie de la Representation. In: Art History, 3, 3, 1980, pp. 314-344
15