MWF
1:00, 3:00 jjolly@ithaca.edu
Spring 2009 Th 11-12 and by appointment
ÒThe
AmericasÓ form a continent that has experienced thousands of years of cultural
migrations, interactions, and conflicts; as such it provides a geographically
defined focus for this introduction to Art Across Cultures.
We will examine art from its diverse regions (North and South America
and the Caribbean), from ancient through contemporary times, and consider how
and for what purposes people make and engage art. Classes are organized thematically and will consider topics
such as art and power, constructions of nature and culture, and cross-cultural
encounters. Such a structure will
allow us to address continuities and disjunctions between the arts of
Pre-Columbian, Latin American, and North American peoples, and consider many of
the cultural and historical reasons for these differences. Through engaging lectures, readings,
and discussions, I expect you will develop skills and vocabularies for visual
analysis and think critically about the ways that cultures communicate
visually.
Course
Objectives
1. Think critically about the myriad of
roles art performs in world cultures over time
2.
Recognize similarities and differences in the diverse artistic traditions of
the Americas, and begin to account for them
3.
Develop skills and vocabulary to analyze works of art and articulate what you
see
4.
Create a context to make sense of artworks you encounter outside the classroom.
Course requirements:
Students are expected to come to class, participate in
discussions, and complete their exams and assignments on time. Late
assignments will be downgraded and more than 3 absences will adversely effect
your grade. If you miss class, you should plan to get notes from one of
your classmates, as the material cannot be gleaned by reading alone. You
are welcome to attend the other section of this class—just be sure to
check in with me to be counted!
Grades will be based on the following:
Exam #1: 20%
Exam #2: 20%
Final Exam: 20%
Visual Analysis Paper: 30%
Class participation: 10%
You MUST complete all assignments in order to pass the
class. The department has very limited facilities for make-up exams, and
therefore make-ups are only available in emergencies and with my special
consent. I reserve the right to
make make-up exams more difficult than in-class exams.
Readings and Images
Reading from the out-of-print book, Ancient Americas are available
in a course pack that you can purchase directly from me. Your other readings are available
through course reserves at the library.
From the library homepage, go to course reserves, and then select our
course number (ARTH16000-01, 02).
The majority should be available as a web resource, which you can find
listed by title under the link ÒElectronic Reserves for ARTH160 (Jolly).Ó A class username and password is
required to access the class reserves:
Username:
jjolly160
Password:
!drecky6
If an electronic reserve is not available, you will have to go to
the circulation desk to access the reading in hard copy. Plan to do the dayÕs reading before
class so that you are prepared to participate in discussion.
You will be expected to remember, recognize and discuss certain
images we look at in class come exam time. These images will be assembled
on-line and can be accessed through our class home page:
www.ithaca.edu/faculty/jjolly/americas
Additional image resources, including lecture presentation slides,
are available through the ARTSTOR image database. To access artstor, go to www.artstor.org while ON
CAMPUS and register by creating an account for yourself using your Ithaca
College email. After creating the
account on campus, you can log in from anywhere. Links to the lecture presentation slides are available from
the class webpage.
Class Readings
UNIT I: Power
Wednesday, January 21
Intro
Friday January 23
Olmec Art
Beatriz de la Fuente, ÒOrder and Nature in Olmec Art,Ó Ancient
Americas. Chicago, Art
Institute, 1992.
WEEK 2
Monday, January 26
Mayan Rulership
Linda Schele, ÒBloodletting and the Vision Quest,Ó The Blood of
Kings. Fort Worth, Kimble
Art Museum, 1986.
Monday: last day to ADD/DROP
Wednesday, January 28
The Inca Empire
Susan Niles, ÒInca Architecture and the Sacred Landscape,Ó Ancient
Americas. Chicago, Art Institute, 1992.
Friday, January 30
Discussion: Rulership and Power
WEEK 3
Monday, February 2
Colonial Latin America – Religion in New Spain and Brazil
David Underwood, ÒCivilizing Rio de Janeiro: Four Centuries of
Conquest through ArchitectureÓ Art Journal (Winter 1992) [Also available
via JSTOR]. NOTE: especially
pp.48-52
Edward Sullivan, ÒMain Altar, S‹o Bento de Olinda,Ó Brazil Body
and Soul. New York, Guggenheim, 2002.
Wednesday, February 4
Colonial Portraiture
Paul Staiti, ÒCharacter and Class: the Portraits of John Singleton
Copley,Ó Reading American Art. New Haven, Yale, 1998.
Friday, February 6
Discussion: Christianity, Art and Authority
WEEK 4
Monday, February 9
Nationalism and Art Academies in the Americas
Dawn Ades, ÒAcademies and History Painting,Ó Latin American Art
in the Modern Era. New Haven, Yale, 1989.
Monday: Last Day S/D/F
Wednesday, February 11
Art and the Machine Age
Karen Lucic, ÒThe Machine Age in America,Ó Charles Sheeler and
the Cult of the Machine.
Cambridge, MA, 1991.
Friday, February 13
Discussion: Art as Power
WEEK 5
Monday, February 16
Consumer Culture: US, Brazil, Cuba
Jonathan Katz, Andy Warhol. New York, Rizzoli, 1993
Deborah Cullen, ÒAntonio FrasconiÕs Viet nam! And Cildo MeirelesÕs
Insertions into Ideological Circuits,Ó in Latin American and Caribbean Art:
MOMA at El Museo. New York, Museo del
Barrio and MOMA, 2004.
Wednesday, February 8
Discussion: Art as Resistance; Review
Friday, February 20
EXAM #1
PART II: Nature/Culture
WEEK 6
Monday, February 23
Teotihuacan
Ester Pasztory, ÒNatural World as Civic Metaphor at
Teotihuacan,Ó Ancient Americas
Wednesday, February 25
Sacred Landscape in the Andes
Johan Reinhard, ÒInterpreting the Nazca Lines,Ó Ancient
Americas
Friday, February 27
Colonial: The New World as Paradise Garden
Jeanette Peterson, ÒSynthesis and Survival,Ó Native Artists and
Patrons in Colonial Latin America. Tempe, Arizona State, 1994.
WEEK 7
Monday, March 2
Discussion: Sacred Nature
Wednesday, March 4
US 19th Century: The American Landscape
Thomas Cole, ÒEssay on American Scenery [1835],Ó American
Art, 1700-1960. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall, 1965.
Friday, March 6
Eastern Woodland Indians
Richard W. Hill,
Sr. ÒPatterns of Expression: Beadwork in the Life of the Iroquois,Ó in Gifts
of the Spirit. Salem, MA:
Peabody Essex Museum, 1996.
WEEK 8 – SPRING BREAK
WEEK 9
Monday, March 16
Sharon F. Patton, excerpts: ÒQuilts,Ó ÒGenre and Biblical
Painting,Ó and Sculpture,Ó African-American Art. Oxford, New York: Oxford University,
1998, pp.67-69, 98-103, 200-203.
Wednesday, March 18
Gender
Friedland, Cynthia. ÒGender, Genius, and the Guerilla
Girls,Ó But is it art? Oxford: University Press, 2001, pp. 122-147.
Friday, March 20
Discussion: Natural Bodies?
WEEK 10
Monday, March 23
Modern Landscapes
Walton, Paul H. ÒThe Group of Seven and Northern Development,Ó Canadian
Art Review XVII, 2 (1990): 171-208.
Wednesday, March 25
Matilsky,
Barbara. Excerpts from Fragile
Ecologies. Queens: Museum of Art, 1992.
Friday, March 27
Discussion: Cultural conventions for representing the Natural
world
WEEK 11
Monday, March 30
EXAM #2
PART III: Cultural Encounters
Wednesday, April 1
Foundations of the Aztec Empire
Matos Moctezuma, Eduardo, ÒThe Aztec Main Pyramid: Ritual
Architecture at Tenochtitlan,Ó Ancient Americas
Friday, April 3
Colonial New Spain: Crossroads of the Americas
Rubial Garc’a, ÒThe Kingdom of New Spain at a Crossroads,Ó Grandeur
of Viceregal Mexico
WEEK 12
Monday, April 6
Discussion: Mestizo Cultures
Peterson, Jeanette Favrot, ÒThe Virgin of Guadalupe: Symbol of
Conquest or Liberation?Ó Art Journal 51: 4 (1992): 39-47.
Monday: Last Day to revoke S/D/F
Wednesday, April 8
Traveler Artists in Latin America: the empirical tradition
Dawn Ades, ÒNature, Science and the Picturesque,Ó Latin
American Art in the Modern Era.
New Haven, Yale, 1989.
Friday, April 10
Encounters on the Western Frontier
Jill Sweet and Katherine Hauser, Staging the Indian: The
Politics of Representation. Saratoga Springs, NY: Tang Teaching Museum
and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, 2002.
WEEK 13
Monday, April 13
Discussion: Contemporary Artists Respond
Marcus Amerman, Judith Lowery, James Luna, from Staging the
Indian
Due Friday: response to class discussion or readings and
chosen contemporary artwork. See
website link: ÒContemporary artists respond to CurtisÓ
Wednesday, April 15
Africa in the Americas
Video: Bah’a: Africa in the Americas
Friday, April 17
African Cultural Resistance
Geraldo Mosquera, ÒAfrica in the Art of Latin America,Ó Art
Journal (Winter 1992): 30-38.
Due: 1-page reflection paper: ÒContemporary Artists Respond to
CurtisÓ
WEEK 14
Monday, April 20
Modernism and ÒPrimitivismÓ
Valerie Fletcher. ÒIntroduction,Ó Crosscurrents of
Modernism. Washington, DC, 1992.
David Alfaro Siqueiros. ÒThree AppealsÉÓ [1921]
Race and Nation
Kymberly N. Pinder, ÒBiraciality and Nationhood in Contemporary
American Art,Ó in Race-ing Art History: Critical Readings in Race and Art
History
Friday, April 24
Discussion: Representing the Collective Body
WEEK 15
Monday, April 27
Social Photography
Lewis Hine. ÒSocial Photography,Ó in Classic Essays on
Photography
Martha Rosler, ÒIn, Around, and Afterthoughts (on
Documentary Photography),Ó The Photography Reader
Wednesday, April 29
Video Art: Shirin Neshat
Zabel, Igor. ÒWomen
in BlackÓ Art Journal, v.60, n.4 (Winter 2001), pp.16-25 (access via
JSTOR)
Friday, May 1
Global Americas
Due: Optional Paper Revisions (2 grades will be averaged)
WEEK 16
Monday, May 4
Discussion: The Role of the Artist in the Americas
FINAL EXAMS:
Section 01 (1:00): Thursday, May 7, 8-10 am
Section 02 (3:00): Thursday, May 7, 10:30-12:30