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This course considers the spaces that have mediated artworks in the West from the early modern period to the present. We will examine institutions of production, distribution and reception,from the museum, the academy, the studio, the biennial, to textual or virtual spaces of print,broadcast and digital media.We will focus on the critical conditions in which institutions organise and replicate knowledge and relate their systems and practices to wider social forces and process.
Aims
This course aims to produce a close reading of the history of institutions where art has been made, collected or exhibited from the early modern period to the present day. This arrangement enables students tou nderstand how institutions participate in the production of the meaning and value of artworks in different cultural and historical contexts.
Knowledge and understanding
Demonstrate a general knowledge of the institutions that have mediated artworks in the West from the early modern period to the present day.
Demonstrate a critical understanding of how institutions participate in the production of the meaning and value of artworks.
Demonstrate an understanding of art spaces though engagement with relevant case studies.
Intellectual skills
Critically consider the relation between artworks and their places of production, distribution and reception.
Relate artistic developments of the period to broader patterns of historical and cultural change.
Summarise what is distinctive about historical and critical materials.
Think independently and imaginatively by reflecting on the nature of art history as a discipline.
Practical skills
Present research engagingly and coherently
Work collaboratively with peers and participate fully in class discussions
Seek and accept feedback from other students and the course tutor, and use this feedback to reflect on and improve one’s performance
Recall and rework information and arguments in coursework
Transferable skills and personal qualities
Work alone or collaboratively
Meet deadlines and take responsibility for one’s own work
Express ideas clearly in written and spoken form
Use IT resources for research and communication
Assessment methods
Critical Report Plan
0%
Critical Report
40%
Essay
60%
Feedback methods
Written feedback on critical report plan, critical report, and essay
Additional one-to-one feedback (during consultation hour or by making an appointment)
Recommended reading
Altshuler, Bruce (ed.), Salon to Biennial, London, 2008
Bennett, Tony, The Birth of the Museum, London, 1995
Berger, John, Ways of Seeing, Harmondsworth, 1972.
Duncan, Carol, Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums, London and New York, 1995
Goldstein, Carl, Teaching Art: Academies and Schools form Vasari to Albers, Cambridge, 1996
Mitchell, W. J. T. (ed.), Art and the Public Sphere, Chicago, 1990
Pevsner, Nikolaus, Academies of Art, Oxford, 1940
Preziosi, Donald, and Claire Farago (eds), Grasping the World: the idea of the museum, Aldershot, 2004