Dr. Cynthia Freeland
Fall, 1994
David Carrier, Principles of Art History Writing (Penn State, 1991)
Carol Becker, Ed., The Subversive Imagination: Artists, Society, and Social Responsibility (Routledge, 1994)
(Recommended)
Michael D. Hall and Eugene W. Metcalf, Jr., Eds., The Artist Outsider: Creativity and the Boundaries of Culture (Smithsonian, 1994)
Richard Bolton, Ed., Culture Wars: Documents from the Recent Controversies in the Arts (New Press, 1992)
Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art (Hackett)
David Carrier, Artwriting (University of Massachusetts, 1987)
Unit One: Philosophical Views of Art, Culture, Morality (5 weeks)
Unit Two: Truth in Artwriting and Art Interpretation (4 weeks)
Unit Three: Moral Issues in Contemporary Art (5 weeks)
Unit One: Weekly short reflection and exegesis papers on the readings (2 pages each, ungraded)
Unit Two: A short critical paper addressing some issue from Carrier's book (5-7 pages, graded)
Unit Three: A research paper describing and commenting on a moral issue in art (10 pages, graded).
In addition, each student will be expected to compile a portfolio or artwriting journal (ungraded) of at least six entries including:
Final grade will be based primarily on the two assigned papers; seminar participation and satisfactory completion of the ungraded assignments will also be taken into account. NOTE THAT THERE WILL BE NO INCOMPLETES except for medical reasons.
WARNING: Some material discussed and viewed in this course may be offensive to
some students. Recent controversial artworks include representations considered by some
to be heretical, pornographic, or obscene. It will be important to view and discuss such
works as part of addressing the content of our course.