Art and Biography                                                                 Professor E. Fraser

ARH 4800-002 and ARH 6798-004                                        office: FAH 272, 974-4549

Fall 2006, Wednesdays 2-5:50                                     Email: fraser@arts.usf.edu

(To leave messages: 974-2360)

Office hours: Wednesdays, 12:00-1:00 p.m., FAH 272, and by appointment

 

Course description:

How does one write about the individual artist after the new cultural history and poststructuralism?  Is the Aauthor@ still dead, as Roland Barthes declared her to be?  This class will look at how art historians and artists themselves use often mythical elements of biography to explain aspects of art.

 

A generation ago, art historians rejected the individualism of the art-historical monograph,  historians critiqued the Agreat-men-and-great-events@ model of history-writing, poststructuralism emphasized cultural intertextuality instead of author-based notions of intentionality,  and postmodernism rejected the hagiography of the towering modernist artist and the notion of the individual=s autonomous art production.  However, a host of new writings have begun to appear that reread the artist=s biography through cultural history and this theoretical inheritance.  What is this New Biography, as it has been called?  How can we reconcile biographical approaches and critical theory?  Can cultural history address the individual?

 

In this seminar, we will read about the mythic and legendary status of the artist in modern history and some of the now-classic theoretical writings that critiqued biographical approaches.  The core of the class will focus on recent examples of biographical writing.  We will also look at popular imagery of modernist myths, for instance the film version of Van Gogh=s biography, Lust for Life.

 

Objectives:

You will be exposed to a range of contemporary critical theories, art of the 19th century, and important new art-historical publications.  You will refine your ability to read and write about theoretical issues and develop your visual and analytical skills.

 

Undergraduate prerequisite: 19th-Century Art (ARH 4430)

 

Books available for purchase (at USF bookstore)

Kris and Kurz, Legend, Myth, and Magic in the Image of the Artist

Crow, Emulation

Locke, Manet and the Family Romance

Armstrong, Odd Man Out: Readings in the Work and Reputation of Degas

Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing about Art (8th ed., but any recent edition will do)

 

Assignments

- participation in class discussion and one group-led discussion

- weekly position papers

- short essay and final research paper

The Riot Act: Attendance policy

Since this is a seminar, most of the work takes place during class time.  Because we meet only once a week, no unexcused absences are allowed.  Every absence will affect your final grade; two absences (or more) of any kind (except in truly dire circumstances) will automatically reduce your final grade to a AC@ or lower.  If you know at the beginning of the term that you may have a conflict with any class meeting, for whatever reason, you should not sign up for this class.

 

Approximate grade distribution

25% participation in discussion (including group-led discussion)

Exchanging ideas and opinions is an integral part of intellectual development; explaining your thinking to your classmates is the best way to test your ideas and to move beyond assumptions.  Class discussion is a collective learning process in which a diversity of views and approaches enriches all.  Good participation is active, thoughtful, and respectful of other students; monopolizing discussion rather than listening and responding to other students will be evaluated negatively.

25% weekly position papers (distributed on E-mail before class)

20% short essay

30% final research paper

 

Class E-mail list:

I will sign you up: be sure I have your preferred email address(es).  Send a message to the list using this address: fraserseminar@listmonster.cvpa.usf.edu.

 

Other resources recommended for this class:

In the readings for this class, you will encounter unfamiliar names, historical and geographical references, and words.  These resources, online databases available through the library=s website, will help you figure out these concepts and I encourage you to use them often.

- Encyclopaedia Britannica Online

- link to Merriam-Webster=s Collegiate Dictionary from Britannica.  This is particularly good for looking up etymologies (the history and origins of words), something we discuss periodically in class

-Grove Dictionary of Art Online (Grove art), for looking up unfamiliar art references and basic information about individual artists and artistic movements.

 

For research

- Bibliography in the History of Art (BHA), online bibliographic database available through the library=s website: the essential research tool for art history.

 

Help with writing

- Barnet=s Short Guide to Writing about Art is required; your familiarity with information in this book will be assumed in evaluation of your final research paper.

- Visit the U.S.F. Writing Center, Cooper Hall 257, tel. 974-9572.  In one-on-one sessions, trained consultants assist students in developing their writing skills.  Call or drop in to make an appointment to have a rough draft reviewed.  http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/wcntr/index.html.

Class discussion

 

August 30         Introduction

 

The Artist=s biography as mythic construction

 

Sept 6             Kris and Kurz, Chapters 1, 2, and 4.  In-class hand-outs: Vasari on Giotto; Monet

 

Critiques of biographical approaches

 

Sept 13            Hadjinicolaou, AFirst Obstacle: Art History as the History of Artists@; Salomon, ASins of Omission@; Barthes, ADeath of the Author@

 

The ANew Biography@?

Sept 20            David: Crow, Intro and Part I, pp. 1-114

 

Sept 27            David: Crow, Part II, pp. 117-214

 

Oct 4               NO CLASS:  Short essay due.

 

Oct 11                         David: Crow, Part III, pp. 217-310

 

Oct 18             Women and the New Biography: Burr Margadant, pp. 1-71; Sheriff, A>So What Are You Working On?=: Categorizing The Exceptional Woman@

 

Oct 25                         Manet: Locke, chapter 2, AFamily Romances@

 

Nov 1              Degas: Armstrong, chapter 3, AReading the Work of Degas@

 

Performing the self

Nov 8              Degas: Armstrong, Introduction and chapter 5

          

Nov 15                        Courbet, Cézanne: Chu, APortrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Self-Invention and Promotion in the Early Self-Portraits of Gustave Courbet@; Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, AProvincials@ in Cézanne and Provence, pp. 14-51 and 255-262.  Skim McPherson, ACézanne: Self-Portraiture and the Problematics of Representation@ esp. for images.

 

Nov 22            Van Gogh, Gauguin: Pollock (e-reserve); Druick and Zegers, Studio of the South [pp. TBA]

Viewing of ALust for Life, @ dir. V. Minnelli, 1956, 123 mins. (in class)

 

Nov 29            NO CLASS, work on research paper

 

Dec 8               Final paper due

Course bibliography: how to find reading assignments

 

Armstrong, Carol. Odd Man Out: Readings of the Work and Reputation of Edgar Degas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. Rpt., 2003. [book on sale, reserve]

 

Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, Nina Maria. Cézanne and Provence: The Painter in His Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. [book on reserve]

 

Barthes, Roland. "The Death of the Author." In Image/Music/Text, edited and translated by Stephen Heath. New York, 1977, pp. 142-48. [e-reserve]

 

Burr Margadant, Jo, ed. The New Biography: Performing Femininity in Nineteenth-Century France. Berkeley and London: University of California Press, 2000. [book on reserve]

 

Chu, Petra Ten-Doesschate. "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Self-Invention and Promotion in the Early Self-Portraits of Gustave Courbet." In Images de l'artiste [Künstlerbilder]. Frankfurt am Main: P. Lang, 1998, pp. 59-80. [e-reserve]

 

Crow, Thomas. Emulation: David, Drouais, and Girodet in the Art of Revolutionary France. Rev. ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. [book on sale, reserve]

 

Druick, Douglas W. and Peter Kort Zegers. Van Gogh and Gauguin: The Studio of the South. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2002. [book on reserve]

 

Hadjinicolaou, Nicos. AFirst Obstacle: Art History as the History of Artists.@  In Art History and Class Struggle. Translated by Louise Asmal. London: Pluto Press, 1978. [e-reserve]

 

Kris, Ernst; and Otto Kurz. Legend, Myth and Magic in the Image of the Artists: A Historical Experiment. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981. [book on sale, reserve]

 

Locke, Nancy. Manet and the Family Romance. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. [book on sale, reserve]

 

McPherson, Heather. ACézanne: Self-Portraiture and the Problematics of Representation.@  In The Modern Portrait in Nineteenth-Century France. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. [e-reserve]

 

Pollock, Griselda. "Artists, Mythologies and Media Genius, Madness and Art History." Screen 21, no. 3 (1980), pp. 57-96. [e-reserve]

 

Salomon, Nanette. "The Art Historical Canon: The Sins of Omission." In The Art of Art History, D. Preziosi, ed.. Oxford: Oxford Univ Press, 1998, pp. 244-355. [e-book available via library website]

 

Sheriff, Mary, A>So What Are You Working On?=  Categorizing The Exceptional Woman.@  In K. Frederickson and S.Webb, eds.  Singular Women: Writing the Artist. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003, pp. 48-65.  [e-book available via library website, book also on reserve]

 

* * *

 

Recommended works on authorship, intentionality, biography, monographs, self-portraiture:

 

Baxandall, Michael. Patterns of Intention: On the Historical Explanations of Pictures. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.

 

Fried, Michael. "The Early Self-Portraits" in Courbet's Realism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.

 

Guercio, Gabriele. "The Identity of the Artist: A reading of monographic studies devoted to the old masters during the nineteenth century." Ph.D., Yale University, 1995.

 

Leger, Charles. Courbet selon les caricatures et les images. Paris, 1920.

 

Miller, Nancy. AChanging the Subject: Authorship, Writing, and the Reader@in T. de Lauretis, ed., Feminist Studies, Critical Studies, pp. 102-120.

 

Owens, Craig.  AThe Discourse of Others: Feminists and Postmodernists@ in M. Garrard and N. Broude, eds., Expanding Discourse, pp. 487-502.

 

Pollock, Griselda.  AAgency and the Avant-Garde: Studies in Authorship and History by Way of Van Gogh,@ Block 15 (1989), pp. 4-15.  Reprinted in Avant-Gardes and Partisans Reviewed (St. Martin's, 1996), pp. 315-342.

 

Self Portrait: Renaissance to Contemporary. London: National Portrait Gallery, 2005.

 

Soussloff, Catherine M. The Absolute Artist: The Historiography of a Concept. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.

 

Sturgis, Alexander, Rupert Christiansen, Lois Oliver, and Michael Wilson. Rebels and Martyrs: The Image of the Artist in the Nineteenth Century. London, 2006.

 

Vidal, Mary. AThe >Other Atelier=: Jacques-Louis David=s Female Students@ in Hyde, Melissa, and Jennifer Milam, eds. Women, Art and the Politics of Identity in Eighteenth-Century Europe. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003.

Explanations of class assignments

 

Position papers

Approximately one full page, due weekly: send on class E-mail list by Tuesday (day before class) at 5:30 p.m.  Bring hard-copy with you to class to be handed in.

 

The form of the position papers is very free, but should include at least the following:

1) What is the main argument?

2) What evidence and what sources are used to defend this argument?

3) Use previous readings to evaluate the author=s ideas and approach.  What are the author=s (implicit) views of biography?

4) Raise your own questions about the reading (discussion questions and questions about concepts you don=t understand).

 

The position papers are meant to help you come to class prepared to discuss, ensuring that you have digested the reading with some critical distance.  You should read all other students= position papers before class meeting each week, bringing in questions and points of contention about them.  If you are absent from class, whether with or without an excuse, you are required to turn in a position paper for that class meeting by the next class period.

 

Position papers are your responses to the assigned readings.  You are meant to focus on the main issues, raise questions or problems you have with the reading, and consider the author=s interpretive position; we will use them in class discussion.  You will not be evaluated on the literary form but on the content and thoughtfulness of your position papers.  It is very important to realize that the position papers are not summaries or re-statements of the authors= position, but your own anaylses of the readings.  Since the position papers are a major component of your work for this class, they should be substantial and considered.  You should work towards focusing on the global issues posed by readings, not on minor points or bits of information.

 

Short essay

This will be a critical evaluation of Thomas Crow=s use of biography, 4-5 pp.

 

Final research paper

A focused investigation of a topic related to class material.  Undergraduates: at least 8 pp; Graduates: at least 12 pp.

 

Group-led discussions

With your group members, identify about five substantial issues you would like the class to discuss about the assigned readings.  Most of your questions will come from reading the position papers: they can be about conflicts and differences you see across position papers, or they can draw on specific questions raised by individual writers.  You can also add your own burning questions.  Don=t bother Aunpacking@ the readings, i.e., asking questions that quiz class members on their understanding of the main points and ideas.  Instead, take a step back from the text and get us to think about its implications, to assess and analyze the readings.  Be prepared to really LEAD discussion; class members need to be prodded and encouraged to participate!  Remember: a discussion question can=t be answered with a simple yes or no; and it shouldn=t be based on a piece of information. (AWas Van Gogh ill?@ is not a discussion question.)  The point of these class discussions is to go to the heart of the matters proposed by readings and images.  (Ex: AIs Crow=s use of biography truly different from conventional ways of thinking about the artist? or AIs author X=s analysis of Y convincing?@)