Schedule and Readings

T 1/17            What is Art Criticism and Writing?

Course Overview

Shared Classroom Expectations

 

I. Art Criticism: A Critical Overview

Th 1/19           Everybody’s a Critic

A.O. Scott, “Everybody’s a Critic. And That’s How It Should Be,” New York Times, 30 January 2016.

Barack Obama’s best of list for 2022

>>>Assignment #1 due on Canvas

 

T 1/24             Practicum: Art Critics

Research and presentation on art critics

>>>Assignment #2 due on Canvas

 

Th 1/26           Taste

Pierre Bourdieu, introduction to A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (London: Routledge, 1984), 1-7.

Richard A. Peterson and Roger M. Kern, “Changing Highbrow Taste: From Snob to Omnivore,” American Sociological Review, 61, no. 5. (October 1996), 900-907.

Recommended: How to Write About Contemporary Art, 31-39.

>>>Assignment #3 due on Canvas

 

T 1/31             Connoisseurship and Critique

Bernard Berenson, “Rudiments of Connoisseurship,” in The Study and Criticism of Italian Art (London: G. Bell & Sons, 1914), 57-75.

Ben Davis, “Connoisseurship and Critique,” Art in the After-Culture: Capitalist Crisis & Cultural Strategy (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2022), 9-27.

>>>Assignment #4 due on Canvas

 

Th 2/2             Art Criticism in Crisis

James Elkins, Excerpt from What Happened to Art Criticism? (2003), reprinted in Kerr Houston, An Introduction to Art Criticism, 302-309.

JJ Charlesworth, “The Dysfunction of Art Criticism,” Art Monthly (September 2003), 1-4.

Raphael Rubinstein, “The Ghosts of Art Criticism,” Art in America (October 2019), 26-30.

Nikos Papastergiadis and Hou Hanru, “Zooming In and Zooming Out: Life and After in Post-pandemic Publics,” in Art Writing in Crisis, ed. Brad Haylock and Megan Patty (London: Sternberg Press, 2021), 263-274.

>>>Assignment #5 due on Canvas

 

T 2/7               Practicum: Art Criticism Platforms

Research and presentation on platforms for art criticism

>>>Assignment #6 due on Canvas

 

Th 2/9             Why Criticism Matters

David Levi Strauss, “From Metaphysics to Invective: Art Criticism as if it Still Matters,” The Brooklyn Rail, May 2012.

Hannah Black, Ciarán Finlayson, and Tobi Haslett, “The Tear Gas Biennial,” Artforum, 17 July 2019.

Verónica Tello and Sebastián Valenzuela-Valdivia, “A Partial History of South–South Art Criticism,” Third Text 35, no. 6 (2021): 709-731.

Taylor Renee Aldridge and Jessica Lynne, “This is How You Tell the Truth,” in Art Writing in Crisis, ed. Brad Haylock and Megan Patty (London: Sternberg Press, 2021), 87-93.

Recommended: Kerr Houston, An Introduction to Art Criticism, 23-81 and How to Write About Contemporary Art, 40-41.

>>>Assignment #7 due on Canvas

 

II. Writing Art Criticism

T 2/14             Practicum: What is an Exhibition Review?

Research and presentations on local exhibitions

Discussion of Exhibition review assignment

>>>Assignment #8 due on Canvas

 

Th 2/16           No class: Visit local exhibitions

 

T 2/21             Description

How to Write About Contemporary Art, 57-62.

John Ruskin, “Turner’s Slave Ship,” 1843, in Modern Painters, vol. 1 (New York: National Library Association, n.d.), 382-383.

Kerr Houston, An Introduction to Art Criticism, 82-85 and 103-110.

>>>Assignment #9 due on Canvas

 

Th 2/23           Practicum: Description
Meet in Texas State Galleries for presentations on description

>>>Assignment #10 due on Canvas

 

T 2/28             No class due to field trip

 

Th 3/2            Museum/Gallery Visit: San Antonio, TX  

Meet at 5pm

The Contemporary at Blue Star

116 Blue Star

San Antonio, TX 78204

 

T 3/7              Analysis and Interpretation

Kerr Houston, An Introduction to Art Criticism, 85-103.

Allan Sekula, Photography Against the Grain: Essays and Photo Works, 1973-1983 (Halifax: Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1984), 168-174.

>>>Assignment #11 due on Canvas

 

Th 3/9            Practicum: Analysis and Interpretation

Meet in Wittliff Collections for presentations on analysis and interpretation

>>>Assignment #12 due on Canvas

 

T 3/14             No Class: Spring Break

Th 3/16           No Class: Spring Break

 

T 3/21             Judgment

Kerr Houston, An Introduction to Art Criticism, 160-174.

Immanuel Kant, Extracts from Critique of Judgment (1790); in Clive Cazeaux, ed., The Continental Aesthetics Reader (New York: Routledge, 2000).

Clement Greenberg, “Modernist Painting,” 1960; in John O’Brian, Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism, vol. 4 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 85-93.

>>>Assignment #13 due on Canvas

 

Th 3/23           Criteria

Lucy Lippard, “The Women’s Artists Movement—What’s Next?” (1975), reprinted in Kerr Houston, An Introduction to Art Criticism, 290-292.

Coco Fusco, “Censorship, Not the Painting, Must Go: On Dana Schutz’s Image of Emmett Till,” Hyperallergic, 27 March 2017.

Peter Schjeldahl, “The Polymorphous Genius of Wolfgang Tillmans,” The New Yorker, October 2, 2022.

Christina Rees, “Glasstire and Negative Criticism in Texas,” Glasstire, 26 October 2016.

Recommended: How to Write About Contemporary Art, 20-23 and 126-209.

>>>Assignment #14 due on Canvas

 

T 3/28             Practicum: Judgment and Criteria

Research and presentations on judgment and criteria

>>>Assignment #15 due on Canvas

 

Th 3/30           Museum/Gallery Visits: Austin, TX

Meet at 4:30pm

The Contemporary Austin – Laguna Gloria

3809 West 35th Street

Austin, Texas 78703

 

T 4/5               No class due to field trip

 

Th 4/6             Voice and Tone

Kerr Houston, An Introduction to Art Criticism, 200-217.

Guillaume Apollinaire, Two Articles on Picasso (1905), reprinted in An Introduction to Art Criticism, 253-255.

Jerry Saltz, “Seeing Out Loud,” The Village Voice, 13 December 2005.

Okwui Enwezor, “The Inverted Sign,” NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art (Spring/Summer 1995): 44-49.

Eileen Myles, “Mother’s Day,” in Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty, Gregory R. Miller & Co. for CAMH and MCA Denver, 2015.

Recommended: How to Write About Contemporary Art, 220-233.

>>>Assignment #16 due on Canvas

 

T 4/11             Practicum: Voice and Tone

Research and presentations on voice and tone

Discussion of Artist interview assignment

>>>Assignment #17 due on Canvas

 

Th 4/13           Practicum: Peer Review of Exhibition Review Draft

Bring 3 hard copies of peer review draft to class

>> Exhibition Review Draft DUE on Canvas

 

III. The Art of Interviewing

T 4/18             What is an Artist Interview?

Phyllis Tuchman, “Two or Three Things I Know about Artist Interviews,” Art Journal, 67, no. 4 (Winter 2008): 33-37.

Richard Meyer, “Artists Sometimes Have Feelings,” Art Journal 67, no. 4 (Winter 2008), 38-55.

>>>Assignment #18 due on Canvas

 

Th 4/20           The Art of Interviewing  

Hans Ulrich Obrist, “Interviewing the Interviewer,” interview by Clo’e Floirat, Frieze, December 6, 2011.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist in Hans Ulrich Obrist Interviews, ed. Thomas Boutoux, vol. 1 (Milan: Charta, 2003), 308-316.

>>>Assignment #19 due on Canvas

 

T 4/25             Practicum: Artist interviews

Conduct artist interviews with Studio Professional Practice students

 

Th 4/27           Conclusions

>>> Exhibition Review Final Draft + Response to Peer Reviews DUE to Canvas by midnight

 

T 5/9              In-class final essay

2-3:20pm        >>> Artist Interview DUE to Canvas by midnight