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art125
Welcome to ART-125 Topics in Contemporary Art, taught by Professor Jonathan Gabel. This website will be continually updated throughout the course. Links will be provided to download all the course material; summaries of the classes will be provided, along with a list of the most important things to have come away from the class with.
Please look over the lists that start with after this class you should be able to. If anything in this list is confusing, PLEASE bring it up in the following class and I will try to clarify any point that I didn’t explain clearly. Assigned reading are from the textbook: Twentieth Century American Art by Erica Doss
Additionally, I will post any news or upcoming events such as tests, fieldtrips, etc., as well as anything that is due next week.
Class Resources:
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photography
Photography has been with us throughout this course. From the very first lecture we talked about the crisis it created in the plastic arts. When technology came along that could capture a person’s likeness completely, traditional artists had to prove they still had something to contribute to society. more…
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Globalism 2: Contemporary World Art
In the 1990s the contemporary art scene became much less provincial, and started to look beyond American shores for good contemporary art. This not only included Europe, but the entire rest of the world. We don’t have time to go back and see what was going on everywhere for the last sixty years, but we can do a survey of contemporary artists from the other continents. more…
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Globalism 1: Europe
In this class we back up to the beginning of the course, and start again in Europe. After the Second World War, our attention turned to the American Art scene, but the artistic traditions of Europe continued to evolve as well. Sometimes this paralleled the work we’ve seen so far, and sometimes it followed it’s own trajectory. more…
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Introduction to Postmodernism
Today, we cover all of the philosophy for the entire course (promise). We look at the principals we’ve covered so far, and we add in everything we will have reason to discuss for the rest of the semester. more…
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Race and Identity
As we saw in our lecture on Feminism, Identity politics starts to play an increasingly important role in contemporary art starting in the 1960s and 1970s. Gone are the days when we can believe art can address a Universal Truth perceived equally by all humanity. Instead, we see artwork exploring a personal or subjective experience. more…
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Resources for Term Paper
You will need to choose and Artist for your research paper. The paper should be 2000 words – (approximately 5 pages in length at 1.5 spacing at 12pt type). Pick an artist whose career starts somewhere between 1970 and 2000–that is an established but contemporary artist. Make sure there are enough sources out there for you to research this artist. more…
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Art 125 Topics in Contemporary Art midterm exam is next week
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Feminism
Today, we look at women artists. And not just artists who are women, but women who make art because they are women. We’ve actually seen women artists already, but less than a quarter of the artists we’ve seen so far happen to be women. The artists we see today are not so happy about a woman’s marginalized role in society. more…
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Earthworks and the Monumental
Well, we’re back to The Monk by the Sea, and you’re probably noticing how much I like to reference this piece by now. The distinction I’m making this time is between the classical notion of Man vs. The Wild, and our more contemporary notions of the fragility of the globe. more…
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ART125: homework from Minimalism Readings is due Monday, March 5th.
