Laura Ruby

---

ART 400v (WI)

The History of Contemporary Sculpture

  

Binoculars, 1991 -- Claes Oldenburg

 

I. The Nature of Sculpture -- Form, Function, Content, Context

II. Rodin and the Representational Tradition

III. Brancusi and Abstraction

IV. Constructivism and Modernism as a Series of Erasures

V. Duchamp and Postmodern Pluralism

VI. Postmodern Pluralism

VII. Environmental Commentary

VIII. Sculptural Environments/Tableau

IX. Time-Based Commentary and the Artist's Body in the World

X. Virtually Wired Gestures, Actions, Events

XI. Artists

Readings and Writings

---

COURSE DESCRIPTION -- development of contemporary 20th century sculpture from stylistic, contextual and theoretical standpoints with references to the influences of various historical Western and Asian traditions.   COURSE OBJECTIVES --to foster an appreciation and understanding of contemporary Western sculpture, in relationship to technological innovation and the historical and cultural factors affecting its development.   PREREQUISITES --172 or consent of instructor   TEXTS -- lectures and readings will complement each other *Sculpture in the Age of Doubt -- Thomas McEvilley (required text) *Art on the Edge and Over -- Linda Weintraub (selected handouts or optional text) *Beyond Modern Sculpture -- Jack Burnham (selected handouts) *Sculpture Since 1945 -- Andrew Causey (selected handouts) *Contemporary Public Sculpture -- Harriet Senie (selected handouts) *other handouts      COURSE REQUIREMENTS --   GUIDE FOR ANALYZING AND INTERPRETING IMAGES: CONTENT -What is represented? -What kinds of relationships are shown? -What elements seem particularly significant? -What associations come to mind? FORM -How is the artwork composed? -How do all of the above components function in relation to one another?   GUIDE FOR ANALYZING AND INTERPRETING READINGS: - Look at the beginning and end of the reading to see if the author summarizes the main point(s). - Make a list of terms/ideas that are not clear. - Include one question to ask of the class. This question should arise from the readings or from the readings in conjunction with previous discussions. Email those questions to lruby@hawaii.edu.   GUIDE FOR JOURNAL WRITING (1 + PAGES STATEMENT) -- 30% of the grade Journal writings will be both visual and verbal. What argument is made and how is it supported (what visual, historical, and theoretical information does the author examine)? Include your own assessment of these arguments. Your statement should include an artwork example (xeroxed or scanned) that supports your position for the GREAT DEBATE. Each paper should include new thoughts generated from the readings at hand. You may refer back to earlier readings or discussions and how they bear on your current thoughts. Do not merely recapitulate the readings. Each paper should be typed double-spaced and stamped on the discussion day. (Following the 2nd journal writing, these papers may be written in partnership with another classmate.)   GUIDE FOR GREAT DEBATES The topics of each discussion will be approached through a selection of readings. Students are expected to come fully prepared for active and informed participation in the discussions. Be prepared to share your writing in small group discussions, and in the larger class format.   2 EXAMS -- 15% and 15% of the grade (part in-class, part take-home) The first exam will be based on the topics raised in the first half of the course. The second exam will be based on the topics raised in the second half of the course.   1 PAPER AND PRESENTATION ON A CONTEMPORARY WORK OR ARTIST -- 20% of the grade The GREAT DEBATE issues and other topics in sculpture will be applied to a contemporary work or body of an artist's work.   ARCHIVE -- 5% of the grade This archive will be a collection of 20 contemporary sculpture images (presented on unlined 8 1/2 x 11 paper in a manila envelope or secured in a folder -- this archive might also presented in video format). ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION -- 15% of the grade This includes: attendance, punctuality, class interaction in great debates, emailing and office visit. This course requires full attendance. Visual concepts are often only understood after sharing, comparing, questioning, revising and synthesizing, as well as LISTENING. A tardy or absent student diminishes the overall quality of the class. Three tardies will equal one unexcused absence. Three unexcused absences will lower the final grade.   Please turn off all cell phones, beepers and pagers before entering the classroom.

 

 

---

 

I. Nature of Sculpture--A. form, B. function, C. content, D. context BACK TO TOP

WEEK 1 -- Form   I 1A *Sculpture Since 1945 -- Causey 1B *Sculpture...Doubt -- McEvilley, ch. 2. to p. 42 1C *Value in an Age of Chaos -- McEvilley   GREAT DEBATE -- modern vs. postmodern artworks

 

A. Form

1. Types of sculptural form--realistic--abstract--nonobjective

a. visual elements and principles of design--emphasis on time

2. Sculpture as artifact or object--existing in the world

a. portable

b. pedestal/fixed

1) within museum or gallery pedestal/

2) notion of distance/physical

3) isolation=psychological distance/apartness

4) Rodin comments

5) Brancusi ornate geometric pedestals

c. place-specific site-based pedestal-less

d. temporary and or moveable

1) installation

2) performance time-based

3. Sculpture as functional

a. as shamanistic/religious

b. as commemorative/memorial/monumental/portrait

c. as commodity

d. as non-commodity--environmental art/installations/performances, etc., fixed to site or temporary in nature

4. Sculpture as process--sculpture as a primary activity

a. methodology

1) perceptual

2) experiential

3) conceptual (& modelmaking and drawings)

4) style

b. media/matter/physical nature/technique applied to matter

1) modeling

2) carving

3) casting

4) assembling--constructing--linking, bringing together of parts

5) selection/manipulation/exploitation/technical innovation

6) attention to site

5. Sculpture as an evolution of form -- the Modern tradition

a. classical abstraction --Brancusi

b. constructivism -- Gabo, Pevsner, Tatlin, Lipchitz

c. expressionism (corresponds to abstract expressionist painting) -- Cesar, Stankiewicz, Chamberlain, Voulkos

d. minimalism -- sculpture as a series of erasures -- Judd, LeWitt, Flavin

e. conceptualism -- sculpture as idea -- Kosuth, Kawara, Buren

B. Function

WEEK 2 -- Function, Content, Context

C. Content

D. Context

 

The Thinker, 1879-89 -- Auguste Rodin

 

3-Piece Reclining Figure #1, 1961-2 -- Henry Moore

 

II. Rodin and the representational tradition BACK TO TOP

WEEK 2/3 -- Rodin and the Representational Tradition   II 2A *The New Sculpture" -- Causey 2B *Modernism and Minimalism -- Causey 2C Rodin -- Burnham 2D Arp, Moore, Hepworth --Burnham

A. Romanticism and the Nineteenth Century

B. heroics--the public monument and social realism

C. the figurative tradition--non-western influences (Asia, Africa, the Pacific)

D. the figurative tradition --Lachaise, Gonzalez, (Boccioni), Lipchitz, Trova, Picasso, Longo

E. attention to space and penetration of it --Moore, Hepworth, Giacometti

F. superrealism (corresponds to photorealism) --Hanson, deAndrea, Gallo, Segal, deStabler

 

Newborn, 1915 -- Constantin Brancusi

 

III. Brancusi and abstraction BACK TO TOP

WEEK 3 -- Brancusi and the Classical Abstraction Tradition   III 3A Brancusi (1) -- Burnham 3B Brancusi (2) -- Burnham

A. classical abstraction and modernism--Arp, Dubuffet, Noguchi, D. Smith, Caro, T. Smith, Liberman, diSuvero, Sugarman, Snellson

B. Voulkos

 

Cubi XVII, 1963 -- David Smith

 

IV. Constructivism and modernism as a series of erasures BACK TO TOP

WEEK 3/4 -- Constructivism and Modernism as a Series of Erasures   IV 4A The Constructivists -- Burnham 4B *Formalism:The Weary Vocabulary -- Burnham 4C Kineticism: The Unrequited Art 4D Minimalism -- Burnham 4E On Kawara -- Weintraub   GREAT DEBATE -- the form, function, content and context of sculpture (Campus Art)

A. geometric/architectonic definition in space--Gabo, Pevsner, Tatlin, Moholy-Nagy, D. Smith, Caro, T. Smith, Liberman, diSuvero

B. accretion, accumulation, assemblage--Nevelson

 

Lobster Trap and Fish Tail, 1939 -- Alexander Calder

 

C. kineticism and movement of 3-d work in time--(Duchamp), Calder, Rickey, Bertoia, Tinguely, Haacke

D. minimalism--Judd, LeWitt, Bell, Andre, Serra, Irwin, Flavin (& light phenomena)

E. conceptualism--Kosuth, (Kawara), Buren, deMaria

 

Fountain, 1917 -- Marcel Duchamp

V. Duchamp and postmodern pluralism BACK TO TOP

WEEK 4/5 -- Duchamp and Postmodern Pluralism   V 5A *Duchamp-Sculpture...Doubt -- ch. 3 5B *The Transformed Object -- Ratcliff   GREAT DEBATE -- "of something" vs. an object

WEEK 5 -- Duchamp and Klein, Johns and Rauschenberg   5C *Louise Bourgeois -- ch. 15 5D Gabo...Klein -- Burnham 5E *Meret Oppenheim -- ch. 18 5F *Sculpture and the Everyday -- Causey   GREAT DEBATE -- aesthetic canon vs. pluralist values

A. questioner--dada--Man Ray, Schwitters (Merzbau), Cornell

1. Niki de St. Phalle, Cesar (Baldoccini), Bourgeois (ch. 15), Buck, Borofsky, Arneson

B. art coefficient

C. Readymades

 

Object (Le Dejeuner en Fourrure), 1936 -- Meret Oppenheim

 

D. Yves Klein, Meret Oppenheim (ch.18), Manzoni

 

Monogram, 1955 -- Robert Rauchenberg

 

E. Johns, Rauschenberg, Warhol, Marisol, Koons, Vaisman

 

Spiral Jetty, 1970 -- Robert Smithson

 

Running Fence, 1972-6 -- Christo

 

VI. Postmodern pluralism BACK TO TOP

WEEK 6 -- Postmodern Pluralism   VI 6A *Sculpture...Doubt -- ch. 2 6B *Memorials and Monuments Reconsidered -- Senie 6C *Interplay in Expanded Fields -- Ruby 6D Dennis Oppenheim -- ch. 5   (GREAT DEBATE -- universal vs. site-specific)   PRESENTATIONS -- selection of artworks

 

1st EXAM

Boite-enValise, 1941 -- Duchamp

 

Boite-enValise, 1941 -- Duchamp (detail)

VII. Environmental commentary BACK TO TOP

WEEK 7 -- Environmental Commentary   VII 7A *Public Spaces -- Causey

WEEK 8/9 -- Contemporary Public Art

A. public art -- Smithson, Heiser, deMaria, Christo, Morris, Andre, Serra, Irwin, Dennis Oppenheim (ch. 5), Sonfist

 

B. contemporary public art -- Sian Armajani, Miss, Aycock, Holt, Chin (ch. 16), Irwin, Serra, Tacha, Simonds, Long, Matta-Clark, George Trakas, SITE, Charles Moore, Frank Gehry, Maya Lin, Douglas Hollis, Ned Smyth, Jackie Ferrara, Andrea Blum

 

"Subway" (from Ruckus Manhattan), 1976-- Red Grooms

 

VIII. Sculptural environments/tableau BACK TO TOP

WEEK 10/11 -- Sculptural Environments/Tableau   VIII 8A Beuys and Germany -- Causey 8B Joseph Beuys -- Weintraub 8C David Hammons -- Weintraub 8D Christian Boltanski -- Weintraub 8E Lucas Samaras -- ch. 7   GREAT DEBATE -- permanent vs. temporary

WEEK 12/13 -- Contemporary Installation Sculpture

A. temporary works -- Oldenburg, Kienholz, Grooms, Hesse, Beuys

 

B. time-based commentary--Terrell, Irwin, Nancy Graves, Butterfield, Antoni, Paik, Viola

 

Fox Games, 1989 -- Sandy Skoglund

 

Mining the Museum, 1992 -- Fred Wilson

 

China Night, 1985 -- Terry Allen

 

C. contemporary installation sculpture--Samaras (ch. 7), Nauman, Abromovic (ch. 10), Mario Merz, Shapiro, Ericson & Ziegler, Boltanski, Hammons, Chicago, Pfaff, Skoglund, Fred Martin, Terry Allen

 

IX. Time-based commentary and the artist's body in the world BACK TO TOP

WEEK 13 -- Time-based Commentary and the Artist's Body in the World   IX 9A Fluxis & happenings 9B Vito Acconci -- Weintraub 9C Carolee Schneemann--Weintraub 9D Marina Abramovic -- ch. 10 9E Gilbert & George -- Weintraub 9F James Luna -- Weintraub

WEEK 14 -- Contemporary Performances and Body Processes

A. tableau vivant/happenings--Kaprow, Oldenburg, Fluxus

 

I Like America and America Likes Me, 1974 -- Joseph Beuys

 

 

Hand/Heart for Ana Mendieta, 1986 -- Carolee Schneeman

 

B. contemporary performances/body processes--Beuys, Schneeman, L. Anderson, Gilbert & George, Acconci, Burden, Finley, Abromovic (ch. 10), Betsy Damon

 

X. Virtually wired gestures, actions, events BACK TO TOP

WEEK 15 -- Virtually Wired Gestures, Actions, Events   X 10A Postcolonial Media Theory -- Fernandez

 

 

WEEK 16 -- 2nd EXAM

 

 

---

 

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, 1997 -- Frank Gehry

 

  

 

Artists BACK TO TOP

Laura Ruby

Department of Art, Room 348

2535 The Mall

University of Hawai'i

Honolulu, Hawai'i 96822

(808) - 956-5250

lruby@hawaii.edu