Art History 671 - Great Themes in Art
Fall
2015
01
3.00
Nancy Noble
M W 2:30PM 3:45PM
UMass Amherst
38600
38595,41303
Changing treatment of central themes, issues and problems in art history. Topics often cut across traditional geographic or chronological boundaries. Although topics change from semester to semester, offerings are usually available every year in Modern, Islamic, and American art and architecture. Prerequisite: upper-level survey course bearing on the particular theme, or consent of instructor.
Great Themes - Art and Popular Culture In America 1900-1940
The course will investigate the relationship between art and the rise of modern popular culture in early 20th century America, focusing on both fine art (painting, sculpture) as well as commercial and mass media art (illustration, caricature, comic and poster art). Among the topics to be considered are: the nature of artistic work; changing notions of professional artistic identity; how artists who created both fine and mass media art negotiated the tensions between them; the relationship between artist and public; how American artists responded to a world of new forms of popular culture activities and ideas; and art?s role in the creation of a rapidly changing American identity.
The course will investigate the relationship between art and the rise of modern popular culture in early 20th century America, focusing on both fine art (painting, sculpture) as well as commercial and mass media art (illustration, caricature, comic and poster art). Among the topics to be considered are: the nature of artistic work; changing notions of professional artistic identity; how artists who created both fine and mass media art negotiated the tensions between them; the relationship between artist and public; how American artists responded to a world of new forms of popular culture activities and ideas; and art?s role in the creation of a rapidly changing American identity.