Module EDUC3261: THE 'ISMS' OF ART IN EARLY 20TH CENTURY EUROPE: CRITICAL APPROACHES TO ART THEORY AND PRACTICE

Department: Education

EDUC3261: THE 'ISMS' OF ART IN EARLY 20TH CENTURY EUROPE: CRITICAL APPROACHES TO ART THEORY AND PRACTICE

Prerequisites

• Art and Design in Belle Epoque France (EDUC2331)

Corequisites

• Art and Design in Belle Epoque France (EDUC2331) if not taken as a prerequisite.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• This module explores the nature of modernist art in Europe in the period 1905-1915.
• It does so from the viewpoint of opposing critical theories which seek to explain how and why the visual arts should undergo such a remarkable transition at this time.

Content

• This module explores the development of the visual arts in Europe in the decade 1905-1915.
• The period was characterised by an astonishing variety of styles known as 'ism'.
• Cubism and Expressionism are well known but others such as Rayism, Orphism, Vorticism, Futurism and Neo-Primitivism contributed just as forcefully to one of the most significant periods in the history of European culture - the birth of modernism.
• The module explores these 'ism' through differing critical methodologies which provide divergent and sometimes opposed views about the significance of modernist art and about the possible meanings that artists attempted to negotiate through their work.

Learning Outcomes

• Students should be able to identify the key movements and practitioners in early 20th century European art and to explore and understand them through differing critical perspectives.

• Students should be able to demonstrate an ability to apply their subject knowledge and understanding through:
• a) their personal research on a particualr topic;
• b) personal exploration of examples of visual culture from the period;
• c) the provision of well argued conclusions relating to specific issues regarding artistic theory and practice;
• d) evaluation of the critical methodologoes as they apply tothe history of art;
• e) the analysis of art works in terms of their form and content;
• f) reflection upon the relations between visual culture and society;
• g) identifying and evaluating the 'construction' of meaning in examples of visual art.

• think critically and independently;
• analyse, synthesise, evaluate and identify problems and solutions;
• acquire complex information of diverse kinds in a structured and systematic way;
• construct and sustain a reasoned argument;
• communicate effectively with appropriate use of specialist vocabulary;
• use ICT and a variety of library and IT resources;
• improve their own learning and performance, including the development of study and research skills, information retrieval, and a capacity to plan and manage learning, and to reflect on their own learning;
• explore different ways of 'reading', understanding and explaining objects of visual culture.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The module will be delivered through a programme of weekly lectures, group work activities, student research papers and directed study tasks.
• The lectures will convey relevant art historical and socio-historical knowledge.
• They will also introduce the critical methodologies through which the subject will be explored and will explain relevant terminology.
• During the lectures students will be encouraged to use differing critical methodologies through pictorial analyses of specific art works.
• Group work in class will be based upon the Directed Study tasks and will allow for assessment of critical and sources.
• These activities will encourage: skills of visual analysis, the use of professional terminology, the exploration of form and content in the construction of meaning and the use of differing critical methodologies.
• Directed study will deepen and broaden the work done in class and will demonstrate the relevance of competing critical methodologies in understanding and modernist art of the period.
• The delivery of student research papers will provide opportunities for the students to apply their developing knowledge of the subject in relation to specific examples of art works.
• Student research papers will develop art historical research skills as well as presentation skills and will develop their understanding of the differing critical methodologies at their disposal.
• The summative assessment will take the form of an assignmentn which will involve the student researching a given subject and will demand use of: relevant terminology, the analysis of form and content in relation to meaning, the presentation of art historical and socio-historical knowledge as well as the use of primary sources, critical texts and opposed critical methodologies.
• An end of year examination will require demonstration of an overall knowledge of art in Europe in the period 1905-1915 as well as an understanding of the critical methodologies which seek to explain the relation of form and content, and the possible meanings that modernist art might have possessed at this time.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Informal formative assessment will take place during group work presentations and will include the assessment of presentation skills, skills of visual analysis, and the ability to deploy critical theory and methodology. Formal formative assessment will accompany the presentation of student research papers.

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University