Introduction to Critical Theory- ART 149 Lisa Oxley

UC Davis loxley@ucdavis.edu
Winter 2019 Office Hours: Tues. 10:30-11:30am
T/Th 9:00-10:20am and by appointment
M 11:00-11:50am
Olsen 147

Course Description

This course for both graduate and undergraduate students examines the critical strategies
at play in contemporary art discourse and practice as well as how these conceptual issues
inform cultural production and the material work of art.

Together we will unpack what is being articulated in a text and in artistic production by
following contemporary lines of inquiry such as: the subject, the political, discourses of
race and gender, or current conditions of the global information economy.

Each week we will work with a text- often in dialectical relation to a secondary text, in order
to ground students’ studio practice in an understanding of cultural contemporary thought
and how these issues affect or inform the work of art as well as the author/producer and
receiver/viewer. Lectures will be accompanied by images, videos, and film as well as
class discussions on Contemporary Art.

Course Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, students will:

1. Acquire skills of visual analysis and increase visual literacy as well as gaining an
understanding of the relationship between the conceptual underpinning and the
material form in a work of art.

2. Become familiar with the major figures, ideas, and debates in the emergence and
development of a discourse of Contemporary Art.

3. Have developed skills in critical engagement with both texts and artworks.

4. Be familiar with a range of debates concerning the role of art in contemporary

society and the successive debates emerging in the wake of Greenbergian
Modernism.

5. Gain an understanding of the artist's role within the complexity of the social,
political, and economic issues at stake in order to become more critically engaged
makers.
Grading Criteria

35% Participation
15% Group Presentation
20% Mid-Term Exam
30% Final Exam

Participation 35%
Students are expected to attend all class meetings and discussion groups. Participation
also includes arriving to class on time, as well as bringing a hardcopy of the texts that we
are reading to each class meeting.

Your active engagement and participation in the course readings, discussions and
activities is a crucial part of our work together. I understand that not all students may feel
comfortable speaking in front of a large group, however being attentive and engaged, as
well as formulating and asking questions (no question is considered ‘too dumb”) can be
just as valuable to the goals of the course.

Participation also requires reading the text more than once, marking it with notes and
highlights, and preparing to participate in the class discussions and activities. Students
will be expected to prepare a short written response to each text. This is not necessarily a
formal paper, but may take the form of a series of questions on the text, things that strike
you as interesting or confusing, and/or a summary of most important points or passages.
You will bring this response to the discussion group as well as to the main lecture/class
time.

Discussion Group:
Each week I will prepare a series of prompts and/or questions for your discussion groups.
Sometimes these may be given in advance of the discussion to be prepared beforehand,
other times they will be given to you on the day of discussion. These topics and questions
are designed to facilitate conversation and help you to engage the text and the theoretical
ideas of the course. The discussion groups give you the opportunity think through and
work out with your peers the topics to be prepared to bring into the larger lecture hall for
discussion on Tuesdays. Use this time to ask questions and dig deeper into the readings
and the broader issues that they point to. Formulate questions and experiment with ideas
that are new to you. Critical Theory is more than anything a way of questioning and
making a field of inquiry discursive.

Group Presentation 15%

Students will be assigned one text to present in group (4-5 people) and to participate in a
round table discussion about that text that explores the relationship between the
theoretical concepts, specific artists, artworks, exhibitions and other images of your
choosing as well as broader ideas of contemporary culture and social issues that may
contextualize the reading.

A) In preparation for you presentation:

Students should meet together outside of class to discuss the assigned text and/or
artist. Analyze and debate the text together. What questions does it raise for you? What
conversations does it lead to? Formulate a division of labor for how you will present the
text. After discussing the text and summarizing the argument and key terms, think about
contemporary artwork(s), artists, or exhibitions that you believe could contextualize the
ideas in the reading, including at least one artwork that was not mentioned in your text. If
your group is assigned a particular artwork, you must address this work, but may choose
other artworks to present as well.

B) On the day of your presentation:

Define the text's argument and points; define significant terms, discuss a few
exemplary quotations or passages from the reading; give some background or
context to the reading. After your presentation, we will engage in a roundtable
discussion to further unpack the ideas of the reading.

Mid-term Exam 20%

The mid-term will consist of a series of questions as well as a short 500-750 page paper.
Topics for the paper will be discussed in class beforehand.

Final Exam 30%

The final exam will consist of a series of questions as well as a 3-5 page paper. Topics for
the paper will be discussed in class beforehand.

Cell Phone & Media Policy

Cell phones are strictly prohibited during class. Phones are to be turned fully off when you
enter the classroom. Texting, surfing the internet, checking email or working on anything
other than class content is not allowed during our class session. Failure to comply with
these policies will damage your participation grade! I also discourage the use of
laptops and tablets during class. There is evidence that the use of such devices impedes
the learning process and is distracting to both students and teachers. (Exceptions may be
made for students with special learning needs.)

Attendance Policy

Students are expected to attend all class meetings. Two absences are allowed; any
absence beyond two may result in a lower grade. The only exception is to this policy is
serious unexpected illness or personal emergency for which you must provide
documentation.

Arriving late will also affect your participation grade, as it is disruptive to the class and you
may miss important information that could be given out at the start of class.
3 Tardies= 1 Absence

You are responsible for getting any information of assignments that you missed
because of absence before the next class meeting (but not during class). The best
way to reach me is through email or during office hours. Students are required to make up
missed class work. All late work (including "Re-do") is automatically marked down 2/3 of a
letter grade per calendar day the work is late. (an A becomes a B+) Students must turn in
ALL projects or will FAIL the course.

Late Work Policy

All late work (including "re-do") is automatically marked down. For example 1 day late an
A becomes an B+; a project due Monday that is submitted on Wednesday loses 1 1/3 of a
letter grade (an A becomes a B-). Work submitted more than 10 days late will not be
accepted and will be graded "F". This policy also applies to homework assignments. The
only exception is documented medical or personal emergency.

Academic Integrity Policy

Students will be expected to uphold their work to the highest degree of academic integrity
including crediting and citing all sources appropriately according to MLA guidelines.

The Modern Language Association as defines plagiarism: "To use another person's ideas
or expressions in your writing without acknowledging the source is to plagiarize.
Plagiarism then constitutes intellectual theft. Plagiarism often carries severe penalties
ranging from failure in a course to expulsion from school." (MLA Handbook for Writers of
Research Papers, 5th Edition. Ed. Joseph Gibaldi (New York: MLA, 1993): 30).

Source Material

Readings can be downloaded from the Canvas site. Students must bring a downloaded
hardcopy to each class session! A hardcopy Reader is available for purchase at Davis
Copy. I strongly recommend purchasing the Reader, to avoid having to make so many
photocopies. It is the student's responsibility (and part of the Attendance grade!) to have a
hardcopy with them during the class. Studies have shown that people read more actively
when they mark, highlight, and otherwise annotate a physical copy of a text.

Course Outline: (subject to change)

Week 1:
Modernism/Post Modernism:

Tues 1/8 Intro to class syllabus. What is critique? Structure of the course.
HW Read: Clement Greenburg, Avant-Garde and Kitsch (sec 1)
Modernist Painting (sec 2);
Jorg Heiser, Hegemony of the Impure (sec 1)
David Joselit, Notes on Surface: Towards a Genealogy
of Flatness (sec 2)

Thurs 1/10 Lecture on Modernism, Grand Narratives, Clement Greenburg

Avant-Garde and Kitsch; Modernist Painting
HW prepare discussion, Hegemony of the Impure/ Towards a Genealogy of
Flatness
Week 2:
Tues 1/15 Class Discussion Post Modernism; Hegemony of the Impure; Towards a
Genealogy of Flatness.
HW Read: Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
and written response.

The Frankfurt School and Its Legacy:

Thurs 1/17 Intro to Frankfurt School; Walter Benjamin The Work of Art in Age of
Mechanical Reproduction; John Berger, Ways of Seeing
HW Prepare Class Discussion

Week 3:
Tues 1/22 Class Discussion, Slide Lecture,
Leni Riefenstahl, Olympia; Dziga Vertov, Man with a Movie Camera
HW Read: Adorno & Horkheimer, The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass
Deception and written response.

Thurs 1/24 Lecture on Frankfurt School;

The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception, Theodor Adorno,
Max Horkheimer
HW: Prepare discussion, read An Illustrated Guide to Guy Dubord's Society of the
Spectacle.

Week 4:
Tues 1/29 Presentation Group: Society of the Spectacle; The Situationalist International
Film: Society of the Spectacle, Guy Dubord
HW Read: Looking at Photographs, Victor Burgin and written response

Structuralism & Semiotics:

Thurs 1/31 Lecture on Semiotics; Roland Barthes;

Looking at Photographs, Victor Burgin
HW Read: The Rhetoric of the Image
Week 5:
Tues 2/5 Presentation Group, The Rhetoric of the Image, Roland Barthes
Presentation Group, 1000 Plateaus, Giles Delueze

Thurs 2/7 Review of mid-term

Week 6:
Tues 2/12 Mid-Term Exam
Feminist Methodologies and Intersectionality:

HW Read: House Work and Art Work, Helen Molesworth and written response.

Thurs 2/14 Lecture on House Work and Art Work; Feminist Methodologies.
Slide Lecture
HW Read: TBA
Week 7:
Tues 2/18 Presentation Group: Judy Chicago
Presentation Group: Mary Kelly
HW Read: Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema and written response

Thurs 2/20 Lecture on Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema, Laura Mulvey

Psychoanalysis; Representation

Week 8:
Tues 2/26 Presentation Group: Adrian Piper, Cornered
Presentation Group: bell hooks, Feminism is for Everybody
Presentation Group: Hito Steyerl, The Subalterns' Present
HW Read: Sculpture in the Expanded Field and written response

Rethinking Media and Form:

Thurs 2/28 Lecture on Sculpture in the Expanded Field, Rosiland Krauss

HW Read: One Place After Another and written response

Week 9:
Tues. 3/5 Lecture on One Place After Another, Miwon Kwon

Thurs 3/7 TBA (Bruce Nauman visit, Manetti Shrem)

Week 10:

3/12: Review of final

3/14: Final Exam