CORE0501 ART, SOCIETY, HUMAN

(All the Classes will be face to face)

Course Description:
The goal of this course is to introduce the student to an understanding of the discipline of art
history, changing conceptions of the artist, and the work of art through the study of art objects
from various historical periods. This course aims to discuss these objects and practices of visual
cultures through a wide variety of media, such as painting, sculpture, design, architecture,
prints, photography, installations, performance, advertisements and the moving image. It aims
to provide students with comprehensive, interdisciplinary and creative understanding of how
artistic works relate to social and cultural practices and historical circumstances that define
them.

Week 1

Context: The beginning of art, did primitives teach art, and what was the meaning and function
of art? Mimesis, abstraction, imitation, representation, symbol, religion, god, magic, ritual,
power and political image, beauty, creativity and talent and transformations of these concepts
throughout history.

Readings:

Eco, Umberto, and Alastair McEwen. On Beauty. London: Secker & Warburg, 2004. Print, pp.
8-14, 37-52.

Farthing, Stephen. Art: The Whole Story. London: Thames & Hudson, 2021. Print, pp. 8-13,
276-279.

Gombrich, E. H. The Story of Art. Phaidon Press, Ltd, London, 1995. Print, pp. 1-18 (Preface).

Hugh Honor, John Fleming. A World History of Art (4th Edition), London: Laurence King
Publishing, 1995. Print, pp. xiii-xxxii, 4-13, 25-26, 332-335.

Wilkes, Angela. The Story of Painting: How Art Was Made. London: Dorling Kindersley
Limited, 2019. Print, pp. 12-33, 52-55, 66-70, 73, 118-125, 194-195, 218-219, 226-227.

Zucker, Paul. Styles in Painting: A Comparative Study. New York: Dover Publications, 1963.
Print, pp. 1-11.
Week 2

Context: Human expression: Visual and verbal narration to represent and reconstruct the world.
Petroglyph, symbol, sign, hieroglyph, calligraphy to graffiti, metaphors, wordplay, manifesto,
slogan. Interplay of text and image in art to communicate meaning.

Readings:
Farthing, Stephen. Art: The Whole Story. London: Thames & Hudson, 2021. Print, pp. 500-503,
432-433, 552-555.

Harrison, Charles, and Paul Wood. Art in Theory: 1900-1990. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992. Print,
pp. 873-877, 881-882.

Hugh Honor, John Fleming. A World History of Art (4th Edition), London: Laurence King
Publishing, 1995. Print, pp. 4-13, 791-792, 797-798.

Ruhrberg, Karl, Manfred Schneckenburger, Christiane Fricke, Klaus Honnef, and Ingo F.
Walther. Art of the 20th Century. Köln: Taschen, 1998. Print; pp. 116, 146-148, 284-285, 556-
559.

Wilkes, Angela. The Story of Painting: How Art Was Made. London: Dorling Kindersley
Limited, 2019. Print, pp. 338-339.,

Week 3

Context: Breaking the rules: new ways of looking and interpreting. Artistic practice from
classical antiquity to 20th century modernism, post modernism and contemporary. Realism
versus idealisation. Human form. Depiction of the senses. A reading on the bodily art and
artistic body.

Readings:
Farthing, Stephen. Art: The Whole Story. London: Thames & Hudson, 2021. Print, pp. 150-153,
202-203.

Hugh Honor, John Fleming. A World History of Art (4th Edition), London: Laurence King
Publishing, 1995. Print, pp. 96-126, 141-150, 172-183, 405-406, 448-456.

Le, Normand-Romain A. Sculpture: The Adventure of Modern Sculpture in the Nineteenth and
Twentieth Centuries. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987. Print; pp. 88-91.

Ruhrberg, Karl, Manfred Schneckenburger, Christiane Fricke, Klaus Honnef, and Ingo F.
Walther. Art of the 20th Century. Köln: Taschen, 1998. Print; pp. 407-412, 428-437, 482-484,
487-490.
Wilkes, Angela. The Story of Painting: How Art Was Made. London: Dorling Kindersley
Limited, 2019. Print, pp. 52-103, 106-111.

Week 4

Context: The invention of the 'Camera Obscura' and the emergence of 'Photography'; The
transfer of earthly reality to the planar surface thereby spreading imaging and reproduction
techniques and examining how such developments challenged traditional representational
methods. The transformation of the medium and the Presentation of perception of reality in
painting; the notions of planar three-dimensionality and two-dimensionality, perspective, and
visual illusion. The relationship between art, aboutness and meaning in the context of
ornamental art and the neo-representational theory of art. The art object, its space and the
formation of art institutions and their effects on 'art status'.

Readings:
Farthing, Stephen. Art: The Whole Story. London: Thames & Hudson, 2021. Print, pp. 356-363.

Hugh Honor, John Fleming. A World History of Art (4th Edition), London: Laurence King
Publishing, 1995. Print, pp. 617-620, 639-642, 656-670.

Ruhrberg, Karl, Manfred Schneckenburger, Christiane Fricke, Klaus Honnef, and Ingo F.
Walther. Art of the 20th Century. Köln: Taschen, 1998. Print; pp. 621-680.

Wilkes, Angela. The Story of Painting: How Art Was Made. London: Dorling Kindersley
Limited, 2019. Print, pp. 238-246, 254-255.

Shanken, Edward A. Art and Electronic Media. Phaidon, UK, 2014. Print, pp. 16-22.

Lovejoy, Margot. Digital Currents: Art in the Electronic Age, New York / London: Routledge,
2004. Print, pp. 13-35.

Week 5

Context: Transformation of the ways of seeing. The before, after and loss of perspective after
500 years. the artist's reckoning with the past: The effect of relativity, intercultural interactions,
orientalism, colonialism, primitivism.

Readings:
Eco, Umberto, and Alastair McEwen. On Beauty. London: Secker & Warburg, 2004. Print, pp.
86-87.

Eco, Umberto, and Alastair McEwen. On Ugliness. London: Harvill Secker, 2007. Print, pp.
365-390 (Chapter 13: The Avant-Garde and the Triumph of Ugliness).
Farthing, Stephen. Art: The Whole Story. London: Thames & Hudson, 2021. Print, pp. 220-221,
286-293, 316-345, 392-395.

Hugh Honor, John Fleming. A World History of Art (4th Edition), London: Laurence King
Publishing, 1995. Print, pp. 289-293, 367-387, 391-393, 668-678, 684-690, 716-741.

Ruhrberg, Karl, Manfred Schneckenburger, Christiane Fricke, Klaus Honnef, and Ingo F.
Walther. Art of the 20th Century. Köln: Taschen, 1998. Print; pp. 7-21.

Wilkes, Angela. The Story of Painting: How Art Was Made. London: Dorling Kindersley
Limited, 2019. Print, pp. 26-45, 120-121, 174-175, 228-231, 247-277, 286-289.

Week 6

Context: Abstract art from prehistory to contemporary. The absence of the figure, 'blank'
canvases, expressionism towards minimalism, problematic art, the sublime, spirituality,
Konstrüktivizm and Bauhaus.

Readings:
Farthing, Stephen. Art: The Whole Story. London: Thames & Hudson, 2021. Print, pp. 396-409,
452-459, 468-471, 520-527.

Harrison, Charles, and Paul Wood. Art in Theory: 1900-1990. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992. Print,
pp. 68-71, 86-97, 166-176, 274-307, 554-586, 805-833.

Hugh Honor, John Fleming. A World History of Art (4th Edition), London: Laurence King
Publishing, 1995. Print, pp. 297-300, 727-730, 737-738, 741-743, 765-771, 776-785, 791-794.

Ruhrberg, Karl, Manfred Schneckenburger, Christiane Fricke, Klaus Honnef, and Ingo F.
Walther. Art of the 20th Century. Köln: Taschen, 1998. Print; pp. 160-183, 219-302, 344-360.

Wilkes, Angela. The Story of Painting: How Art Was Made. London: Dorling Kindersley
Limited, 2019. Print, pp. 280-285, 298-303, 320-325, 332-333.

Week 7

Context: From beautiful-ideal body to ugly body, freaks, monsters, the abnormal other, abject,
pathologized, sick, racialized and classified bodies

Readings:

Adams, Rachel. SideShow U.S.A: Freaks and the American Cultural Imagination. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2001. pp. 25-59
Eco, Umberto. On Ugliness. London: Harvill Secker, 2007. pp. 421-438

Recommended Film Screening:

Browning, Tod. 1932. Freaks. USA: Screenplay/Transcript of the 1932 Cult Horror Classic
Film. Horrorlair.com; Accessed http://www.horrorlair.com/scripts/freaks.tx

Week 8

MIDTERM

Week 9

Context: Examining the approaches developed about the historical and theoretical formation,
ontology and definition of art. Art and conceptuality, notions of ‘ready-made’ and 'techne'.
Conceptual Art, Minimalism, Postmodernity and Pop-Art. Avant-garde, Kitsch and Camp.
Interference of Science and Technology to the field of Art and the ‘New Media’ Art.

Readings:
Hugh Honor, John Fleming. A World History of Art (4th Edition), London: Laurence King
Publishing, 1995. Print, pp. 745-750, 753-761, 785-794, 797-798, 801-810.

Ruhrberg, Karl, Manfred Schneckenburger, Christiane Fricke, Klaus Honnef, and Ingo F.
Walther. Art of the 20th Century. Köln: Taschen, 1998. Print; pp. 303-330, 457-467, 509-559,
582-680.

Farthing, Stephen. Art: The Whole Story. London: Thames & Hudson, 2021. Print, pp. 410-433,
484-495, 512-519.

Eco, Umberto, and Alastair McEwen. On Ugliness. London: Harvill Secker, 2007. Print, pp.
391-420 (Chapter 14: The Ugliness of Others, Kitsch and Camp).

Carroll Noél; Philosophy of Art, a contemporary introduction, Routledge: London, 1999. Print,
pp. 19-56.

Calinescu, Mattei. Five Faces of Modernity, Duke University Press Durham, 1987. Print, pp.
95-144, 225-259.

Week 10
Context: Performing Race, Gender, and Identity. Feminist art, the place of the Other and
fragmented subjectivities.
Readings:

Goldberg, RoseLee. Performance: Live Art since the 60s. Thames & Hudson, London, 2004.
Print, pp. 129-145

Recommended Film Screening:

Livingston, Jennie. Paris Is Burning. Off White Productions Inc., 1990.,

Week 11

Context: Having a general look at the historical process of the phenomenon of 'urbanization'
and examining the relationship between 'Man', 'Nature' and the 'City'. The city and the ideal of
'progressivism'. Analysis of the concepts of post-urbanism and mega-urbanization. Exploring
the concepts of public space and private space and examining urban space and class categories
and Queer space formations. Explaining the intervention of art in urban space and art practice
based on sharing, togetherness and participation through works of art.

Readings:
Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility and Other
Writings on Media. Trans. E. Jephcott, R. Livingstone, H. Eiland, and Others. Ed. M. W.
Jennings, B. Doherty, and T. Y. Levin. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008. Print, pp.
19-55.

Farthing, Stephen. Art: The Whole Story. London: Thames & Hudson, 2021. Print, pp. 300-309,
316-323, 492-495.

Harrison, Charles, and Paul Wood. Art in Theory: 1900-1990. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992. Print,
pp. 248, 512-519, 693-702.

Week 12

Context: What/Who/When/Where is architecture? Theories, movements, architects and

monuments, and also materials, structural systems, social, political, and economic
developments. Examining forces shaping modern architectural design.
What are the ingredients in the recipes that forge lasting and memorable places? What is the
role of the Architect in that process? How is that role affected by strong contextual influences
– physical, environmental, economic, cultural, political, and technological?

Readings:
Jani, Vibhavari, Diversity in Design: Perspectives from the Non-Western World, Fairchild
Books, 2011, pp. 163-167, 183-187.
Smith, Korydon H. Introducing Architectural Theory: Debating a Discipline. New York:
Routledge, 2012. Print. (Chapter 1: Simplicity and Complexity)

Smith, Korydon H. Introducing Architectural Theory: Debating a Discipline. New York:

Routledge, 2012. Print. (Chapter 3: Honesty and Deception)

Smith, Korydon H. Introducing Architectural Theory: Debating a Discipline. New York:

Routledge, 2012. Print. (Chapter 9: Context and Building)

Brawne, Michael, Architectural Thought: the design process and the expectant eye,
Architectural Press, 2003, pp. 125-136.

Belogolovsky, Vladimir, Conversations with Architects: In the Age of Celebrity, Dom

Publishers, 2015, pp. 510-527.

Week 13

Context: Meaning and function of architecture in different civilizations. Exploration of the

role of architecture over time, how it functioned in various social, economic, cultural, political
and religious contexts and whose interests it pursued or aimed to change. Antecedents and
successors in architecture. Space-architecture-ideology.

Readings:
Beatriz Colomina (ed.), Cold War Hothouses: Inventing Postwar Culture, from Cockpit to
Playboy, Princeton Architectural Press, 2004.

Beatriz Colomina, Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media, 1996, The
MIT Press.

Kojin Karatani, Architecture as Metaphor: Language, Number, Money, MIT Press, 1995.
Slavoj Zizek, Living in the End Times, Verso, 2011.

Week 14
Context: From art and crafts to design ; from interfaces to intermediate bodies, from first
hand tools to 'black boxes', from Wedgwood to Tupperware, from Venus to Barbie, from Al-
Jazari to Meccano and Lego, from Robbie the Robot, Forbidden Planet to R2D2, Star Wars
and TARS to Interstellar

Readings:
Anthony Dunne, Hertzian Tales: Electronic Products, Aesthetic Experience, and Critical
Design (The MIT Press), 2008.
David Crowley (ed.) and Jane Pavitt (ed.), Cold War Modern: Design 1945-1970, V & A
Publishing, 2008.

Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition, 2013
Larry Shiner, The Invention of Art, University of Chicago press, 2001.

Nicolas Bourriaud, Postproduction: Culture as Screenplay: How Art Reprograms the World,
Lukas & Sternberg, 2000.

Vilem Flusser, The Shape of Things: A Philosophy of Design, Reaktion, 1999.

Mid-term Exam Date:

The eighth week will be the mid-term examination. Dates and hours will be announced on
Blackboard. The exam will cover all the periods covered up to eighth week.

Final Exam Date:

Final examination date and hour will be announced by the Student Affairs. %20 to %25 of the
final examination will also cover questions from the mid-term examination subjects. The
excuses for the final exam make-ups should be submitted to the deans office of your faculty,
not to the lecturers of this class.

Class Policies:

Grading:
Midterm: % 50
Final exam: % 50

Final Grading Scale will be:

AA: 100-90
BA: 89-80
BB: 79-70
CB: 69-65
CC: 64-60
DC: 59-55
DD: 54-40
F: 39-0

Attendance: Please avoid absences. Attendance is compulsory and everyone is expected to

attend %70 of the lectures.
Participation: Please join discussions and ask questions in class. Many of the terms used in
Art are unique. Some are no part of everyday or common language. If you hear a word which
is not clear to you, make a note of it and ask for an explanation in the discussion period. Ask
questions if anything is unclear. Take notes and be serious about it.

Ethical Behavior: Please be on time for the class. Do not copy any ideas or written documents
during exams. Any indication of copying will not be accepted and may cause the student to
fail the course.

Comply with all university rules, regulations and policies.