ART HISTORY Contemporary Artists of the African Diaspora – draft syllabus,
Fall Semester 2020
ARH 345J and AFR 335J
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00 – 3:30pm
Eddie Chambers [email protected] Office: ART 3.324 Phone: 512-471-7554
• ONLINE
This course is designed to be 100% online. Students will be able to complete all required course activities remotely. All class materials will be posted on Canvas, under ‘Files’.
• ASYNCHRONOUS LEARNING
This course will involve asynchronous learning activities whereby students will be required to complete coursework on their own. Enrolled students will be notified by the instructor which assignments will be asynchronous, when those assignments will be available, and when they will be due.
OFFICE HOURS (ONLINE): Tuesday 11:00am - 1:00pm
I want to stress that I am available outside of these office hours, at times of our mutual convenience. If for any reason these office hours do not work for you, contact me by email and we can set up a time to meet, via Zoom or Skype (my Skype name is eddiechambers1)
This class will look at the work of a fascinating group of contemporary artists. These are artists of African origin/background, living and working in what we now sometimes refer to as the “African diaspora”. Such communities of people, and the artists they have produced, owe their present-day existence to a variety of factors including the trans-Atlantic slave trade, 20th century patterns of migration and travel, and the evolving nature of the art world. Today, a growing number of artists of African origin have become major players in the art market. Others have become reflective of shifts and developments in 20th Century Black cultural politics. This class will examine the work of a range of Black artists whose practice came to the fore over the course of the last three or four decades, from the early 1970s right up to the present time. Artists to be studied include US practitioners such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Faith Ringgold, artists of Caribbean background such as Albert Chong and Barrington
Watson, and British artists of the African diaspora such as Chris Ofili and Godfried Donkor.
This is a VAPA class and has Global Cultures (GC) and Writing (W) flags
This course carries the Global Cultures flag. Global Cultures courses are designed to increase your familiarity with cultural groups outside the United States. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from assignments covering the practices, beliefs, and histories of at least one non-U.S. cultural group, past or present. The Writing Flag helps students improve their:
• Critical thinking skills • Understanding of course content • Ability to formulate ideas in writing • Ability to write in the style of a particular discipline
• Students must expect to write regularly (two shorter (circa 600 words) papers per week, plus a research paper of 3500 words) • Students will receive feedback from the instructor to help them improve their writing, and be given an opportunity to revise at least one assignment • Students’ writing will make up at least two-thirds of the course grade
Learning Goals
By the end of this course you will be ready to: • Pose critical questions of the ways in which African Diaspora artists have created stories about the experiences of living in the Diaspora, as well as reflecting developments in modern and contemporary art practices throughout the 20th century • Develop close reading and visual literacy skills in order to experiment with different methods of investigation and synthesize those findings into coherent verbal and written arguments • Thoughtfully and respectfully critique the intellectual work of others, and evaluate its usefulness in relationship to your own inquiry and academic interests • Have a greater understanding of the meaning and manifestations of African Diaspora contributions to wider art and culture • Articulate your own opinions, arguments and understandings of African Diaspoa art
NOTE: There are eight classes at the end of this syllabus that do not yet have classes assigned. This is deliberate. There is every chance that a number of the artists we will be looking at will require more than one class. If/when this happens, the syllabus will be altered accordingly. This will likely account for some/all of the currently unallocated classes. At the end of the syllabus are the names of three artists who, depending on how the lesson plan works out, may possibly be assigned classes.
Thursday August 27, 2020
An introduction to Contemporary Artists of the African Diaspora
Krista Thompson, “A Sidelong Glance: The Practice of African Diaspora Art History in the United States” Art Journal, Volume 70, 2011, Issue 3, pp. 6 - 31
Tuesday September 1, 2020
Albert Chong: from Jamaica to Colorado
Text: Jeff Hoone, catalog introduction to Across the Void, Menschell Photography Gallery, Syracuse University, 2000, pp. 4 – 5 and Thelma Golden, ‘Albert Chong: Eye & I’, catalog essay in Ancestral Dialogs: The Photographs of Albert Chong, the Friends of Photography, San Francisco, 1994. Catalog unpaginated.
Thursday September 3, 2020
An Ofili Big Adventure, Who Flung Dung and other stories: the art of Chris Ofili Text: Godfrey Worsdale ‘The Stereo Type’, catalog essay to accompany exhibition at Southampton City Art Gallery, 1998, pp.1-16
Tuesday September 8, 2020
Hassan Hajjaj: reframing the young women of Morocco
Text: catalog, Hassan Hajjaj: Dakka Marrakesh, Leighton House Museum, 10 September - 5 October 2008
Thursday September 10, 2020
Sonia Boyce: So Much Things to Say
Text: Anjalie Dalal-Clayton, “Sonia Boyce: Beyond Blackness”, Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art (2019) 2019 (45): 62–73.
Tuesday September 15, 2020
Barbara Walker: Making Herself Visible
Celeste-Marie Bernier, ‘No More “Poisonous, Disrespectful, and Skewed Images of Black People”: Barbara Walker’s Louder than Words’, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Number 38-39, November 2016: 122-133
Thursday September 17, 2020
Mickalene Thomas: turning the tables on art history
Text: Jennifer Blessing, "MOTHER-MUSE-MIRROR: Mickalene Thomas' Photographs", Mickalene Thomas, Muse: Mickalene Thomas Photographs, Exh. cat. New York: Aperture, 2015. 156 pp.; 85 ills. [Aperture Foundation, New York, January 28–March 17, 2016]
Tuesday September 22, 2020
Yinka Shonibare: From London to Lagos and back again
Text: Kobena Mercer, ‘Art That is Ethnic in Inverted Commas’, Frieze, November/December 1995: 39-41
Thursday September 24, 2020
Faith Ringgold: Going the Distance, Staying the Course
Text: ‘The 1960s: Is There a Black Art?’ from We Flew Over the Bridge: The Memoirs of Faith Finggold, Bulfinch Press, Little, Brown and Company, 1995
Tuesday September 29, 2020
Vanley Burke: People’s Photographer.
Text: Mora J. Beauchamp-Byrd ‘Everyday People: Vanley Burke and the Ghetto as Genre,’ from Back to Black: Art, Cinema and the Racial Imagery, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 2005 (exhibition catalog) pp. 175 - 182
Thursday October 1, 2020
Renee Cox: putting herself into art history
Text: ‘“A Taste of Power” Renee Cox interviewed by Uri McMillan, Aperture 225, Winter 2016
Tuesday October 6
Barrington Watson: Jamaica’s Popular Artist
Text: Petrine Archer–Straw and Kim Robinson ‘Introduction’ Chapter One, ‘Birth of a Movement, Chapter Two, ‘Imitations of Europe’. Chapter Three, ‘The Dynamic Sixties’, pp.57 – 61, Chapter Four, ‘Change, Growth and Synthesis’, Chapter Five, ‘Self-Taught Artists – Africa Incarnated’, Chapter Six, ‘New Directions’in Jamaican Art: An Overview – with a focus on fifty artists, Kingston Publishers, 1990,.
Thursday October 8
Denzil Forrester, Grenada: Visualizing Music
Text: “Denzil Forrester”, Art Quarterly Winter 2019, 36-41
Tuesday October 13
The Cultural Implications of Rastafari
Text: Roanne Edwards, “Rastafarians”, AFRICANA: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Running Press, 2003
Thursday October 15, 2020
The Weird and Wonderful Work of Hew Locke (Guyana)
Text: Kris Kuramitsu, "King Creole - Hew Locke's New Visions of Empire", catalogue, Hew Locke, the New Art gallery, Walsall, 29 April - 26 June 2005: 3-7
Tuesday October 20, 2020
Maria Magdalena Campos Pons (Cuba): Exile, Relocation, Memory Text: “Conversation with Maria Magdalena Campos-pons”, Derek Conrad Murray and Soraya Murray, Diaspora Memory Place: David Hammons, Maria Magdalena Campos- pons, Pamela Z, (Salah M Hassan and Cheryl Finley (eds)), Prestel, 2008
Thursday October 22, 2020
Slavery, History and Identity in the work of Godfried Donkor
Text: Celeste-Marie Bernier, ‘Speculation and the Imagination’: History, Storytelling and the Body in Godfried Donkor's ‘Financial Times’ (2007), Slavery & Abolition, 29:2, 2008: 203-217
Tuesday October 27, 2020
Donald Rodney: Identity, Illness, Art, Art History
Text: Virginia Nimarkoh, ‘Image of Pain: Physically in the Art of Donald Rodney’, Doublethink, (Richard Hylton, ed.), London: Autograph, 2003: 82-90
Thursday October 29, 2020
Charles Campbell: Visualizing the Slave Ship and Slavery
Text: “Negroes: Old and New”, Chapter Four of Cheryl Finley, Committed to Memory: The Art of the Slave Ship Icon, Princeton University Press, 2018: 109-126
Tuesday November 3, 2020
Keith Piper: An Artist of the African Diaspora
Text: Kobena Mercer ‘Witness at the Crossroads: An Artist’s Journey in Post-colonial Space’, in Relocating the Remains (exhibition publication) institute of International Visual Arts, London 1997 pp.15-36
Thursday November 5, 2020
Tuesday November 10, 2020
Thursday November 12, 2020
Tuesday November 17, 2020
Thursday November 19, 2020
Tuesday November 24, 2020
Thursday November 26, 2020 Thanksgiving
Tuesday December 1, 2020
Thursday December 3, 2020 Last day of our class
3500-word paper due TUESDAY DECEMBER 8 2020, AT 10:00AM
Particulars
A précis (circa 600 words), summarizing one of the previous week’s readings is due at 11:00am each Tuesday, beginning Tuesday September 8, 2020. A response paper, offering a critical reflection on one of the previous week’s classes is due at 11:00am each Tuesday, beginning Tuesday September 8, 2020. A model précis and a model response paper have been uploaded on to Canvas, under ‘Files’ for your consideration and as EXAMPLES of how précis and response papers might be approached.
A 3500-word research paper, relating to some aspect of the class, must be submitted no later than 10.00am on Tuesday December 8, 2020. Details of the research paper to follow.
There is no required textbook. All readings will be posted on Canvas.
Accommodation.
The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. Students with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations from the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities, 512 471-3212, https://diversity.utexas.edu/ For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students, https://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/
Academic Integrity
University Policy on Scholastic Dishonesty: “Students who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from the University. Since such dishonesty harms the individual, all students, and the integrity of the University, policies on scholastic dishonesty will be strictly enforced. Please see UT Honor Code (or statement of ethics) and an explanation or example of what constitutes plagiarism (Link to University Honor Code: https://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/conduct/academicintegrity.php). For further information please visit the Student Judicial Services Web site: https://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/conduct/
Class Attendance
Students are required to attend all classes. Please inform instructor ahead of time if you will miss any class. Full attendance is 20 points. For every unexcused absence from class, a student will drop 5 points. University policy on holy days states, “A student who misses classes or other required activities, including examinations, for the observance of a religious holy day should inform the instructor as far in advance of the absence as possible, so that arrangements can be made to complete an assignment within a reasonable time after the absence.” Unless absences have been notified in advance, students failing to sign the class attendance sheet will be considered absent. Class attendance and participation will count towards final grade.
By UT Austin policy, you must notify me of your pending absence at least fourteen days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, an examination, a work assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holy day, you will be given an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence.
Assignments and Grading
Précis/response papers 30 points Class participation 10 points
Class presentations 10 points
Research Paper 50 points
Total…………………………………..100 points
A……………………………………….90-100 points
B……………………………………… 80-89 points.
C…………………………………….... 70-79 points.
D…………………………………… …60-69 points.
E……………………………………….50-59 points.
F………………………………………. Below 50 points.
There are no exams relating to this class
Class readings will be made available on Canvas. Likewise, class announcements will be posted on Canvas - https://canvas.utexas.edu/
Mary Evans
Ingrid Pollard
Claudette Johnson
If classes are assigned to any of these three artists, respective texts on them will be drawn from Celeste-Marie Bernier, Stick to the Skin: African American and Black British Art, 1965-2015, University of California Press, 2019