AHIS 468: Studies in Modern Art

AHIS 468: Studies in Modern Art Modernism, Imperialism, Race, and the “Exotic”

Fall 2010 Dr. Catherine E. Anderson Tuesdays, 2:00-4:50 pm Office Hours: Tues. 11:30-1:30 VKC 379 and by appointment 4 units Office: VKC 346 [email protected]

Henri Matisse, Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Ground, 1925-26

Course Description:

This course will explore the relationships among modernism, race, imperialism, and the lure of the “exotic” in European art of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We will examine how ideas about non-western cultures and their artistic traditions circulated in the west, how contemporary racial theory impacted the arts, and how the critical appreciation of “primitivism” accompanied the developing strains of modernist expression during this period. While investigating the ways in which constructions of gender and race informed imperialist— and modernist—ideologies, we will study not only how artists responded to these themes, but also how the visual arts participated in a reciprocal dialogue with popular images of colonized civilizations.

1 Required textbooks, all available at the USC bookstore:

Edward Said, Orientalism (1978; New York: Vintage, 1979)

Stephen F. Eisenmann, Gauguin’s Skirt (London: Thames and Hudson, 1997)

Elazar Barkan and Ronald Bush, eds., Prehistories of the Future: The Primitivist Project and the Culture of Modernism (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1995)

Saloni Mathur, India by Design: Colonial History and Cultural Display (Berkeley: U California P, 2007)

Roger Benjamim, Orientalist Aesthetics: Art, Colonialism, and French North Africa 1880-1930 (Berkeley: U California P, 2003)

Additionally, you will need to purchase the course reader, available at University Graphics, 3309 S. Hoover St.

Requirements and grading (all requirements must be completed to pass the course):

Weekly discussion participation: 50% Review essay on the Gérôme exhibition currently at the Getty Center (4-5 pages, due September 14): 10% Research presentation: 10% Research paper (10 pages, due Wednesday, December 8 by 5 pm): 30%

Since this course is a reading- and discussion-based seminar, your regular attendance and active, engaged participation are crucial to your success. Please come to class having completed the assigned readings for that day and be prepared to ask and answer questions. Throughout the term, you will be responsible for leading discussions on certain texts (to be assigned as we progress).

You have two paper assignments in this class. The first is a 4-5 page review essay on the exhibition “The Spectacular Art of Jean-Léon Gérôme,” on view at the Getty Center until September 12. For more information see: http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/gerome and follow links for the Getty’s hours, directions, etc. Admission is free, but parking is $15 per car except on Saturdays after 5:00 pm when parking is free (the Getty is open until 9:00 pm on Saturdays).

The second written assignment is a 10 page paper demonstrating extensive independent research on a topic that you develop in consultation with me. Suggested topic areas will be distributed, but you will need to create a narrow, focused topic after preliminary research. Towards the end of the semester, you will be presenting a 10-minute overview of your topic and your work-in- progress on your final paper to the class. During the last class meeting, we will “workshop” paper drafts in class. Your final paper should demonstrate thoughtful analysis of your topic; evidence of revision and re-writing; and attention to detail, both in terms of writing and scholarly research. Please note that late papers will not be accepted except in the case of a legitimate, documented emergency.

2 Schedule of topics and readings:

All articles may be found in the course reader, except as indicated below.

*Please note that assigned readings must be completed before each class where they are listed.*

Week 1 (August 24): Course introduction

Week 2 (August 31): Defining Orientalism

Read: Edward Said, Orientalism 1-110

Week 3 (September 7): Defining Orientalism continued

Read: Said, Orientalism 111-254

Week 4 (September 14): Orientalism and academic painting

Essay on Gérôme exhibition due at the start of class

Read: Linda Nochlin, “The Imaginary Orient” (1983)

Week 5 (September 21): Self and Other: European modernism and imperialism

Read (all in Elazar Barkan and Ronald Bush, eds., Prehistories of the Future):

Elazar Barkan and Ronald Bush, “Introduction”

Elazar Barkan, “Victorian Promiscuity: Greek Ethics and Primitive Exemplars”

Joss Lutz Marsh, “In a Glass Darkly: Photography, the Premodern, and Victorian Horror”

Christopher B. Steiner, “Travel Engravings and the Construction of the Primitive”

Week 6 (September 28): French artists in North Africa

Read: Roger Benjamin, Orientalist Aesthetics 1-103

Library workshop (to be confirmed)

Week 7 (October 5): Colonized subjects and objects on display

Saloni Mathur, India by Design 27-79

3 Week 8 (October 12): Images of colonial subjects and their circulation

Read: Saloni Mathur, India by Design 80-132

Week 9 (October 19): Critical perspectives on Gauguin, part 1

Read: Abigail Solomon-Godeau, “Going Native: Paul Gauguin and the Invention of Primitivist Modernism” (1986)

Peter Brooks, “Gauguin’s Tahitian Body” (1990)

Nancy Perloff, “Gauguin’s French Baggage: Decadence and Colonialism in Tahiti,” in Barkan and Bush

Week 10 (October 26): Critical perspectives on Gauguin, part 2

Read: Stephen F. Eisenmann, Gauguin’s Skirt

Week 11 (November 2): Picasso’s primitivism

Read: Michael North, “Modernism’s African Mask: The Stein-Picasso Collaboration,” in Barkan and Bush

Henry Lewis Gates, Jr., “Europe, African Art and the Uncanny” (1995)

Patricia Leighten, “The White Peril and L’Art nègre: Picasso, Primitivism, and Anti- Colonialism” (1990)

Week 12 (November 9): Race, sexuality, and the exotic in expressionism and beyond

Wendy Martin, “‘Remembering the Jungle’: Josephine Baker and Modernist Parody,” in Barkan and Bush

Simon Faulkner, “Homo-exoticism: John Minton in London and Jamaica, 1950-51” (2007)

Week 13 (November 16): Research presentations

Week 14 (November 23): Research presentations

Week 15 (November 30): In-class writing workshop

Please bring a completed draft of your research paper (as a hard copy) to class.

4 Study Days: December 4-7

Paper due: Wednesday, December 8 at 5:00 pm in my office

Please note: this schedule is subject to change in the event of unforeseen circumstances.

Statement for Students with Disabilities Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.

Statement on Academic Integrity USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic honesty include the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations both to protect one’s own academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using another’s work as one’s own. All students are expected to understand and abide by these principles. Scampus, the Student Guidebook, contains the Student Conduct Code in Section 11.00, while the recommended sanctions are located in Appendix A: http://www.usc.edu/dept/publications/SCAMPUS/gov/. Students will be referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards for further review, should there be any suspicion of academic dishonesty. The Review process can be found at: http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/SJACS/.