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M i n i m a l i s m a n d P o s t m i n i m a l i s m : t h e o r i e s a n d r e p e r c u s s i o n s Department of , Theory, and 4372 The School of the Art Institute of David Getsy, Instructor [[email protected]] Spring 2000 / Tuesdays 9 am - 12 pm / Champlain 319

c o u r s e de s c r i pt i o n Providing an in-depth investigation into the innovations in art theory and practice commonly known as “” and “,” the course follows the development of Minimal stylehood and tracks its far-reaching implications. Throughout, the greater emphasis on the viewer’s contribution to the aesthetic encounter, the transformation of the role of the artist, and the expanded definition of art will be examined. Close evaluations of primary texts and art objects will form the basis for a discussion.

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m e t h o d o f e va l u a t i o n Students will be evaluated primarily on attendance, preparation, and class discussion. All students are expected to attend class meetings with the required readings completed. There will be two writing assignments: (1) a short on a relevant artwork in a Chicago collection or public due on 28 March 2000 and (2) an in- class final examination to be held on 9 May 2000. The examination will be based primarily on the readings and class discussions. Students have the option of writing a full research paper on a relevant topic in lieu of taking the final. must be 12-15 pages in length. Final topics must be approved by 4 April 2000. No student may choose to opt for a paper after this date.

• • • 1 c o u r s e r e a di n g s The majority of readings can be found in the required course text book: Gregory BATTCOCK, ed., Minimal Art: A Critical Anthology (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996). readings will be made available for photocopying at least one week before the session and can be found in the library on reserve. Many can also be found in the anthology Kristine STILES and Peter Howard SELZ, Theories and documents of : a sourcebook of artists' writings, California studies in the 35 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), though this book has not been ordered through the bookstore. All readings must be done carefully, and students will be expected to raise critical questions about the texts. Readings listed for ‘further reference’ are optional and are meant to aid students pursuing the research paper option. Any concerns about the availability of readings or suggestions for alternative readings should be addressed to the professor as soon as possible.

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s e s s i o n c a l e n da r 1 February 2000 i n t r o du c t i o n further reference Nicolas Calas, “Subject Matter in the Work of ,” Battcock 109-15 , “Local History,” reprinted in Complete Writings 1959-1975 (Halifax: The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and , 1975), pp. 148-56 8 February 2000 c o m pe t i n g de f i n i t i o n s o f t h e M i n i m a l required reading • Donald Judd, Excerpts from “Specific Objects” (1965), in K. Stiles and P. Selz, Theories and documents of contemporary art : a sourcebook of artists' writings, California studies in the history of art 35 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), pp. 114-17 • , “ABC Art” (1965), Battcock 274-97 [skim] • Robert Morris, “Notes on [1 and 2]” (1966), Battcock 222-35 • Mel Bochner, “Primary Structures,” Magazine 40.8 (June 1966), pp. 32-35 • Lucy Lippard, “10 Structurists in 20 Paragraphs,” in Minimal Art, exh. cat. (The Hague: Haagsgemeentemuseum, 1968), pp. 25-31 further reference • Samuel Wagstaff, “Talking with ” (1966), Battcock 381-86 • Peter Hutchinson, “ in the Abstract” (1966), Battcock 187-94 • Corinne Robins, “Object, Structure or Sculpture: Where Are We?,” Arts Magazine 40.9 (September 1966), pp. 33-37 • Robert Morris, “Notes on Sculpture, part 3: Notes and Nonsequiturs,” 5.10 (Summer 1967), pp. 24-29 • Phyllis Tuchman, “Minimalism and Critical Response,” Artforum 15.9 (May 1977), pp. 26-31 • Bruce Altshuler, The Avant-Garde Exhibition: New Art in the (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994) • Alex Potts, “The Minimalist Object and the Photographic Image,” in G. Johnson, ed., Sculpture and : Envisioning the Third Dimension (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 182ff

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15 February 2000 m o de r n i s t pa i n t i n g a n d t h e ‘ i n e vi t a bi l i t y ’ t h e m i n i m a l : n o n - r e l a t i o n a l c o m po s i t i o n a n d t h e e m e r g e n c e o f s h a pe 2 required reading • , “The Recentness of Sculpture” (1967), Battcock 180-86 • Bruce Glaser and Lucy Lippard, “Questions to Stella and Judd” (1964-66), Battcock 148-64 • Will Insley interviewed by Elayne Varian, “Schemata 7” (1967), Battcock 359-63 • , “Shape as Form: ’s Irregular Polygons” (1966) reprinted in Art and Objecthood: Essays and Reviews (Chicago: Press, 1998), pp. 77-99 • Frank Stella, Excerpts from “The Pratt Lecture” (1966), reptinted in Stiles and Selz 1996, pp. 113-14 further reference • Caroline Jones, Machine in the Studio: Constructing the Postwar American Artist (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996) • , “The Monochrome and the Blank Canvas,” in Reconstructing : Art in New York, , and Montreal 1954-1964, ed. S. Guilbaut (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1990)

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22 February 2000 e n c o u n t e r i n g t h e M i n i m a l i s t o bj e c t required reading • Barbara Reise, “‘Untitled 1969’: A Footnote on Art and Minimal Stylehood,” Studio International 177.910 (April 1969), pp. 166-7 • Lucy Lippard, “Eros Presumptive” (1967), Battcock 209-21 • , “Writings” (1967), Battcock 401-402 • John Perreault, “Minimal Abstracts” (1967), Battcock 256-62 • Dan Flavin, “Some Remarks . . . Excerpts from a Spleenish Journal” (1966), reprinted in Stiles and Selz 125-26 further reference • Rosalind Krauss, “ and Illustion in Donald Judd,” Artforum 4.9 (May 1966), pp. 24-26 • Donald Judd, “Some Aspects of Colour in General and Red and Black in Particular,” Artforum 32.10 (Summer 1994), pp. 70-79, 110, 113 • Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, new uses for fluourescent light with diagrams, and prints from Dan Flavin 2/26-4/16/1989, exh. cat., 1989 • Barbara Rose, “Sculpture, Intimacy and ,” in 14 Sculptors: The Industrial Edge, exh. cat. (: , 1969), pp. 7-9 • Barbara Rose, "A New Aesthetic," A New Aesthetic, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: The Washington Gallery of ), 8-20 NOTE: The second half of class will take place in the Art Institute galleries

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29 February 2000 m i n i m i z i n g t h e a r t i s t : s e r i a l i t y , r e pe t i t i o n , l i t e r a l i s m required reading • Mel Bochner, “, Systems, ” (1967), Battcock pp. 92-102 • David Bourdon, “The Razed Sites of ” (1966), Battcock pp. 103-108 • Toby Mussman, “Literalness and the Infinite [part I]” (1966), Battcock 236-47 • Rosalind Krauss, “LeWitt in ,” The of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1985), pp. 245-69 further reference • , “Multiple Returns,” 70.3 (March 1982), pp. 112- 14 • Rosalind Krauss, “Grids,” The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1985), pp. 8-22 • E. C. Goosen, “The Artist Speaks: Robert Morris,” Art in America 58.3 (May 1970), pp. 104-11 • Rosalind Krauss, “The LeWitt Matrix,” in Sol LeWitt: Structures 1962-1993, exh. cat. (Oxford: of Modern Art, 1993) 3 • Donald Kuspit, “Wittgensteinean Aspects of Minimal Art,” in The Critic is Artist: The Intentionality of Art (Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Reseach Press, 1984), pp. 243-52 • David Bourdon, “A Redefinition of Sculpture,” in Carl Andre: Sculpture 1959- 1977, exh. cat. (New York, Jaap Rietman, Inc., 1978), pp. 13-40 • Briony Fer, “Judd’s Specific Objects,” On (New Haven: Press, 1997), pp. 131-52 NOTE: The second half of class may take place in the Art Institute galleries

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7 March 2000 t h e po l i t i c s o f M i n i m a l i s m required reading • Jeanne Siegal, “Carl Andre: Artworker,” Studio International 180 (November 1970), pp. 175-79 • Anna Chave, “Minimalism and the Rhetoric of Power,” Arts Magazine (January 1990), pp. 44-63 • Rosalind Krauss, “The Cultural Logic of the Late Capitalist Museum,” October 54 (Fall 1990), pp. 3-17 • , Photographs from Homes for America (1966), Battcock 175-79 further reference • Maurice Berger, Labyrinths: Robert Morris, Minimalism, and the 1960s (New York: Harper & Row, 1989) • Brian O’Doherty, Inside the White Cube: The of Gallery Space (San Francisco: Lapis Press, 1986) • Karl Beveridge and , “Don Judd,” The Fox 2 (1975), pp. 128-42 • “The Artist and Politics: A Symposium,” Artforum (Sept 1970), pp. 35-39 • Carl Andre, , Cindy Nemser, John Perreault and Spear, “The Role of the Artist in Today’s : A Symposium at Oberlin,” Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin 30.3 (Spring 1973): supplement • Alex Alberro, “The Turn of the Screw: , Dan Flavin, and the Sixth Guggenheim International Exhibition,” October 80 (Spring 1997): 57-84 • Charles Reeve, “Cold Metal: Donald Judd’s Hidden ,” 15.4 (December 1992), pp. 486-504

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14 March 2000 t h e a n a e s t h e t i c s o f m i n i m a l i s m : M i c h a e l F r i e d’ s “ Ar t a n d O bj e c t h o o d” required reading • Michael Fried, “Art and Objecthood” (1967), in Battcock 116-47 • , “Letter to the Editor” (1967), reprinted in Robert Smithson: Collected Writings, ed. J. Flam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), pp. 66-67 • Barbara Rose, “The Politics of Art I: as Revolution” (1968), Autocritique: Essays on Art and Anti-Art, 1963-1987 (New York: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1988), pp. 229-33 further reference • Benjamin Buchloh, Michael Fried and Rosalind Krauss, “Theories of Art after Minimalism and Pop,” Discussions in Contemporary 1, ed. H. Foster (Seattle: Bay Press, 1987), pp. 55-87 • Stephen Melville, “Notes on the Reemergence of Allegory, the Forgetting of Modernism, the Necessity of Rhetoric, and the Condition of Publicity in Art and Criticism,” October 19 (Winter 1981), pp. 55-92 • Rosalind Krauss, The Optical Unconscious (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1993) • Michael Fried, “An Introduction to My ” (1998), in Art and Objecthood: Essays and Reviews (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 1-74 • Sheldon Nodelman, “Sixties Art: Some Philosophical Perspectives,” Perspecta: 4 The Yale Architectural Journal 11 (1967), pp. 72-89 • , “Minimal Art” (1965), Battcock 387-99 • Annette Michelson, “Robert Morris: An Aesthetics of Transgression,” in Robert Morris, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: , 1970), pp. 7-75 • Frances Colpitt, “The Issue of : Is It Interesting?,” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 43.4 (Summer 1985), pp. 359-65 • Richard Lind, “Why Isn’t Minimal Art Boring?,” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 45.2 (Winter 1986), pp. 195-97

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21 March 2000 s pr i n g br e a k : C LAS S C AN C ELLED

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28 March 2000 t h e po s t - m o de r n i s t r e - r e a di n g o f t h e M i n i m a l i s t m o m e n t required reading • , “The Crux of Minimalism,” [revised] in The Return of : The Avant-Garde at the End of the Century (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1996), pp. 35-68 • Rosalind Krauss, “Sense and Sensibility: Reflections on Post 60’s Sculpture,” Artforum 12.3 (November 1973), pp. 43-53 further reference • Rosalind Krauss, “Overcoming the Limits of Matter: On Revising Minimalism,” in J. Elderfield, ed., American Art of the 1960s (New York: , 1991) • Rosalind Krauss, “Sculpture in the Expanded Field,” reprinted in The Anti- Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture, ed. H. Foster (Seattle: Bay Press, 1983), pp. 31-42 • Rosalind Krauss, et al., “The Reception of the Sixties,” October 69 (Summer 1994), pp. 3-21 • Margaret Iversen, “Spectators of : from Minimalism to feminism,” in and the re-reading of , ed. F. Barker, et al. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992), pp. 180-96 • Brian Wallis, “Notes on (Re)viewing Donald Judd’s Work,” Donald Judd: Eight Works in Three Dimensions, exh. cat. (Charlotte, North Carolina: Knight Gallery, 1984), n. p. • Paul Beidler, “The Postmodern : Kant and Tony Smith’s Anecdote of the Cube,” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 53.2 (Spring 1995), pp. 177-86 • Lynn Zelevansky, Sense and Sensibility: Women and Minimalism in the 1990s, exh. cat (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1994) • Maurice Berger, “Performativity and Minimalism in Recent American Art,” Minimal Politics, exh. cat., Fine Arts Gallery, University of Maryland, Issues in Cultural Theory 1 (New York: D.A.P., 1997), pp. 1-35 Writing assignment due at the beginning of class

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4 April 2000 a n t i - f o r m i n t h e wo r k o f Ro be r t M o r r i s , B a r r y Le Va , Al a n S a r e t , a n d Ri c h a r d S e r r a required reading • Robert Morris, “Antiform,” Artforum 6.8 (April 1968), pp. 33-35 • Robert Morris, “Notes on Sculpture, part IV: Beyond Objects,” Artforum 7.8 (April 1969), pp. 50-64 • , “ it Again, Sam,” Richard Serra: Writings/Interviews (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994): 7-9 5 • Gregoire Müller, “Robert Morris Presents Anti-Form: The Castelli Warehouse Show” (1969), reprinted in R. Armstrong and R. Marshall, The New Sculpture 1965-75, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1990), p. 109 • Robert Pincus-Witten, “Barry Le Va: The Invisibility of Content,” in Postminimalism (New York: Out of Press, 1977), pp. 119-27 further reference • Robert Pincus-Witten, “The Disintegration of Minimalism: Five Pictorial Sculptors” (1971) and “The Seventies” (1977), in Eye to Eye: Twenty Years of Art Criticism, Contemporary American Art Critics 4 (Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1984), pp. 119-29 • Jane Livingston, “Barry Le Va: Distributional Sculpture,” Artforum (November 1968) • Fidel A. Danieli, “Some New Artists,” Artforum 6.7 (March 1968), pp. 44-48 • Marcia Tucker, "Barry Le Va: Work from 1966-1978," Barry Le Va: Four Consecutive Installations & Drawings 1967-1978, exh. cat. (New York: The New Museum, 1978), 5-53 • Pepe Karmel, Robert Morris: The Felt Works, exh. cat. (New York: Grey and Study Center, 1989) Deadline for submission of final topics for all students choosing to write a research paper instead of taking the final examination

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11 April 2000 C r i t We e k : N O C LAS S

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18 April 2000 f r o m s h a pe t o s u bs t a n c e : m a t e r i a l s a n d pr o c e s s e s required reading • Lucy Lippard, “Eccentric Abstraction” (1966), reprinted in R. Armstrong and R. Marshall, The New Sculpture 1965-75, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1990), pp. 54-58 • Max Kozloff, “9 in a Warehouse: an ‘attack on the status of the object’” (1969), reprinted in R. Armstrong and R. Marshall, The New Sculpture 1965-75, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1990), pp. 106-107 • Robert Pincus-Witten, “Introduction,” Postminimalism (New York: Out of London Press, 1977), pp. 13-18 • Richard Serra, “Verb List” (1967-68), reprinted in Richard Serra: Writings/Interviews (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994): pp. 3-4 • Briony Fer, “Objects Beyond Objecthood,” Oxford Art Journal 22.2 (1999), pp. 25-36 further reference • , “1967: Out of Minimal Sculpture,” 1967: At the Crossroads, ed. J. Kardon, exh. cat. (Philadelphia: Institute of Contemporary Art, 1987), pp. 40-51 • , “Exercises in Anti-: Six Ways of Regarding Un, In, and Anti- form,” Arts Magazine 43 (April 1969): 45-47 • Robert C. Morgan, “Eccentric Abstraction and Postminimalism,” Flash Art 144 (January-February 1989), pp. 73-81 NOTE: The second half of class will take place in the Art Institute galleries

• • • 6 25 April 2000 Eva H e s s e : pa r a di g m a t i c P o s t m i n i m a l i s t ? required reading • , interview with Cindy Nemser [1970] in American Artists on Art from 1940 to 1980, ed. E. Johnson (New York: Harper & Row, 1982): 188-96 • Eva Hesse, Statement [1969?], in Eva Hesse: A Memorial Exhibition (New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1972): n.p. • Anne Wagner, “Another Hesse,” October 69 (Summer 1994): 49-84 • Rosalind Krauss, “Eva Hesse: Contingent” (1972), in Bachelors (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1999), 91-100 Further reading • Robert Pincus-Witten, "Eva Hesse: More Light on the Transition from Post- Minimalism to the Sublime” (1971) reprinted in Postminimalism (New York: Out of London Press, 1977), pp. 42-62 • Lucy Lippard, Eva Hesse (New York: Da Capo Press, 1992/1976) • Briony Fer, “Bordering on Blank: Eva Hesse and Minimalism,” On abstract art (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), pp. 190-30 • Briony Fer, “Treading Blindly, or the Excessive Presence of the Object,” Art History 20.2 (June 1997), pp. 268-88 • Anna Chave, “Eva Hesse: A ‘Girl Being a Sculpture’,” in H. Cooper, ed., Eva Hesse: A Retrospective, exh. cat. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), pp. 99-117 • Anna Chave, “Striking Poses: The Absurdist Theatrics of Eva Hesse,” in G. Johnson, ed., Sculpture and Photography: Envisioning the Third Dimension (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 166-81 • Barbara Rose, “About Eva Hesse,” Autocritique: Essays on Art and Anti-Art, 1963-1987 (New York: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1988), pp. 202-203

• • • 2 May 2000 ‘ t h e c o n ve n t i o n s o f a r t a r e a l t e r e d by wo r k s o f a r t ’ : r e pe r c u s s i o n s i n t o t h e 1 9 7 0 s required reading • Toby Mussman, “Literalness and the Infinte [part II]” (1966), Battcock 247-50 • Brian O’Doherty, “Minus Plato” (1966), Battcock 251-55 • Sol Lewitt, “Sentences on ” (1969), in Lucy Lippard, Six Years: The dematerialization of the art object from 1966 to 1972 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973/1997), pp. 75-76 • Mary Kelley, “Re-viewing Modernist Criticism” (1981), reprinted in B. Wallis, ed., Art After Modernism: Rethinking (New York: The New Museum of Contemporary Art, 1984), pp. 87-103 further reading • Hal Foster, “Wild Signs: The Breakup of the in Seventies’ Art,” in A. Ross, ed., Universal Abandon? The Politics of Postmodernism (Minneapolis: University of , 1989), pp. 251-68 • Rosalind Krauss, “Double Negative: A New Syntax for Sculpture,” Passages in (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1977) • Jack Flam, ed., Robert Smithson: Collected Writings (Berkeley: Univ. of CA, 1996) • , “Art after Philosophy,” Studio International (Nov 1969): 160-61 • , “Earthwords,” October 10 (Fall 1979): 120-30 • Benjamin Buchloh, “Conceptual Art 1962-69,” October 5 (Winter 1990) • Benjamin Buchloh, “Michael Asher and the Conclusion of Modernist Sculpture” (1980 [1979]), in Performance Text(e)s & Documents, ed. Chantel Pontbriand (Montreal: les éditions Parachute, 1981): 55-65. • Leslie C. Jones, “Transgressive Femininity: Art and Gender in the Sixties and Seventies,” Abject Art: Repulsion and Desire in American Art, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1993), pp. 33-57

• • • 7 9 May 2000 f i n a l e x a m i n a t i o n

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g e n e r a l r e f e r e n c e s Richard Armstrong and Richard Marshall, The New Sculpture 1965-75, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1990). David Batchelor, Minimalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). Centre Georges Pompidou, Robert Morris, exh. cat. (Paris: Éditions du Centre Georges Pompidou, 1995). Frances Colpitt, Minimal Art: The Critical (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1990) Georges Didi-Huberman, Ce Que Nous Voyons, Ce Qui Nous Regarde (Paris: Éditions de Minuit, 1992). Guggenheim Museum SoHo, Robert Morris, exh. cat. (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1994). Barbara Haskell, BLAM! The Explosion of Pop, Minimalism, and Performance, 1958-1964, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1983). Barbara Haskell, Donald Judd, exh. cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1988). Donld Judd, Donald Judd: Complete Writings 1959-1975 (Halifax: Nova Scotia College of Art, 1975). Donald Judd, Donald Judd: Complete Writings 1975-1986 (: Stedelijk , 1987). Rosalind Krauss, Passages in Modern Sculpture (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1977) Rosalind Krauss, Richard Serra/Sculpture, exh. cat. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1986). Kynaston McShine, Primary Structures: Younger American and British Sculptors (NY Jewish Museum, 1966). Robert Morris, Continuous Project Altered Daily: The Writings of Robert Morris (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1993). Brydon Smith, Donald Judd: Catalogue Raisonné of , Objects, and Woodblocks 1960-1974 (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1975). Maurice Tuchman, American Sculpture of the Sixties, exh. cat. (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1967). Marcia Tucker, Robert Morris, exh. cat. (New York: W.M.A.A., 1970). Marcia Tucker, Anti-Illusion: Procedures, Materials, exh. cat. (New York: W.M.A.A., 1970). Richard Wollheim, Art and Its Objects, 2nd ed. (Camrbidge: Cambridge University Press, 1980 [1968])

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