Prof. Kent Minturn Jackson Pollock and the New York School New York University, Fall 2017 CORE-UA 720 | Class#: 17338 | Session: 1 | Section: 001 T-TH 12:30-1:45
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Prof. Kent Minturn Jackson Pollock and the New York School New York University, Fall 2017 CORE-UA 720 | Class#: 17338 | Session: 1 | Section: 001 T-TH 12:30-1:45 Course Description: Jackson Pollock and the New York School will examine the life, artistic career and legacy of Jackson Pollock (one the most important though least understood American painters) against the broader background of 20th-century American art, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Postmodernism, and the rise of new media. Concomitantly, this course will introduce students to the existing critical literature on Abstract Expressionism, Jackson Pollock, and his legacy. We will begin by revisiting the Armory Show of 1913, an important exhibition that introduced modern art to American audiences. After this we will look at Pollock’s humble American Scene paintings of the 1930s and discuss his relationship with his mentor, the popular but controversial Regionalist painter, Thomas Hart Benton. Then we will move on to consider the relationship between Pollock and the émigré French Surrealists (notably André Breton, Max Ernst, André Masson) who arrived in New York in 1940. Pollock’s fascination with the Surrealists’ “automatist” experiments eventually led to the his famous “drip” technique. From here we will examine how Pollock’s move “beyond the easel” inspired second-generation postwar American artists, including Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Allan Kaprow, Eve Hesse and Andy Warhol. And finally, we will consider Pollock’s “afterlife” in photography, film and new media. Teaching Assistants: Adam Dunlavy ([email protected]) Jennifer Buonocore ([email protected]) Course Requirements: Class and weekly discussion sections attendance (see schedule below) Assigned readings 5 page midterm paper, 5-7 page final paper, In-class final exam Texts: There is no required textbook; readings will be scanned and distributed electronically, or will be available through JSTOR Syllabus: Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2017 Introduction: What is/was Abstract Expressionism? READING: Clement Greenberg, “Avant-Garde and Kitsch” (1939), (http://www.sharecom.ca/greenberg/kitsch.html) Recommended: Irving Sandler, The Triumph of American Painting (New York: Praeger, 1970). Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017 Introduction (continued): What is/was Abstract Expressionism? READING: Serge Guilbault, “The New Adventures of the Avant-Garde in America,” October 15 (Winter 1980). (JSTOR) Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017 (No Class) Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017 American Predecessors READING: Abraham A. Davidson, “The Armory Show and Early Modernism in America,” in 20th Century American Art, ed. Christos M. Joachimides (Munich: Prestel, 1993): 39-46. (PDF) Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017 American Predecessors (Continued) READING: Stephen Polcari, “Jackson Pollock and T.H. Benton” (1979) (PDF) Thursday, Sept. 21, 2017 Pollock and the Mexican Muralists Ellen Landau, “Reinventing Muralism: Pollock, Mexican Art, and the Origins of Action Painting,” Chapt. 3 of Mexico and American Modernism (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2013): 62-87. (PDF) Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017 European Predecessors (Picasso) READING: J. Weinberg, “Pollock and Picasso: The Rivalry and the Escape,” Arts 61:19 (1987). (PDF) Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017 European Predecessors, Dispersal of the European Avant-Garde (Surrealism) READING: Rubin, “Surrealism in Exile and After,” in Dada, Surrealism and Their Heritage (Abrams, 1977). (PDF) Tuesday, October 3, 2017 Robert Motherwell, de Kooning, Franz Kline READING: David Sylvester, “The Birth of Woman I,” in The Burlington Magazine (April 1995): 220-232. (JSTOR) Thursday, October 5, 2017 Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman Yve-Alain Bois, “On Two Paintings by Barnett Newman,” October 108 (Spring 2004): 3-34. (JSTOR) Tuesday, October 10, 2017 Clyfford Still Kent Minturn, “Clyfford Still, Paul Cézanne, and Posterity” available as a link on Professor Minturn’s IFA/NYU faculty webpage *** First paper due in class, hard copy Thursday, October 12, 2017 The Pollock Persona READING: Claude Cernuschi, Jackson Pollock: Psychoanalytic Drawings (excerpts) (Duke U Press) (PDF) J. Schildkraut, et. al., “Mind and Mood in Modern Art, II” Am Journal of Psychiatry (April 1994). (PDF) Tuesday, October 17, 2017 The Pollock Persona (continued) Jeffrey Potter, To a Violent Grave (I will read excerpts from this in class) Michael Leja, “Jackson Pollock: Representing the Unconscious,” Art History (December 1990). (PDF) Thursday, October 19, 2017 Pollock in the Limelight READING: Clement Greenberg, “Art” in The Nation (February, 19, 1949) (PDF) Parker Tyler, “Jackson Pollock, the Infinite Labyrinth,” (1949-1950) (PDF) Harold Rosenberg, “American Action Painters,” ArtNews (December 1952). (PDF) In-class screening of the 10-minute film, Pollock Painting (dir. Hans Namuth, 1951) Tuesday, October 24, 2017 In Pollock’s Shadow: Abstract Expressionism and Gender READING: Anne M. Wagner, “Lee Krasner as L.K.,” Representations (Winter 1989). (JSTOR) Recommended: Joan Marter, Women of Abstract Expressionism (2016) Thursday, October 26, 2017 Abstract Expressionism and the International Context READING: Greenberg, “Review of the Exhibitions of Jackson Pollock and Jean Dubuffet” (1947) (PDF) Kent Minturn, “Greenberg Misreading Dubuffet,” (PDF) Recommended: Jeremy Lewinson, “Jackson Pollock and the Americanization of Europe,” in Pepe Karmel, ed., Jackson Pollock: New Approaches (MOMA 1999): 201-231 Tuesday, November 7, 2017 NO READING In-class screening of the film, Pollock (dir., Ed Harris, 2000) Thursday, November 9, 2017 NO READING Lecture on the making of the film, Pollock (2000) Tuesday, November 14, 2017 Dismantling the Canon: Black Mountain College, John Cage, Neo-Avant-Garde, READING: Robert Motherwell, “Preface” to Dada and Surrealist Poets Anthology (June 1951). (PDF) Mary Emma Harris, “Black Mountain College: European Modernism, the Experimental Spirit and the American Avant-Garde,” in 20th Century American Art, ed. Christos M. Joachimides (Munich: Prestel, 1993). (PDF) Caroline A. Jones, “John Cage and the Abstract Expressionist Persona,” Critical Inquiry 19 (Summer 1993) (JSTOR) Thursday, November 16, 2017 Artistic Reinterpretations of Pollock READING: Michael Fried, “Three American Painters: Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Frank Stella,” (1965). (PDF) Allan Kaprow, “Pollock’s Legacy” (1958) (PDF) Tuesday, November 21, 2017 (No Class – Thanksgiving Break) Thursday, Novemeber 23, 2017 (No Class – Thanksgiving Break) Tuesday, November 28, 2017 Pollock and Formlessness Rosalind Krauss, Chapter 6 of The Optical Unconscious (MIT Press, 1993) (PDF) Thursday, November 30, 2017 Pollock’s Works on Paper Dr. Jennifer Field, Guest Lecture Tuesday, December 5, 2017 Pollock’s Digital Afterlives READING: Kent Minturn, “Digitally-Enhanced Evidence: MoMA’s Reconfiguration of Namuth’s Pollock,” Visual Resources 17 (2001). (PDF) “Jackson Pollock and Fractals,” http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/02/books/02frac.html Thursday, December 7, 2017 Who the @#%! is Jackson Pollock? Excerpts from the documentaty film, and discussion of the controversy surrounding the Pollock Matters exhibition at Boston College (2007) Tuesday, December 12, 2017 (No Class) Thursday, December 14, 2017 (Last Class, Final Exam) (***Final papers due in class also, hard copy) The comprehensive in-class final exam will be worth 100 pts total and will consist of: Ten slide ID questions (worth 10 pts. total) Three short answer questions (worth 10 pts. each) One longer essay question (worth 60 pts. total) First Writing Assignment Directions: Visit the Whitney Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Museum of Modern Art, select a work of art by an artist OTHER THAN POLLOCK who we have encountered in the first half of the semester, and write a 5 page formal analysis of this work. The goal of a formal analysis is to construct an argument about a work of art based on your observations of its formal (i.e., physical, material, compositional) qualities. So, before you start writing your paper, you should go to the museum, stand in front of the work and take notes. First, jot down your initial impressions -- e.g., the way the work of art makes you feel, what you like or don’t like about it, why you were drawn to it, etc. Then, slow down (spend at least 30 minutes doing this), and look closely at the work of art with the following questions in mind: At what, exactly, are you looking? What materials were used to make this work? What formal choices did the artist make in the process of creating this work? How is this work of art composed? How do the various components of the work relate to the whole? Have you seen this subject, or a similar one, in other works we looked at in class? Think about symmetry and asymmetry, the grouping of figures, shapes or forms (remember, even representations of single figures, shapes or forms are composed carefully). What is the role of naturalism, or mimesis, vs. abstraction or expressionism? Consider the artist’s use of (or rejection of) perspective, line, detail, ornamentation, color, light and shadow. Scale is often important as well. You will use these careful observations to write your paper. However, keep in mind that your paper should be more than a simple list of observations -- you need to use them to develop a cogent discussion, and ultimately, to draw some conclusions concerning the effect the artist was trying to suggest or achieve for the observer. Begin your paper by identifying and describing the work of art. Try to use the vocabulary terms and concepts we have