ARTH 787: Seminar in Contemporary Art Feminist and Queer Art History, 1971-present Spring 2007

Professor Richard Meyer ([email protected]) Mondays, 2-4:50 p.m. Dept. of Art History, University of Pennsylvania Jaffe 201

Course Description and Requirements This seminar traces the development of a critical literature in feminist and gay/lesbian art history. Beginning with some foundational texts of the 1970s (Linda Nochlin’s "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?,” James Saslow’s "Closets in the Museum: Homophobia and Art History"), we will examine how art historians, artists, critics, and curators have addressed issues of gender and sexuality over the course of the last three decades. The seminar approaches feminist and queer art history as distinct, if sometimes allied, fields of inquiry. Students will be asked to attend closely to the historical specificity of the texts and critical debates at issue in each case. Students are expected to complete all required reading prior to seminar meetings and to discuss the texts and critical issues at hand during each session. On a rotating basis, each student will prepare a 2-page response to an assigned text which will then be used to initiate discussion in seminar. Toward the end of the semester, students will deliver a 15-minute presentation on their seminar research to date. In consultation with both the professor and the other seminar members, each student will develop his or her oral presentation into a final paper of approximately 20 - 25 pages.

Required Texts:

For purchase at Penn Book Center:

1. Norma Broude and Mary Garrard, The Power of Feminist Art: The American Movement of the 1970s, History and Impact (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994). 2. Richard Meyer, Outlaw Representation: Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth- Century American Art (Boston: Beacon Press, 2004). 3. Johanna Burton, ed., Cindy Sherman, (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006).

All other required texts will be posted on our course blackboard site or otherwise circulated to seminar participants.

Weekly Schedule

Monday, January 8 : Introduction Readings: • Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, “Introduction: Feminism and Art in the Twentieth Century,”: 10-29. • Meyer, “Preface and Chapter One: The Red Envelope,”:2-31; 285-295.

Thursday, January 11, 2007: Sachs Forum in Contemporary Art: Roger M. Buergel, Artistic Director, Documenta 12 “Migration of Form,” 5:30 p.m, Logan Hall 402

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January 15: Martin Luther King Day (No class meeting)

Monday, January 22: 1971-1974 Readings: • Linda Nochlin, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" (1971 • Marjorie Kramer, “Some Thoughts on Feminist Art,” from Women and Art 1 (1971): 3, reprinted in Robinson: 292-294. • Pat Mainardi, “A Feminine Sensibility,” from Feminist Art Journal 1:1 (1972) reprinted in Robinson: 295-296 • Kermit Champa, "Charlie Was Like That," Artforum 12 (March 1974): 54-59. • Barbara Rose, “Vaginal Iconography” New York Magazine 7 (February 11, 1974) reprinted in Robinson: 575-577.

Looking back on 1971-4: • Linda Nochlin, “Starting from Scratch,” Power of Feminist Art: 130-139. • Faith Wilding, “The Feminist Art Programs at Fresno and CalArts, 1970-75,” and Arlene Raven, “Womanhouse,” Power of Feminist Art: 32-65.

January 29: 1975-1978 Readings: • Silvia Bovenschen, “Is There a Feminist Aesthetics” (1976) translated and reprinted in Robinson: 298-307. • Ann Sutherland Harris and Linda Nochlin, preface to Women Artists, 1550-1950, exhibition catalogue, Los Angeles County Museum of Art/Alfred Knopf, 1976. [please read text of exhibition pamphlet as well]. • “Lesbian Art and Artists,” Heresies 3 (Fall 1977) • Harmony Hammond, “Lesbian Artists’ in Ginny Vida, ed., Our Right to Love (New York: Prentice Hall, 1978) reprinted in Jones: 128-129. • Harmony Hammond, “A Lesbian Show” (January 21-February 11, 1978) in In a Different Light: 45-49.

Looking back on 1975-8: • Carrie Rickey, “Writing (and Righting) Wrongs: Feminist Art Publications,” Power of Feminist Art, 120-129. • Judith Brodksy, “Exhibitions, Galleries, and Alternative Spaces,” Power: 104-119.

Thursday, Feburary 1: Sachs Forum in Contemporary Art: Douglas Crimp “Way Out on a Nut,” 5:30 p.m. ICA Auditorium

February 5: 1979-1980 Readings: • James M. Saslow, “Closets in the Museum: Homophobia and Art History,” in Karla Jay and Allen Young, eds., Lavender Culture: 215-227 [please read as well the forward and two introductions to the 1994 reprint as well as the two companion introductions to the original edition: ix-65]. 3 February 5: 1979-1980 (cont.) • James M. Saslow, “The Ascent of the Gay Esthetic: Towards a Post-Pornographic Art,” The Advocate, June 25, 1980: 20-21, 27-29. • Terry Wolverton, “The Great American Lesbian Art Show (GALAS),” August 1979 – 1980, in In a Different Light: 50-52. • "Special Gay Art Issue," The Alternate, 2:12 (March/April 1980): 12-31. • “The Art and Politics of the Male Image: A Conversation between Sam Hardison and George Stambolian,” Christopher Street 4:7 (March 1980): 14-22. • John Perreault, “I’m Asking. . .Does It Exist, What is It? Whom it is for? Artforum 19 (Novermber 1980): 74-75. • “Visual Conceptions: Dyke Cream/Eye to Eye—Two Slide Shows,” Off Our Backs (March 1980) reprinted in Tee Corinne: Twenty-Two Years, 1970-1992: 19-21. • Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock, Preface and Chapter One, Old Mistresses: Women, Art, and Ideology (London: Rivers Oram Publishers Ltd., 1980).

Looking Back at 1979-80: • James Saslow, forward to reprint of “Closets in the Museum: Homophobia and Art History,” in Larry Gross and James D. Woods, eds., The Columbia Reader on Lesbians and Gay Men in Media, Society, and Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999): 256.

February 12: Guest Visit by Catherine Lord “Notes on Beatification” Readings: Valerie Solanas, “SCUM Manifesto” (1968) Screening: “I Shot Andy Warhol” (1996) Mary Harron, dir.

February 19: 1981-1984 Readings: • Judith Barry and Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, “Textual Strategies: The Politics of Art Making,” • James Saslow, “A Sculpture without a Country,” Christopher Street, 5: 4 (February 1981): 23-32. • Michele Barrett, “Feminism and the Cultural Politics of Difference,” in Rosalind Brunt and Caroline Rowan, eds., Feminism, Culture, and Politics (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1982): 37-58. • Moufarrege, Nicolas A. “Lavender: On Homosexuality and Art,” Arts Magazine 57:2 (October 1982): 78-87. • "Extended Sensibilities: The Impact of Homosexual Sensibilities on Contemporary Culture," Roundtable discussion at New School, November 29, 1982 in Discourses: Conversations in Postmodern Art and Culture, eds., Russell Ferguson et al, (New York : New Museum of Contemporary Art, Cambridge, MA:.MIT Press, 1990. • Dan Cameron, “Extended Sensibilities: Homosexual Presence in Contemporary Art,” New Museum of Contemporary Art, October 16 – December 20, 1982 in In a Different Light: 53-55.

March 5: Spring Break

4 March 12: 1985-1988 Readings: • Gerard Koskovich, “A Gay American Modernist: Homosexuality in the Life and Art of Charles Demuth,” The Advocate (June 25, 1985): 50ff. • James Meyer, “Some Gay Themes in the 1987 Whitney Biennial,” Arts Magazine 62 (October 1987): 25-27. • Griselda Pollock, “Screening the Seventies,” Vision and Difference (London and New York; Routledge, 1988) reprinted in Jones: 76-93. • Lisa Tickner, “Feminism, Art History, and Sexual Difference,’ Genders 3 (Fall 1988_: 92-128.

March 19: 1989-1992 Readings: • Adrian Piper, “The Triple Negation of Colored Women Artists,” Next Generation: Southern Black Aesthetic (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1990), reprinted in Jones: 239-248. • Joanna Frueh and Arlene Raven, “Feminist Art Criticism: Its Demise and Resurrection,” Art Journal Vol. 50, No. 2 (Summer 1991): 6-10. • Erica Rand, “Women and Other Women: One Feminist Focus for Art History,” Art Journal Vol 50, No. 2 (Summer 1991): 29-34. • Joyce Fernandes, “Sex into Sexuality: A Feminist Agenda for the 90s” Art Journal Vol. 50, No. 2 (Summer 1991): 35-38 • Linda S. Klinger, “Where’s the Artist? Feminist Practice and Poststructural Theories of Authorship,” Art Journal Vol. 50, No. 2 (Summer 1991): 39-47. • Jane Gaines, "Competing Glances: Who is Reading Robert Mapplethorpe's Black Book?," New Formations, Number 16 (Spring 1992): 24-39. • Lorraine O’Grady, “Olympia’s Maid: Reclaiming Black Female Subjectivity,” Afterimage (Summer 1992) reprinted in Jones: 174-187. • Whitney Davis, “Founding the Closet: Sexuality and the Creation of Art History,” Art Documentation, vol. 11, no. 4 (Winter 1992): 171-175.

Thursday, March 22, Sachs Forum in Contemporary Art Kaja Silverman, “Photography by Other Means,” 5:30 p.m. ICA Auditorium

March 26: 1993-1995 Readings: • Michael Kimmelman, "The Peephole Approach to Artist Couples," The New York Times, August 15, 1993: 30, 33. • Coco Fusco, “The Other History of Intercultural Performance,” The Drama Review 38:1 (Spring 1994) reprinted in Jones: 205-217. • Lawrence Rinder, “An Introduction to In a Different Light,” Nayland Blake, “Curating In a Different Light,” In a Different Light: Visual Culture, Sexual Identity, Queer Practice, exhibition catalogue (Berkeley: University Art Museum and San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1995): 1-43. • Whitney Davis, “Introduction,” Gay and Lesbian Studies in Art History, (New York: Haworth Press, 1994).

Student Presentations

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April 2: 1996-2001 Readings: • Flavia Rando, “Reflections on a Name: We’re Here: Gay and Lesbian Presence in Art and Art History,” Art Journal, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Winter 1996): • Jonathan Weinberg, “Things are Queer,” Art Journal, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Winter 1996): 11-14. • Harmony Hammond, introduction to Lesbian Art in America: A Contemporary History (New York: Rizzoli, 2000): 7-13 • Chistopher Reed, “Imminent Domain: Queer Space in the Built Environment,”Art Journal, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Winter 1996): • Laura Cottingham, “Notes on lesbian” Art Journal, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Winter 1996): 72-77. • Introduction, Pop Out: Queer Warhol, edited by Jennifer Doyle, Jonathan Flatley & José Esteban Muñoz, (Durham : Duke University Press, 1996). • Dave Hickey, “Straight Talk,” Art + Text 53 (1996): 40-41.

Student Presentations

April 9: Guest Visit by Johanna Burton Reading: Johanna Burton, ed. Cindy Sherman (October Files, MIT Press: 2006)

Student Presentations

April 16: 2002 – present Readings: • Richard Meyer, Outlaw Representation: Censorship and Homosexuality in Twentieth- Century American Art (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002): 158-284,320-345, [chapters four, five, and afterword]. • Jennifer Doyle, “Fear and Loathing in New York,” in Jones: 15-17. • “LTTR” selections from issues 3 and 5. • Selections from Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution and Global Feminisms.