ARTH-UA 9650 L01, IDSEM-UG 9251 L01 Art and War: 1914 to 2004
NYU London: Spring 2019
Instructor Information ● Lecturer: Julia Weiner ● Phone (Mobile) 07789 482683 ● Office Hours: Tuesdays 12-1pm or Wednesdays 8-9am by appointment ● Email: [email protected]
Course Information ● Class meeting times: Wednesdays 9am to 12 noon ● Location: BDFS_G07 ● No Pre-requisites though some knowledge and interest in the art of the 20th and 21st centuries is desirable.
Course Overview and Goals This 15 week module will take an in-depth yet wide-ranging look at an important but neglected aspect of modern western visual culture, namely the relationship between war and the fine arts. Within a broadly chronological structure, topics to be dealt with will include the following: the relationship between art and atrocity, and the attendant problem of the aestheticisation of horror; the crucial influence of photography and the growth of mass communications; the issue of censorship, both external and internal, and the related issue of the “limits of representation” (above all, in relation to the Holocaust and Hiroshima); the distinction between official and unofficial war art, and between art and propaganda, between art that endorses and even glorifies war and the art of protest. Issues of gender and sexuality, questions of cultural memory and the memorialization process and the representation of war in contemporary art practice will all form part of the discussions.
The module will consist of a combination of lectures, student presentations, field trips, guest lectures and film and TV showings.
Upon Completion of this Course, students will be able to: By the end of the course, students should be able:
- to demonstrate an intelligent and informed understanding of a central yet often overlooked aspect of artistic production in the modern period, namely art made during or on the subject of war. - to engage in lively debate with their fellow students in an informal seminar group setting
Page 1 - to produce thoughtful and confidently-presented oral presentations focusing on individual artists and/or works of art, combining formal analysis with an understanding of broader cultural issues. - To work with other students to produce a presentation on a work of art created during wartime or inspired by war. - To produce a well-researched and well-written essay revealing a sound critical grasp of the major issues covered by the course.
Course Requirements
Grading of Assignments The grade for this course will be determined according to these assessment components: Assignments/Ac % of tivities Description of Assignment Final Due Grade Students are expected to have prepared for Participation in class class by doing weekly readings and to join in 10%; with class discussion
Oral presentation Students 25% (2500-3000 words/approx.7 single-spaced Written paper 30% typed pages) End of module 2 hour long unseen slide test to include identifications of artists and subjects, Exam 35% comparisons between different works of art and longer essay type questions to answer.
Failure to submit or fulfill any required course component results in failure of the class
Grades
Letter grades for the entire course will be assigned as follows: Letter Percent Description Grade Excellent. Primary and secondary sources intelligently analysed and incorporated into well- structured argument; perceptive analysis of relevant visual material; evidence of original and A Example: 93.5% and higher independent thought. The work’s organisation, structure and presentation has been developed to an excellent standard. Correct referencing throughout. Good. Clear evidence of mastery of material, B Example: 82.5% - 87.49% well-presented. The work’s organisation, structure
Page 2 Letter Percent Description Grade and presentation has been developed to a very good standard with good referencing. Adequate. Competent grasp of basic issues, but without ability to organize material into coherent or convincing argument, or to submit visual C Example: 72.5% - 77.49% material to adequate scrutiny. The work’s organisation, structure and presentation need some improvement. Inadequate. Lack of critical awareness, insufficient reading/research. The work may be disorganised, D Example: 62.5% - 67.49 and the structure, presentation and referencing may be barely adequate. Failure. No critical awareness or evidence of even basic reading and research. The assessment critera have not been met. The work may be disorganised, F Example: 59.99% and lower and the structure and presentation may be barely adequate.
Course Materials
Required Textbooks & Materials Laura Brandon: Art and War, I.B.Tauris, London, 2006, ISBN 1 84511 237 7. Please buy your own copy of this if possible (an e-book is available as are second-hand copies as new copies are currently not available on Amazon); but in any event, make sure you have read it in advance of, or very soon after starting the course. Scans of other (shorter) key texts will made available in advance of each class. Details of which texts will need to be read in preparation for which session are given below under each session heading.
Optional Textbooks & Materials Aulich, James. War Posters: Weapons of Mass Communication, Imperial War Museum/Thames & Hudson, London, 2007 (ISBN 050025141X) Bohm-Duchen, Monica (ed.). After Auschwitz: Responses to the Holocaust in Contemporary Art, Lund Humphries, London, 1995 (ISBN 085331666X) Bohm-Duchen, Monica. Art and the Second World War, Lund Humphries, London, 2013 (ISBN 9781848220331) Bourke, Joanna (ed.) War and Art: A Visual History of Modern Conflict, Reaktion Books, London, 2017 (ISBN 978-1780238463) Clark, Toby. Art and Propaganda in the Twentieth Century: The Political Image in the Age of Mass Culture, Everyman Art Library/George Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1997 (ISBN 0297836145) Cork, Richard. A Bitter Truth: Avant-Garde Art and the Great War, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1994 (ISBN 0300057040) Eberle, Matthias. World War I and the Weimar Artists: Dix, Grosz, Beckmann, Schlemmer, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1985 (ISBN 0300035578)
Page 3 Foss, Brian. War Paint: Art, War, State and Identity in Britain 1939-1945, Yale University Press, New Fox, James. British Art and the First World War, 1914–1924, Cambridge University Press, 2015 (ISBN 1107105870) Haven & London, 2007 (ISBN 978-0-300-10890-3) Godfrey, M. Abstraction and the Holocaust, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2007, (ISBN-10: 030012676X/ISBN-13: 978-0300126761) Gough, Paul. A Terrible Beauty : British Artists in the First World War, Sansom & Co., Bristol, 2010 (ISBN 9781906593001) Harries, Meirion & Susie. The War Artists: British Official War Art of the Twentieth Century, Michael Joseph, London in association with Imperial War Museum & Tate Gallery, 1983 (ISBN 071812314X) Israel, Matthew. Kill for Peace: American Artists Against the Vietnam War, University of Texas Press, Austin, 2013 (ISBN 9780292748309) Krell, Alan. The Devil’s Rope, A Cultural History of Barbed Wire, Reaktion Books, London, 2002 (ISBN 186189144X) Lippard, Lucy. A Different War: Vietnam in Art, Real Comet Press, Seattle, 1989 (ISBN 0941104435) Maclear, Kyo. Beclouded Visions: Hiroshima-Nagasaki and the Art of Witness (State University of New York Press, Albany, 1999) (ISBN 0791440060) Malvern, Sue. Modern Art, Britain and the Great War, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2004 (ISBN 0300105762) Paret, Peter. Imagined Battles: Reflections of War in European Art, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill & London, 1997 (ISBN 0807823562) Rabb, Theodore K. The Artist and the Warrior: Military History through the Eyes of the Masters, Yale University Press, New Haven & London , 2011 (ISBN 9780300126372) Roeder, G.H. The Censored War: American Visual Experience during World War Two, Yale University Press, New Haven & London,1993 (ISBN 0300057237) Ross, Alan. Colours of War: War Art 1939-45, Jonathan Cape, London, 1983 (ISBN 0224020382) Sontag, Susan. On Photography, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, NY, 1977/2001 (ISBN 03742448583/0141012374) Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others, Penguin Books, London, 2004 (ISBN 0374226261) Thacker, Toby. British Culture and the First World War, Bloomsbury Academic, 2014 (ISBN 1441180745) Yenne, William P. (ed.) German War Art 1939-45, Bison Books, Greenwich, Conn., 1983 (ISBN 0861240960) Young, James E. At Memory’s Edge After-Images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Literature,Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2002, (ISBN-10: 0300094132/ISBN- 13: 978-0300094138) Young, James E. The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1994, (ISBN-10: 0300059914 ISBN-13: 978-0300059915)
Resources ● Access your course materials: NYU Classes (nyu.edu/its/classes) ● Databases, journal articles, and more: Bobst Library (library.nyu.edu) ● NYUL Library Collection: Senate House Library (catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk) ● Assistance with strengthening your writing: NYU Writing Center (nyu.mywconline.com) ● Obtain 24/7 technology assistance: IT Help Desk (nyu.edu/it/servicedesk)
Page 4 Course Schedule Assignment Session/Date Topic Reading Due Required reading: Chapters 1 & 2 of Brandon book Introduction + “Propaganda at War”, chapter 4 in Clark, Toby. Art and Propaganda in the Twentieth Century: The Political Image in the Age of Mass Culture, Everyman Art Library/George Introductory session. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1997 Lecture on
representations of Suggested Additional Reading: war in pre-twentieth Perlmutter, David D. “The art of war in century western art, the twentieth century”, from At War, and preliminary Session 1: exh.cat., Centre de Cultura discussion of main 6th February Contemporània, Barcelona, 2004 issues to be raised by 2019 Marwick, Arthur. “War and the Arts – Is course. Allocation of there a Connection? The Case of the topics and timetable Two Total Wars”, in War in History, for oral presentations 2/1/1995, pp.65-86 and written work.
Introduction to Brothers, Caroline. War
and Photography, Routledge, London, 1997 Chapters 1, 2 & 10 from Taylor, John. Body Horror: Photojournalism, Catastrophe and War,
Required reading: Introduction to Cork, Richard. A Bitter Truth: Avant-Garde Art and the Great War, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1994 Weinstein, Joan. “Expressionism in War and Revolution”, from Stephanie Barron (ed.): German Expressionism: Art and Responses to the Session 2: Society, 1997 First World War in 13th February German Art 2019 Suggested Additional Reading:
“Elemental Forces and Mechanical Power”, chapter 1 of Eberle, Matthias. World War I and the Weimar Artists: Dix, Grosz, Beckmann, Schlemmer, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1985
Page 5 Assignment Session/Date Topic Reading Due Required Reading: Ades, Dawn. “Paris 1937: Art and the Power of Nations” + Daniel, Marko. “Spain: Culture at War”, both in Art & Power: Europe under the Dictators 1930- 1945, Hayward Gallery/South Bank Centre, London, 1995 Bohm-Duchen, Monica. Art and the Second World War, Lund Humphries, London, 2013, Chapter 1
Responses to the Suggested Additional Reading: Session 3: First World War in Sinclair, Alison. “Disasters of War: Image 20th February British Art and Experience in Spain”, in Howlett, 2019 Jane & Mengham, Rod. The Violent Muse: Violence and the Artistic Imagination in Europe 1910-1939, Manchester University Press, Manchester,1994 Texts from No Pasaran! Photographs and Posters of the Spanish Civil War (exh.cat., Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, 1986) Hart, Stephen M. (ed.) “No Pasaran”: Art, Literature and the Spanish Civil War, Tamesis Books, London, 1988
Introductory lecture Required Reading: on war memorials, Moriarty, Catherine. “Private Grief and including watching Public Remembrance: British First World the BBC film War Memorials”, in Monuments of Evans, M. & Lunn, K. War and Memory in Remembrance. the Twentieth Century, Berg, 1997 Then a field trip to Hyde Park Corner to Suggested Additional Reading: focus on Royal King, Alex. “Remembering and Session 4: Artillery Memorial by Forgetting in the Public Memorials of the Some oral 27th February Charles Sargeant Great War”, in Forty, A. & Küchler, S. The presentations 2019 Jagger, 1921-5, Art of Forgetting, 2001 due Frederick Derwent Michalski, Sergiusz. “Memorials to the Wood’s Machine Gun Great War”, chapter 3 of Public Corps Memorial, Monuments: Art in Political Bondage 1925, Australian War 1870-1997, 1998 Memorial, 2003 & Rowlands, Michael. “Remembering to RAF Bomber Forget: Sublimation as Sacrifice in War Command Memorial, Memorials”, in Forty, A. & Küchler, S. 2012. The Art of Forgetting, 2001
Page 6 Assignment Session/Date Topic Reading Due Required Reading: Ades, Dawn. “Paris 1937: Art and the Power of Nations” + Daniel, Marko. “Spain: Culture at War”, both in Art & Power: Europe under the Dictators 1930- 1945, Hayward Gallery/South Bank Centre, London, 1995 Bohm-Duchen, Monica. Art and the Second World War, Lund Humphries, London, 2013, Chapter 1 The Spanish Civil War. Will include Suggested Additional Reading: Some oral Session 5: 6th showing of film about Sinclair, Alison. “Disasters of War: Image presentations March 2019 Guernica by Simon and Experience in Spain”, in Howlett, due Schama. Jane & Mengham, Rod. The Violent Muse: Violence and the Artistic Imagination in Europe 1910-1939, Manchester University Press, Manchester,1994 Texts from No Pasaran! Photographs and Posters of the Spanish Civil War (exh.cat., Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, 1986) Hart, Stephen M. (ed.) “No Pasaran”: Art, Literature and the Spanish Civil War, Tamesis Books, London, 1988
Required Reading: Bohm-Duchen, Monica. Art and the Second World War, Lund Humphries, London, 2013, Chapters 2 & 4 Brandon, L. Art and War, Chapter 5 Foss, Brian. “Message and Medium: Government Patronage, National Identity and National Culture in Britain, 1939-45”, Oxford Art Journal, 14:2, 1991 Responses to the Second World War in Suggested Additional Reading: Session 6: 13th British and American Relevant chapters of Harries, Meirion & March 2019 Art Sue. The War Artists: British Official War Art of the Twentieth Century, 1983 Foss, Brian. War Paint: Art, War, State and Identity in Britain 1939-1945, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2007 Ross, Alan. Colours of War: War Art 1939-45, Jonathan Cape, London, 1983
McCormick, Ken & Perry, Hamilton Darby. Images of War: The Artists' Vision
Page 7 Assignment Session/Date Topic Reading Due of World War Two, Cassell, London, 1991 Rhodes, Anthony. Propaganda: The Art of Persuasion: World War II, An Allied and Axis Visual Record, 1933-1945, The Wellfleet Press, NJ, 1987 Suggested Additional Reading: Roeder, G.H. The Censored War: American Visual Experience during World War Two, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 1993
Required Reading: Aulich, James. War Posters: Weapons of Mass Communication Thames and Hudson, London, 2011
Suggested additional reading: Session 7: 20th War Propaganda and Moriarty, Catherine Abram Games: An March 2019 Posters essay on his work and it context in Games, Naomi and others Abram Games, Graphic Designer, Maximum Meaning, Minimum Means, Lund Humphries, London 2003
Session 8: 27th Visit to Tate Britain March 2019 Required Reading: Bohm-Duchen, Monica. Art and the Second World War, Lund Humphries, London, 2013, Chapters 6,10,11,12 Chapter 3 of Bown, Matthew Cullerne. Responses to the Art under Stalin, Phaidon Press, 1991 Second World War: Cannistraro, Stalinist Russia; Introduction to Maclear, Kyo. Beclouded War Art in China and Visions: Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Art Japan + Art and the Some oral Session 9: 3rd of Witness, State University of New York, Atomic Bomb. Will presentations April 2019 1999 include showing of due
film They Drew Fire Suggested Additional Reading: (about US combat Berger, John. “Hiroshima”, in The Sense artists) of Sight, Pantheon Books, NY,1985
Texts by Shindo Kaneto, Takezawa Yuso & Koizumi Shinya in Hiroshima: The Past and the Promise, 1994/5 Texts from After Hiroshima, Part
Session 10: 10th Art and War in Nazi Required Reading: April 2019 Germany and Fascist
Page 8 Assignment Session/Date Topic Reading Due Italy Will include Bohm-Duchen, Monica. Art and the showing of film Second World War, Lund Humphries, documentary: Good London, 2013, Chapters 7,8 Morning, Mr. Hitler Adams, Peter. Arts of the Third Reich, Thames & Hudson, London, 1992, Introduction + pp.158-169 Hinz, Berthold. Art in the Third Reich, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1980, pp.156- 160,189-225
Suggested Additional Reading: Weber, John Paul. The German War Artists, The Cerberus Book Co., Columbia, S.Carolina, 1979 Yenne, William P. (ed.) German War Art 1939-45, Bison Books, Greenwich, Conn., 1983 Philip V. “Fascism and Culture in Italy, 1919-1945”, in Italian Art in the 20th Century (exh.cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1989) Fraquelli, Simonetta. “All Roads lead to Rome”, in Art and Power, 1995 Under Mussolini: Decorative and Propaganda Arts of the Twenties and Thirties, exh.cat., Estorick Collection, London, 2002
Spring break No class 17th April 2019 Required Reading: Bohm-Duchen, Monica. Art and the Second World War, Lund Humphries, London, 2013, Chapter 8 Adams, Peter. Arts of the Third Reich, Thames & Hudson, London, 1992, Introduction + pp.158-169 Written Hinz, Berthold. Art in the Third Reich, assignment due Art of the Holocaust: Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1980, pp.156- Session 11: Creativity Against All 160,189-225 24th April 2019 Some oral the Odds. presentations Suggested Additional Reading: due Weber, John Paul. The German War Artists, The Cerberus Book Co., Columbia, S.Carolina, 1979 Yenne, William P. (ed.) German War Art 1939-45, Bison Books, Greenwich, Conn., 1983
Page 9 Assignment Session/Date Topic Reading Due Required Reading: Introduction + Conclusion to Israel, Matthew. Kill for Peace: American Artists Against the Vietnam War, University of Texas Press, Austin, 2013 Aulich, James. “Vietnam, Fine Art and the Culture Industry”, in Walsh, Jeffrey & Aulich, James (eds.) Vietnam Images: War and Representation, Macmillan Press, London, 1989 And at least take a good look at Lippard, Lucy. A Different War: Vietnam in Art, Real Comet Press, Seattle, 1989 (Whatcom Museum of History & Art, Bellingham (Wash.) exh.cat.)
Responses to the Suggested Additional Reading: Some oral Session 12: Vietnam War in Anzenberger, Joseph A. (ed.) Combat Art presentations 1st May 2019 American Art of the Vietnam War, McFarland & Co., due Inc., Jefferson, North Carolina & London, 1986 Meskimmon, Marsha. “Re-inscribing histories: Viet Nam and representation”, in Women Making Art: History, Subjectivity, Aesthetics, Routledge, London, 2003 Thomas, C.David (ed.) As Seen by Both Sides: American and Vietnamese Artists Look at the War, exh.cat., Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, Arvada, Colo.,1990 Brothers, Caroline. “Vietnam, The Falklands, The Gulf: Photography in the Age of the Simulacral”, in War and Photography, Routledge, London, 1997
Suggested Reading: Essays in War Zones, exh.cat. More Recent Presentation House Gallery, North Conflicts: The Vancouver, 2000 Falklands War, Texts from The Falklands Factor Bosnia, the Gulf War, (Manchester City Art Gallery exh.cat., Some oral Session 13: 8th Northern Ireland, the 1988) presentations May 2019 Arab-Israeli Conflict, Rolston, Bill. Politics and Painting: due Iraq, Afghanistan etc Murals and Conflict in Northern Ireland, and contemporary Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, responses to earlier Rutherford NJ, 1991 conflicts Kelly, Liam. “Rough Ground: Art and Politics, A Northern Irish Case Study” +
Page 10 Assignment Session/Date Topic Reading Due other essays, in What Remains to be Seen, Art and Political Conflict: Views from Britain, Israel, Palestine & Northern Ireland, Multi-Exposure, London, 2004
Suggested reading: Chapters 4 and 5 in Young, James E. At Memory’s Edge – After Images of the Holocaust Memorials Holocaust in Contemporary Art and including field trip to Architecture, Yale University Press, visit the Raoul London and New Haven, 2000 Wallenberg Memorial Session 14: 15th Weiner, Julia The Art of by Philip Jackson and May 2019 Commemoration - Holocaust Memorials the Holocaust and their Makers in Davies, Marian Memorial by Anish Absence and Loss, Holocaust Memorials Kapoor in the Liberal in Berlin and Beyond David Paul Books, Jewish Synagogue London 2007
Final Assessment: Exam Exam 22nd May 2019
Co-Curricular Activities • Field trips We shall be taking three field trips, all by public transport. The first will be to view First and Second World War Memorials in and around Hyde Park. We shall get the underground for this after an introductory lecture in class. We shall visit Tate Britain, again using the underground. Finally, we shall visit two Holocaust memorials using first the underground and then a bus. Students will also be required to view the sculptures or some paintings at Tate Modern as part of their oral presentation. • Estimated travel costs Trips on underground within Zone 1 and by bus into Zone 2. • Exhibitions Whilst photography is not part of this module, I do recommend students visit the exhibition DON MCCULLIN (5 FEBRUARY – 6 MAY 2019)at Tate Britain. (If you are aged under 25, join Tate Collective to get £5 tickets - https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-collective)
Classroom Etiquette Toilet breaks should be taken before or after class or during class breaks. If you do need to leave the class urgently, please ask permission rather than just walking out.
Page 11 You may bring drinks into class but please do not consume food during class. Neither drinks nor food should be consumed during visits to museums or galleries.
Mobile phones should be set on silent and should not be used in class except for emergencies. If you wish to use your phone to take notes during field trips, please ask permission first.
Please kindly dispose of rubbish in the bins provided.
NYUL Academic Policies
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Assignments, Plagiarism, and Late Work
• You can find details on these topics and more on this section of our NYUL website (https://www.nyu.edu/london/academics/academic-policies.html) and on the Policies and Procedures section of the NYU website for students studying away at global sites (https://www.nyu.edu/academics/studying-abroad/upperclassmen-semester-academic- year-study-away/academic-resources/policies-and-procedures.html).
Classroom Conduct Academic communities exist to facilitate the process of acquiring and exchanging knowledge and understanding, to enhance the personal and intellectual development of its members, and to advance the interests of society. Essential to this mission is that all members of the University Community are safe and free to engage in a civil process of teaching and learning through their experiences both inside and outside the classroom. Accordingly, no student should engage in any form of behaviour that interferes with the academic or educational process, compromises the personal safety or well-being of another, or disrupts the administration of University programs or services. Please refer to the NYU Disruptive Student Behavior Policy for examples of disruptive behavior and guidelines for response and enforcement.
Disability Disclosure Statement Academic accommodations are available for students with disabilities. Please contact the Moses Center for Students with Disabilities (212-998-4980 or [email protected]) for further information. Students who are requesting academic accommodations are advised to reach out to the Moses Center as early as possible in the semester for assistance.
Instructor Bio
Page 12 Julia Weiner is a Senior Lecturer in Art History at Regent’s University, London. She studied History and Modern Languages at St. Edmund Hall, University of Oxford and then History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. She has worked for a number of museums and galleries including the Courtauld Gallery, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the British Museum and the National Trust. She is the art critic for the Jewish Chronicle and writes for the Jewish Quarterly where she has a regular column. Her publications include 'The Art of Commemoration - Holocause Memorials and their Makers' in 'Absence and loss, Holocause Memorials in Berlin and Beyond' by Marian Davies, David Paul Books and she has also curated a number of exhibitions.
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