NYU ARTH-UA 9650 / SASEM-UG 9152 Art and the City: Buenos Aires, New York, and City

Instructor Information ● Dr. Florencia Malbran ● NYU in Buenos Aires site: Anchorena 1314 ● Office Hours: By appointment ● [email protected]

Course Information This course studies modern and contemporary art and architecture through a strategic focus on the cities of Buenos Aires, New York, Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City. We consider key artworks and architectural movements, approaching art history in urban, sociohistorical and contextual terms. Emphasis is placed upon the city as a hub for the production and reception of art. Cities are multifarious complexes of paradoxical elements, where rhythms of stasis and motion coexist. Every city absorbs creative interchange, while also triggering different types of transformation. Our speculations on the urban environment will bring up multiple questions that point back to and extend beyond the mere physical structure of the city, discovering arenas of social action. How does art exploits the characteristics of the metropolis? How is art distributed and consumed throughout the dense fabric of the city? We will explore art (primarily ) as a staging ground for the city, and the city as staging ground for art. Developing comparative perspectives on Buenos Aires, New York, Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City will illuminate the particularities of the places under investigation, albeit with reference to aesthetic trajectories as well as broader technological, economic, and social-political changes. New York is included in our selected network of Latin American cities, acknowledging its critical importance as a center of cultural experimentation where artists (including Latin American artists) share ideas in a global context. Work in class will focus on both visual and textual analysis, employing images, manifestos and critical essays. The course includes a lively program of tours throughout Buenos Aires, visits to museums and exhibitions, and conversations with guest contemporary artists.

Page 1 • Pre-Requisite: • Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 15:30 to 5:00 pm. • Classroom: Ocampo

Course Overview and Goals

Upon Completion of this Course, students will be able to: • Demonstrate a critical understanding of Latin American art and architecture, recognizing the complexity of the cultures of Buenos Aires, New York, Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City.

• Analyze and interpret significant works of art, buildings, manifestos, texts, ideas, and events in their historical contexts.

• Examine both shared and diverse human experiences in order to recognize similarities and differences across cultures; comprehend the relevance of the past to the understanding of the present.

• Reflect on their own assumptions and ideas about geographically or culturally unfamiliar cultures.

• Read and write about art and architecture with a critical point of view that displays depth of thought, is mindful of theoretical traditions, and demonstrates personal engagement.

Course Requirements

Students must come to each class having read the material carefully, and be prepared to speak intelligently. Participation in class discussion is essential and only possible if students do the readings.

There will be a midterm exam, concerning identification and discussion of slides along with definitions of vocabulary words. There will also be a short paper (1000-1300 words approximately) and a longer final paper (3500 words approximately). Instructions regarding the papers will be provided at a later date. If you turn a draft of your final paper one week early, I will personally go through it with you for rewriting so that you may submit it again for a better grade.

Page 2 Grading of Assignments The grade for this course will be determined according to the following formula:

Assignments/Activities % of Final Grade Due Participation and attendance 15% throughout

Midterm exam 30%

First paper 15%

Final Paper 40%

Failure to submit or fulfill any required course component results in failure of the class

Letter Grades Letter grades for the entire course will be assigned as follows: Letter Grade Explanation of Grade

Clear evidence of understanding, plus the A ability to apply knowledge and reflect on the student’s own learning Evidence of understanding and the ability to B apply course content, but lacking reflectivity. Evidence of good understanding, but lacking C evidence of reflectivity and the ability to apply course content.

Evidence of understanding in a minimally D acceptable way, and lacking reflectivity and the ability to apply course content. Plagiarized, did not participate satisfactorily, F did not hand in work, lack of understanding

Page 3 Course Schedule

Topics and Assignments Assignment Week/Date Topic Readings Due 1.Ramírez, Mari Carmen. “Beyond ‘the Course presentation: Fantastic’: Framing Identity in US Latin American art Exhibitions of Latin American Art.” and the city.

Sessions 1-2 2.Fraser, Valerie. “Introduction. Building the New World. Studies in I. a. Framing Latin the Modern Architecture of Latin American art. Feb 5 – Feb America 1930-1960.” 7 I. b. The city as an 3. Nestor Garcia Canclini, “What is arena for the encounter a City?” In City/Art: The Urban between differences. Scene in , ed. Rebecca Biron. Durham: Duke U Press, 2009: 37-60.

II. Avant Garde in Latin America. Art in the 1920s and 1930s. 1.Sarlo, Beatriz. “The Case of Xul Sessions 3-4 Solar: Fantastic Invention and Cultural Nationality.” II. a. FOCUS BUENOS 2.Liernur, José Francisco. Feb 12 – Feb AIRES:

14 “Arquitectura en la del Emilio Pettoruti and Xul Siglo XX: La Construcción de la

Solar. Culture, Modernidad.” (excerpts). urbanism and planning: imagining a modern Architectural walking tour (TBC) city.

II. b. 1.Coffey, Mary K. “The ‘Mexican Sessions 4-5 FOCUS MEXICO Problem’: Nation and ‘Native’ in CITY: Mexican Muralism and Cultural Mexican muralism. The Discourse.” Feb 19 – Feb 21 Mexican 2. “Manifesto of the Union of Mexican and José Vasconcelos’ Workers, Technicians, Painters and new educational Sculptors.” program (1920-1924).

Page 4 Modern architecture 3. Rochford, Desmond. “The intertwined with Technology of Utopia.” muralism. Diego 4. Fraser, Valerie. “Mexico.” Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro 5. Anreus, Alejandro. “Adapting to Siqueiros. Argentinean Reality: The New of Antonio Berni.” II. c. Antonio Berni: Muralism beyond Mexico?

II. d. The Week (1922) and the Brazilian avant-garde. 1.Barnitz, Jacqueline. “The Avant- Sessions 6-7 The Brazilwood garde of the 1920s: Cosmopolitan or manifesto (1924) and National Identity?” the Anthropophagite Manifesto (1928) 2.Andrade, Oswald de. Feb 26 – Feb [Manifesto Pau-Brasil; 28 “Anthropophagite Manifesto.” Manifesto Antropófago]. Tarsila 3.Andrade, Oswald de. “The do Amaral and Oswald Brazilwood Manifesto”. de Andrade.

II. e. FOCUS NEW Sessions 8-9 YORK: 1.Levine, Neil, “The Guggenheim Museum. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Abstraction and Non- Midterm Logic of Inversion.” Mar 7 – Mar objectivity. The examination 8 Guggenheim Museum and Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural thought.

III. A Radical leap: 1.Brett, Guy. “A Radical Leap”. political upheavals Sessions 10- and cultural 2.Fraser, Valerie. “.” 11 experiments in Latin 3.Gullar, Ferreira. “Neo-Concrete America. Visual Manifesto.” languages and Mar 12 – Mar provocation. 14 Innovative Museum visits: architecture. Visit to Malba – Fundación Reconfigurations of Costantini. Museo de Arte the concept of art. Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires.

Page 5 III. a. Abstract Art and the creation of a new space. Inauguration of Brasilia. The Ruptura and Neo-concrete movements of Brazil.

1.Rolnik, Suely. “Molding a Contemporary Soul: The Empty-Full Sessions 12- III. b. FOCUS RIO DE of Lygia Clark.” 13 JANEIRO: 2. Clark, Lygia. “Beasts [Bichos].” Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica. Roberto Burle 3. Ramírez, Mari Carmen. “Hélio Mar 19 – Mar Marx. Lúcio Costa and Oiticica: The Body of Color.” 21 . 4. Oiticica, Hélio. “Selected Writings.”

1.Ramírez, Mari Carmen. “Tactics Sessions 12- for Thriving on Adversity: 13 Conceptualism in Latin America.” III. c. Conceptual Art in 2.Camnitzer, Luis. “The Markers of Latin America Latin American Conceptualism.” Mar 26 – Mar 28 3.LeWitt, Sol. “Sentences on Conceptual Art.”

Spring Break – No Apr 2 – Apr 4 Class

1.Giunta, Andrea. “The Avant-Garde Between Art and Politics.” Sessions 14- III. d. The Argentine 2.Minujín, Marta. “Destruction of My 15 Centro de Artes Works in the Impasse Ronsin, .” Visuales del Instituto 2.Minujín, Marta, Santantonín, Torcuato Di Tella Rubén, and Romero Brest, Jorge. Apr 9 – Apr (1960-1970). Marta “La Menesunda.” 11 Minujín. León Ferrari. Tucumán Arde. 4.Ferrari, León. “Artist’s Response.” 5.Suárez, Pablo. “Letter of Resignation.”

Page 6 6.Gramuglio, María Teresa and Rosa, Nicolás. “Tucumán is Burning. Statement of the Exhibition in Rosario.”

GUEST LECTURE. April 16, 7- 8:30 pm: artists Azul Blaseotto and Marcos Chinchilla

1.Masiello, Francine. “Introduction.” In The Art of Transition: Latin III. e. FOCUS American Culture and Neoliberal BUENOS Crisis. AIRES/FOCUS NEW 2. Simpson, David. “Remembering Sessions 16- YORK: the Dead.” 17 Violence and memory. 3. Battiti, Florencia and Rossi, Short paper Commemoration and Cristina. “The Art of Remembering”. the city. El Parque de due Museum visits: Apr 16 – Apr la Memoria in Buenos Visit to Parque de la Memoria. 18 Aires. Ground Zero in Monumento a las Víctimas del New York. Terrorismo de Estado.

GUEST LECTURE. April 26, 7- 8:30 pm: artist Pablo Siquier

1.Bourriaud, Nicolas. “Relational Form” and “Art of the 1990s.” In IV. Aftermath: the Relational Aesthetics. current stakes of art in Latin America. 2.Bishop, Claire. “Antagonism and Sessions 18- Globalization, Relational Aesthetics.” 19 participation, site 3.Farquharson, Alex. “Curator and specificity. Artist.” Apr 23 – Apr IV. a. MEXICO CITY 4.1.Cuauhtémoc Medina, “SEMEFO, 25 THROUGH THE LENS The Morgue.” In The Mexico City OF ART: Francis Alÿs Reader, ed. R. Gallo. Madison: and Gabriel Orozco. University of Wisconsin Press, 2004: 309-319 (10 pp.)

Russell Ferguson, Francis Alÿs: Politics

Page 7 of Rehearsal, Los Angeles: Hammer Museum, 2007 (32 pp.)

Screening: Francis Alÿs. When Faith Moves Mountains. Cuando la fe mueve montañas. DVD. 15’. [Lima, abril, 2002. Un proyecto de Francis Alÿs en colaboración con Cuauhtémoc Medina y Rafael Ortega. Con la participación de estudiantes de ingeniería de la Universidad Católica, de la Universidad Federico Villareal de San Marcos y demás voluntarios.]

1.Herkenhoff, Paulo. “Beatriz Milhazes ―the Brazilian Trove.”

2.Pedrosa, Adriano. “Intimate Sculptures.” In Ernesto Neto, o corpo, nu tempo, ed. Cecilia Pereira. Santiago de Compostela: Sessions 20- Centro Galego de Arte Contemporânea, 21 2002. IV. b. RIO DE JANEIRO THROUGH THE LENS OF ART: 3.Silviano Santiago, “The Contemporary Apr 30 – May Ernesto Neto and and Visionary Fiction of Adriana Varejão.” 2 Beatriz Milhazes. In Adriana Varejão. Between Flesh and Oceans, Isabel Diegues,. Rio de Janeiro: Cobogo, 2009: 85-128.

4.Vik Muñiz. Waste Land. DVD, 98’.

Museum visits: Visit to an art exhibition or artist studio (TBC

Sessions 22- 23 1.Jagoe, Eva-Lynn Alicia. “Jorge May 7 – May IV. c. BUENOS AIRES THROUGH THE LENS Macchi’s Fractured Narratives of 9 Buenos Aires.” OF ART: Guillermo

Page 8 Kuitca, Pablo Siquier, 2. Mesquita, Ivo. “Cartographies” Jorge Macchi. and “Latin America: Another Cartography.” In Cartographies.

3.Andreas Huyssen, “Guillermo Kuitca: Painter of Space.” In Guillermo Kuitca. Everything, ed. Douglas Dreishpoon. London: Scala, 2009: 22-32 4.Andrea Giunta, “Post-Crisis: Scenes of Cultural Change in Buenos Aires.” In Globalization and Contemporary Art, Jonathan Harris, ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011: 105-122.

Sessions 24- 25 Open forum discussion May 14 – on final paper. May 16

Session 26 FINAL May 21 Final Paper – No Class PAPER DUE

Course Materials The instructor will provide you with copies of required book chapters, as permitted by relevant copyright law, as well as links to electronically available journal articles and other material.

Course Policies

Attendance and Tardiness • Study abroad at Global Academic Centers is an academically intensive and immersive experience in which students from a wide range of backgrounds exchange ideas in discussion-based seminars. Learning in such an environment depends on the active participation of all students. And since classes typically meet once or twice a week, even a single absence can cause a student to miss a significant portion of a course. To ensure the integrity of this academic experience, class attendance at the centers is mandatory, and unexcused absences will be penalized with a two percent deduction from the student’s final course grade for every week's worth of classes missed. Students are

Page 9 responsible for making up any work missed due to absence. Repeated absences in a course may result in harsher penalties including failure. • Unexcused absences affect students’ grades: In classes meeting once a week, a • 2% deduction from the student’s final course grade occurs on the occasion of the first unexcused absence. • Absences are excused only for illness, religious observance, and emergencies. Illness: For a single absence, students may be required to provide a doctor’s note, at the discretion of the Assistant Directors of Academics. In the case of two consecutive absences, students must provide a doctor’s note. Exams, quizzes, and presentations will not be made up without a doctor’s note. Religious Observance: Students observing a religious holiday during regularly scheduled class time are entitled to miss class without any penalty to their grade. This is for the holiday only and does not include the days of travel that may come before and/or after the holiday. Students must notify their instructor and the Academic Office in writing via email one week in advance before being absent for this purpose. If exams, quizzes, and presentations are scheduled on a holiday a student will observe, the Assistant Directors, in coordination with the instructor, will reschedule them. Please note: if you are unable to attend class, you are required to email your professors directly and notify them. Please refrain from using your cell phone in class, and restrict laptop usage to course-related purposes.

Late Assignment Late submission or work will be accepted only with justifiable reasons of health or family emergency.

Academic Honesty/Plagiarism At NYU, a commitment to excellence, fairness, honesty, and respect within and outside the classroom is essential to maintaining the integrity of our community.

Plagiarism: presenting others' work without adequate acknowledgement of its source, as though it were one’s own. Plagiarism is a form of fraud. We all stand on the shoulders of others, and we must give credit to the creators of the works that we incorporate into products that we call our own. Some examples of plagiarism:

▪ a sequence of words incorporated without quotation marks ▪ an unacknowledged passage paraphrased from another's work ▪ the use of ideas, sound recordings, computer data or images created by others as though it were one’s own ▪ submitting evaluations of group members’ work for an assigned group project which misrepresent the work that was performed by another group member

Page 10 ▪ altering or forging academic documents, including but not limited to admissions materials, academic records, grade reports, add/drop forms, course registration forms, etc. For further information, students are encouraged to check www.nyu.edu/about/policies- guidelines-compliance/policies-and-guidelines/academic-integrity-for-students-at-nyu.html

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 Florencia Malbrán is a faculty member at New York University in Buenos Aires. In 2018 she was Visiting Professor at Leuphana Universität in Germany. In 2017 she was Craig M. Cogut Visiting Professor in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Brown University. She holds a Ph.D. from Rosario National University, Argentina, and a M.A. from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York, where she was a Bruce T. Halle Family Foundation Fellow. Specializing in Latin American art history, contemporary art, curatorial studies, and critical theory, Malbrán has served on the faculties of NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study in and Universidad de San Andrés in Buenos Aires.

Also a curator, she has organized exhibitions in Argentina, the United States, Canada, Brazil, , and Paraguay. She has been in residence in France, Switzerland, and , and was the Hilla Rebay International Fellow at the Guggenheim Museums in New York, Bilbao, and Venice. She has held curatorial positions at the in Buenos Aires and the Pinacoteca do Estado in São Paulo.

Her shows have been reviewed in Clarín and La Nación in Argentina, O Globo in Brazil, El Tiempo in Colombia, and Artforum in the United States. Selected catalog writing includes essays on Guillermo Kuitca and on Pablo Siquier for Argentina’s La Nación book series on seminal national artists, on Ernesto Neto for the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, and on Ragnar Kjartansson for the Icelandic Pavilion at the 53rd .

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