Course Catalog

This course examines the cultural and artistic history of Versailles in the 17th and 18th centuries. It traces the development of the palace, garden and city as a total artwork and an expression of changing ideas around the court, the monarchy and the state. From its origins as a hunting retreat and setting for ephemeral courtly entertainments, through to its apogee as the seat of the absolutist state at the end of the 17th century, and then its decline and collapse less than a century later, we will see how architecture, painting and decorative arts articulated evolving ideas around the divinity of the monarch, and the opposition between the private, courtly and public spheres. We will see how artists and architects such as Mansart, LeBrun, Le Nôtre, Gabriel, Mique and Robert created artworks and settings for the amusement and glorification of the king. In addition to class lectures there will be visits to the Louvre, Versailles, and Vaux-le-Vicomte.

“Every act of creation,” said Pablo Picasso, “is first of all an act of destruction.” In the field of art, the early 20th century is undoubtedly a time of accelerated collapse for the artistic vocabulary, the values and the canon identified with the great Western tradition inherited from the Renaissance. What are the motivations of this breakdown and what kind of creation did it give rise to? This class examines the drastic transformations occurring in the field of visual arts (concentrating on painting and sculpture) from the late 19th century (impressionism, post-impressionism) to the radical passage to abstraction in the mid-1910s. This panorama of a rapidly changing art scene will end on the emergence of post–World War I avant-garde movements such as Dada and Surrealism. Major figures, such as Cézanne, Picasso or Kandinsky will be studied with particular attention, while major movements—including Cubism, Fauvism—will be given specific attention. Readings of related literature, including the critical reception of the art of the time and artists’ writings, will contribute to the understanding of this crucial period.

Aesthetic autonomy is the notion that culture is a sphere apart, with each art distinct, and it is a bad word for most of us raised on postmodernist interdisciplinarity. We tend to forget that autonomy is always provisional, always defined diacritically and situated politically, always semi. …” Hal Foster (2002) Pop Art and Pop Culture investigates the relationships between arts (painting, architecture, design, film, music…) and the mass media, with a particular focus on the 1960s. Rather than relying on practical distinctions between high and low, fine arts and applied arts, serious experiment versus entertaining commercial product, the course will consider the intersections and links between the most advanced artistic endeavors and the aesthetics of the commercial and corporate environment.

What is Art? What is Beauty? How can I know what is beautiful? And what does it mean to me? These are some of Aesthetics’ main questions as it is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and value of art and the criteria of artistic judgment and experience. Various answers have been given throughout the history of philosophy, from Plato and Aristotle to Kant and today’s analytical or postmodern philosophy, making of aesthetics a vibrant and dynamic discipline, constantly revitalised by new art forms and critical concepts. Through a thorough historical survey of the notion students learn to discuss art and beauty in a time when these classical notions are undergoing very important changes. Everyone is encouraged to bring in his or her own experience of art. Due to its cross listing with PL 3074, this 3000 level Art History does not have a pre-requisite in Art History