Unit information: Paris 1900-1939 in 2011/12

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Unit name Paris 1900-1939
Unit code HART30020
Credit points 40
Level of study H/6
Teaching block(s) Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director Ms. Tricha Passes
Open unit status Not open
Pre-requisites

None
Co-requisites

None

School/department Department of History of Art (Historical Studies)
Faculty Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

Concentrating on the significance of Paris as a magnet for international artists this unit will focus on the work of key figures that came to Paris during this period such as Brancusi, Kupka, Modigliani, Halicka, Picasso, Gris, Marevna, Wood, Soutine, De Chirico, Mondrian, Rivera, Foujita, Man Ray, Le Corbusier, Zadkine, Gontcharova, Chagall and Oppenheim etc.

Aims:

This Unit will familiarize students with the variety of artistic groups and aesthetic trends that operated in Paris from 1900 to 1939. The students will gain knowledge of the cosmopolitan attraction of Paris and how it acted as a location for fostering an engagement with avant-garde ideas in a number of disciplines. Set against the rise of fascism in the 1930’s the students will examine different artistic responses to the shifting political and ideological demands of the period.

Intended Learning Outcomes

  1. A familiarity with art practice in Paris from 1900- 1939.
  2. An understanding of the different positions taken by a wide range of artists and critics.
  3. A grounding of the controversies between different avant-garde groups.
  4. A further development of transferable skills through researching and preparing essays and seminar papers.

Teaching Information

2 x 2 hour seminars each week.

Assessment Information

Formative:

  • 2 essays (3,000 words)
  • 1 seminar presentation (20-25 minutes)

Summative:

  • 1 x 3 hour unseen exam; three essay-type questions from a choice of eight.

Reading and References

Silver, Kenneth Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian Avant-Garde and the First World War 1914-1918, London 1989

Golan, Remy Modernity and Nostalgia: Art and Politics in France Between the Wars, New Haven and London, 1995

Eliel, Carol L’Esprit Nouveau: Purism in Paris 1918-1928, Abrams, 2001

Green, Christopher Art in France 1900-1940, Yale, 2000

Perry, Gill Women Artists and the Parisian Avant-Garde: Modernism and ‘Feminine’ Art, 1900 to the late 1920’s, Manchester 1995

Hicken, Adrian Apollinaire, Cubism and Orphism Ashgate, 2002

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