Unit information: Modern German Art in 2011/12

Unit name	Modern German Art
Unit code	HART31050
Credit points	40
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Professor. Price
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

This unit will explore a range of visual art practices from the Imperial and/or Weimar eras in Germany, focusing on specific case studies. The art of the era will be explored in relation to the cultural, social and political contexts of its production. Topics may include but will not necessarily be restricted to some of the following: Art and Urbanism in Berlin; From Secession to Expression; Paths to Abstraction; 'Primitive' and Modern; War and Destruction; Revolution and Rebellion; Cool Conduct; Gender and the Public Sphere; Mass Culture and the Avant-Garde; Degeneration and Despair. Artists to be considered may include: Adolph Menzel, Max Liebermann; Paula Modersohn-Becker; K�the Kollwitz; Kirchner and Die Br�cke; Kandinsky and Der Blaue Reiter; Hannah H�ch and Berlin Dada; Cologne Dada; The Bauhaus; Otto Dix, Christian Schad; Art and Cultural Policy in the Third Reich.

Aims:

• To develop students critical awareness of the issues involved in the production, exhibition and consumption of modern art in Germany

• To enable students to produce advanced critical analysis of a range of key themes concerning the development of modern art in Germany

• To enable students to situate individual artists within the specific socio-economic and cultural contexts of Imperial and Weimar Germany

• To enable students to develop an advanced understanding of the major art historical approaches to the analysis of modern visual art in Germany

• To enable students to effectively determine and employ a range of relevant primary sources to their study of modern visual art in Germany

• To develop students advanced skills in oral presentations, group discussions and essay writing.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Students completing this unit will:

• Have developed an advanced critical awareness of the key issues in the production, display and consumption of modern art in Germany

• Be able to produce advanced critical analysis of a range of key themes concerning the development of modern art in Germany

• Have the ability to situate individual artists within their socio-economic and cultural contexts

• Have an advanced understanding of the major approaches to an analysis of the development of modern art in Germany

• Have a familiarity with and an ability to deploy relevant primary sources with different methodological approaches to the study of modern art in Germany

• Have developed advanced skills in oral presentations, group discussions and essay writing.

Teaching Information

Seminars and individual tutorials.

Assessment Information

Formative assessment:

• 2 x 3000 word essay

• 1 x 1500 word presentation

Summative assessment:

• 1 x 3hour exam

Reading and References

• Kaes, Jay, Dimendberg (eds.) The Weimar Republic Source Book (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1994)

• Lenman, Robin Artists and Society in Germany 1850-1914 (Manchester, MUP 1997)

• Lewis, Beth Irwin Art for All? The Collision of Modern Art and the Public in Late Nineteenth Century Germany (Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 2003)

• Paret, Peter German Encounters with Modernism 1840-1945 (Cambridge, CUP,2001)

• Von Ankum, Katherina (ed.) Women in the Metropolis: Gender and Modernity in Weimar Culture (Berkeley, California University Press, 1997)

• West, Shearer The Visual Arts in Germany 1890-1937: Utopia and Despair (Manchester, MUP, 2000)