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Unit outline_

ARHT1002: Shock of the Now: Global Art since 1900

Semester 2, 2020 [Normal day] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

Art shapes our cities, streets, galleries, phones and minds. It is now made with every conceivable material, and sometimes none at all. It shocks, challenges, soothes, entertains, engrosses and overwhelms us. This unit charts the history of Modern and Contemporary Art across the world, as it is shaped by and shapes society, politics and environment. It shows current concerns in art , with materials, landscape, self-image, politics, and the body are grounded in a century of global experiment

Unit details and rules

Academic unit Art History
Credit points 6
Prerequisites
? 
None
Corequisites
? 
None
Prohibitions
? 
None
Assumed knowledge
? 

None

Available to study abroad and exchange students

Yes

Teaching staff

Coordinator Catriona Moore, catriona.moore@sydney.edu.au
Lecturer(s) Robert Scott Brennan, robert.brennan@sydney.edu.au
Catriona Moore, catriona.moore@sydney.edu.au
Donna Brett, donna.brett@sydney.edu.au
Anita Callaway, anita.callaway@sydney.edu.au
Stephen Gilchrist, stephen.gilchrist@sydney.edu.au
Tutor(s) Tama Woodbury, tama.woodbury@sydney.edu.au
Alanna Irwin, alanna.irwin@sydney.edu.au
Mimi Kelly, amelia.kelly@sydney.edu.au
Keith Broadfoot, keith.broadfoot@sydney.edu.au
Type Description Weight Due Length
Participation Tutorial participation
n/a
10% Ongoing ongoing
Outcomes assessed: LO1 LO2
Assignment Visual Task
n/a
40% Week 08
Due date: 21 Oct 2020 at 23:00
1500 words
Outcomes assessed: LO1 LO2 LO3
Assignment Research essay
n/a
50% Week 13
Due date: 20 Nov 2020 at 23:00
3000 words
Outcomes assessed: LO1 LO3 LO4

Assessment summary

Detailed information for each assessment can be found on Canvas.

Assessment criteria

The University awards common result grades, set out in the Coursework Policy 2014 (Schedule 1).

As a general guide, a High distinction indicates work of an exceptional standard, a Distinction a very high standard, a credit a good standard, and a pass an acceptable standard.

Result name

Mark range

Description

High distinction

85 - 100

 

Distinction

75 - 84

 

Credit

65 - 74

 

Pass

50 - 64

 

Fail

0 - 49

When you don’t meet the learning outcomes of the unit to a satisfactory standard.

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

  • Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
  • After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automated writing tools

You may only use generative AI and automated writing tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator. If you do use these tools, you must acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section. The assessment instructions or unit outline will give guidance of the types of tools that are permitted and how the tools should be used.

Your final submitted work must be your own, original work. You must acknowledge any use of generative AI tools that have been used in the assessment, and any material that forms part of your submission must be appropriately referenced. For guidance on how to acknowledge the use of AI, please refer to the AI in Education Canvas site.

The unapproved use of these tools or unacknowledged use will be considered a breach of the Academic Integrity Policy and penalties may apply.

Studiosity is permitted unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission as detailed on the Learning Hub’s Canvas page.

Outside assessment tasks, generative AI tools may be used to support your learning. The AI in Education Canvas site contains a number of productive ways that students are using AI to improve their learning.

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

WK Topic Learning activity Learning outcomes
Week 01 Introduction: Global Art Histories and Ways of Seeing; Cubism and Futurism (CM) Lecture (2 hr)  
Introductions: program, course materials, assessments. What do we want and expect from our tutorials? If time, we can also discuss the following questions related to the lecture and readings: 1. Marinetti's Founding Manifesto of Futurism' 1908 2. What traditional, inherited modes of perception did Cubism challenge? Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 02 After the Great War - A brave new world? Dada, Surrealism (CM) Lecture (2 hr)  
1. Were the radical anti-art strategies of dada paradoxically affirmative or simply destructive? And how effective is the dada legacy today - carnivalesque 'culture-jamming' art strategies such as billboard hacking and street art, glitch art, flash mobs? 2. The Surrealist idea of Beauty was pretty crazy - but was that the point? Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 03 Abstraction, War and Fascism: The End of a Dream (DB) Lecture (2 hr)  
1. What do you see in Malevich's 'Black Square' (1915) (haha - no, seriously) 2. Discuss the expressionists visual aestheticisation of emotion through colour and form. Why were they so engaged with the aesthetics of so-called primitive art? 3. Why did the Nazis hate Modernist art? Discuss the connections between the perceived degenerate qualities of art and the non-aryan body. What was it about the freedom of the Weimar Republic's social freedom that they wanted to destroy? Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 04 Tilted World/Other Modernisms: Who were Australia's true modernists? Modernity and colonialism (AC); Women artists and modernity - a different picture (CM) Lecture (2 hr)  
Tilted Worlds: Modernism, gender and colonialism. Do you think we should re-hang the Australian collections in our state and national galleries to make them more representative? If so, how might we go about it? To prepare for this tutorial, if you can, visit the art gallery of NSW to look and think. Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 05 Tilted World/Other Modernisms: ¡Que viva México! (DB); The Harlem Renaissance 1920s-30s and its legacies …. Afro-futurism/Black Art Matters (CM) Lecture (2 hr)  
Let's discuss the complex politics of cultural appropriation: eg. Amedeo Modigliani, 'Head of a Woman', 1910/1911... Sargent Johnson, 'Mask (Negro Mother)', 1935... Frida Kahlo, 'My Nurse and I', 1937... Wifredo Lam, 'The Jungle', 1943... Kendrick Lamar, 'All the Stars', 2018 Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 06 After the End: The Cold War and the Rise of America (DB) Lecture (2 hr)  
After the end: The Cold War and the rise of America. Discuss Guilbaut's question - why did the abstract expressionists and colour field painters change their style of painting in response to WWII and the the Cold War.? Why was Pollock seen as the epitome of a new freedom in America? Or what goals did the CIA and MoMA have in promoting Abstract Expressionism? What was controversial about Willem De Kooning's Woman series and how can we understand the nuanced critical responses? Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 07 Beyond Socialist Realism: Postwar art in China and Cuba (R.Brennan) Lecture (2 hr)  
In what ways were the "avant-garde" movements of Cuba and China in this period similar to and different from the "avant-gardes" that we have studied before World War II? How did the attitudes of Cuban and Chinese government officials toward art change depending on where it was exhibited, i.e. at home or abroad? Why might they want to exhibit something internationally but not domestically, and vice versa? Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 08 1968 - "Under paving stones, the beach!": Cultural Revolutions (CM or MK) Lecture (2 hr)  
1968: culture revolutions. Race, culture, gender 1. Why did minimalist artist reject personal expression in art? How did minimalist materiality, form and medium seek to explore the ‘essential elements’ of art? 2. Was pop art a creative and cultural 'revolution’? 3.How did/does performance art challenge traditional artistic conventions and invent new ways for audiences to experience art? 4. What do we mean by 'dematerialising' art, and is this really possible? Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 09 Understanding Contemporary Art: Identity and Difference (CM) Tutorial (1 hr)  
Contemporary art: the politics of 'identity' in art 1. What makes contemporary Australian art 'Australian' (and so what would be 'unAustralian'?) 2. Which is more important: cultural diversity or social unity? Should diversity preclude unity? 3. What are the practical implications of identity in art? (What should we do we do with artists who are deeply nasty? Do you agree with 'cancel culture'? Should we 'queer' the museum? etc.... Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 10 After 1989: Decolonising the World, Indigenous Art (SG) Lecture (2 hr)  
How do Indigenous artists problematise historical narratives and what are the gains of this exercise? How do we create space for alternative histories? In week 4 we asked what a decolonised art museum might look like; let's now think this through in other areas of the artworld (including organisations and funding; the art market, art fairs and festivals, collections, issues of reparation, art writing, art education). Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 11 Art as social practice: art and environment; craftivism and the ethics of care (CM) Lecture (2 hr)  
1. Can art save the world And still 'look good'? How do we reconcile aesthetic and instrumental values in contemporary environmental art projects? 2. For the early 20th century avant garde, artistic virtuosity, artisanal labour and conventional ideas of 'beauty' were highly suspect. Radical ideas were more important. How can we re-think the idea of 'conceptual beauty' in contemporary terms? Tutorial (1 hr)  
Week 12 The wretched screen: photography and video (DB) Lecture (2 hr)  
Both David Campany and Hito Steyerl discuss the proliferation of images and their promiscuous circulation as "dissolving into the hybrid mass of mainstream visual culture," such as social media platforms. At the same time many contemporary photographers have returned to film, and to what Campany describes as a decelerating process of image making. Discuss in terms of the so-called indexical nature of photography and the tension between analogue and digital photography. Hito Steyerl wri Tutorial (1 hr)  

Attendance and class requirements

  • Attendance: According to Faculty Board Resolutions, students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences are expected to attend 90% of their classes. If you attend less than 50% of classes, regardless of the reasons, you may be referred to the Examiner’s Board. The Examiner’s Board will decide whether you should pass or fail the unit of study if your attendance falls below this threshold.
  • Lecture Recording: Most lectures (in recording-equipped venues) will be recorded and may be made available to students on the LMS. However, you should not rely on lecture recording to substitute your classroom learning experience.
  • Preparation: Students should commit to spend approximately three hours’ preparation time (reading, studying, homework, essays, etc.) for every hour of scheduled instruction.

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. demonstrate familiar with the major trends in modern global art
  • LO2. identify works of art as belonging to various schools or ‘isms’
  • LO3. understand the dynamic inter-relations between art and society in the modern and contemporary period
  • LO4. use the analytical tools and conceptual grammar needed to discuss modern and contemporary art and film.

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1 Depth of disciplinary expertise

Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.

GQ2 Critical thinking and problem solving

Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.

GQ3 Oral and written communication

Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.

GQ4 Information and digital literacy

Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.

GQ5 Inventiveness

Generating novel ideas and solutions.

GQ6 Cultural competence

Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.

GQ7 Interdisciplinary effectiveness

Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.

GQ8 Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity

An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.

GQ9 Influence

Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes Graduate qualities
GQ1 GQ2 GQ3 GQ4 GQ5 GQ6 GQ7 GQ8 GQ9

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

Minor changes to the lecture program have been made to this unit since the last time it was offered.

Work, health and safety

Students attending face to face tutorials are asked to follow university directives for social distancing, hand washing etc. The wearing of face masks is strongly recommended in face to face tutorials.

Disclaimer

The University reserves the right to amend units of study or no longer offer certain units, including where there are low enrolment numbers.

To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an online glossary.