Contemporary Themes of Art History

Code:

TCHA01

Acronym:

TCHA

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
CNAEF	Arts

Instance: 2024/2025 - 2S

Active?	Yes
Web Page:	http://moodle.up.pt/course/view.php?id=3681
Responsible unit:	Ciências da Arte e do Design
Course/CS Responsible:	Fine Arts

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
AP	22	Plano de estudos de LAP_publicaçao em DR de 24/05/2021	4	-	6	45	162

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

Learning outcomes and competences

To develop the critical spirit and the skills of analysis of the work of art, as an artistic, aesthetic and historical object. To know some critical notions pertaining to the area of Visual Culture Studies. To master and understand technical vocabulary, concepts and fundamental knowledge for the field of study of Art History. To deepen the knowledge of contemporary artistic practices, and issues related to current aesthetic thinking. To obtain knowledge that allows to frame, improve, think and develop creative work and individual artistic practice. To improve communication skills. To develop notions of active citizenship and to get a better grip of contemporary society.

 

 

 

 

Working method

Presencial

Pre-requirements (prior knowledge) and co-requirements (common knowledge)

Doesn't apply

Program

The syllabus is structured around a list of selected broad topics, from which students can choose what interests them to explore individually; it is an open-ended program, which may eventually be subject to the inclusion of new topics at the suggestion of the students, or according to the teacher's understanding, based on the diagnosis made regarding their expectations, suggestions and needs.

1. The Artist’s Body. Temporality, contingency and instability of the body in art.
2. The Gaze and the Other. From colonial subject to post-colonialism. Art, miscegenation, cultural hybridity, globalization.
3. Lesson of Darkness. Blood and beauty, the aesthetics of horrible. Monsters and monstrosities.
4. Gender and Art. Sex and sexuality, representations of gender, feminism, queer theory and art history.
5. Women, Art, and Art History. Gender and feminist analyses.
6. Mass Culture. The revolt of art against art history.
7. Art History as Fiction. The narrative of art in the new museum.
8. Who Owns What? Museums, nationalism, globalization and the battle over heritage.
9. The Museum as Theme Park. Entertainment politics, culture, leisure and exhibition display techniques.
10. The Contemporary Artist as a Permanent Recycler. The reappropriation of the history of art by contemporary artists: nostalgic rituals of revisiting, or resistance and questioning?
11. Immersed in Technology. Art and virtual environments: new media art, digital arts; internet and the establishment of an "articulated chaos" and of "multiple simultaneous temporalities"; cultural nomadism and the denial of hierarchies in art.
12. The Renewed Interest in the Concept of Masterpiece in Contemporary Aesthetic Thought. The return to a certain normativity.
13. The Power of Images. Censorship and image wars.
14. Beauty and Art. What happened to the notion of beauty in contemporary art?
15. The Return of Gothic. Gothic art and contemporaneity.
16. The Aesthetics of Games and Art.
17. Aftershock. The ethics of contemporary transgressive art.
18. Stripes, colours and fashion. History and iconology of colour and fashion through the ages.

 

 

 

Mandatory literature

Belting Hans; Art history after modernism. ISBN: 0-226-04185-9 28.47
Blanc Guilherme 340; We are ready for our [close-up]. ISBN: 978-989-96833-0-3
DEPARDON, Raymond e VIRILIO, Paul; Native Land – Stop Eject (cat. da expos.), Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, 2008
Foster Hal; Art since 1900. ISBN: 0-500-23818-9 69.76
Freeland Cynthia; Pero esto es arte?. ISBN: 84-376-2046-5
GECZY, Adam; Art: Histories, Theories and Exceptions, Berg Publishers, 2008
Groebner Valentin; Defaced. ISBN: 1-890951-37-4
Harris Jonathan 340; Globalization and contemporary art. ISBN: 978-1-4051-7950-8
HARRIS, Jonathan; The New Art History. A Critical Introduction, Routledge, 2001
HOLLY, Michael Ann e MOXEY, Keith (ed. de); Art History, Aesthetics, Visual Studies, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2002
Koda Harold; Extreme beauty. ISBN: 0-300-10312-3
Lucie-Smith Edward; L. érotisme dans l.art occidental
Mirzoeff Nicholas 340; The visual culture reader. ISBN: 0-415-14133-8
Nead Lynda; The female nude. ISBN: 0-415-02678-4
Preziosi Donald 340; The art of art history. ISBN: 0-19-284242-0
Tucherman Ieda; Breve história do corpo e de seus monstros. ISBN: 972-699-577-9
Bruno1947- Latour; Iconoclash. ISBN: 0-262-62172-X
Jane Kromm; A^History of visual culture. ISBN: 978-1-84520-492-1
Amelia Jones; Sexuality. ISBN: 978-0-262-52657-9
Omar Kholeif; You are here. ISBN: 978-0-9569571-7-7
Jonathan Harris; Art History. ISBN: 978-0-415-31977-5
Michel Pastoureau; Preto. ISBN: 978-989-8327-40-6
Michel Pastoureau; Azul. ISBN: 978-989-8327-86-4
Christa Grõssinger; Picturing women in late medieval and renaissance art. ISBN: 0-7190-4110-4

Comments from the literature

Bibliography is different for each theme. The exhaustive list of bibliographic references will be provided on the Moodle platform

Teaching methods and learning activities

The unit operates under a regime of seminar, lasting three hours each week, including:

1. Introductory presentations by the teacher.
2. Presentations of illustrations of the themes and of the main theoretical texts (student’s work).
3. Discussions based on the information presented and on the literature of the discipline.

Theoretical and practical classes are composed of one part of presentation of the themes or texts by the students, followed by a collective discussion of the issues or texts presented. The main objective is that the students develop their capacity for independent and reflective interpretation of the texts from different writers, contextualizing them according to their research interests.

 

 

keywords

Humanities > Arts > Visual arts
Humanities > History > Art History

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Participação presencial	50,00
Trabalho escrito	50,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Frequência das aulas	45,00
Trabalho de investigação	59,00
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	58,00
Total:	162,00

Eligibility for exams

Attendance to classes is mandatory; there will be an attendance record. 

Calculation formula of final grade

The final assessment is the result of a mandatory sum of two components: 

1. (Mandatory, 50%):

a. Presentation in class of a theoretical text from the bibliography, on one of the topics discussed. The aim is a commented reading of the arguments used by the author(s). 

OR:

b. Presentation in class on one of the themes addressed in the course.

2. (Mandatory, 50%): Conducting a final  written work that must constitute itself as a short essay (from minimum 5 to max. 10 pages) on a topic of choice, appropriate to the objectives of the seminar, which is basically a theoretical reflection contextualizing the student's personal artistic practice. 

Note: There will be no intermediate grades, only a final one.

 

Examinations or Special Assignments

Doesn't apply.

Internship work/project

Doesn't apply.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Students with special status may not attend classes but will have to undergo the same type of evaluation of the remaining students, as stated above. The final assessment is the result of a mandatory sum of the two components already described.These two components will be held and delivered in a single date, subject to the teacher's appointment, during the period for evaluations.

Classification improvement

 Improvement of grade, as stated in Articles 10th and 11th of the General Regulations for the Assessment of UP students, is permitted upon assessment in the same conditions of regular students. Thus, students who wish to improve their grades will have to be subject to the same type of evaluation of other students, as described above: the final assessment will be the result of the sum of the two mandatory components described. These two assessments will be held and delivered in one single date, defined by the teacher, during the period reserved for the final evaluations.

 Alternatively, improvement of grade can be obtained by fully attending the course, in accordance with Article 11th of the General Regulations for the Assessment of UP students.

Observations

Attention to students: Tuesdays, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., by previous appointment by email, given the high number of students.