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The New York Avant-Garde 1955-1980

Module description

This module will introduce the principal movements of the North American Avant-Garde of this period. The module will engage with the interdisciplinary nature of these innovations, including time-based art, installation, site-specific art, sculpture, painting, performance, experimental music and video. This module will be supported by a visits to specified on-line to relevant exhibitions. The module requires no prior knowledge or skills and is open to anyone with an interest in post-war North American art.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to:

• Familiarise you with the key movements of the North American avant-garde 1955-1980, their nature, significance, interconnections, and influence
• Strengthen your skills in historical and contextual analysis and research of this field
• Introduce key concepts and artists, as well as exemplary practices, their origins and influences
• Provide guidance on further independent research supported by a field trip

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate an understanding of the history, nature, significance and influence of the New York avant-garde 1955-1980
• 2. Demonstrate an informed critical understanding of a variety of modes of innovative art practices employing diverse media emerging in New York between 1955 and 1980 and an appreciation of the interconnections between them

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Interrelate artworks, texts, still and moving images, as well as discourses specific to their own discipline to issues identified with the cultural and intellectual history of the New York avant-garde 1955-1980
• 4. Understand and analyse relevant theoretical concepts and relate these concepts to artworks and art historical and theoretical discourses pertaining to the New York avant-garde 1955-1980

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Demonstrate communication skills, and work both individually and in groups
• 6. Demonstrate appropriate research and bibliographic skills, construct a coherent, substantiated argument, and write clear and correct prose
• 7. Retrieve and analyse information proficiently
• 8. Question assumptions, distinguish between fact and opinion, and reflect critically on your own learning process
• 9. Use memory proficiently and in develop, organise, and express ideas under pressure of time

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Introduction to the New York Avant-Garde: Abstract Expressionism to Conceptual Art
• Object and Process: John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg and Black Mountain College
• Fluxus and Video Art: George Brecht, Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono
• Happenings: Allan Kaprow, Robert Whitman, Carolee Schneemann
• Pop Art: Jasper Johns, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol
• Minimal and Systemic Art: Robert Morris, Sol Lewitt, Richard Nonas
• Land and Earth Art: Robert Smithson, Michael Heizer, Dennis Oppenheim
• Process and Conceptual Art: Joseph Kosuth, Bruce Nauman
• Site-Specificity: Gordon Matta-Clark, Richard Serra
• Body Art: Vito Acconci, Dennis Oppenheim
• Core themes and influences of the New York Avant-Garde

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to redo the assessment(s) as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Battcock, G. (ed) (1995) Minimal Art: A Critical Anthology. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• Brody, M. and Katz, V. (2013) Black Mountain College: experiment in art. London: MIT Press.
• Cage, John (1994) Silence: Lectures and Writings. London: Marion Boyars.
• Flam, J. (ed.) Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• Harrison, C. and Wood, P. (eds) (2002) Art in Theory: An Anthology of Changing Ideas. London: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Johnson, E.H. (ed.) (1982) American Artists on Art: From 1940-1980. New York: Harper and Row.
• Kaprow, A. (2003) Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Kaye, N. (2000) Site-Specific Art: performance, place and documentation. London and New York: Routledge.
• Kaye, N. (2016) Dennis Oppenheim: body to performance, 1969-73. New York: Skira.
• Kellein, J. and Hendricks, J (1995) Fluxus. London: Thames and Hudson.
• Lee, S-K and Rennart, S. (2010) Nam June Paik. London: Tate Publishing
• Lippard, L.R. (ed.) (1997) Six Years: The Dematerialisation of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• McCarthy, D. (2002) Pop Art. London: Tate Publishing
• Morris, R. (1993) Continuous Project Altered Daily: The Collected Writings of Robert Morris. London: MIT Press.
• Osborne, P. (2011) Conceptual Art. London: Phiadon.
• Sandford, M. (ed) (1995) Happenings and Other Acts. London and New York: Routledge.
• Tufnell, B. (2006) Land Art. London: Tate Publishing.
• Volk, G. (2004) Vito Acconci: Diary of a Body. New York: Edizioni Charta srl.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE page: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11487

Key words search

The New York Avant-Garde 1955-1980