Course Information: Art History
Core Courses
Elective Courses
Dissertation
* indicates also available online
*Studies in Australian Art
The course focuses around the large collection of Australian art at the Art Gallery of South Australia. Discussion and analysis of the art will be in terms of the principal issues underpinning Australian art and recent re-readings of particular works. Topics to be explored include colonial art, later nineteenth-century nationalist and Federation art, the rise of modernism particularly among women artists, abstraction, minimalism, conceptualism, the emergence of Central and Western Desert painting and trends in contemporary Australian art.
Required Texts
Allen, C. Art in Australia: From Colonization to Postmodernism, Thames and Hudson, London, 1997.
Butler, R. (ed.) Radical Revisionism: an Anthology of Writings on Australian Art, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2005.
Radford, R. and Hylton, J. Australian Colonial Art: 1800-1900, Adelaide, Art Gallery of South Australia, 1995.
Smith, B., Smith, T, and Heathcote, C. Australian Painting 1788-2000, Oxford University Press, 2001 (out of print, available in the Barr Smith Library).
Sayers, A. Australian Art, Oxford University Press, 2001 (out of print, available in the Barr Smith Library).
*European Art: Renaissance to Revolution
In `hands-on’ sessions in the Art Gallery and in lectures, the course focuses on the fascinating history of European art from the early Renaissance through to the postimpressionist era concentrating on the Gallery’s collection of paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture and decorative arts. This course looks at the High Renaissance, Baroque and Mannerist art, Neo-Classical and Romantic art, Realist and Impressionist art and nineteenth century British art. The course also looks at recent theoretical approaches to Art History which affect the discourses of art.
Required Texts
Hall, J. Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, John Murray, London, 1984.
Honour, H. and Fleming, J. A World History of Art, London, Thames and Hudson, 2002, 6th edition.
Arnold, Dana, 'Art History: A very short Introduction', Oxford University Press, 2004.
Additional Reading
Bell, J. Mirror of the World: A New History of Art, Thames and Hudson, London, 2007.
Studies in Asian Art (Indian Art)
Indian Art, besides documenting the history of a majestic civilization, opens a comparatively simple, delightful way into the timeless domain of the…. spirit: for it renders in eloquent visual forms the whole message that India holds in keep for mankind. (Heinrich Zimmer, The Art of Indian Asia: Its Mythology and Transformations, Bollingen series XXXIX Princeton 1968
This course focuses on the art of India. For over 2000 years, much of what the West deems to be ‘art’ in India is the product of a search to give form to the divine, the ultimately unknowable. While it may invalid to divide Indian art into the forms of ‘Hinduism’, ‘Buddhism’, ‘Jainism’ and ‘Islam’, for the purposes of this subject, these sacred traditions will be discussed through visualizations of the transcendent, brought into the sphere of human understanding. Through an analysis of philosophies, sacred texts, rituals, iconography and contexts from the simplest devotional act, to the creation of vast temple complexes, sculptured images and paintings of divine beings, the Course provides insight into the ideals of a great civilization which has held for millennia and continues to the present. Some classes are held in the Art Gallery around key works in the collection with the art works themselves forming the backdrop to this in-depth study of Indian art. The semester is a foundation course for further study of the art of South East, Central and East Asia.
Required Reading
Dehejia, V., Indian Art, Phaidon Press, London, 1997.
Michell, G., Hindu Art and Architecture, Thames and Hudson, London, 2000.
Advanced Studies in European Paintings Connoisseurship
This course will look critically at the development of connoisseurship in Europe, concentrating on the ideas and techniques of analysis and classification adopted by Leon Battista Alberti, Giorgio Vasari, Roger de Piles, William Hogarth, Jonathan Richardson, Giovanni Morelli, Heinrich Wölfflin, Max J. Friedländer, Bernard Berenson, Alois Riegl and Richard Offner. Students will be encouraged to exercise their own eye on as many original works of art as possible from the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Required Reading
Brewer, J. The Pleasure of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century, London, Harper-Collins, 1997.
Gayford, M. and Wright, K. The Penguin Book of Art Writing, London, Penguin, 1998.
Gibson-Wood, C. Studies in The Theory of Connoisseurship from Vasari to Morelli, New York and London, Garland, 1988 (out of print - available in the Barr Smith Library).
Jones, M. Fake: The Art of Deception, British Museum, London, 1990 (out of print - available in the Barr Smith Library).
Interrogating Australian Colonial Art
This course, which is being offered in conjunction with the Art Gallery’s exhibition South Australia Illustrated, examines the Australian art from 1788 to 1901 from a post-colonial perspective. It draws on the extensive collection of colonial works in the Gallery's collection including early paintings and works on paper by John Lewin, Thomas Bock, John Glover, Eugene von Guerard, William Strutt, Alexander Schramm, and S.T. Gill; the decorative arts of colonial Australia and the early history of photography. The representation of Indigenous Australians by colonial artists will also be probed, along with issues such as the role and function of art for developing colonies.
Required Reading
Hylton, Jane, South Australia Illustrated, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2012.
Radford, R. and Hylton, J. Australian Colonial Art 1800-1900, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide 1995.
Smith, Terry, Transformations in Australian Art: The Nineteenth Century - Landcape, Colony and Nation, Craftsman House, Sydney, 2002.
Studies in Contemporary Art
The course looks at contemporary art as ‘cutting edge’ art, how its origins are to be found in modernist notions of the avant garde and on recent national and international developments including installation, new media, performance art, the resilience of painting and the place of Indigenous art in the contemporary scene and differing genres of arts writing. The course will focus around contemporary work in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Required Reading
Smith, T. Contemporary Art: World Currents, Laurence King Publishing, London, 2011.
Archer, M. Art Since 1960, Second Edition, Thames & Hudson World of Art, London, 2002.
Parallel Collisions: 2012 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2012.
Restless: Adelaide International 2012, Adelaide Festival Board, Adelaide, 2012.
*Studies in Australian Indigenous Art
This course explores the vast diversity of historical and contemporary Indigenous art, with a focus on several painting traditions including bark painting in Arnhem Land and the Kimberley, Central and Western Desert dot painting and the watercolourists from Hermannsburg in Central Australia. Other aspects include Aboriginal decorated and woven objects and contemporary urban Aboriginal prints and photographs. The course draws heavily on the comprehensive Aboriginal collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia. Key anthropological, ethnographic and philosophical issues arising from the collecting and display of Aboriginal art and objects in museums and art galleries are discussed.
Required Reading
Caruana, W. Aboriginal Art, London, Thames & Hudson, 2003.
Dreamings of the Desert, Aboriginal dot paintings of the Western Desert, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 1996.
Kleinert, S and Neale, M. Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture, Oxford University Press, 2000.
Morphy, H. Aboriginal Art, Phaidon, London, 1998.
Studies in British Art
This course draws on the extensive collection of British art in the Art Gallery’s collection and considers art in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and other parts of the British Isles from the reign of Henry VIII to the reign of Queen Victoria. It concentrates on the rise of British portraiture in the era of the Flemish expatriate artist Anthony van Dyck; the invention of the Conversation Piece; the adaptation in Britain of the Classical landscape tradition, particularly by Richard Wilson and his followers; and the evolution of the Victorian art world through the mid to late nineteenth century. Attention also focuses on the development of British modern art and trends in the contemporary scene.
Required Reading
Davies, N. The Isles, London, Macmillan, 1999.
Trueherz, J. Victorian Painting, Thames and Hudson, London, 1996.
Trumble, A. Love and Death: Art in the Age of Queen Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2000.
Studies in Decorative Arts & Design
This course focuses on selected developments in British. Australian and Asian decorative arts. The implications of the term ‘decorative’ will be considered as well as the distinctive position of the decorative arts in the history of the modern museum. The British component of the course will focus on objects in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia that relate to William Morris and the Arts & Crafts Movement. The Australian component also draws extensively on objects in the Gallery’s collection and covers all aspects of the decorative arts in Australia since European settlement through to cutting-edge contemporary design. The Asian component also draws on the Gallery’s rich collection..
Required Reading
Menz, C. Australian Decorative Arts: 1820s-1900s, Adelaide, Art Gallery of South Australia, 1996.
Menz, C. Morris & Co., Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2002.
*Studies in Japanese Art
The online course encompasses the history of Japanese Art and a study of its distinctive culture and aesthetics. Through an exploration of the major art historical periods from the aristocratic Heian Court of the eighth century through to post-war modernism, the course considers issues such as the impact of internal political and social changes and external cross-cultural influences on Japanese identity.
On-line lectures will cover the art historical development of a range of media such as architecture, painting, woodblock prints and the decorative arts. Works from the on-line collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia are incorporated into lectures and tutorials. Filmed gallery sessions focus on significant aspects of the gallery's Japanese collection such as Shinto and Buddhist sculptural works and screen paintings. On-line sessions also enable the viewing and discussion of treasures like the eighteenth century hand scroll Scenes of the Ezo fishing grounds which depicts the indigenous Ainu people of Japan and is seldom on display due to its fragility but is one of the very few held by a museum outside of Japan.
Required Reading
Bennett, J. & Reigle Newland, A., Golden Journey: Japanese Art From Australian Collections, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2009.
Guth, C. Art of Edo Japan: The Artist and the City 1615 - 1868, Harry Abrams, New York, 1996.
Stanley-Baker, J. Japanese Art, London, Thames and Hudson, 2000.
Studies in Southeast Asian Art
This course surveys the development of Southeast Asian aesthetics with a focus on the ways that ceramics and textiles have articulated the region’s cultural and spiritual identity. The growth of Vietnamese, Thai, and Cambodian ceramic production will be explored as will the role of high-fired pottery documenting social history and cultural exchange in Southeast Asia. The study in textiles concentrates specifically on Indonesia and East Timor where textile artists have transformed foreign designs imported into the archipelago from India and China into a rich indigenous art tradition. The course draws on the Gallery’s rich collection and may also include a field trip to Southeast Asia. This course draws on the Gallery’s rich collection and may include a field trip to Southeast Asia.
Required Reading
Bennett, James, Beneath the Winds: Masterpieces of South East Asian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, 2011.
Kerlogue, Fiona, Arts of South-East Asia, Thames & Hudson, London 2004.
Studies in Modern Art
This course focuses on the origins of modern art in Paris and London, the meaning of ‘modern’ art and on recent research into the main modern art movements of the twentieth century including dadaism and surrealism, cubism, expressionism, futurism, constructivism, abstraction, abstract expressionism and the moments of ‘decline’: minimalism and conceptualism. Attention will also focus on the shift from Paris to New York as the cultural centre and how modern art was taken up in Australia. Much of the course is shaped around works in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia. The course may include a field trip to the National Gallery of Australia.
Required Reading
Hughes, R. The Shock of the New: Art and the Century of Change, London, Thames & Hudson, 1992.
Meesham, P. Sheldon, J., Modern Art: A Critical Introduction, London, Routledge, 2000.
Harrison, C. Modernism, London, Tate Publishing, 2001..
Studies in Modern Australian Art
This course which focuses on modern Australian art from 1901 to c1970 will be taught around the painting, sculpture, works on paper, decorative arts and photographic works in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia. It will include work produced by artists working in Australia; in Britain, France and America as expatriates; and by emigres who came to Australia. It will focus on the moves within modern art to include Indigenous art in our national culture; how work from the AASEAL expedition to Arnhem Land marked the beginnings of Indigenous collections for most Australian galleries; and how women artists were at the forefront of modern art. The course will also explore changes in modern Australia and how there was shift in taste from British- Australian art to engagement with American abstraction.
Required Reading
Smith, T. Transformations in Australian art (volume 2): The Twentieth Century, Modernism and Aboriginality, Craftsman House, Sydney, 2002
Stephen, A. McNamara, A. and Goad, P. Modernism and Australia: Documents on Art, Design and Architecture 1917-1967, Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2006.
Stephen, A. Goad, P, McNamara, A. Modern Times: The untold story of Australian modernism, Miegunyah Press, & Powerhouse Publishing, 2008.
Dissertation in Art History
Upon completion of four coursework subjects in the graduate program in Art History (at a distinction average or higher), students may apply to enrol for the dissertation component. Satisfactory completion of the dissertation will qualify students for the award of Master of Arts (Studies in Art History).
Eligibility
Candidates who gained direct entry to the Masters level of the program may enrol for the dissertation upon completion of four coursework subjects. Candidates who entered at Graduate Diploma level can apply to upgrade to Masters level where they have achieved a distinction level or higher for the four coursework subjects.
Duration
The dissertation (12 units) is twice the size of any single coursework subject in terms of unit value. Students may enrol to complete it full-time in one semester or part-time over two semesters.
Content
The dissertation must be 15,000 – 18,000 words in length, or equivalent. It can be a thesis by research or a project. The thesis should be in a course area taken at the Graduate Diploma level. A project might take the form of working to a brief negotiated jointly with the Program Coordinator and the Gallery. For example, it might comprise the work required to mount an exhibition, prepare a catalogue, feature a particular part of the collection, or make a new acquisition, to be submitted as a report in a form to be negotiated between the candidate, the supervisor(s), and the Course Coordinator. Depending on the proposal and area of interest one or two supervisors may be allocated to supervise the dissertation (either by thesis or by project) and they may be from the University, or the Gallery, or both. There may be some instances where an outside supervisor is co-opted.
Assessment
The dissertation or project will be assessed by two examiners, neither of whom will have supervised the work. Outside examiners may be sought. The result for the dissertation will be considered by a Board of Examiners. This will be a sub-group of the Program Management Committee and may co-opt other academic staff as necessary. Where after consultation between the examiners the results still cross two grades, a third marker will be asked to blind-mark the work. The Board of Examiners will decide the final result based on the grades and comments of the markers.
To qualify for the award of the degree, students will need to submit three bound copies of the dissertation with the School of History & Politics.. This is not required until after the work has been marked and any necessary corrections made. One copy will be retained by the School, another will go to the Art Gallery of South Australia and the third will be kept in the Barr Smith Library.
Meeting
There will be a one hour meeting for students who wish to enrol for the dissertation late in the year in Napier Room 420, level 4 of the Napier Building. University and Gallery staff will be present to give an outline of what is required and to answer any questions. Students will then have four weeks in which to submit a proposal. The shape of the Masters program will also be discussed. It consists of a fortnightly work-in-progress seminar, held late on Friday afternoons, and individual supervision sessions.
Proposal
Students who intend to enrol for the dissertation should submit a brief outline (11/2 - 2 pages) prior to enrolling, of the area in which they would like to do their research or project and any preliminary reading or research they have done. This should be sent to the Program Coordinator (date yet to be finalised). The Program Coordinator will then liaise with academic and Gallery staff to decide on recommendations for appropriate supervision. Students will then be contacted about supervision arrangements for 2009.
Required Text
D'Alleva, A. Methods and Theories of Art History, Laurence King, London, 2005.
Enquires
For further enquiries about the dissertation, please contact the Program Coordinator, Associate Professor Catherine Speck on 8313 5746, or via email catherine.speck@adelaide.edu.au
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