Course detail

Artists and Curators in Texts

FaVU-2ACTAcad. year: 2023/2024

The course is divided into three thematic segments. In the first one, we will focus on discourses associated with post-war and contemporary painting and its connection to politics and the rhetorics and stereotypes of social status of artists on the one hand, and on the emancipatory potential of the medium and its practices on the other (the context will be political, feminist art). In the second bloc, we will focus on the issues of representation dealt with by feminist artists, curators, and theoreticians from the 1970s to 2000s.  

Language of instruction

English

Number of ECTS credits

4

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Offered to foreign students

The home faculty only

Entry knowledge

Upper-Intermediate and higher levels of English are required.

Rules for evaluation and completion of the course

Students will be assesed from discussing and writing short, in-class response papers about the assigned texts. Not having read those texts will count as an absence.
The answered quiz questions regarding each text for homework have to be uploaded to the shared drive a day before the class.  Before the last class in the semester, students will have to have fulfilled at least 60% of the assignments in order to be able to finish the remaining assignments by the end of the exam period.
Students will be assessed from the regular, continuous work during the semester.
Hybrid forms of classes - in-class (including individual tutorials) and remote forms of teaching. Students must attend 75% of the videoconferences actively, which includes questions addressed to the students during the conference both in written and oral form. The course is based on the students' weekly work, that is, students must have read the assigned texts before each class.

Aims

The course will show students ways in which sophisticated theoretical reflection of artistic/curating practices can be done.
Tests, essays, discussions.

Study aids

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Amelia Jones. The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader. (EN)
e-flux journal. (EN)
Hilary Robinson and Maria Elena Buszek. A Companion to Feminist Art. (EN)
Hilary Robinson. Feminism Art Theory. An Anthology. (EN)
OnCurating Journal. (EN)

Recommended reading

Reylly, Maura. Curatorial Activism: Towards an Ethics of Curating. (EN)

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme VUM Master's

    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory-optional
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-D , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory-optional
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-IDT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective
    branch VU-VT , 2 year of study, winter semester, elective

  • Programme FAAD Master's 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
    1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory-optional
  • Programme VUM_M Master's 1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory-optional

  • Programme ZST-BX Bachelor's

    branch ZST , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective

  • Programme ZST-NX Master's

    branch ZST , 1 year of study, winter semester, elective

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

13 hod., optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

Syllabus

11. Abstract expressionism and politics. Max Kozloff: Abstract Expressionism, Weapon of Cold War. 
2. The queering of AbEx: Amy Sillman: AbEx and Disco Balls
3. Robert Smithosn - selected writings

4. Ad Reinhardt and Sol LeWitt - selected writings

5. Documents of Contemporary Art: The Rural - selected text from the anthology on artistic endeavors outside big cities.
6. Derek Jarman: Modern Nature. Excerpts from the filmmaker's diary on gardening.
7. Peter Weibel. My Earth Oddyssey. (From Critical Zones, the exhibition catalogue.)
8. Adrian Piper: The Triple Negation of Ćolored Women Artists
9.  Andrea Fraser: There Is No Place Like Home (art institutions, markets, and discourses and the (lost) potential of artistic activism)
10. The discourse of contemporary Czech artistic institutions - exhibition press releases, accompanying essays, catalog essays. Focus: what is the difference between a feminist exhibition and an exhibtion of women artists?  Case study: Buletin moravské galerie, etc....Team work - presentation of analyses. 

11. Lucy Lippard. Undermining. 

 12. The discourse of contemporary Czech artistic institutions - exhibition press releases, accompanying essays, catalog essays. Analyses of selected events. Students will be assigned (or will choose) a particular exhibition and institution they will analyse. 

Seminar

13 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer