PCC 125. Art on Display: the Museums of Paris
In addition to class participation, a midterm and a final exam, students are responsible for one oral presentation and two written assignments.
A 10mn presentation on the current temporary exhibition of your choice, subject to instructor approval.
Students’ presentations are expected to be critical of the curatorial choices made about what to show and how. Students will need to think about the success and shortcomings of the way the objects are displayed, explained, promoted and what kinds of agendas might have motivated the exhibition as a whole.
COURSE SCHEDULE
Week 1. Sep 11-15
The Museum as Cultural Institution
Session 1: Introduction (1)
Session 2: Introduction (2)
- Sherman and Rogoff, “Introduction: Frameworks for Critical Analysis” in Museum Culture. Histories, Discourses, Spectacles, University of Minnesota Press , 1994,
pp. ix-xx [CR]
Week 2. Sep 18-22
The Museum Contested
Session 1: Utopia, Mausoleum or Shrine?
- Collard, “French Cultural Policy: the Special Role of the State” in Contemporary French Cultural Studies, ed. Kidd and Reynolds, 2000, pp. 38-50 [CR]
ORAL PRESENTATION PREFERENCES DUE
Session 2: Musée du Louvre
- Adorno, “The Valéry Proust Museum” in Prisms, N. Spearman, 1955, pp. 175-185 [CR]
FIRST WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT DUE (2 pages)
Week 3. Sep 25-29
The Dilemma of Museums of Modern Art
Session 1: What is Modern Art?
- Fer, “Introduction. What is Modern?” in Modernity and Modernism: French Painting in the Nineteenth Century, ed. Frascina, Yale University Press, 1993, excerpts [CR]
Session 2: Musée Marmottan-Monet
- Harrison, “Impressionism, modernism and originality” in ibid, pp. 141-151 [CR]
Week 4. Oct 2-6
Curator versus Historian?
Session 1: Later Impressionism: Late Monet, Seurat
- Hamilton, “Later Impressionism” in Painting and Sculpture in Europe, 1880-1940, Yale University Press, 1993 (1967), pp. 34-41; 49-57 [CR]
Session 2: Musée d’Orsay (1)
- Edwards, “Three Extracts on the Musée d’Orsay from Le Débat no. 44, 1987” in Art and Its Histories. A Reader, pp. 282-286 [CR]
- Rosen and Zerner, “The Judgment of Paris ” in New York Review of Books, 34, 3, 1987 [CR]
Week 5. Oct 9-13
Curator as Art Historian?
Session 1: Anti-Impressionism: Cézanne, Symbolism and the Origins of Abstract Art
- Hamilton, “Later Impressionism” in Painting and Sculpture in Europe, 1880-1940, Yale University Press, 1993 (1967), pp. 41;-49; “Symbolist Art” in ibid, pp. 83-94 [CR]
Session 2: Musée d’Orsay (2)
- Greenberg, “Modernist Painting” (1961) in Art in Theory 1900-1990. An Anthology of Changing Ideas, Blackwell, 1992, p. 754-760 [CR ]
Week 6. Oct 16-20
The Historical Avant-Garde
Session 1: Early XXth century avant-gardes
- Janson, “Painting Before World War II” in History of Art, Prentice Hall, 1986,
666-672; 681-695 [CR]
Session 2: Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris
- Interview with Suzanne Pagé, Director of the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, in Le Monde 04/23 /2006, 2pp. [CR]
Week 7. Oct 23-27
Modernism Ostracized
Session 1: Anti-Modernism
Review for Mid-Term Exams
- Batchelor, “’This Liberty and this Order’: Art in France after the First World War” in Realism, Rationalism, Surrealism: Art Between the Wars, Yale University Press, 1993, excerpts [CR]
Session 2: MIDTERM EXAMINATION (Thu, October 26 ~ 2:00-3:30pm)
MID-TERM GALLERY (Please use same user/password as other ucparis articles)
FALL BREAK
Week 8. Nov 6-10
Museums and the Social Order
Session 1:
Primitivism and Modern Art
- Foster, “The ‘Primitive’ Unconscious of Modern Art, or White Skin Black Masks”, Recodings. Art, Spectacle, Cultural Politics, pp. 181-195 [CR]
ONE PARAGRAPH SUMMARY OF WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT TOPIC DUE
Session 2: Musée Picasso [FR]
- Foster, “The ‘Primitive’ Unconscious of Modern Art, or White Skin Black Masks”, ibid., pp. 196-210 [CR]
Week 9. Nov 13-17
Fetishism and Consumption
Session 1: Art Since World War II (1): 1945-1970
- Janson, “Painting since World War II” in History of Art, pp. 695-696; 713-727 [CR]
- Duchamp, “The Richard Mutt Case” (“Ready Made”, 1917) in Art in Theory, p. 248 [CR]
Session 2: Centre Georges Pompidou: "Le Mouvement des images, art, cinéma"
Week 10. Nov 20-24
From Producer to Consumer:
Museums, Money, Meaning
Session 1: Art Since World War II (2): 1970- today
Guest Lecture:
Vivian Rehberg (Independant art historian and critic, curator of the Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris 2001-2004) - “A Tale of Two Institutions: The Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Palais de Tokyo” NEW
SECOND WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT DUE (10 pages)
Session 2: Palais de Tokyo
- Bousteau, “Opening”, p.5 ; Bourriaud, “What is an Artist (Today)?”, pp. 16-24; Wolf, “Towards a New Economy of Art”, pp. 42-44; Troncy, “Hatred of Art Starts Here”, pp. 48-50; Fleck, “The Future Generation”, pp. 66-67 in special issue of Beaux-ArtsMagazine “What is Art Today”, 1999 [CR]
Week 11. Nov 27 - Dec 1
Modernizing French Museums
Session 1: The “New” Museums in France
- Poulot, “Identity as Self-Discovery: The Ecomuseum in France ” in Museum Culture. Histories. Discourses. Spectacles, pp. 66-84 [CR]
SECOND WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT DUE (10 pages)
Musée des arts premiers, Quai Branly - Mandatory independent visit
Session 2: Round Table on the Musée Quai Branly & Exhibiting non-western Art Today (2-3:30pm)
« Art primitif » and « Arts premiers » : Around the Musée du Quai Branly
Speakers:
Mr. François-René Martin, Chargé de recherche at the Ecole du Louvre
Mr. Bernard Müller, Chargé de conférences at the EHESS
Ms. Maureen Murphy, Musée de l'immigration, formerly of the Musée du Quai Branly
- Clifford, “On Collecting Art and Culture” in The Predicament of Culture, excerpts [CR]
Week 12. Dec 4-8
Identity Politics and Cultural Institutions
Session 1: Cultural Policy and Politics
- Duncan , “The Art Museum and the Ritual of Citizenship” in Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display, pp. 88-103 [CR]
Session 2:
FINAL REVIEW SESSION (2-3:30pm)
Week 13. Dec 11-15
Class 2: FINAL EXAMINATION (2-4pm)
FINALS GALLERY (Please use same user/password as other ucparis articles)
