COURSE MATERIALS

• Course Reader ( [CR] hereafter)
• Online Materials

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Students are expected to attend all classes, whether on-campus (UC Study Center) or on-site (museum).
In addition to class participation, a midterm and a final exam, students are responsible for two written assignments

First Written Assignment

Length: 2 pages. Due: September 20.
Using the terms defined by Sherman and Rogoff (assigned reading September 13), please critique room number 77 on the first floor of the Denon wing at the Louvre museum.

Second Written Assignment

Length: Approximately 10 pages
Outline due: Tuesday, November 6
Paper due: Tuesday, November 20

Write a critical research paper on one of the following institutions: *[FR] = site in French

• Musée Cognacq-Jay [FR]
• Musée Jacquemart-André
• Musée du Moyen-Age Cluny
• Musée de la Vie Romantique [FR]
• Musée Jean-Jacques Henner
• Musée Delacroix [FR]
• Musée Gustave Moreau
• Musée Rodin
• Musée Bourdelle [FR]
• Musée Maillol
• Musée Zadkine [FR]
• Dali Espace Montmartre
• Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson
• Fondation Dubuffet [FR]
• Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme
• Musée des Arts et Métiers [FR]
• Musée des Arts Décoratifs
• Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires [FR]
• Musée des Arts Asiatiques - Guimet
• Jeu de Paume [FR]
• Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain
• Le Plateau
• Musée de la Musique (La Villette)
• Musée Galliéra [FR]

 

Grading

• Participation: 25%
• First written assignment of 2 pages (due Week 2): 5%
• Midterm examination (Week 7): 20%
• Research paper (due Week 10): 25%
• Final examination (Week 13): 25%

COURSE SCHEDULE

WEEK 1. September 10-14
The Museum as Cultural Institution
Session 1: Tuesday, September 11th
Introduction (1)

Session 2: Thursday, September 13th
NOTE: class held in UC Paris campus classroom
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. September 17-21
The Museum Contested
Session 1: Tuesday, September 18th
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]

Session 2: Thursday, September 20th

Musée du Louvre

metro Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre 
meet at fountains to the left of main pyramid entrance

• Adorno, “The Valéry Proust Museum” in Prisms, N. Spearman, 1955, pp. 175-185 [CR]

FIRST WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT DUE (2 pages)

WEEK 3. September 24-28
The Dilemma of Museums of Modern Art
Session 1: Tuesday, September 25th
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: Thursday, September 27th

Musée Marmottan-Monet

2, rue Louis-Boilly 75016 Paris
metro Muette or Boulainvilliers
meet in front of museum entrance

• Harrison, “Impressionism, modernism and originality” in ibid, pp. 141-151 [CR]

WEEK 4. October 1-5
Curator versus Historian?
Session 1: Tuesday, October 2nd
Later Impressionism: Late Monet, Seurat

• Hamilton, “Later Impressionism” (sections on Monet and Seurat) in Painting and Sculpture in Europe, 1880-1940, Yale University Press, 1993 (1967), pp. 34-41; 49-57 [CR]

Session 2: Thursday, October 4th

Musée d'Orsay (1)

metro Musée d’Orsay or Solférino
meet in front of entrance B (Seine side)

• 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. October 8-12
Curator as Art Historian?
Session 1: Tuesday, October 9th
Anti-Impressionism: Cézanne, Symbolism and the Origins of Abstract Art

• Hamilton, “Later Impressionism” (sections on Cézanne and Gauguin) 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: Thursday, October 11th

Musée d'Orsay (2)
metro Musée d’Orsay or Solférino
meet in front of entrance B (Seine side)

• Greenberg, “Modernist Painting” (1961) in Art in Theory 1900-1990. An Anthology of Changing Ideas, Blackwell, 1992, p. 754-760 [CR]

WEEK 6. October 15-19
The Historical Avant-Garde
Session 1: Tuesday, October 16th
Early XXth century avant-gardes

• Green, “Making Fauvism” and “Making Cubism” in Art in France, 1900-1940, Yale, 2000, p. 15-26 [CR]

Session 2: Thursday, October 18th
Due to strikes no class being held today but before the midterm, mandatory independant visit to the "Picasso Cubiste" exhibition at the Musée Picasso [FR]
Hôtel Salé
5, rue de Thorigny
75003 Paris
metro Saint-Paul or Saint-Sébastien Froissart or Chemin Vert

WEEK 7. October 22-26
Modernism Ostracized
Session 1: Tuesday, October 23rd
Anti-Modernism

• Green, “Making Dada,” “Making Surrealism,” “Modern Movements and Abstract Art” and “Avant-gardes, Dominant Values and Histories” in Art in France, 1900-1940, Yale, 2000, p. 26-36 [CR]

Session 2: Thursday, October 25th

MIDTERM EXAMINATION in UC Paris classroom

MIDTERM GALLERY (Please use user/password given during practicum)

FALL BREAK

WEEK 8. November 5-9
Museums and the Social Order
Session 1: Tuesday, November 6th
Primitivism and Modern Art

No assigned readings

RESEARCH PAPER OUTLINE DUE

Session 2: Thursday, November 8th
Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris

11, avenue du Président Wilson
75016 Paris
metro Alma-Marceau or Iéna or Pont de l'Alma
meet on museum entrance stairs

• Interview with Suzanne Pagé, former director of the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, in Le Monde 04/23/2006, 2pp. [CR]

WEEK 9. November 12-16
Fetishism and Consumption
Session 1: Tuesday, November 13th
Art Since World War II (1): 1945-1970

Guest lecture by Dr. Suzanne Paquet: “Land Art and photography: The Non-site effect”

• 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: Thursday, November 15th

Centre Georges Pompidou
metro Rambuteau, Hôtel de Ville, Châtelet or Les Halles
meet in front of museum entrance on plaza

• Baudrillard," The Beaubourg-effect: Implosion and Deterrence" in October, vol. 20, 1982, pp. 3-13 [CR]

WEEK 10. November 19-23
From Producer to Consumer: Museums, Money, Meaning
Session 1: Tuesday, November 20th
Art Since World War II (2): 1970- today

Guest lecture by Dr. Vivian Rehberg: “A Tale of Two Institutions: The Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Palais de Tokyo”

No assigned readings

 

Session 2: Thursday, November 22nd

Palais de Tokyo

(across from Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris)
11, avenue du Président Wilson
75016 Paris
metro Alma-Marceau or Iéna or Pont de l'Alma
meet on museum entrance stairs

• 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]
• Nicolas Bourriaud interview in ArtForum, April 2001, [CR]

WEEK 11. November 26-30
Modernizing French Museums
Session 1: Tuesday, November 27th
The “New” Museums in France

Poulot, “Identity as Self-Discovery: The Ecomuseum in France ” in Museum Culture. Histories. Discourses. Spectacles, pp. 66-84 [CR]

RESEARCH PAPER DUE (approx. 10 pages)

Session 2: Thursday, November 29th

GUEST LECTURE: Bernard Muller on the Musée du Quai Branly

MANDATORY INDEPENDENT VISIT TO
Musée du Quai Branly must be done by this date
Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 6:30pm
Hand in your ticket stubs to Bethanie on Thursday, November 29th at the latest
Musée du Quai Branly
37, Quai Branly
75007 Paris metro Iéna, Alma-Marceau, Pont de l’Alma or Bir Hakeim

• Clifford, “On Collecting Art and Culture” in The Predicament of Culture, excerpts
  [CR]
• http://www.ceroart.org/numero1/txt1/articles/artmuller.html#t1
  
•  Excerpts from Johannes Fabian, Time and the Other : How Anthropology Makes its Object, New York, Columbia University Press, 2002 (1983).

WEEK 12. December 3-7
Identity Politics and Cultural Institutions
Session 1: Tuesday, December 4th
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: Thursday, December 6th
FINAL EXAMINATION REVIEW SESSION

WEEK 13. December 10-14

Thursday, December 13th, 1:15-3:15pm

FINAL EXAMINATION

FINALS GALLERY (Please use same user/password as midterm gallery)