T 1/14 Course overview and introduction
Hand out syllabus
I. Art Criticism: A Critical Overview
Th 1/16 Everybody’s a Critic
A.O. Scott, “Everybody’s a Critic. And That’s How It Should Be,” New York Times, 30 January 2016.
Handout Group presentation assignment
>>Assignment 1 due to Canvas by 11am
T 1/21 What is an Art Critic?
Group Presentation 1: Art Critics
Boris Groys, “Critical Reflections,” Artforum, 36, no. 2 (October 1997): 80-81, 119.
Th 1/23 Taste and Distinction
Pierre Bourdieu, introduction to A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (London: Routledge, 1984), 1-7.
Richard A. Peterson and Roger M. Kern, “Changing Highbrow Taste: From Snob to Omnivore,” American Sociological Review, 61, no. 5. (October 1996), 900-907.
Recommended: How to Write About Contemporary Art, 31-39.
>>Assignment 2 due to Canvas by 11am
T 1/28 Connoisseurship and Critique
Bernard Berenson, “Rudiments of Connoisseurship,” in The Study and Criticism
of Italian Art (London: G. Bell & Sons, 1914), 57-75.
Ben Davis, “Connoisseurship and Critique,” Art in the After-Culture: Capitalist Crisis & Cultural Strategy (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2022), 9-27.
>>Assignment 3 due to Canvas by 11am
Th 1/30 Art Criticism in Crisis
James Elkins, Excerpt from What Happened to Art Criticism? (2003), reprinted in Kerr Houston, An Introduction to Art Criticism, 302-309.
JJ Charlesworth, “The Dysfunction of Art Criticism,” Art Monthly (September 2003), 1-4.
Raphael Rubinstein, “The Ghosts of Art Criticism,” Art in America (October 2019), 26-30.
>>Assignment 4 due to Canvas by 11am
T 2/4 Art Criticism Platforms
Group Presentation 2: Art Criticism Platforms
Jed Gottlieb, “Curtains Fall on Art Critics at Newspapers,” Columbia Journalism Review, January 6, 2017, https://www.cjr.org/the_feature/arts_music_critics.php?utm_content=buffer249b5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer.
Th 2/6 Why Criticism Matters
Hannah Black, Ciarán Finlayson, and Tobi Haslett, “The Tear Gas Biennial,” Artforum, 17 July 2019.
Seph Rodney, “Art Criticism as a Way to Live,” April 14, 2022, https://hyperallergic.com/724492/art-criticism-as-a-way-to-live/.
Recommended: Kerr Houston, An Introduction to Art Criticism, 23-81 and How to Write About Contemporary Art, 40-41.
>>Assignment 5 due to Canvas by 11am
II. What is Art Criticism and Writing?
T 2/11 Exhibition Reviews
Group presentation 3: Local art exhibitions
Handout Exhibition review assignment
Th 2/13 No class
T 2/18 Opinion Essays
Group presentation 4: Exhibition reviews and opinion essays
Handout Opinion essay assignment
Th 2/20 Description
How to Write About Contemporary Art, 57-62.
John Ruskin, “Turner’s Slave Ship,” 1843, in Modern Painters, vol. 1(New York: National Library Association, n.d.), 382-383.
Kerr Houston, An Introduction to Art Criticism, 82-85 and 103-110.
>>Assignment 6 due to Canvas by 11am
T 2/25 Practicum: Description
Meet in Texas State Galleries, JCM building, for presentations on description
>>Assignment 7 due to Canvas by 11am
Th 2/27 No class due to field trip
F 2/28 Museum/Gallery Visit
3-5pm
Commerce Gallery
102 S Commerce St.
Lockhart, TX 78644
T 3/4 Analysis and Interpretation
Kerr Houston, An Introduction to Art Criticism, 85-103.
Allan Sekula, Photography Against the Grain: Essays and Photo Works, 1973-1983 (Halifax: Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1984), 168-174.
Susan Sontag, “Against Interpretation,” in Against Interpretation and Other Essays (The Noonday Press, 1966), 1-10.
>>Assignment 8 due to Canvas by 11am
Th 3/6 Writing Workshop with Brandon Zech from Glasstire
T 3/11 No Class: Spring Break
Th 3/13 No Class: Spring Break
T 3/18 Practicum: Analysis and Interpretation
Meet in Wittliff Collections, 7th floor of Alkek Library, for presentations on analysis and interpretation
>>Assignment 9 due to Canvas by 11am
Th 3/20 Judgment
Kerr Houston, An Introduction to Art Criticism, 160-174.
Immanuel Kant, Excerpts from Critique of Judgment (1790); in Clive Cazeaux, ed., The Continental Aesthetics Reader (New York: Routledge, 2000).
Clement Greenberg, “Modernist Painting,” 1960; in John O’Brian, Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism, vol. 4 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 85-93.
>>Assignment 10 due to Canvas by 11am
T 3/25 Criteria
Lucy Lippard, “The Women’s Artists Movement—What’s Next?” (1975), reprinted in Kerr Houston, An Introduction to Art Criticism, 290-292.
Peter Schjeldahl, “The Polymorphous Genius of Wolfgang Tillmans,” The New Yorker, October 2, 2022.
Christina Rees, “Glasstire and Negative Criticism in Texas,” Glasstire,26 October 2016.
Recommended: How to Write About Contemporary Art, 20-23 and 126-209.
>>Assignment 11 due to Canvas by 11am
Th 3/27 Practicum: Judgment and Criteria
Group presentation 5: Judgment and criteria
F 3/28 Museum/Gallery Visit
3-5pm
Art Galleries at Black Studies
The University of Texas at Austin
Christian–Green Gallery
201 East 21st St.
Austin, TX 78712
Jester Center, 2nd Floor, A232
T 4/1 No class due to field trip
Th 4/3 Voice and Tone
Kerr Houston, An Introduction to Art Criticism, 200-217.
Guillaume Apollinaire, Two Articles on Picasso (1905), reprinted in An Introduction to Art Criticism, 253-255.
Jerry Saltz, “Seeing Out Loud,” The Village Voice, 13 December 2005.
Okwui Enwezor, “The Inverted Sign,” NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art (Spring/Summer 1995): 44-49.
Eileen Myles, “Mother’s Day,” in Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty, Gregory R. Miller & Co. for CAMH and MCA Denver, 2015.
Recommended: How to Write About Contemporary Art, 220-233.
>>Assignment 12 due to Canvas by 11am
T 4/8 Practicum: Voice and Tone
Group presentation 6: Voice and tone
III. Writing and Revising Art Criticism
Th 4/10 Peer Reviews
Bring to class 3 hard copies of draft of exhibition review
>>Exhibition Review Draft DUE to Canvas by 11am
T 4/15 Individual Meetings
Th 4/17 Discussion of Exhibition Reviews
>>Exhibition Review + Response to Peer Reviews DUE to Canvas by 11am
T 4/22 Peer Reviews
Bring to class 3 hard copies of draft of opinion essay
>>Opinion Essay Draft DUE to Canvas by 11am
Th 4/24 Individual Meetings
T 4/29 No Class: Reading Day
Th 5/1 Concluding Remarks + Discussion of Opinion Essays
11am-12:20pm
>>Opinion Essay + Response to Peer Reviews DUE to Canvas by 11am