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Courses in Art History
Art
2580
Women Artists
*Offered in alternate years.
4
SEMESTER HOURS
Description:
The purpose of this course is to bring to light the creative
achievements of women artists, primarily painters and sculptors
in the Western tradition, from the Renaissance through the
20th century. We will discuss Linda Nochlin's controversial
article, "Why have there been no great women artists?",
as well as sections of Germaine Greer's The Obstacle Race
and various articles in Norma Broude and Mary Garrard's Feminism
and Art History and The Expanding Discourse, in order to understand
more fully the various challenges faced by women active in
the visual arts. The question of whether it's possible to
identify specifically "female" or "feminine"
imagery will be raised, and we will also consider the variety
of ways in which women artists have expressed or reflected
upon their own individuality: for example, through self-portraits,
diaries, journals, and letters.
Instructor:
Elise
Smith
Syllabus
TEXTS:
The texts are Wendy Slatkin's Women Artists in History:
From Antiquity to the Present (3rd ed.; Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1997) and Slatkin's The Voices of Women
Artists (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1993). Other
required readings will be distributed throughout the semester
or put on reserve in the library. A number of articles from
the following two anthologies (on reserve in the library)
will be required reading during the course of the semester,
and you can either read them in the library and take notes,
or make copies to read elsewhere, or purchase copies (at www.amazon.com
these two paperbacks are available for $30 and $40 respectively,
and will ship within 2-3 days):
Norma
Broude and Mary Garrard, eds., Feminism and Art History:
Questioning the Litany (New York: Harper & Row, 1982).
Norma Broude and Mary Garrard, eds., The Expanding Discourse:
Feminism and Art History (New York: HarperCollins, 1992).
GRADES:
Each of you will be evaluated on the basis of the following:
--journal
(30%)
--short research paper (5-6 pages typed) (30%)
--midterm exam (20%)
--final exam (20%)
SENIORS.
Seniors may choose not to take the final exam if their grade
is C or above, and if they continue to come to class until
the last day of the semester (failure to do so could result
in being required to take the final). The course grade of
seniors who don't take the final will be computed as follows:
journal (35%), paper (35%), midterm exam (30%).
CLASS
ATTENDANCE AND DISCUSSION: Regular class attendance is especially
important in this art course since it won't be possible to
duplicate the experience of class discussions simply by reading
along in the book. You can't learn without engaging with the
material, so I strongly encourage all of you to ask questions
and talk freely in class about the art works. Absences for
whatever reason after the first three will adversely affect
your final grade (I will count off one point from your final
grade for each absence after the first three). If you are
absent for an extended excused illness or family emergency
you may be able to make up those absences by doing additional
writing assignments (please consult with me about this if
the need arises).
LEARNING
DISABILITIES: If you have a learning disability and need special
arrangements you must discuss it with David Sneed (Dean of
Students) and each of your instructors. In order for me to
be able to accomodate your needs you must inform me within
the first week of the semester (or within one week of entering
the class).
EXAMS:
These will be slide identification and essay exams. The essays
will mainly consist of analysis and comparison of selected
works of art from your slide lists. These works on the slide
lists will be on display in one of the slide cabinets outside
my office door. For the purposes of this class, the complete
identification of a work of art requires the following information:
name of artist (correctly spelled), nationality, title of
the work of art, and approximate date by third of a century
(early, mid, late).
* * *
No make-up exam will be given unless you have a serious medical
or other emergency reason and have notified me in advance
of the reason for your absence.
JOURNAL:
This will be primarily a reading-response journal, with a
few additional entries analyzing women's art in current exhibitions.
Every time there's a reading other than in Slatkin's Women
Artists in History you will turn in to me at the beginning
of class a 1-2 page journal entry. This entry should analyze
what you see as the key issues or most significant points
raised by the reading, and should bring in supporting evidence
from the text in the form of references to specific sentences
or sections. These reading journals will serve as a starting
point for class discussion. If you have more than one reading
for the day (e.g., in both Voices and Feminism and Art History),
then you should concentrate on one of the readings for the
majority of your journal, but should also add a couple of
sentences at the end referring to a key point raised by the
other reading as well as one or two page-references that you
could bring up in class discussion if the occasion arises.
In addition
to these reading responses, you'll be expected to write at
least three journal entries responding to women's art in current
exhibitions. You should choose one or two works on which to
focus and write an analysis of the style and a discussion
of what you see as the meaning or content. You might also
ask yourself how the choice of medium and/or technique affects
your reading of the content.
Required
first exhibition response: Mississippi Museum of Art, Crossing
the Threshold (an exhibition of elderly women artists running
through January 23), 201 E. Pascagoula St. (corner of Pascagoula
& Lamar Streets downtown); phone 960-1515; hours Mon-Sat
10-5, Sun 12-5 (admission $3 with student i.d. and everyone
free on Saturday 10-12). There's a concurrent exhibition at
the museum of the works of Vicksburg native Caroline Compton
about which you could also write an entry.
There
will also be several exhibits of works by women artists in
the Lewis Art Gallery this semester, including one by our
own Sandra Smithson (Jan. 18-Feb. 25) and a Straddlefork art
lecture and exhibit by Julie Schneider (lecture tentatively
scheduled for Thursday, March 23, 7:30, AC 215). In addition,
both the Dunbar and Summers lectures this semester seem particularly
relevant and interesting to our class: The Dunbar philosophy
lecture will be by Martha Nussbaum, "Secret Sewers of
Vice: Disgust, Bodies, and the Law," on Tuesday, March
21, 7:00 p.m., AC 215. The Summers lecture in religion will
be by James B. Nelson, "Incarnation and Sexuality,"
on Thursday, March 23, 11:30 a.m., Recital Hall.
RESEARCH
PAPER: Your paper should be centered on some aspect of a single
artist's career and should include a well-focused thesis statement,
sufficient supporting evidence drawn from your own analysis
of the art works as well as from your research, and a convincing
conclusion. Be careful not to write a biographical or historical
report; remember that you need to make some clear point or
present a significant argument in this paper.
Format:
This paper should be about 5-6 double-spaced typed pages (with
a font size of 10 or 12, one inch margins, and numbered pages).
There should be a separate title page, unnumbered, that includes
the title of the paper, your name, the number and title of
this class, the date of submission, and your honor pledge.
Revision:
I strongly encourage you to go through a rigorous and extensive
revision process, which would ideally include one or two visits
to the Writing Center as well as various peer readers. The
Writing Center hours are M-Th 2-5, 6-9, and Sun. 6-9. I would
be glad to read a draft of your paper if you turn it in to
me at least five or six days before the due date. Once the
paper is turned in on the due date, however, the grade it
receives will be final.
A late
paper will be marked down 1/2 letter grade for each 24 hours
that it's late unless prior arrangements are made (a serious,
legitimate, justifiable reason is needed for me to consider
granting a student extra time for these papers, so plan ahead
and budget your time wisely).
PLAGIARISM
- A Reminder
Always
be careful about plagiarism, even in take-home exams. Plagiarism,
as you know from LS1000, is the use of another person's ideas
or words without proper acknowledgement. There are times when
your sources might include not only various published books
and articles, but also friends or colleagues or professors.
Get in the habit of thinking about where your ideas and words
originate, since that is one of the responsibilities of being
a member of the academic community. Some students think they're
solving the problem by using quote after quote, but that can
turn into a pastiche of other people's work rather than a
genuine essay.
To be
more specific about what plagiarism is, in case you're uncertain:
two of the most common forms of plagiarism are defined by
Diana Hacker in The Bedford Handbook for Writers (Boston:
St. Martin's, 1994) as "(1) borrowing someone's ideas,
information, or language without documenting the source and
(2) documenting the source but paraphrasing the source's language
too closely, without using quotation marks to indicate that
language has been borrowed" (477).
When should
you document a source? In addition to citing the source of
a direct quote, you should give a citation when you refer
to an idea, opinion, hypothesis, or conclusion from one of
your sources, or when you summarize or paraphrase a section
of your source, or when you rely on one of your sources for
a fact that would not be considered common knowledge for the
audience of your paper (Hacker 477-78). The point of all this
is to help the reader (and yourself as writer) to distinguish
between your own ideas and those with whom you are entering
into scholarly conversation.
What is
meant by paraphrasing a source too closely? This is probably
the kind of plagiarism that I most often see in student papers.
It has often been considered "unintentional", but
is nonetheless clearly recognizable as plagiarism. With the
Honor Code now in place at Millsaps, and with a concerted
effort being made by faculty and students alike to clarify
the boundaries of academic dishonesty, you will no longer
be able to plead lack of understanding but will be turned
in to the Honor Council. If you're uncertain about plagiarism,
I encourage you to read Hacker, pp. 467-79, on the process
of taking notes in order to properly paraphrase your sources
and on constructing and writing your essay in order to maintain
a strong, clear voice.
You should
be aware of the use and acknowledgement of your sources at
all levels, from defining your thesis to organizing your ideas
to writing individual sentences. Here is an exercise to help
you think about plagiarism at the sentence level, excerpted
from Hacker, pp. 478-79:
Which
of the following, if any, are plagiarized from the original
sentence, and which, if any, are acceptable? Put a "P"
by what you consider a plagiarized sentence, and an "A"
by what you consider an acceptable sentence.
Original
version: "If the existence of a signing ape was unsettling
for linguists, it was also startling news for animal behaviorists."
Davis, Eloquent Animals, p. 26
a) The existence of a signing ape unsettled linguists and
startled animal behaviorists (Davis 26).
b) If the presence of a sign-language-using chimp was disturbing
for scientists studying language, it was also surprising to
scientists studying animal behavior (Davis 26).
c) According to Flora Davis, linguists and animal behaviorists
were unprepared for the news that a chimp could communicate
with its trainers through sign language (26).
d) When they learned of an ape's ability to use sign language,
both linguists and animal behaviorists were taken by surprise.
e) When they learned of an ape's ability to use sign language,
both linguists and animal behaviorists were taken by surprise
(Davis 26).
Answers
Acceptable paraphrasing and documentation: c, e
Acceptable paraphrasing, but no documentation: d
Unacceptable paraphrasing (words and/or sentence structure
borrowed too closely): a, b
HONOR
CODE: The honor pledge signed by all students upon entering
the College is as follows:
As a Millsaps College student, I hereby affirm that I understand
the Honor Code and am aware of its implications and of my
responsibility to the Code. In the interests of expanding
the atmosphere of respect and trust in the College, I promise
to uphold the Honor Code and I will not tolerate dishonest
behavior in myself or in others.
Please
pledge all your written work for this class with the written
pledge: "I hereby certify that I have neither given nor
received unauthorized aid on this assignment [Signature]."
The abbreviation "Pledged" followed by your signature
has the same meaning and is acceptable on assignments other
than final exams.
COURSE
CALENDAR
Other
readings may be handed out during the course of the semester.
Week 1
W, 1/19 Introduction
F, 1/21
Discussion of readings: Linda Nochlin, "Why have there
been no great women artists?", and other excerpts from
Art and Sexual Politics
Week 2
M, 1/24 Discussion of readings: excerpts from Germaine Greer's
The Obstacle Race; Gordon Plummer's "Past and Present
Inequities in Art Education"; Cindy Nemser's "Stereotypes
and Women Artists"; and Margaret Mary Majewski's "Female
Art Characteristics: Do They Really Exist?"
W, 1/26
Women of the Renaissance: Sofonisba Anguissola
READ: Slatkin, WA, 63-73
F, 1/28
Baroque Art in Italy: Artemisia Gentileschi
READ: Slatkin, WA, 73-79; Voices, 3-11; Mary Garrard's "Artemisia
and Susanna" in Feminism and Art History, 147- 71
Week 3
M, 1/31 Gentileschi, cont'd.
W, 2/2
Gentileschi and Elisabetta Sirani
F, 2/4
Baroque Art in the Netherlands: Judith Leyster
READ: Slatkin, WA, 81-90, & Frima Fox Hofrichter's "Judith
Leyster's Proposition--Between Virtue and Vice" in Feminism
and Art History, 173-82
Week 4
M, 2/7 Leyster, cont'd.
W, 2/9
The Eighteenth Century: Angelica Kauffman, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun,
and Adélaïde Labille-Guiard
READ: Slatkin, WA, 92-106; Voices, 21-43
F, 2/11
The Eighteenth Century, cont'd.
Week 5
M, 2/14 19th-Century Realism: Rosa Bonheur
READ: Slatkin, WA, 130-37; Voices, 44-51; James Saslow's "'Disagreeably
Hidden: Construction and Constriction of the Lesbian Body
in Rosa Bonheur's Horse Fair" in The Expanding Discourse,
187-205
W, 2/16
19th-Century Realism: Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler
READ: Slatkin, WA, 123-29; Voices, 96-104
F, 2/18
Victorian Photography: Julia Margaret Cameron
READ: Slatkin, WA, 126-27 (also 171-74 for 20th-century women
photographers)
Week 6
M, 2/21 Late Pre-Raphaelite Painting: Evelyn De Morgan
W, 2/23
Evelyn De Morgan and other Late Victorians.
READ: Slatkin, Voices, 105-112
F, 2/25
19th-Century Sculpture: Harriet Hosmer, Edmonia Lewis, and
Camille Claudel
READ: Slatkin, WA, 112-16; Voices, 113-24
Week 7
M, 2/28 19th-Century Quilts and Other Decorative Arts
READ: Slatkin, WA, 117-21, & Patricia Mainardi's "Quilts:
The Great American Art" in Feminism and Art History,
331-46
(no need to submit reading journal today)
DUE: Research Paper Prospectus (one paragraph typed prospectus,
with thesis question, and preliminary bibliography in correct
MLA format)
W, 3/1
19th-Century Impressionism: Berthe Morisot
READ: Slatkin, WA, 137-39; Voices, 52-65
F, 3/3
19th-Century Impressionism: Mary Cassatt
READ: Slatkin, WA, 139-43; Voices, 133-43; Griselda Pollock's
"Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity" in The
Expanding Discourse, 245-67
* * *
Week 8
- Spring Break!
* * *
Week 9
M, 3/13 Early 20th Century France: Suzanne Valadon
W, 3/15
Midterm Exam
F, 3/17
Early 20th Century Germany: Paula Modersohn-Becker
READ: Slatkin, WA, 145-49; Voices, 163-80
Week 10
M, 3/20 Early 20th Century Germany: Käthe Kollwitz
READ: Slatkin, WA, 149-53; Voices, 181-92; Alessandra Comini's
"Gender or Genius?: The Women Artists of German Expressionism"
in Feminism and Art History, 271-91
W, 3/22
Other Early 20th-Century Artists
READ: Slatkin, WA, 153-62
Th, 3/23
Required Attendance: Straddlefork Art Lecture by Julie Schneider,
7:30 p.m., AC 215
F, 3/24
Surrealism
READ: Slatkin, WA, 163-66
Week 11
M, 3/27 Surrealism: Frida Kahlo
READ: Slatkin, WA, 166-68; Voices, 232-36; Janice Helland's
"Culture, Politics, and Identity in the Paintings of
Frida Kahlo" in The Expanding Discourse, 397-407
W, 3/29 Kahlo, cont'd.
F, 3/31
20th-Century Sculpture: Louise Nevelson & Barbara Hepworth
READ: Slatkin, WA, 184-87; Voices, 193-99, 247-56
Note: I'll be out of town (helping to choose films for next
year's Southern Circuit Film Series!), but a video about Nevelson
will be shown in class and you'll be responsible on the exam
for the information. Be sure to take notes.
Week 12
M, 4/3 Georgia O'Keeffe
READ: Slatkin, WA, 168-70; Voices, 213-231; and Barbara Lynes'
"Georgia O'Keeffe and Feminism" in The Expanding
Discourse, 437-49
W, 4/5
Abstract Expressionists (Lee Krasner, Elaine De Kooning, Joan
Mitchell, Grace Hartigan, Helen Frankenthaler)
READ: Slatkin, WA, 179-84; Voices, 237-46; Anne Wagner's "Lee
Krasner as L.K." in The Expanding Discourse, 425-35
F, 4/7
20th-Century Sculpture: Niki de Sainte-Phalle & Louise
Bourgeois
READ: Slatkin, WA, 194-98
Week 13
M, 4/10 20th-Century Sculpture: Eva Hesse, Magdalena Abakanowicz,
& Nancy Graves
READ: Slatkin, WA, 198-200, 220-23; Voices, 267-76
W, 4/12
Alice Neel and Sylvia Sleigh
READ: Slatkin, WA, 192-94, 202-04; Voices, 257-66
F, 4/14
Audrey Flack
READ: Slatkin, WA, 204-05
Week 14
M, 4/17 Judy Chicago
READ: Slatkin, WA, 206-07; Voices, 277-88; Josephine Withers'
"Judy Chicago's Dinner Party" in The Expanding Discourse,
451-65
W, 4/19
Miriam Schapiro
READ: Slatkin, WA, 207-09; Norma Broude's "Miriam Schapiro
and 'Femmage'" in Feminism and Art History, 315-29
DUE: Research Paper
F, 4/21
Good Friday - No Class
Week 15
M, 4/24 Betye Saar and Faith Ringgold
READ: Slatkin, WA, 209-13; Voices, 318-25; Lowery Sims' "Race
Riots, Cocktail Parties, Black Panthers, Moon Shots and Feminists"
in The Expanding Discourse, 467-73; and Freida Tesfagiorgis'
"Afrofemcentrism and its Fruition in the Art of Elizabeth
Catlett and Faith Ringgold" in The Expanding Discourse,
475-85
W, 4/26
Site Sculpture: Jenny Holzer and Maya Lin
READ: Slatkin, WA, 223-29
F, 4/28
Late 20th-Century Feminist Art: Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger,
Mary Kelly, & Others
READ: Slatkin, WA, 213-20, 229-38; Voices, 289-95, 308-17
Week 16
M, 5/1
Final
Exam: Wednesday, May 3, 8:00 a.m. (sorry . . . what a horrible
time!)
* This
syllabus is subject to change at the disgression of the instructor.
POSSIBLE
RESEARCH PROJECT TOPICS
Nineteenth
Century:
Marie
Bashkirtseff
Marie-Guillemine Benoist
Stella Bowen
Evelyn De Morgan
Susan Macdowell Eakins
Lucy and/or Catherine Madox Brown
Constance Mayer
Emily Osborn
the Peale sisters
Rolinda Sharples
Lilly Martin Spencer
Elizabeth Siddal
Late Nineteenth-Early
Twentieth Century:
Cecilia
Beaux
Isabel Bishop
Romaine Brooks
Julia Cameron
Eva Gonzales
Gwen John
Louise Jopling
Lila Cabot Perry
Henrietta Rae
Emma Sandys
Helen Turner
Early
Twentieth Century:
Vanessa
Bell
Emily Carr
Leonora Carrington
Alexandra Exter
Leonor Fini
Natalia Goncharova
Lois Mailou Jones
Gabriele Munter
Meret Oppenheim
Irene Rice Pereira
Liubov Popova
Kay Sage
Florine Stettheimer
Dorothea Tanning
Sophia Tauber-Arp
Remedios Varo
Marguerite Thompson Zorach
Late Twentieth
Century:
Magdalena
Abakanowicz
Alice Aycock
Jennifer Bartlett
Lynda Benglis
Lee Bontecou
Louise Bourgeois
Barbara Chase-Riboud
Chryssa
Nancy Graves
Nancy Holt
Jenny Holzer
Elizabeth Murray
Beverly Pepper
Judy Pfaff
Niki de Saint-Phalle
Ann Truitt
A PARTIAL
LIST OF WOMEN ARTISTS IN THE JACKSON AREA:
Blanche
Batson
Martha Ferris
Susan Ford (glassblower)
Eleanor Greaves
Patti Henson
Kay Holloway
Susan Hulett
Diane Jacobs
Elizabeth Johnson
Sudie Manning
Nancy Mauldin
Jackie Meena
P. Sanders McNeal
Lucy Millsaps
Doris Nunn
Bette Phelps
H.C. Porter
Sharon Richardson
Elizabeth Robinson
Lynn Green Root
Loretta Smith
Kay Snodgrass
Miriam Weems
Kelley Michelle Williams
Mildred Wolfe
Bebe (Elizabeth) Wolfe
Oxford:
Joann Allen (sculptor, including some yard art; married to
a painter, Jere Allen), & Heidi Langius (sculptor)
Taylor: Jane Rule Burdine (photographer and mayor of Taylor)
Hattiesburg: D. C. Young (photographer: cousin of Andy Young,
glassblower in Jackson)
* * *
This syllabus is subject to change at the disgression of the
instructor.
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