HUM5002 - Art Work: Culture, Canon & Criticism

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:

1 Demonstrate an in-depth understanding of selected artworks that have ongoing significance and have achieved canonical status. Students will be able to identify relevant social and cultural key events and movements, agents and themes that are involved in the continuing critical interpretation of the artworks.
2 Critically analyse the way artworks can be the focus of continued debate: i.e. periodically being re-evaluated as emblematic of previously unacknowledged attitudes or arguments that are deemed to be of essential or urgent contemporary relevance.
3 Critically analyse the various conceptions of ‘culture’, ‘canon’, ‘tradition’, and ‘revolution’ that form the basis of continued critical evaluation of the selected artworks, i.e. appreciating the way in which artworks can form part of an inherited cultural tradition, or can create their own canon of significant precursors.
4 Carry out basic research using appropriate academic sources, collate and analyse evidence, and present findings effectively, lucidly and analytically in group oral presentations and in individual written work.

Content:

This module explores a select range of artworks in various media and from various historical periods and that have become culturally significant (indicative examples: the Laocöon, the Bayeux Tapestry, della Francesca’s The Resurrection, Caravaggio’s The Calling of St. Matthew, Picasso Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Cartier-Bresson’s Behind the Gare St. Lazare, and Flavin’s Monument for V. Tatlin). Students will also be encouraged to engage with 2 main critical issues: distinction (genre, value) and connection (theme, function). There will also be an emphasis on encouraging students to reflect upon the ways in which cultural canons and traditions can be both the object and source of radical social criticism.

Learning and Teaching Information:

Assessment:

001 Source Analysis 1 x 1500 words 30%
002 Group oral presentation 20 minutes 20%
003 Essay 1 x 2500 words 50%


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