ART H 309 A: Topics In Art History

 

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Instructor:         Marek Wieczorek   

Class times:      MWF, 9:30-10:50am

Office hours:     by appointment on Zoom, and for quick questions right after class.

IMPORTANT: communicating with me should ideally be done in the Zoom sessions when your question is also relevant to others, otherwise through the internal Canvas email.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) is widely seen as the greatest artist of the 20th century. Sign up for this class and learn why. Have you ever wondered what Cubism is about, why Picasso's pictures look so funny, or why he got so famous for what he invented? This course covers the long and prolific career of what is really one of the great innovators of modern art. We will follow the artist from his beginnings as a precocious youth in the 1890s to his late style in the 1960s. Because Picasso’s oeuvre is so vast, we will focus on a selection of representative works from each period, with emphasis on the question of innovation in painting and sculpture. The class is largely discussion based, and there will be two short papers and an exam. Class participation is vital to the success of the class and your grade.

COVID-19 Changes
This class was originally planned as an in-person class. It now has been accommodated for all of us to stay at home due to COVID-19. I am still relatively new to teaching entirely online and so consider the syllabus tentative and subject to change to fit what works best for our group.  Your suggestions and feedback are critical, so send them along anytime so we can make adjustments.

Class Attendance & Participation are vital
We are building this learning community together and a key element of co-creating a shared learning environment is a commitment to active participation in class. The expectation is that you arrive to class having completed all reading and viewing assignments and are prepared to engage in discussion. I will launch a short quiz question during (almost) every class, which will be counted toward your grade. The points you can score for each of these are not much, so these are low-stakes quizzes, but together they add up to 60% of your final grade for the course. I will drop the lowest 3 scores in case you cannot attend some classes (make-up quizzes are only given for valid reasons). Your grade for this portion of the class is thus based on: arriving on-time and staying actively engaged for the entire class, active listening and attentiveness to your peers, having access to your notes and questions that arose when you completed your assigned reading, answering the short quiz questions, and respect (including not talking while others are speaking, and making space for everyone in the class to contribute ideas). In this regard, you have a responsibility to the education of everyone in the class, not just to your own. If you have a busy quarter and cannot commit to consistent, full participation in this class, then this is not the class for you. 
In short, a large part of your participation grade will come from timely participation in each week’s two Zoom sessions with embedded short quizzes.

THERE ARE PRE-RECORDED LECTURES THAT PRESENT THE BASIC CONTENT FOR DISCUSSION
These lectures will serve as topics for synchronous classes on Zoom.

LIVE ZOOM CLASS SESSIONS WILL BE RECORDED AND UPLOADED TO PANOPTO
This course is scheduled to run synchronously at our scheduled class time via Zoom. These Zoom class sessions will be recorded. The recording will capture the presenter’s audio, video and computer screen. Student audio and video will be recorded if they share their computer audio and video during the recorded session. The recordings will only be accessible to students enrolled in the course to review materials. These recordings will not be shared with or accessible to the public.

Course Book
The course book is available online and can be downloaded as one long Pdf through the UW library website. Mary Ann Caws, Pablo Picasso, London 2005. Unfortunately, the downloadable Pdf has no images, but you will get to know the images from class lectures. Other readings will be posted in Pdf form in the Weekly Readings section (also found in the Files section of this site), where you will receive directions on how to read these sources. 

Course Objectives:

1. You will gain familiarity with the development of Picasso’s long career and highlights from it in relation to themes that have structured scholarly inquiry into his work and the modernist tradition.
2. You will learn the elements of visual analysis in painting and sculpture and develop your skills at communicating visual analysis precisely in writing.
3. You will learn how to develop visual description into art historical interpretation.
4. You will gain exposure to some of the ways in which art historical scholarship relates visual objects to their historical contexts.

   Grading

   Paper:                                                                                     40 %

   Participation (including short quizzes):              60 %

   A minimum of a 60 % score is required to pass the course.

    

Student Courtesy: I value the perspectives of all students in my class and I look forward to the dynamic discussions we will have throughout the semester.  Be advised that we may cover material that challenges your viewpoints or beliefs.  I ask that students be respectful toward each other in the classroom to foster a comfortable space in which all students feel free to share their perspectives throughout the semester.

Disability Accommodation

• To request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Student Disability Services, 448 Schmitz, (206) 543-8924 (V/TTY) or uwdss@u.washington.edu.
• If you have a letter from Student Disability Services requesting academic accommodations, please present this to your instructor on the first day of class.

  Violence Awareness and Prevention

• Preventing violence, discrimination, harassment, and retaliation is everyone's responsibility.
• Call 911 for emergency help. Call 206-685-SAFE to report non-urgent threats or concerns.
• SafeCampus: washington.edu/safecampus.
• Concerns about sexual harassment: http://studentlife.washington.edu/?s=title+ix http://depts.washington.edu/livewell/saris/sexual-harassment/
• Don't walk alone. Campus safety guards can walk with you on campus after dark. Call Husky NightWalk 206-685-WALK (9255).

Connect to UW Alert. Register your mobile number to receive instant notification of campus emergencies via text and voice messaging. Sign up online: www.washington.edu/alert

Land Acknowledgment:  I would like to acknowledge that I live and work in Salish territory, specifically the lands of the Suquamish and Duwamish and the shared lands and waters of the Tulalip and Muckleshoot. There is a long history of education on this land dating to long before the establishment of this university.