ART H 309 A: Topics in Art History

Avant-Garde Painting: Cézanne, Picasso, Mondrian

Asynchronous
Instructor: Marek Wieczorek, marek@uw.edu
Office hours: by appointment on Zoom
TA: Laura Stowell, lstowell@uw.edu
Office hours: Thursdays 1:30-2:30pm PST on Zoom, sign up for an appointment slot via the Canvas calendar.

Course Description:

Discover the impact of Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne on Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian. Cézanne’s elimination of traditional perspective, and even of light shining in the imaginary space of painting, emboldened Picasso and Mondrian to push painting to the brink of abstraction and beyond. Picasso, who invented Cubism, became the most famous painter of the 20th century, Mondrian arguably the most influential. His influence reached into all fields of culture, not only high art and architecture, but also design, film, fashion, advertising, gaming, knickknacks, and the like. We will look at how these painters pushed the boundaries of their medium into new, hybrid forms of art, earning them the name of “vanguard” or “avant-garde” artists, often seen as ahead of their time. If you have ever wondered what the cutting edge of the avant-garde was about, or why these works look so unusual yet are widely revered, this class is for you.
    The class is asynchronous with the option of connecting with your professor and classmates during allotted time slots (T/TH 12:40am-1:40pm). These meetings offer opportunities for deepening your skills and analysis and also allow for extra credit. These guided discussionswill be recorded and are there for everyone to stream at a time of your own choosing. You will be graded on participation in Discussion Forums (20%), on two short papers (20% and 30%), and a short final essay exam (30%).

Course Objectives:
1.       You will gain familiarity with the development of Post-Impressionist art into abstraction and with themes and texts related to these movements. Readings will be provided as downloadable Pdfs.
2.    You will learn and refine your knowledge of the elements of visual analysis in modern and abstract painting, and develop your skills at communicating visual analysis.
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.
5.    You will get hands-on experience engaging with artworks in virtual museum settings.