Art, Politics
and Society
Course page
for FYS 23, Fall 2005 - Prof. Francoise Rosset
Note:
most of this course has to be accessed through Blackboard
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Does art have the power to change the world? Does it reflect social issues, and can it actually affect politics and society? What is the nature of our relationship to art? These are questions we will address in our seminar on Art, Politics and Society. The seminar focuses on Russia and America. We begin with art in Russian culture--where art and politics have always been uniquely interconnected--and alternate with art in America, by regularly turning our discussion to parallel moments in American culture. Russian history paints a constant picture: a people who believed deeply in the essential moral value and power of art, and a series of strong governments. So Russian art has been closely watched by both the government and the people. It has been nurtured and censored, purged and revered--because all elements of the culture believed in its power. One of the topics we focus on will be the extraordinary period of Russian painting known as the Avant-Garde (1900-1930). It is regarded as a defining force in the history of all modern Western art. These artists can help us understand how art may both reflect and affect attitudes towards society and the world. Our study of the Avant-Garde will also help us learn to interpret or "read" modern art in general. When we look at America, the Russian examples will lead to our consideration of social issues in American art, and these may be more familiar to American students. We will look, for example, at the urban architecture of Washington and the message it was designed to send; at the use of political or social topics in film; at photography as social commentary; at the protest songs of the sixties; and at the controversy over the Vietnam war monument in Washington, The Wall . Scroll below for KEY LINKS. |
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Please NOTE: Links within this box will take you OUT of the Department site and create a new window. The navigational side-bar on the left will disappear, etc.. You can get back by closing the new window. SYLLABUS: you'll find it on Blackboard The Artcyclopedia may be helpful for locating materials on American artists in this course. |
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