A-S 390 Studio.Post.Studio

Class Syllabus for Spring 2010

Contemporary art world contains a variety of artistic approaches: post-studio conceptually driven work exists side by side with newly re-minted abstraction, oil and acrylic is shown right next to performance and video art. What is the meaning of object production in this environment? There are many (at times conflicting) answers to this question. One thing for certain, it is 100% different then what it was even a decade ago!

Through readings, screenings, discussion and directed production assignments we will follow major trends and artistic strategies relating to object production and transformation of studio practice. The course will focus on making students aware of their own production choices and how they relate to contemporary art setting.

So how can an entity formally called "Contemporary Art World" function and assign meaning to content produced by artists with ideas as disparate as Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, Thomas Nozkowski and Eric Fischl, to name just a few? We shall explore this question and how it relates to your own practice with bits of history (art and otherwise), theory, and hands-on assignments.

Artist + Links which came up in class discussions <-- this is our ever-expanding art library :)

Yang Zhenzhong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQytEyFKQG0

Tino Sehgal
http://bit.ly/9FipEo

artists, articles + other stuff by class topic:

all readings are located in password protected directory
http://www.shiftingplanes.org/texts

NOTE: Art, even more then most human endeavors, doesn't fit neatly into any one box that you provide for it. The topical layout presented below was created purely to highlight certain ideas that are useful for in-class discussion and not a way to label art products (i.e. not a "style" or one of the "isms":)

"modernism": setting the stage

"Modernist Painting" by Clement Greenberg (1960)

Assignment 1: Invite the class to your studio. We will critique one specific work of your choosing in your studio. If you don't have a studio, pick a spot in the Reynolds Building which is most conducive to showing your work.

Giotto, Cimabue, Alberti, Uccello, Piero della Francesca, Leonardo, Raphael, El Greco, Georges de la Tour, Vermeer, Titian, Rubens, Rembrandt, Watteau, Fragonard, Jacques-Louis David, Ingres, Manet, Cezanne, Wassily Kandinsky , Piet Mondriaan, Malevich, Rodchenko, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, Kenneth Noland, Clyfford Still, Anthony Caro, David Smith, John Chamberlain,...

questioning the SITE of production

"The Function of the Studio" by Daniel Buren(1979)
"AntiForm" by Robert Morris(1968)
"The Shape of the Art Environment" by Allan Kaprow(1968)

Assignment 2: Pare up. Take the work out of you classmate's studio. Recontextualize the artwork so it is interpreted differently by your audience.

Assignment 3: Pick a site in Reynolds Building. Alter the audience's perception of the site through you artwork.

Daniel Buren, Robert Morris, Robert Smithson, Allan Kaprow, Gordon Matta-Clark, Andy Goldsworthy, Swoon, Ernesto Neto, Judy Pfaff, Ann Hamilton, Robert Irwin, James Turrell, Sarah Sze, Richard Long, Wolfgang Laib, Barry Le Va, Richard Serra, Carl Andre, Red Grooms, Ilya Kabakov, Tara Donovan,...

questioning the PRODUCT

Assignment 4: Create an artwork as a set of directions/proposal.

Assignment 5: Create a P-Point presentation on pricing of one of you artworks (anything from $0 gift to infinity :) Focus on how the pricing affects the perception of your art. You can create a new piece for this assignment or use an already existing one.

Marcel Duchamp, Christo, Kienholz, fluxus, KOS, Sol LeWitt, Ray Johnson, Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Nam June Paik, Joseph Kosuth,...

strategies for "contemporary" production

"Relational Aesthetics" by Nicolas Bourriaud (1998) pp. 41-48, 107-114

Andrea Zittel, Assume Vivid Astro Focus, Mark Dion, Mel Chin, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Deitch Projects, simparch, Saatchi Gallery, Takashi Murakami, Damien Hirst, Zak Smith, Tomma Abst, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Maurizio Cattelan,...