ART IN CONTEMPORARY WORLD

Syllabus for 15 lecture course

DESCRIPTION
Everybody in our world has some encounter with art and everybody
believes to know what art is and claims to be able to understand and estimate an
artwork.
Is it really so? How we define art and what role does it play in contemporary
post-pop-art reality?
Art had always puzzled theory, but contemporary art goes beyond any classic
answers, provided by aesthetic theory. The function of art in modern world
seems totally changed.
What is the place of art in contemporary world? How has it changed? Is it able
to change attitudes, beliefs, behavior?
Such questions are not usually verbalized by the public, but discussing
them, could help not only to understand contemporary art, but introduce broader
view to different aspects of reality – artificial and natural.

ORGANIZATION
In 12 lectures different topics will be presented and three 3 lectures will
be left for discussion with the students on various questions from the
curriculum.
The course also will include two-three visits of galleries and performances – to
be chosen at place. They will serve like concrete examples for the theoretical
problems exposed in the lectures. Some internet galleries of modern art will also
be visited and discussed.

COURSE OBGECTIVES
1. To introduce students to various notions of art.
2. To help students develop artistic sensitivity and philosophical outlook,
introducing them to various forms of contemporary artworks.
3. To broaden students understanding of artworld and of reality in the context of
street art and “high” museum art.
4. To overcome some common prejudices by communication through art.
5. To help students express and define their emotions and thoughts analyzing art
by means of philosophical notions and ideas.

COURSE TOPICS
The course will cover the following topics in 12 lectures, divided in two groups:

I. Art and its definitions:

/Five lectures/

1
1.Defining art – traditional notions: mimesis, symmetry, expression.
2. The quest for beauty. Beauty revised.
3. Art in modern world: when is art rather than what is art? The language of art.
4. Pop-art, conceptual art, ready-mades, installations. The death of the author?
5. The end of art?

II. Social dimensions of art:

/Seven lectures/
1. Art and politics.
2. Art and morality.
3. Art and religion.
4. Art and market.
5. Art and gender.
6. Love as theme of art.
7. Art as communication.

REQUIRED TEXTS
Any popular reader with important articles on the discussed problems such as:
An Anthology of Aesthetic Theory, ed. S.D.Ross, State University of New York,
1987,
or Esthetics Contemporary, ed. R. Kostelanetz, Prometheus Books, 1989,
or Modern Criticism and Theory, ed. D. Lodge, Longman 1988.

Selected articles will be copied and distributed among students.

GRADING
Coursework will be graded according to:
1. Participation in the discussions: activity, inventiveness, erudition.
2. Final essay on chosen by the student topics.