CLASS SCHEDULE:
Week 1
INTRODUCTION
1. Wednesday, September 2nd: Syllabus reading
2. Friday, September 6th: What is art? Some definitions – the dictionary vs. Dickie; Allais vs. Malevich vs. Rauschenberg
Week 2
MODULE 1 (begins): ART BEFORE THE ART WORLD
3. Wednesday, September 9th: Aesthetics From Plato to Aristotle to Baumgarten to Schopenhauer (1)
4. Friday, September 11th: Aesthetics From Plato to Aristotle to Baumgarten to Schopenhauer (2)
Week 3
MODULE 1 (concludes): “ART FOR ART’S SAKE” – TELEOLOGICAL ART THEORY
5. Monday, September 14th: “Art for art’s sake” Whistler vs. Ruskin, Morris vs. Tolstoy
6. Wednesday, September 16th: Formalism, Significant Form, Stylistic Analysis Bell, Pater, Freedberg
7. Friday, September 18th: “Bad taste" – Winckelmann to Berenson, Murillo to Keane, Corot to Kinkade
Week 4
MODULE 2: “READING THE IMAGE” – ICONOGRAPHY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS
8. Monday, September 21st: Reading the Image 1 Freud and Breton
9. Wednesday, September 23rd: Reading the Image 2 Cassirer, Warburg
10. Friday, September 25th: Panofsky’s iconographical methodology
Week 5
MODULE 3: SOCIAL THEORIES OF ART HISTORY
11. Monday, September 28th: Social Theories of Art 1 Socialist vs Nationalist art theory
12. Wednesday, September 30th: Social Theories of Art 2 Differing Views: Haynes vs. Hauser
13. Friday, October 2nd: the relation between art history and art theory
Week 6
MODULE 4: MODERNIST THEORY VS. MODERNIST PRAXIS
14. Monday, October 5th: Modernism 1 Origins of conceptual art: from Denis to Duchamp
15. Wednesday, October 7th: Modernism 2 Kosuth, Baldessari, and the Conceptual Art movement
16. Friday, October 9th: Modernism 3 – Duchamp on art
Week 7
MODULE 5: POSTMODERNIST THEORY VS. MODERNIST PRAXIS
17. Monday, October 12th: Postmodernism 1 – in 36 seconds
18. Wednesday, October 14th: Postmodernism 2
19. Friday, October 16th: Postmodernism 3
Week 8
REVIEW of Modules 1-5; MIDTERM TEST
Week 9
MODULE 6: EXISTENTIAL THEORY AND ART
20. Monday, October 26th: Existentialism 1 Kant vs. Schopenhauer
21. Wednesday, October 28th: Existentialism 2 Sartre
22. Friday, October 30th, 2026: Existentialism 3 de Beauvoir; Camus
Week 10
MODULE 7: FEMINIST THEORIES OF ART
23. Monday, November 2nd: Feminism 1 – Linda Nochlin, and Opportunity-based Feminism, Sontag’s Erotics; the Gaze explored
24. Wednesday, November 4th: Feminism 2 – Griselda Pollock
25. Friday, November 6th: Feminism 3 – Identity-based Feminism; Judy Chicago; Miriam Schapiro and the Pattern & Decoration movement; Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer
Week 11
MODULE 8: POST-ART THEORIES
26. Monday, November 9th: Post-art theories 1 Walter Benjamin
27. Wednesday, November 11th: Post-art theories 2 André Malraux
28. Friday, November 13th: Post-art theories 3 Martin Heidegger and Theodor Adorno
Week 12
MODULE 9: INTER-ARTS, SYNAESTHETIC, AND RELATIONAL THEORIES OF ART
29. Monday, November 16th: Inter-arts theories Aeschylus, Richard Wagner, Kurt Schwitters, Frank Lloyd Wright, Alexander Scriabin, and Yves Klein
30. Wednesday, November 18th: Relational Aesthetics 1Nicolas Bourriaud, Fluxus, Allan Kaprow, Yoko Ono, Marina Abramović, Deborah de Roberts
31. Friday, November 20th: Relational Aesthetics 2 Sophie Calle; and Liam Gillick and Henry Bond
Week 13
THANKSGIVING BREAK – NO SUU CLASSES
Week 14
MODULE 10 (begins): SEMIOTICS – THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS IN VISUAL ARTS
32. Monday, November 30th: Lacanian theory and art Jacques Lacan and psychoanalytic structuralism
33. Wednesday, December 2nd: Semiotics and art Ferdinand de Saussure and Roland Barthes; and autotelesis in art
34. Friday, December 4th: An alternative summary of semiotics theory
Week 15
MODULE 10 (concludes): ANOTHER KIND OF SEMIOTICS – THE RISE OF SPIRITUALIST MODERNISM
35. Monday, December 7th: Social Justice Narrative – LaToya Ruby Frazier
36. Wednesday, December 9th: Review of Modules 6-10
Friday, December 11th: Study day
Week 16
REVIEW of Modules 6-10; FINAL TEST