The Body in 20th Century Art
Code
722061070
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
História da Arte
Credits
10
Teacher in charge
Margarida Brito Alves
Weekly hours
3 letivas + 1 tutorial
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
1) To provide students a general reflection on 20th century History of Art, based on the figure of the body.
2) To debate the issue of arts limits, its borders and territories, the power of images and actions, based on the analysis and discussion of texts referred in the bibliography.
Prerequisites
-
Subject matter
1) Body´s representation and the avatars of \"mimesis\". Old masters´ legacy and the ruptures introduced by Manet, Cézanne and Rodin. Photography´s role in the redefinition of painting. Distortion, disfigurements and recreations.
2) The human figure as a pretext for plastic speculation. Picasso and the \"Demoiselles d´Avignon\". Body representation in Cubism and the issue of primitivism.
3) Body in motion: the notions of \"dynamic complementarism\" and \"simultaneity\" in Futurism. Duchamp and the \"Nude Descending a Staircase\".
4) Man Ray, Max Ernst, René Magritte and the metamorphoses of the body image in Surrealism.
5) Francis Bacon and the figure of the body in post-war art.
6) Body in action: from Pollocks drippings to Yves Kleins living paintbrushes.
7) The body as artwork surface and the crisis of the iconic models.
Bibliography
ALEXANDER, M. Darsie e outros, Body language, New York, The Museum of Modern Art,1999
ARDENNE; Paul. Limage du corps, figure de lhumain dans lart du XX.ème, Paris, Editions du Regard, 2001
DELEUZE, Gilles, Francis Bacon. Logique de la sensation, Paris, Éditions de la Différence, 1996
DIDI-Huberman, Devant limage, questions posées aux fins dune histoire de lart, Paris, Éditions de Minuit,1990
DUVE, Thierry de, Pictorial Nominalism: On Marcel Duchamps Passage from Painting to the Readymade, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1991
Teaching method
Theoretical-practical weekly classes. Teaching is complemented by the analysis of artworks presented in classes and by weekly discussions of selected texts from the bibliography.
Evaluation method
Presentation and discussion of texts during classes.
Presentation of 1 final research work (15 pages).