Phil 3: Aesthetics
Dr. Les Wright Office: 617 . 928 . 4592 Fall 2004
Office: ATC 240 lwright@mountida.edu
HT 320 A&B Aesthetics 3 credits
Course Description
This course will examine some of the major theories of art and art criticism. Style, meaning, and truth are among the concepts analyzed. Attention is given to the nature of judgments and criteria for determining artistic beauty and excellence. The continuities and discontinuities among modalities of expression (aural, visual, verbal) will also be discussed. Beginning with an overview of classical theory and concluding on the emergence of postmodern aesthetic sensibilities, the dominant focus will be on the evolution of modernist aesthetic concerns.
Prerequisites: AR 110 or at least one Art History course
Required Texts
- Beardsley, Monroe, Aesthetics From Classical Greece to the Present: A Short History
- Berger, John. Ways of Seeing
- Stangos, Nikos Concepts of Modern Art (3rd edition)
- Townsend, Dabney. An Introduction to Aesthetics
Teaching Procedures
Each 50-minute class may include background lectures, discussion of assigned readings, films, and case studies. The student is expected to come prepared to class, to have successfully written research papers in previous courses taken, and to be able to express her- or himself in class and in writing in a cogent, intellectually informed, and professionally appropriate manner.
Instructional Objectives
To familiarize the student with the history and development of aesthetic thought, as, broadly speaking, a philosophical, artistic, sociological, psychological, and cultural concern. The student will become familiar with the general evolution of the Western tradition of the good, the true, and the beautiful; the modernist fragmentation of artistic meaning and the emergence of the interesting as aesthetic category; and contemporary postmodern conditions and fashions in the arts, in both theoretical and applied circumstances. This course meets the requirements of the College’s General Education goals, and the student is referred to College Catalog for further information. Tests require a grasp of course content, as they are learning experiences requiring the student to synthesize information in their own words.
Assignments
The student is referred to the course syllabus for details. In general, the student is expected to complete reading and written assignments on time, to view video lectures in class, and to participate in the week’s class discussions. Papers and exams must be completed in a timely manner and should represent the student’s best effort in synthesizing and extrapolating from the material in an intelligent, engaged, and substantive manner.
Grading and Attendance
Student grades will be based on the following: research paper (10-12 pages in length, i.e. 3000-3500 words) (20%), three tests (45%), two in-class presentations (10%), a museum report (10%), and attendance and participation (15%). Attendance is mandatory. After two absences you will receive a written warning. Upon the fourth absence you will receive an irrevocable grade of F.
| HT 320 A & B Aesthetics SYLLABUS
Dr. Les WRIGHT Fall 2004 Mount Ida College |
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| FALL 2004 | WEEKLY TOPIC | |
| WEEK 1 | Beauty, Taste, Feeling
Townsend 1 Visual Semiotics gender semiotics in advertising Berger 1, 3 |
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| WEEK 2 | student in-class presentations
Theory of Beauty (Townsend 2) Greece & Rome Golden Section, Platonic Forms, Medieval / Cologne Cathedral video |
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| WEEK 3 | Renaissance
Beardsley 2, 3, 4, 5 / Aesthetic Forms Architecture: / Buildings as Signifiers 1830: Loss of the Old Way of Seeing” Empire State Building |
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| WEEK 4 | Kant & German Idealism
Idyllic Romanticism 1: Longing Friedrich & Hudson River School Romanticism 2: Revolution (France) Bearsley 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 |
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| WEEK 5 | TEST 1 | |
| WEEK 6 | l’art pour l’art, décadence
Baudelaire Luhr Bazman’s Moulin Rouge Bearsley 11 |
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| WEEK 7 | Artist & Audience (Consumer)
Townsend 5 glamour & utopia (Berger 7) “Nobrow Culture” – “Yes, But Is It Art?” (AbFab) |
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| WEEK 8 | Designing Utopia
Future That Never Was Kitsch, Camp, and Bad Taste Rockwell & Kincaide |
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| WEEK 9 | TEST 2 | |
| WEEK 10 | The Modern Spirit:
Art & Technology: Photography vs. Impressionism |
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| WEEK 11 | Townsend 3
Expresionism “Degenerate Art” |
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| WEEK 12 | Dada & Duchamp
Surrealism & Salvador Dali Townsend 4 Abstract Expressionism Jackson Pollock |
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| WEEK 13 | VISIT to Busch-Reisinger Mart Museum
(Harvard Collection) TEST 3 |
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| WEEK 14 | Pop Art
Andy Warhol
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| WEEK 15 | Postmodernism
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