Time Schedule:
Patricia A Failing
ART H 400
Seattle Campus
Courses on special topics, frequently by visiting faculty, which cannot be offered on a continuing basis. Consult art history office for subjects offered.
Class description
Winter Quarter 2008 ITALIAN FUTURISM AND DADA (1909-1925)
This class will trace the development of various genres of Italian futurist artistic production as instruments for futurist reconstruction of the universe and cornerstones of the 20th-century avant garde. The movement's complex relationships with technological modernism, Bergsonian metaphysics and Italian nationalism will be major themes in this review, which will focus especially on Futurism's multimedia performances. Another major theme: the movement's strategies to attract broad audiences by integrating the vernacular with the avant garde, converting the traditional posture of the passive art voyeur into a new form of creative subjectivity. The focus of the class will then shift to Dada activities in Zurich and Germany, where cultural stategies pioneered by futurism were absorbed and remanaged to serve new kinds of content and critiques.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Lectures and readings.
Recommended preparation
Previous art history classwork, preferably a modern survey; background in post-war European history and literature also useful. .
Class assignments and grading
Midterm; quiz; short paper. Readings include historical and philosophical texts as well as art-historical material.
Exams and papers.
