HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY ART (WITH WOKSHOP)
cod. 1006558

Academic year 2021/22
1° year of course - Second semester
Professor
- Alessandra ACOCELLA
Academic discipline
Storia dell'arte contemporanea (L-ART/03)
Field
Attività formative affini o integrative
Type of training activity
Related/supplementary
66 hours
of face-to-face activities
9 credits
hub: PARMA
course unit
in ITALIAN

Learning objectives

According to Dublin Descriptors, the course proposes that at its conclusion the student will have acquired:
- Knowledge and ability to understand: theoretical knowledge and the ability to understand the history of art from since the end of the nineteenth century to the present, contextualizing the main protagonists of the visual arts in the framework of the coeval cultural, historical, social and economic events.
- Applied knowledge and comprehension skills: ability to apply the acquired knowledge in the investigation of specific works of art, starting from a real knowledge of the art objects and in relation to the exhibition context in which they are found (museums, collections, exhibitions); ability to apply the acquired knowledge in recognizing, relating and contextualizing different works within a chronological discourse (synchronic and diachronic); ability to collect and interpret data (sources, information) according to a philological and critical approach.
- Autonomy of judgment: ability to use autonomously the method of critical analysis applied to the main cases analyzed in class, having developed the ability to interpret and rework the information and theoretical data acquired for a correct interpretation of the works within a historical and cultural contextualization.
- Communication skills: communication skills in presenting knowledge, ideas, problems and solutions methodologically grounded and correct, structuring a speech with a language appropriate to the discipline.
- Learning skills: ability to learn autonomously and self-evaluation, in order to deepen in an autonomous way the discipline from the historical and theoretical point of view.

Prerequisites

No

Course unit content

The course has two parts:

Part I (6 cfu)
DIDACTIC UNIT A: Introduction to the study of the history of contemporary art (from the end of the nineteenth century to the present)

General program:

- Postimpressionism, Expressionism
- Cézanne, Cubism, Futurism
- Abstractism
- The Dada revolution and the case of Duchamp
- Metafisica, Surrealism, Ritorno all’ordine
- Informale, Abstract Expressionism
- New Dada, Pop Art
- Nouveau Réalisme, Spazialismo, Azimuth, Kinetic Art
- Minimalism, Process Art, Conceptual Art, Arte Povera
- Land Art, Body Art, Video Art
- Themes and Trends of the Eighties: Postmodernism, Transavanguardia and Nuova Pittura, Graffiti Writing, Neo-conceptualism
- Themes and trends of the Nineties (and beyond): Multiculturalism, Gender and Identity, Posthuman, Relational Art

Part II (3 cfu)
DIDACTIC UNIT B: Workshop

The course includes a workshop dedicated to contemporary art museums and archives, which will allow students to confront themselves with an individual and/or group exercise aimed at the creation of a digital exhibition starting from the collections of art works and documents also accessible on the web.

Full programme

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Bibliography

For Part I (6 cfu)
DIDACTIC UNIT A: Introduction to the study of the history of contemporary art (from the late nineteenth century to the present)

1.
Notes and materials available online at elly.dusic.unipr.it.
Reference Manual: Pierluigi De Vecchi, Elda Cerchiari, Arte nel Tempo. Dal Postimpressionismo al Postmoderno, vol. 3, tome II, Bompiani, Torino 1993 (or successive editions).

2.
Three essays of your choice from the following:
- Federica Rovati, On change son fusil d'épaule". Collage cubisti e futuristi negli anni dieci, in Collage Collages. Dal Cubismo al New Dada, edited by Maria Mimita Lamberti and Maria Grazia Messina, Electa, Milano 2007, pp. 264-279.
- Wassily Kandinsky, Lo spirituale nell’arte. Il linguaggio delle forme e dei colori (1911), in Tutti gli scritti, edited by Philippe Sers, vol. II, Feltrinelli, Milano 1974, pp. 97-106.
- Arthur C. Danto, Andy Warhol, Einaudi, Torino 2010, pp. 25-68 (chapters: La Pop Art, la politica e la distanza che separa l’arte e la vita and Brillo Box).
- Germano Celant, Arte & Media, in L’Arte del XX secolo 1969-1999. Neoavanguardie, postmoderno e arte globale, Skira, Milano 2008, pp. 119-209.

The volumes indicated in the bibliography can be found in the Library of Arts and Performing Arts (Biblioteca delle Arti e dello Spettacolo) of the University of Parma; some extracts are available online at elly.dusic.unipr.it.

For Part II (3 cfu)
DIDACTIC UNIT B: Workshop

For students not attending the workshop only:
Francesco Poli, Il sistema dell'arte contemporanea. Produzione artistica, mercato, musei, Laterza, Milano 1999 (or later editions).

Teaching methods

Didactics makes use of different strategies and methods:
- frontal lessons (with different critical methodology: reading of art works, philological-documentary analysis, historical-social-political contextualization)
- moments of interaction during plenary sessions
- workshops (DIDACTIC UNIT B)
- conferences/seminars
- the slides projected during the lessons will be available on the Elly platform, after the end of the lessons
- the topics addressed in the DIDACTIC UNIT A will be available also in blended mode, with the support of online materials available on the Elly platform.

Assessment methods and criteria

Examinations will be oral. The oral test will focus on the topics covered in class and the recommended bibliography.
The questions will evaluate the degree of learning achieved by the students, according to the indications of the Dublin descriptors.
An insufficient evaluation is determined by the lack of knowledge of the minimum contents of the course; by the inability to express oneself in a manner appropriate to the topic; by the lack of autonomous preparation; by the inability to solve problems related to the retrieval of information and the decoding of images and arguments; as well as by the inability to formulate judgments independently and to communicate content, analysis and judgments in a reasoned, competent and convincing manner.
Sufficient scores (18-23/30) are determined by an acceptable level of performance by the student on the assessment indicators listed above.
Medium scores (24-27/30) are awarded to the student who demonstrates a more than sufficient (24-25/30) or good (26-27/30) level of the assessment indicators listed above.
High scores (28/30 to 30/30 cum laude) are awarded based on demonstration of an excellent to outstanding level of the assessment indicators listed above.

Other information

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