Course Syllabus

 

Course Content 

In this course, we examine how European artists have responded to changing cultural, political, and social conditions from the emergence of modernity up until today. We situate art within broader visual culture and trace the origins of modern art to the early nineteenth century, asking how artistic developments of this period laid the foundations for modernism.  

The course covers major movements in modern and contemporary European art, including Symbolism, Expressionism, Surrealism, Dada, and Arte Povera, while also engaging with key concepts such as representation, abstraction, modernism, postmodernism, and globalization. Through field studies to museums and galleries in Copenhagen, you learn to identify, compare, and critically analyze works across painting, sculpture, photography, performance, video art, installation, and art in public space.

The course focuses on 19th century developments in European art and begins with Neoclassicism and the Romantic-Classic conflict, followed by a discussion of Naturalism in landscape and the breakthrough of Realism. The importance of Manet, Monet, Degas, and the influence of Japanese woodprints on the period of Impressionism will be analyzed, followed by Cézanne, Van Gogh, and other Post-Impressionists. The consolidation of various types of Symbolism, such as Gauguin’s Synthetism and the Nordic evocative landscape is elaborated. Special attention will also be given to the achievements of Scandinavian artists during the period including the Danish Golden Age, the Skagen Painters, and the work of Munch.

Faculty

Maria Bordorff & Kirsten Astrup

Objectives

• Enable students to critically analyze the visual qualities of modern artworks and to contextualize their artistic practice.
• Identify key works, artists, topics, and styles of 19th and 20th century European art.
• Ability to critically evaluate the impact of globalization on visual art;
• Develop art appreciation and evaluation of artistic expression during museum and gallery visits in the Copenhagen area.
• Become familiar with museums in Copenhagen.

Course Evaluation

Assignment	Percent
Active class participation	30%
Stylistic analysis paper	30%
Research paper	40%

To be eligible for a passing grade in this class you must complete all of the assigned work.

Field Studies (possible)

The National Gallery, Sølvgade 48-50, 1307 København
New Carlsberg Glyptotek, Dantes Plads 7, 1556 København V
Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Kongens Nytorv 2, 1051 København
ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art, Skovvej 100, 2635 Ishøj
Copenhagen Contemporary, Refshalevej 173A, 1432 København

Literature

Adams, Laurie: A History of Western Art, McGraw-Hill Education, 2010

Barber, Fionna: #14 Surrealism 1924-29, in Steve Edwards and Paul Wood(ed.) Art of the Avantgardes, Oxford University Press, 2004

Baudelaire, Charles: “From the Painter of Modern Life,” in Art in Theory 1815-1900, ed.: Harrison, Charles; Wood, Paul and Gaiger, Jason, Blackwell Publishing, 1998

Berman, Patricia: "Picturing Denmark in the Golden Age” in In another Light, Danish Painting in the 19th Century. Thames and Hudson, 2007

Breton, André: From the first Manifesto of Surrealism. In Harrison, Charles and Paul Wood (eds.): Art in Theory 1900 -1990 - An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 1992. pp.432- 439.

Caws, Mary Ann, Rudolf E. Kuenzli and Gwen Raaberg (eds.): Surrealism and Women, MIT Press, Cambridge MAss. and London, 1991, pp. 1-26.

Comini, Alexandra: ‘Egon Schiele: Redefining Portraiture in the Age og Angst’ in Egon Schiele: Portraits, Prestel, 2014

Frascina, Francis et al.: Modernity and Modernism: French Painting in the Nineteenth Century. Yale University Press, 1993

Gay, Dail and Edwards, Steve: ‘Global Dissensus: Art and Contemporary Capitalism’, in Edwards, Steve and Wood, Paul (ed.): Art and Visual Culture 1850 - 2010, Tate Publishing

Gombrich, Ernest: ‘A Story Without End’, in The Story of Art, Phaidon, 1995.

Gossman, Lionell: “Unwilling Moderns: The Nazarene Painters of the Nineteenth Century” in Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide, vol. 2, 2003

Greenberg, Clement: ‘Modern and Postmodern’, in Arts 54, No. 6, 1980.

Hamilton, George Heard: Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1880-1940. 3rd ed. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967, repr. 1987. pp. 197-204 + 474-487

Heilbrun, Francoise: “Impressionism and Photography" in History of Photography, vol. 33, 2009

Kandinsky, Vasily: Concerning the Spiritual in Art. In Harrison, Charles and Paul Wood (eds.): Art in Theory 1900 -1990 - An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 1992. pp. 86-91.

Macdonald, Sharon J.: ‘Museums, national, postnational and transcultural identites’, in Museums and Society, 2003

Müller Westermann, Iris: Paintings for the Future: Hilma af Klint a Pioneer of Abstraction in Seclusion, exhibition catalogue 2014.

Nochlin, Linda, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” In Women, Art, and Power, and Other Essays, New York: Harper Collins, 1988.

Pedersen, Anne Ring: "It's Our Art ... But Who are 'We'? Art's Encounter with the General Public in the Public Spaces of Multicultural Societies." Paper presented at Det' vores kunst, Køge, Denmark, 2001

Araeen, Rasheed: "Our Bauhaus, Other's Mudhouse" in Third Text, Vol. 3, 1989

Ratnam, Niru: ‘Art and globalisation’ in Perry, Gill and Wood, Paul (ed.): Themes in Contemporary Art, pp. 277-313

Stiles, Kristine: ‘I/Eye/Oculus: Performance, installation and video’ in Perry, Gill and Wood, Paul (eds.): Themes in Contemporary Art, pp. 183-229

Wood, Paul: 'The Idea of an Abstract Art', in: Steve Edwards and Paul Wood (eds.): Art of the Avant-Gardes. Yale University Press, 2004. pp.1-10

Wood, Paul: 'Inside the whale: an introduction to postmodernist art', in: Perry, Gill and Wood, Paul (eds.): Themes in Contemporary Art, pp. 5-43 

Academic Regulations  

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on: 

• Course Enrollment and Grading  
• Academic Expectations and Honor Code 

 

DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org