History of Art
Autumn Term: October 2011 - December 2011
Spring Term: January 2012 - March 2012
Summer Term: April 2012 - June 2012
Ballets Russes and Serge Diaghilev: Life in Art
Serge Pavlovich Diaghilev’s (1872-1929) greatest achievement was his dance company - the Ballets Russes. This course will seek to reveal how his close integration of story, music, choreography and design was key to bringing forth spectacles which transformed dance, dazzled audiences and led to a reawakening of interest in ballet across Europe and America. We will examine examples of the astonishingly diverse legacy of music, dance and art to illuminate how the designs and colours used in Ballets Russes productions forged a new aesthetic through employing the talent of Pablo Picasso, Leon Bakst, Georges Braque and Natalia Goncharova, among others. Diaghilev’s great themes - Russia, the classical world and the Orient - shall be considered in the context of contemporary aesthetic and political developments in Russia and Europe. Works by Stravinsky commissioned by Dhiaghilev, perhaps most prominent among this legacy, will form a separate topic for discussion.
Elena Kashina MPhil DPhil
Term: Autumn
Day: Monday
Start Date: 10 October 2011
Time: 7-9pm
No. of weeks: 8
Full fee: £53.50
Painting in England and France (1850-1914)
Whereas there is considerable art-historical literature on both technical innovation and the representation of modern life in French painting, neither of these issues have been very extensively written about in the English context. This course will therefore illuminate both the similarities and differences between the histories of painting in France and England and the separate ways in which modernity and its representation developed in the two countries. Particular attention will be given to facture, materialism and the visual constitution of artworks as it is always the case that the facture of art works is a potential carrier of meaning. Together, we will consider an array of high quality images of the work of English artists, including Frith, Leighton, Waterhouse, Whistler, Sickert and the Pre-Raphaelites, alongside the work of French artists, such as Bouguereau, Courbet, Renoir, Cassatt, Manet and Monet. Throughout this course we will learn to analyse paintings visually and in relation to a variety of debates centred on modernity.
Katie Tyreman BA MA
Term: Autumn
Day: Tuesday
Start Date: 11 October 2011
Time: 7-9pm
No. of weeks: 10
Full fee: £67.00
Renaissance Art and Architecture
What we think of as art is largely shaped by the visual revolution called the Renaissance. It emerged in Italy c1400 and in northern Europe at more or less the same time. During this course we will examine the underlying themes which emerged and investigate the work of the major artists of the time. We will look at how paintings were structured, developed and at the varying purposes they were used for. The rapidly changing social purposes of art and new patronage systems will be linked to developments of new styles. The extraordinary new status that artists came to hold will also be linked to the new art forms. The envelope for the new art, the buildings, will be used to investigate the ways in which the new ideas were expounded throughout the visual arts.
Fiona Fitzgerald BA MA PGCE
Term: Autumn
Day: Wednesday
Start Date: 12 October 2011
Time: 1.15-3.15pm
No. of weeks: 10
Full fee: £67.00
Art and Controversy: William Etty RA and British Painting in the Early Nineteenth Century
To coincide with the opening of the William Etty: Art and Controversy exhibition at York Art Gallery, this course will focus on the art and career on one of York’s most important and influential artists, William Etty RA (1787-1849). Spanning three sessions and utilising a wealth of primary source material, this course will explore the nature of the controversy Etty's art, famous for its depictions of voluptuous nudes, generated. It will consider the training Etty received at the Royal Academy, his passion for the life class and his artistic rivalries with leading artists such as Turner, Constable and Benjamin Robert Haydon. Lead by the curator of the exhibition, Dr Sarah Burnage, and based at York Art Gallery, this course will offer participants the unique opportunity to study the artist’s tumultuous career alongside some of his major work, as well as privileged access to his sketchbooks and drawings.
Sarah Burnage BA MA PhD
Term: Autumn
Day: Saturday
Start Date: 15 October 2011
Time: 1-3pm
No. of weeks: 3
Full fee: £35.00
The Colourful Art of Emil Nolde
Last time there was an exhibition of Nolde’s paintings in this country, Time Out referred to ‘passionate paintings...saturated with a wild erotic energy.’ Potential students should not get too excited about this. Emil Nolde is one of the most creative artists of the modern era, virtually unknown in this country, who treated every possible topic, and shunned none. His pictures of dance, masks, strange creatures such as hobgoblins and devils, and frightening encounters, together with his portrayal of women, may merit the epithets: 'wild' and 'erotic', but his landscapes, seascapes, flowers and gardens allow the heartbeat to recover. It is possible that his religious pictures upset some people on account of his idiosyncratic approach, but he is an important painter of religious images for all that. Nolde also produced a series of ‘Unpainted Pictures’. Students will have to sign up to find out what they are. It is anticipated that this course will be held at the King’s Manor.
Antony Peck MA
Term: Autumn
Day: Saturday
Start Date: 12 November 2011
Time: 9.30am-12.30pm
No. of weeks: 1
Full fee: £20.00
History Painting in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Russia
History painting enjoyed a new flourish, and a considerable evolution in Russia during the course of the second part of the 19th Century and the first decades of the 20th. The initial impetus was created when artists, wary of replicating ennobled antiquity, turned their abilities to an impassioned exploration of contemporary themes. They would, however, find that their concerns about the state of the society could most aptly be conveyed when set in a universally understood paradigm of history painting, where the protagonists and the context in which they moved were so familiar as to have become allegorical. Seminal events from the national history, myth and legend, and biblical subjects found themselves treated in a subversive combination of academic devices, realist leaning, individual interpretation, and an intriguing return to abstract vision, so typical of medieval Russian pictorial tradition. This course will examine works by a number of artists whose oeuvre has remained distinct and illustrative of the age in which it was produced.
Elena Kashina MPhil DPhil
Term: Autumn
Day: Saturday
Start Date: 26 November 2011
Time: 9.30am-4.30pm
No. of weeks: 1
Full fee: £35.00
Pre-Raphaelitism: the Brotherhood and Beyond
In light of the Tate’s planned blockbuster exhibition in 2012, this course examines Pre-Raphaelitism in terms of the famous and popular art of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) proper and its development in the hands of ‘the other Pre-Raphaelites’. Together we will consider the work of Rossetti, Millais, Holman Hunt, Collinson and Woolner but also the work of various painters associated with Pre-Raphaelitism; including women artists and Cameron’s ‘Pre-Raphaelite’ camera. First examining the PRB from its members’ beginnings at the Royal Academy and its conception in 1848 to the mid-1850s, we will then explore their subsequent divergent routes away from Pre-Raphaelitism. Finally, we will consider the work of ‘the other Pre-Raphaelites’ up to the turn of the century. Throughout the day we will encounter an array of high quality images of artworks in a range of media. Reading materials will be supplied that will enable you to engage with the recent theoretical and critical literature on the subject and develop an ability to recognise and understand Pre-Raphaelite painting techniques.
Katie Tyreman BA MA
Term: Autumn
Day: Saturday
Start Date: 03 December 2011
Time: 9.30am-4.30pm
No. of weeks: 1
Full fee: £35.00
Monet
Monet is almost synonymous with Impressionism. We will look at the major developments in his long career, using classic paintings to anchor our sense of his changing concerns with subject matter and methods of making. We will then investigate what role he played in creating Impressionism as we know it. His relationship with other major artists will be looked at. The impact his abilities to work with changing art markets and to create an international forum for his work on Impressionism will also be explored. We will chart the impact of his art on later generations partly through physically seeing an art work in York Art Gallery. His importance for the 20th Century will be traced. It is anticipated that this course will be held at the King’s Manor.
Fiona Fitzgerald BA MA PGCE
Term: Autumn
Day: Saturday
Start Date: 10 December 2011
Time: 9.30am-4.30pm
No. of weeks: 1
Full fee: £35.00
Spring Term: January 2012 - March 2012
Manet
Manet, the perfect flaneur, embodies the poet Baudelaire’s ideal of a modern artist. He tried to create a radical new art, based on new imageries and novel forms. In this day course we will look at how he took up the call for artists to be of their time. The mysteries and inconsistencies of his paintings will be puzzled over as we try to ascertain what he was trying to do. We will look at his public and at his critics, and how they viewed his work, as we assess the role he played in transforming the nature and purposes of art 1860-1880. We will also chart his shifting relationship with the younger Impressionists and the Salon establishment. Finally we will use his great Bar at the Folies Bergeres, as a climactic piece, to summarise his achievements. It is anticipated that this course will be held at the King’s Manor.
Fiona Fitzgerald BA MA PGCE
Term: Spring
Day: Saturday
Start Date: 28 January 2012
Time: 9.30am-4.30pm
No. of weeks: 1
Full fee: £35.00
Victorian Art
Using the typically Victorian story of the beginnings of York Art Gallery we will explore the nature and diversity of Victorian painting and illustration. We will root our study in the impact that rapid industrialisation and urbanisation had on English society by 1850 and on how the art of the period both reflects and challenges these changes. We will examine issues such as the status of women, poverty, nationalism and Empire through the art. The relationship between art and literature and the nature of storytelling in painting will inform our discussions. The exciting new possibilities opened up by the Pre-Raphaelite movement in art will be charted in York Art Gallery's holdings as will the later impact of French Impressionism. It is anticipated that this course will be held at the King’s Manor.
Fiona Fitzgerald BA MA PGCE
Term: Spring
Day: Saturday
Start Date: 18 February 2012
Time: 9.30am-4.30pm
No. of weeks: 1
Full fee: £35.00
 |
Enrol and Pay at the Online Store |
Inspired by Magic: Myth and Fairytale at the Turn of the Twentieth Century in Russia
In the last decades of the 19th and early 20th Century, Russian society experienced an awakening of interest in indigenous cultural tradition, with fairytales in particular coming prominently to the fore of artistic expression. The newly discovered aesthetic, dramatically different from the official academic culture, proved incendiary to the art community, and resulted in a beguiling new language of allegory and metaphysics - uniquely, grounded in projects designed to be functional and anticipating the needs of an industrial age. Through examining a wide range of designs full of character in various media, including theatre, painting, sculpture and architecture, this course will explore the nation’s reinterpretation of its rich but hitherto-disregarded heritage, and the dynamic environment which demanded it.
Elena Kashina MPhil DPhil
Term: Spring
Day: Saturday
Start Date: 03 March 2012
Time: 9.30am-4.30pm
No. of weeks: 1
Full fee: £35.00
|
Enrol and Pay at the Online Store |
Summer Term: April 2012 - June 2012
Women Artists and the History of Art
Women artists’ marginalisation in the history of art has been addressed by a number of feminist scholars over the last five decades; however, in the teaching of art history, not nearly enough attention has been paid to the integral role women have played in the development of art throughout the ages. This course will examine the history, theory and practise of women artists who have worked in a range of media from the Middle Ages to the 20th Century, by way of Renaissance Italy, 18th Century Britain, and 19th Century Britain and France. Together, in each class, we will examine a range of high quality images of artworks, including many which are rarely seen and seldom considered. The course will take a chronological format and be strongly historical, considering women’s training and their access to art institutions, as well as the wider social influences that shaped their lives. Throughout the course we will engage closely with the historiography of women artists and feminist art history, problematising the traditional art historical canon.
Katie Tyreman BA MA
Term: Summer
Day: Tuesday
Start Date: 24 April 2012
Time: 7-9pm
No. of weeks: 8
Full fee: £53.50
|
Unfortunately this course is cancelled |
Modernism (1900-1945)
The heroic period of Modern Art with its twin ideals of abstraction and functionalism is the focus of this course. Using Picasso and his Demoiselles D’Avignon as a catalyst we will chart the ways in which he and his fellow artists turned our visual world upside down and back to front. We will examine why this was considered necessary and what impact it has had on the functions of art. The Cubist, Dada and Surrealist movements will hold the centre of our attention but parallel movements in design and architecture and institutions such as the Bauhaus in Germany will also be examined. We will question the concept of Modernism and its changing political contexts. Finally we will juxtapose it with the subsequent model of Postmodernism and debate the ways in which the two models propose very different kinds of art.
Fiona Fitzgerald BA MA PGCE
Term: Summer
Day: Wednesday
Start Date: 25 April 2012
Time: 1.15-3.15pm
No. of weeks: 10
Full fee: £67.00
|
Enrol and Pay at the Online Store |
British Art (1400-2010)
Looking at the vexed concept of a national identity and its possible expression in art we will follow the changing nature of British art in a larger, modernising world. In each period we will isolate a major painter, building or architect and use them as a fulcrum to investigate the nature of art during the period, its methods, concerns and its public. The political roles which art has played over the centuries will be questioned. A focus will be placed on the times when British art achieved an international reputation and radical artists developed methods and approaches which changed the ways in which people perceived the world. The nature of contemporary art will also be examined and its function in a global society.
Fiona Fitzgerald BA MA PGCE
Term: Summer
Day: Thursday
Start Date: 26 April 2012
Time: 7-9pm
No. of weeks: 10
Full fee: £67.00
|
Enrol and Pay at the Online Store |
Degas
The third artist in the Saturday series of French 19th Century painters is the enigmatic and fastidious Degas, a contemporary of Manet. We will compare the two and the very different ways in which they approached the painting of modern life. We will look at how they examined the city, how they responded to the redevelopment of Paris and to social issues. Degas considered himself to be at the centre of the Impressionist group. Therefore we will also set him up beside Monet in the 1870s and contrast the aims and methods of the two painters. Finally we will examine his later work and the ways in which artists move with changing philosophical climates and how they adapt to 'old master status' as avant garde wise men. It is anticipated that this course will be held at the King’s Manor.
Fiona Fitzgerald BA MA PGCE
Term: Summer
Day: Saturday
Start Date: 05 May 2012
Time: 9.30am-4.30pm
No. of weeks: 1
Full fee: £35.00
|
Enrol and Pay at the Online Store |
Landscape Painting in Nineteenth Century Russia
Landscape had an enormous importance in Russia’s 19th Century painting. Like almost every other art form, it underwent a dramatic evolution in the course of the 19th Century, and especially so in the latter part of the 19th and early 20th Century. In a radical departure from its previous position in the hierarchy of genres, landscape became a device for meditating, for searching for the primary and universal meanings, and for documenting the human condition. The freedom provided by the pensive native landscape for the mind to wander and for the brush to record, combined with the newly found inner freedom from academic convention, were to result in the growth of a new language whose most striking achievement was the blurring of the dividing lines between the realist and the abstract. This course will examine works by a wide range of artists, whose individual visions were shaped by the dynamic environment of intellectual and economic transformation in 19th and early 20th Century Russia.
Elena Kashina MPhil DPhil
Term: Summer
Day: Saturday
Start Date: 12 May 2012
Time: 9.30am-4.30pm
No. of weeks: 1
Full fee: £35.00
|
Enrol and Pay at the Online Store |
Centre for Lifelong Learning , University of York, Heslington, York, UK. YO10 5DD
Tel: +44 (0)1904 328473 | Email: lifelonglearning@york.ac.uk
Legal Statements | Enquiries | Feedback
© 2007 University of York