Accessibility statement

Art in the USA: 1945-1975 - HOA00058I

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  • Department: History of Art
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. James Boaden
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: I
  • Academic year of delivery: 2022-23

Module summary

This module aims to give a broad grounding in the development of artistic practice in the USA during the mid Twentieth Century through a range of exhibition histories in the lectures and a focus on individual artists in the seminars.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Autumn Term 2022-23

Module aims

This module aims to give a broad grounding in the development of artistic practice in the USA during the mid Twentieth Century. Diverse ideas developed significantly in this period (such as displaying process, making work in the museum or gallery, addressing the role of the spectator in the experience of an art work, assigning manufacture of works to people who are not the artist, the artist as mass-media celebrity) have influenced contemporary artistic practices right across the globe: this module will introduce these ideas within a critical framework.

Students will develop skills in academic writing, where they will be demanded to address a clearly demarcated historical period - bringing to bear aspects of social history on the works they are looking at, and a national context - which they will be expected to address in its regional, racial, and sexual diversity.

Students will develop skills in class discussion, both presenting clearly and listening carefully.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should have acquired:

  • A broad working knowledge of major questions that are raised by the art works produced in the USA between 1945 and 1975.
  • A broad knowledge of the social context in which the works studied were produced.
  • A broad understanding of the debates within art criticism from the period and the development of artists' writing in this context.
  • The skill to choose an appropriate artwork in order to make a clear and concise argument in a brief essay.
  • The skill to write clearly and concisely about complex ideas.
  • To articulate their own position on the topics we have discussed in the seminar and locate those opinions within the critical literature that we have read in class.

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay : Art in the USA: 1945-1975		 N/A 100

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay : Art in the USA: 1945-1975		 N/A 100

Module feedback

You will receive feedback on assessed work within the timeframes set out by the University - please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information.

The purpose of feedback is to help you to improve your future work. If you do not understand your feedback or want to talk about your ideas further, you are warmly encouraged to meet your Supervisor during their Office Hours.

Indicative reading

  • Bruce Altshuler, The Avant-Garde in Exhibition, Abrams, 1994
  • Bruce Altshuler, Exhibitions That Made Art History (two volumes), Phaidon, 2007, 2013
  • Gregory Battcock, Minimalism, California, 1995
  • Norma Broude and Mary Garrard, The Power of Feminist Art: The American Movement of the 1970s, History and Impact, Abrams, 1994
  • John Cage, Silence, Wesleyan, 1994
  • Thomas Crow, The Rise of the Sixties, Oxford, 1996
  • Mark Godfrey and Zoe Whitley eds, Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, Tate, 2017
  • Clement Greenberg, Art and Culture, Beacon, 1961
  • David Joselit, American Art since 1945, Thames and Hudson, 2003
  • Steven Maddoff, Pop Art: A Critical History, California, 1997
  • James Meyer, Minimalism, Yale, 2004
  • Anne Wagner, Three Artists (Three Women), California, 1996


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.