The Phillips Collection
Center for the Study of Modern Art

Courses for Spring 2008

Classes start January 14 and end April 26, 2008.

Courses are offered through Illinois at the Phillips, a collaboration between The Phillips Collection and the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and are available for academic credit (graduate and undergraduate) and on a non-credit basis.

Registration for spring 2008 is open through January 26, 2008.

For more information and to register: www.illinoisatthephillips.org

For course registration, contact Peggy Day: pcday@uiuc.edu or
800-252-1360 x42507 or 217-244-2507

For course information, contact Laura Bandy: lbandy@uiuc.edu or
217-333-2537.

All classes meet at the Center (Carriage House, behind the museum).

Abstract Art
Topics in Art History ARTH 591/491
Tuesday, 6:00–8:00 pm; Wednesday, 10:00–11:30 am
(UIUC/credit students only)
Instructor: Suzanne Hudson
This lecture course investigates key movements and artists—ranging from Paul Cézanne, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, and Piet Mondrian to Robert Ryman, Richard Tuttle, and Felix Gonzalez-Torres—with particular focus on the historical and aesthetic origins of abstraction and on significant models of abstraction as they developed in the twentieth century. Students explore the emergence of nonrepresentational painting; the political and spiritual aims of the Russian constructivists; the rise of abstraction in an American context with abstract expressionism; the formal refinement and centrality of materials in minimalism; and the persistence of abstraction in contemporary art.
3 undergraduate credits; 4 graduate credits; non-credit option

Writing about Art
Seminar in Contemporary Art and Topics in Art History
ARTH 546/491
Thursday, 9:30 am–12:30 am
Instructor: Suzanne Hudson
This course introduces students to the history and practice of writing about art. Beginning with examples of exemplary historical criticism, we will then investigate more recent discourses around modern art, analyzing contemporary criticism's numerous forms in relation to its diverse venues (newspapers, magazines, and monographs, among other sites) and imagined or real audiences. While reading will thus comprise a significant portion of our curriculum, students will also regularly generate their own writings— informed and lucidly articulated, but also subjective and even passionate—based on responses to objects in The Phillips Collection as well as to exhibitions in other museums, galleries, and collections to be visited during the semester.
3 graduate credits; 4 undergraduate credits; non-credit option

Museum Studies ARTH 460
Wednesday, 2:00–5:00 pm
Instructor: Ruth Perlin
This seminar course is concerned with issues in art museums, including current practices, philosophies, and challenges. Among topics covered are the history of art museums in America, collections, curatorial issues, educational programming, and administration; each is discussed with members of The Phillips Collection’s staff and other museum professionals.
4 graduate credits; 3 undergraduate credits; non-credit option

History and Theory of Documentary Photography
Topics in Art History
ARTH 491/591
Monday, 10:00 am–1:00 pm
Instructor: Terri Weissman
The central question addressed in this course is: Do photographic “documents” communicate information about our social, political, and cultural worlds that no other type of document can? In order to answer this question, the course will focus on a variety of historical moments, when the documentary form held particular cultural sway. We will begin in the late nineteenth century with the work of Jacob Riis, and work our way through the twentieth century, focusing on moments such as 1930s America and movements such as Neue Sachlichkeit in Germany. As the documentary tradition has reemerged in contemporary practice, this class will also investigate contemporary artists such as Emily Jacir, Walid Raad, and David Goldblatt, all of whom work in the documentary mode, but with a heightened awareness that photography is not, in the words of Roland Barthes, a “message without a code .”
3 undergraduate credits; 4 graduate credits; non-credit option

Exhibition History and Curatorial Practice
Issues in Contemporary ArtARTS 492
Wednesday, 7:00–9:00 pm
Instructor: Anne Ellegood
This course will explore various methodological approaches to curatorial practice, from the single artist retrospective to the thematic group show, and will examine several seminal exhibitions in the history of 20 th -century art, as well as recent important museum exhibitions and international biennales. Our studies of curatorial practice and exhibitions will allow for in-depth discussions both of particular artists’ works and curatorial approaches to the selection, installation, and written examination of art works. Seminal texts by such authors as Julie Ault, Douglas Crimp, Brian O’Doherty, and others will be discussed and such exhibitions as the Armory show (1913), Primary Structures at the Jewish Museum (1966), and Harald Szeemann’s When Attitudes Become Form (1969) as well as numerous others, will be studied.
3 undergraduate credits; 4 graduate credits; non-credit option

Mixed Media and Collage Studio
Special Topics in Studio Art ARTS 499
Friday, 1:00–4:00 pm
Instructor: Timothy Spelios
This studio course will explore the techniques and ideas behind the use of mixed media, photomontage and collage. The class will trace the development of collage from its origins in the Dada movement of the early 1920s to the present. The class will view and discuss the work of contemporary artists who utilize collage in their processes. A fast-paced class with a laboratory atmosphere will be grounded by weekly projects that encourage students to experiment and subvert the studio assignments into their own visual language.
3 undergraduate credits; 4 graduate credits; non-credit option