Studies in American Culture (310-0-20)
Topic
Museum Seminar: Black Art and Ecology
Instructors
Rebecca Elizabeth Zorach
Rebecca Zorach teaches and writes on early modern European art (15th-17th century), contemporary activist art, and art of the 1960s and 1970s. Particular interests include print media, feminist and queer theory, theory of representation, and the multiple intersections of art and politics.
Recent articles have addressed AfriCOBRA's gender and family politics; Claes Oldenburg's lawsuit challenging the copyright of the Chicago Picasso; and the experimental art center Art & Soul, founded on the west side of Chicago in 1968 by the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Conservative Vice Lords, a former street gang. She is currently completing a book on Art & Soul and the landscape of the Black Arts Movement in Chicago (late 1960s-1970s), and undertaking a new project that will consider the relationship of artistic and political agency to natural and social ecologies.
Meeting Info
Block Conference Room: Fri 1:00PM - 3:50PM
Overview of class
In conjunction with several exhibitions and public installations on view in the fall of 2024, this course will study the ways in which Black artists in Chicago have engaged with environmental justice, social and natural ecologies, and the space of the city over the past 80 years. We will study artists' use of sustainable practices and reclaimed materials, the critique of spatial inequality and the space of the city itself as an artistic medium through urban farming, public art, and community engagement. Readings include theoretical and historical texts, but the primary object of study will be the artworks, exhibitions, and installations themselves. As a museum seminar, we consider the methods of institutions of different scales and types, including alternative galleries and artist-led projects, as they collect and present work by contemporary and historical Black artists. Students must be able to attend site visits that will often extend 1-2 hours past class hours on Fridays because of transportation time.
Learning Objectives
Learning Objectives: Advanced Expression
1. Work with primary sources and understand a variety of different types of media and the
difference between primary and secondary sources.
2. Think critically about art and art history. Practice close looking and close reading. Gain skills in reading, understanding, analyzing and contextualizing scholarly texts. Develop your skills in observation and critique.
3. Develop skills in discussion and the respectful sharing of opinion and analysis. Work collaboratively with your peers to create a supportive community of learners.
4. Develop writing skills in persuasion, commentary, description, and analysis.
5. Develop skills in the oral presentation of research as both presenter and discussant.
6. Develop skills in formulating and carrying out an extended research project.