Prof. R.A. Greeley

University of Connecticut, Fall 2005

T/TH 12:30-1:45, Monteith 143

T.A.s: Elena Pedrasa; -- Office Hours to be announced.

TA Office: Art Building 206. Sign up sheet outside door

(Office hours with Prof. Greeley by appointment.)

ARTH 141: Introduction to Latin American Art,

Pre-Columbian to the Present

Course Description & Syllabus

This course will consider the trajectory of Latin American art from pre-Columbian times, through the Colonial and Independence periods, into the 20th century. Some themes we will think about: the address of native cultures to the Conquest, the relationship of Colonial art to both indigenous arts and European traditions, the struggle to define a nationalist tradition in the 19th century, and the 20th century's incorporation/shifting of European avant-garde visual languages (particularly Surrealism and Cubism), and the uses of indigenous/popular arts in defining cultural identities.

Another overarching theme will be the role of visual culture in defining and differentiating national identities. We will look at Latin America's violent entry into contact with Europe, and the use by institutions of national culture of the "popular" in staking out their difference from Europe and the U.S.. We will look at such cultures and artists as the Maya, Inca and Aztec, 16th century chronicler Guaman Poma de Ayala, Academic painter Juan Cordero, travel imagery, and such 20th century figures as the Mexican Muralists, Frida Kahlo, and the great Chicano Muralists.

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Required Texts:

  • Dawn Ades, Art in Latin America, (London: Yale University Press, 1989) (hereafter noted as Ades)
  • John Charles Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America, (New York: WW Norton, 2001). (hereafter noted as Chasteen)
  • Course Reader, available at Copy Run (noted as [Reader])
  • Anne D’Alleva, Look! The Fundamentals of Art History (New York: Prentice Hall, 2004)
  • I will not assign particular chapters from Look!. Instead, you should read the book throughout the semester, when it is appropriate. It gives you tips on how to study for exams, how to write an art history paper, how to do a proper bibliography, etc. You’ll find it a very useful little book to help you through the semester.

Course Requirements:

One short (4-5-page) paper, a mid-term and a final exam. The paper will involve analyzing works of art by Latin American & Latino artists. The specific topic and format for this paper will be discussed in class. You are required to hand in a rough draft of the paper, as scheduled below. Assignments handed in late or that do not conform to the format will not be accepted, and will receive an "F."

The exam format will also be discussed in class. Work must be sumitted for all of these requirements (including the rough draft) in order to pass the course.

Late Work:

I do not accept late work or allow you to make up a missed quiz/exam except in cases of severe illness requiring extended hospitalization, a note from the dean, or a death in the family.

Please turn off cell phones and pagers during class.

For general writing assistance:

These links are also available on the course WebCT site. Writing help is also available from the UConn Writing Center, and of course from your GA. And don’t forget to utilize our textbook, Look!, for its helpful hints.

How to use evidence; How to write a thesis statement, paragraphs and topic sentences

For citation (footnote, endnote) MLA style:

For citation (in-text) APA style [which many students seem to prefer but do incorrectly]:

Guide to Research Papers based on the MLA Handbook

***On identifying and avoiding plagiarism***

Other general writing assistance that includes much of the above:

ESL (English as a Second Language) writing resources:

Using the Web for research:

Program of Lectures:

WEEK I (August 31- Sept 2)

  • Introduction

•Maya & the "blood of kings"

read: Miller; Chasteen Ch. 1.

Elizabeth Malkin, “Science vs. Culture in Mexico's Corn Staple”

•PAPER ASSIGNMENT HANDED OUT

WEEK II (Sept. 7-9):

•Inca

•Aztec

read: Miller;

Rebecca Stone-Miller, "Inca Art and Architecture," in Art of the Andes from Chavín to Inca (London, 1995) [Reader]

Charles Mann, “Cracking the Khipu Code,” Science (13 June 2003)

browse: El Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno by Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala (1614) – especially pictures and Rolena Adorno essay.

WEEK III (Sept 14-16):

•Codices: meet in Dodd Research Library lobby

•The Spanish Conquest

read: Chasteen, Ch.2

Bartolomé de las Casas, from A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1552) [Reader]

Codices:

“Chicha for Two,” University of Chicago Magazine, v.93, no. 6 (Ausut 2001)

WEEK IV (Sept 21-23):

•The Colonial Period: Europe & the Americas

•Colonialism: images of women

read: Chasteen Ch. 3; Sullivan[Reader]; Palmer [Reader]

WEEK V (Sept 28-30):

•Independence: heroes & nationalism

• Independence: national academies; landscape painting

read: Ades, Introduction, chapters 1,2,4; skim: 3 & 3ii; Chasteen Ch 4

WEEK VI (Oct 5-7):

•Modernism: The Mexican Revolution & the Mexican Muralists

•mid-term review

read: Chasteen Ch. 7

WEEK VII (Oct 12-14):

  • MIDTERM EXAM

•Muralism continued

read: Ades, chapter 7 & pp.323-326 (El Machete Manifesto)

WEEK VIII (Oct 19-21):

•film: The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez

•finish film; discuss

read: Ades, chapter 9 & pp. 327-328 (Mariátegui, “The Indian Question”);

skim Chasteen chapters 5-6

WEEK IX (Oct 26-28):

•Indigenism & Social Realism

•Modernism & the Search for Roots

  • DRAFT OF PAPER DUE IN CLASS

read: Ades, chapter 6 & pp. 310-313;320-322 (Pau Brasil Poetry Manifesto; Anthropophagite Manifesto; The Southern School)

WEEK X (Nov.2-4):

•Latin America: the "Surrealist" Continent?

•"La Ruptura": Postmodernism

read: Ades chapters 10 & 12; Chasteen Ch. 8

WEEK XI (Nov 9-11):

•Postmodernism

•Postmodernism: cont.

read:

Chasteen Ch. 9

Cuba Poster Art:

Che Guevara, “Man and Socialism in Cuba” (1965):

WEEK XII (Nov 16-18):

  • film: Missing (Chile)
  • finish film: discuss

read: Katherine Hite, “Resurrecting Allende” NACLA (v. 37, 2003)[Reader];

Ades, chapter 13

Chasteen Ch. 10

WEEK XIII (Nov 23-25):

  • no classes: Fall recess

WEEK XIV (Nov 30-Dec.2):

  • Postmodernism: Latino Cultures in the U.S.
  • cont.

read: Chasteen Ch. 11

WEEK XV (Dec.7-9):

  • "Modern Aztec": contemporary images of the Aztec

film: The Couple in a Cage

  • review for Final
  • FINAL PAPER DUE IN CLASS

FINAL EXAM: Check Registrar for date