Università Roma Tre

The course deals with the ways in which the artistic experiences of the XXth century have explored, questioned, played with the multiple properties of objects. From Marcel Duchamp’s Égouttoir to Andy Warhol's Brillo Box, from the surrealist objects to the appropriations of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, from the accumulations of Arman to the reinventions of Pino Pascali, the course will examine the range of uses, détournements, and revisions that have profoundly changed the nature of sculpture and of the work of art in general.

The course is divided into two segments of equal length. In the first, which includes the first 18 lessons, will consist of a series of case studies of appropriation of objects by the artists, starting with the famous case of Duchamp's Fountain (1917). In the second, the course will examine the different interpretations of these issues and will explore the historical and theoretical aspects through the reading of selected texts in seminar format.

Essays

• Walter Benjamin, Eduard Fuchs, il collezionista e lo storico (1937)
• Jean Baudrillard, Le strategie fatali, Feltrinelli 2007 (parti scelte)
• Andre Breton, Manifesti del surrealismo, Einaudi 2003 (parti scelte)
• Arthur Danto, The Artworld (1964)
• Thierry De Duve, Artefatto, da Marcel Duchamp. Critica, biografia, mito, Electa 2009
• Georges Perec, Le cose, Einaudi 2011
• Leo Steinberg, Neodada e pop il paradigma del “pianale” (1972)

Some of these texts are available as PDFs at http://romatrecontemporanea.blogspot.it/2016/06/laurea-magistrale-in-storia-dellarte-e.html

Textbook

• Hal Foster et al., Arte since 1900, Thames and Hudson.

The course deals with the ways in which the artistic experiences of the XXth century have explored, questioned, played with the multiple properties of objects. From Marcel Duchamp’s Égouttoir to Andy Warhol's Brillo Box, from the surrealist objects to the appropriations of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, from the accumulations of Arman to the reinventions of Pino Pascali, the course will examine the range of uses, détournements, and revisions that have profoundly changed the nature of sculpture and of the work of art in general.

The course is divided into two segments of equal length. In the first, which includes the first 18 lessons, will consist of a series of case studies of appropriation of objects by the artists, starting with the famous case of Duchamp's Fountain (1917). In the second, the course will examine the different interpretations of these issues and will explore the historical and theoretical aspects through the reading of selected texts in seminar format.

Essays

• Walter Benjamin, Eduard Fuchs, il collezionista e lo storico (1937)
• Jean Baudrillard, Le strategie fatali, Feltrinelli 2007 (parti scelte)
• Andre Breton, Manifesti del surrealismo, Einaudi 2003 (parti scelte)
• Arthur Danto, The Artworld (1964)
• Thierry De Duve, Artefatto, da Marcel Duchamp. Critica, biografia, mito, Electa 2009
• Georges Perec, Le cose, Einaudi 2011
• Leo Steinberg, Neodada e pop il paradigma del “pianale” (1972)

Some of these texts are available as PDFs at http://romatrecontemporanea.blogspot.it/2016/06/laurea-magistrale-in-storia-dellarte-e.html

Textbook

• Hal Foster et al., Arte since 1900, Thames and Hudson.