HAA 172P - Artisanal Modernism & the Labor of Women

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2022

Maria Gough

The objectives of this workshop-style graduate seminar are two-fold:

1) To foreground the pioneering role of textiles and other artisanal media produced by women in the development of modernist art, especially abstraction, Dada, constructivism, productivism, & the Bauhaus & its diaspora.

2) To study and research related works of art in the collections of the Harvard Art Museums (HAMs), with a view to curating an exhibition on the subject for its teaching galleries.

All sessions will be held in the Study Center of the HAMs. Readings will range from the philosophy of aesthetics to the most recent art-historical literature. In February, the seminar will make an (HAA-funded) three-day study visit to New York to see key collections and exhibitions, including Sophie Taeuber-Arp: Living Abstraction at the Museum of Modern Art.

Requirements include class & field-trip attendance & participation, short weekly response papers, & the collaborative production of a virtual exhibition catalogue.

Open to graduate students and advanced undergraduates by permission of the instructor. Limited to 12.

See also: spring 2022