Module Outline (updated 09.05.18)
How do contemporary artists’ engagements with the landscape provide us with insights into the political and social processes that have shaped Latin America and the Caribbean? This is the question at the centre of this module in which we will explore real and represented landscapes through the lens of the region’s long history of colonisation and political emancipation, as well as its ongoing ideological conflicts and ecological destruction. Throughout the module, we will work closely with artworks from the Essex Collection of Art from Latin America (ESCALA), a unique resource housed on the university campus, as well as with works by leading contemporary artists. We will begin by identifying historical landscape formations that served to embed imperial power in the region (such as plantations, the colonial city, sites of extraction). Then, we will trace the development of landscape painting through connections between art and science, whereby art participated in quests to chart and tame Latin Amercia’s “superabundance of nature” (Leys Stepan). Building on this foundation, our sessions will be focused on close readings of select theoretical and critical texts and visual analyses of artworks. By exploring historical contexts of different countries in Latin America, we will consider the types of aesthetic strategy that artists have developed to invite critical approaches to the landscape that view it not as calming, picturesque scene, but as a cultural construct formed and deformed by moments of political foundation and crisis.
Module Objectives
• To explore key themes and issues related to Latin America through its art heritage
• To encourage interdisciplinary approaches to studying art
• To study the role of art in Latin America in historical and contemporary frameworks
• To familiarise students with the Essex Collection of Art from Latin America (ESCALA)
• To contextualise artworks in broader political, social and cultural contexts
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module the student should have:
• A good understanding of the relationship between art and power in contemporary art from a range of Latin American countries
• The ability to describe, analyse and interpret works of art featured in the module
• The ability to write in an informed manner on the relationship between art and power and to form an argument relating to various aspects of the topic
• The capacity to relate works of art to primary and secondary sources, and art historical and theoretical literature relating to the topics covered on the module.
By the end of the module, students should also have acquired a set of transferable skills, and in particular be able to:
• Define the task in which they are engaged and exclude what is irrelevant
• Seek and organise the most relevant discussions and sources of information
• Process a large volume of diverse and sometimes conflicting arguments
• Compare and evaluate different arguments and assess the limitations of their own position or procedure
• Write and present verbally a succinct and precise account of positions, arguments, and their presuppositions and implications
• Be sensitive to the positions of others and communicate their own views in ways that are accessible to them
• Think laterally and creatively (i.e., to explore interesting connections and possibilities, and to present these clearly rather than as vague hunches)
• Maintain intellectual flexibility and revise their own position based on feedback
• Think critically and constructively.
How do contemporary artists’ engagements with the landscape provide us with insights into the political and social processes that have shaped Latin America and the Caribbean? This is the question at the centre of this module in which we will explore real and represented landscapes through the lens of the region’s long history of colonisation and political emancipation, as well as its ongoing ideological conflicts and ecological destruction. Throughout the module, we will work closely with artworks from the Essex Collection of Art from Latin America (ESCALA), a unique resource housed on the university campus, as well as with works by leading contemporary artists. We will begin by identifying historical landscape formations that served to embed imperial power in the region (such as plantations, the colonial city, sites of extraction). Then, we will trace the development of landscape painting through connections between art and science, whereby art participated in quests to chart and tame Latin Amercia’s “superabundance of nature” (Leys Stepan). Building on this foundation, our sessions will be focused on close readings of select theoretical and critical texts and visual analyses of artworks. By exploring historical contexts of different countries in Latin America, we will consider the types of aesthetic strategy that artists have developed to invite critical approaches to the landscape that view it not as calming, picturesque scene, but as a cultural construct formed and deformed by moments of political foundation and crisis.
Module Objectives
• To explore key themes and issues related to Latin America through its art heritage
• To encourage interdisciplinary approaches to studying art
• To study the role of art in Latin America in historical and contemporary frameworks
• To familiarise students with the Essex Collection of Art from Latin America (ESCALA)
• To contextualise artworks in broader political, social and cultural contexts
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module the student should have:
• A good understanding of the relationship between art and power in contemporary art from a range of Latin American countries
• The ability to describe, analyse and interpret works of art featured in the module
• The ability to write in an informed manner on the relationship between art and power and to form an argument relating to various aspects of the topic
• The capacity to relate works of art to primary and secondary sources, and art historical and theoretical literature relating to the topics covered on the module.
By the end of the module, students should also have acquired a set of transferable skills, and in particular be able to:
• Define the task in which they are engaged and exclude what is irrelevant
• Seek and organise the most relevant discussions and sources of information
• Process a large volume of diverse and sometimes conflicting arguments
• Compare and evaluate different arguments and assess the limitations of their own position or procedure
• Write and present verbally a succinct and precise account of positions, arguments, and their presuppositions and implications
• Be sensitive to the positions of others and communicate their own views in ways that are accessible to them
• Think laterally and creatively (i.e., to explore interesting connections and possibilities, and to present these clearly rather than as vague hunches)
• Maintain intellectual flexibility and revise their own position based on feedback
• Think critically and constructively.