This course will both survey postmodern art in general, and will pursue a more focused approach to a dominant theme of such art, the sublime. In this respect, we will concentrate on the writing of Lyotard and other critical responses to Postmodernism. The course will investigate whether postmodern art should be considered fundamentally neo-Romantic, or whether it should stand as an independent, revolutionary category in itself. The relation of Modernism to Postmodernism will be examined, and in the context of diverse issues explored by artists including identity politics, gender, subjectivity, constructs of 'essence' and 'self', and the strategies of historic quotation and appropriation. Other topics to be examined include the political values and claims of postmodern art and the status of the art-producer as artist-theoretician. Media explored include painting, photo-media, video, performance art, design and fashion.

The student is challenged by the range of media examined in this course arising from the explosion of new art forms, when artists deliberately questioned the validity and stronghold of modernist painting and the 'heroic' male artist in the last three decades of the twentieth century. The student's knowledge of postmodernist art will be expanded and their ability to think critically about the changing role, meaning and purpose of art in rising global cultures will result from their engagement with diverse media ranging from photography, fashion, the moving image, collage and painting. Students will assess the rise of feminism in art practice, the appropriation of 'history' in imagery across media, the blurring of boundaries in disciplines, cultures and geographies, and the rising voice of minority groups excluded from the normalising definitions of art presented during the height of modernist era of the 1950s and early 1960s.

1,500 word tutorial paper (30%), 2,500 word essay (50%) and image test (20%).

2 hours per week of lectures, 1 hour tutorial per week, and up to a day's reading and writing per week.

Introduction to Art History ARTH1002 and Introduction to Modern Art ARTH1003 or permission of the Coordinator.

* Benjamin, A, (ed), The Lyotard Reader, New York, 1989
* Docherty, T, Postmodernism: A Reader, New York, 1993
* Kristeva, J, The Powers of Horror, New York, 1982

* Foster, Hal (ed), The Anti-Aesthetic : Essays on Postmodern Culture, Washington, 1983