This module explores the development of the French avant-garde from its roots in the rebellious art movements of nineteenth-century Paris to the heady days of May 1968 when it seemed art had been realised in everyday life. The first semester will focus on the innovative techniques of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art movements as they responded to the problem of what it meant to be a painter in the age of ‘mechanical reproduction’. The course will concentrate in particular on the way in which these artists used the city of Paris, then undergoing its dramatic transformation under Haussmann, as the quintessential subject through which to interrogate modernity: that is, the rapid changes to the urban environment, lived experience and social relationships that occurred in France towards the end of nineteenth century. The second semester will examine the shift of the French avant-garde in the twentieth century towards a call for the ‘realisation’ of art in everyday life in the texts and provocative actions of the Surrealists and the Situationist International. These new artistic avant-gardes rejected art for its own sake in favour of an anti-capitalist critical theory and revolutionary practice that would transform human life into a qualitatively rich poetic practice akin to art. The Surrealists and the Situationists, like their nineteenth-century forebears, would also make Paris and the urban environment the focal point of an interrogation of modernity and the contestation of bourgeois culture. Each of these stages in the development of the French avant-garde will be explored through regular engagement with the French Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and Modernist art collections of the National Museum Wales.

1. Critically evaluate key aspects of the French artistic avant-garde in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
2. Apply theoretical concepts to the critical analysis of the French avant-garde and its cultural products.
3. Generate clear and well-researched arguments to support these critical evaluations.
4. Propose critical readings of avant-garde works of art and other avant-garde cultural products.
5. Describe the relationship between developments in the French avant-garde and wider socio-economic contexts.
6. Analyse primary and secondary sources relating to the French avant-garde and its history.
7. Communicate arguments orally and in written form to at least a B2 level in French.

The module will be delivered through a range of interactive teaching sessions supplemented by online teaching and learning activities and materials – and may include, where relevant, asynchronous materials such as lecture recordings. Full details on the delivery mode of this module will be available on Learning Central at the start of the academic year – and may be, in part, determined by Welsh Government and Public Health Wales guidance.  

Lectures will highlight key arguments and background material. This information will feed directly into seminar discussions, often based around an analysis of key visual and written texts, that will probe more deeply into the preceding lecture topic.

Extensive use will be made of the National Museum Wales art collection. Students are invited to make individual / group presentations on art works from the collection in order to familiarise themselves and the group with the collection as a learning resource, to develop presentation skills and to practice the critical analysis of artistic products. These will take the form of a formative assessment.

All students are expected to undertake independent study, prepare for tutorials by carrying out guided study and reading handouts.

There will be an induction session addressing the needs of year 4 students which will cover critical methods and study skills appropriate to the module.

Although the module will be delivered and assessed in French, students will have the possibility of seeking clarification or expressing themselves in English where appropriate.

Communication Skills: Lectures and workshops in French will develop the capacity of students to receive and communicate complex ideas and information in the target language.

Presentation Skills Student presentations on art works from the NMW collection will allow students to practice presenting research findings in a formal setting in the target language.

Critical Thinking Skills: Lectures, workshop activities, presentations and assessments will encourage students to apply critical thinking to different aspects of the topic in question.

Research Skills: Presentation formative and coursework summative assessments will allow students to practice and develop core research skills such as creating a bibliography, analysing primary and secondary sources, planning, time management and creative thinking.

Writing Skills: The coursework essay assessments will allow students to develop their formal academic writing skills.

Computer Skills: Presentations and coursework essays will require students to practice IT skills through word processing and creating presentation slides.

The method(s) of assessing the learning outcomes for this module are set out in the Assessment Table, which also contains the weightings of each assessment component.

MAPPING OF ASSESSMENTS TO INTENDED LEARNNG OUTCOMES

Formative presentation assesses ILO 4,5,7

Essays assess ILO 1,2,3,4,5,6,7

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:

You may be required to resit one or more of the assessments in this module if you fail the module. The Examination Board will advise you which assessments you need to resit during the August resit period. Resit assessments that are not supported by extenuating circumstances will be capped at the pass mark applicable to your programme.

Indicative Syllabus

This course will seek to follow the syllabus below:

Semester A

Week 1: Theories of the Avant-Garde

Week 2: Introduction to the Analysis of Visual Art

Week 3: Romanticism: Parisian Bohemia and Artistic Utopianism

Week 4: Impressionism

Week 5: Reading Week

Week 6: Post-Impressionism

Week 7: Impressionists and the City

Week 8: Symbolism

Week 9: Modernism

Week 10: Modernism and the City

Week 11: Dada and the Origins of Anti-Art

Semester S

Week 1: Introduction to Surrealism

Week 2: The Surrealists and the City

Week 3: Surrealism in Belgium

Week 4: Marxian Theories of Modernity

Week 5: Reading Week

Week 6: Surrealism and the French Left

Week 7: Introduction to the Situationist International

Week 8: The Situationists and the City

Week 9: Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle

Week 10: Art as Revolution: May ’68 and its Afterlives

Week 11: The Last Avant-Garde and the End of Art