Drawing Courses

Painting After the Photograph: Painting in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Course No. PTG 233  Credits: 3.0

Painters going back as far as the Renaissance have been using devices such as the camera obscura to produce a two-dimensional verisimilitude. With the invention of photography in 1839, artists were liberated from the demands of reproducing naturalistic appearances. This course will explore the relationship between the photographic and painting; the effect that the birth of photography has had on the history and current state of painting. A primary question to be considered will be: What are the strategies of Painting in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction? How has photography and mechanical reproduction influenced painting functions? We will look at artists as varied as Delacroix, Courbet, Warhol, Rosen Quist, Tuyman’s, and Richter among others. Readings will include Walter Benjamin’s “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Prerequisite: PTG 221 or PTG 232. 3 credits.