DESCRIPTION: The course will examine significant artists using their own work as well as cinematic biopics, putting these works into dialogue with theological issues arising out of the same time periods.

SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: The course will introduce students to interdisciplinary cultural engagement, helping to sharpen their skills in analyzing and engaging culture. Special emphasis will be given to the intersections of art, film, and theology.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Through the viewing of selected films, interactive discussion and class lectures, students will (1) be introduced to the work of selected artists from the Western tradition; (2) gain a general understanding of Western art history and critique; (3) explore film criticism and theory; and (4) learn to interact theologically with art, film, and culture.

COURSE FORMAT: Interactive. The class will weekly for three-and-a-half-hour sessions (3:00-6:20p.m.); it will not meet January 2, 16, and 23, but will meet on March 12. During each session students will (1) view and discuss artists' work; (2) explore cinematic representations of the particular artists; (3) utilize various critical art and film theories; (4) consider possible theological responses to the material offered.

REQUIRED READING AND VIEWING:

Browning, Don. A Fundamental Practical Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996.

Docker, John. Postmodernism and Popular Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Elkins, James. On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Ford, David, ed. The Modern Theologians. 3rd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005.

Freeland, Cynthia. Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

List of Films and Artists for Required Viewing: The Agony and the Ecstasy (Michelangelo); Girl with a Pearl Earring (Vermeer); Lust for Life (Vincent Van Gogh); Surviving Picasso (Pablo Picasso); Frida (Frida Kahlo); Pollock (Jackson Pollock); The Life and Times of Andy Warhol (Andy Warhol); Love Is the Devil (Francis Bacon); Basquiat (Jean-Michel Basquiat).
Students should be aware that these include R-rated films.

Collings, Matthew. This Is Modern Art. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999.

Eco, Umberto. A History of Beauty. New York: Rizzoli, 2004.

Grosnick, Uta, ed. Women Artists in the 20th and 21st Century. London: Taschen Books, 2005.

Thompson, James M. Twentieth-Century Theories of Modern Art. Carleton University Press, 1990.

A selection of books on each individual artist will be offered as an additional list for the class.

1. Viewing and journaling on films, due at the end of the course (20%).

2. Three two-page book reviews on selected books from the required reading list (30%).

3. A twelve-fifteen page paper covering one of the artists examined in the class (50%). The paper will be divided into three sections: Section One will examine the artist's work, offering critique and interaction. Section Two will critique the film related to the artist. Section Three will examine and respond to the theological issues raised by the artist and his or her work.