Reading+list

Barrett, T (2000). //Criticising art: understanding the contemporary//. Boston: McGraw Hill. [A very useful basic practical guide to the subject – well written, clear, straightforward.] Baudrillard J (2005). //The conspiracy of art.// New York: Semiotext(e) Bayley S. (1991). Taste: the secret meaning of things. London: Faber and Faber Burgin V (1986). //The end of art theory: criticism and postmodernity//. Basingstoke: Macmillan Education [especially chapters 1, 2, & 7] Foster Hal, (1996). The return of the real. Cambridge Mass.: MIT Press Greenberg C. (2003). //Avant-garde and kitsch//. In: Harrison C and Wood P, Eds., Art in Theory: 1900-2000: an anthology of changing ideas. Malden: Blackwell Kuspit D (2004). //The end of art.// Cambridge: Cambridge Univ Press Munari B (1966). //Design as art//. London: Penguin Books Nelson RS and Schiff R (2003), //Critical terms for art history.// Chicago: Univ Chicago Press. Sontag, S (1987). //Against interpretation//. In: //Against Interpretation, and other essays//. London: Andre Deutsch, Pp. 3-14
 * Some recommended reading **
 * Criticism and Interpretation **
 * Adrian Holme, October 2009 **
 * General Criticism and Interpretation **

Bourriaud N (2002). //Relational aesthetics//. Les Presses du Reel Scruton R (2008). //Beauty//. Oxford: Oxford Univ Press
 * Aesthetics **

Benjamin, W. The work of art in the age of its technological reproducibility (1936). //In// Eiland H, Jennings WG (Eds.) //Walter Benjamin: Selected writings, Volume 3, 1935-1938//, Cambridge Mass., The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002. Pp. 101-133 [//NB//. A slightly different version of Benjamin’s essay is available at: [] Berger, J. (1972). Ways of seeing. London: Penguin.
 * Critical Theory **

Auge M (1995). //Non-places: introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity.// London: Verso Bachelard G. (1964) //The poetics of space.// Massachusetts: Beacon Press De Boton, A (2006). //The architecture of happiness: the secret art of furnishing your life//. London: Penguin McLuhan, M. (2001). //Understanding media: the extensions of man//., Routledge Classics: London. (First published 1964) McLuhan M (1967). //The medium is the massage.// London: Penguin [especially pp. 44-69] Panofsky E. (1997). //Perspective as symbolic form.// New York: Zone Books
 * Space and place **

Ballard JG (1973), Crash, London: Cape [A novel] Coverley M. (2006) //Psychogeography//. Harpenden: Pocket Essentials Sinclair I (1997). //Lights out for the territory.// London: Penguin [psychogeographic writings]
 * Psychogeography **

21 October 2009 Additional reference

Elkins J (2003). //What happened to art criticism?// Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press [In a short work surveying the last 50 years of art criticism, Elkins addresses what has become known as the 'crisis of criticism']

23 Ocotber 2009 __Handouts (week 3):__ Sontag S (1987). //Against interpretation//. In: //Against Interpretation, and other essays//. London: Andre Deutsch, Pp. 3-14 Barrett T (2000). //Criticising art: understanding the contemporary//. Boston: McGraw Hill. Pp. 23-8 Winters E (2005). //Architecture.// In: Gaut B and McIver Lopes D, Eds. (2005). //The Routledge companion to aesthetics//. 2nd Edn. London: Routledge Pp. 655-67 de Boton A (2006). //The architecture of happiness: the secret art of furnishing your life//. London: Penguin Pp 9-26

30 October 2009

Gaut B and McIver Lopes D, Eds. (2005). //The Routledge companion to aesthetics//. 2nd Edn. London: Routledge [An excellent selection of focused articles by prominent writers]

11 November 2009

Blunt A (1962) //Artistic theory in Italy, 1450-1600//. Oxford: Oxford Univ Press. [Excellent on Renaissance and architecture from the former Advisor for the Queen's Pictures and Drawings, later revealed to have been a Soviet agent. A very fine art historian too]

23 November 2009 Barthes R, (2009) //Death of the author//. Translated Richard Howard. @http://www.ubu.com/aspen/aspen5and6/threeEssays.html (accessed November 23 2009) [Useful online version of an enormously influential essay, written by Roland Barthes in 1967. 'The birth of the reader must be ransomed by the death of the author']