Seminar description
Art causes scandals for many reasons, provoking a range of consequences, including censorship, cuts to government funding of the arts or even destruction of the work in question.
In this course we will consider a number of kinds of art scandal arising from exhibition in public galleries and urban spaces, including those that have to do with legal issues such as plagiarism and vandalism; aesthetic objections on the part of the public, ranging from perceived obscenity to simple resentment of abstract art; racism; sacrilege; and political subversion, amongst others.
We will consider the work of artists including Chris Ofili, Joep van Lieshout, Paul McCarthy, Damien Hirst, Michael Snow, Sally Mann, Banksy, Rachel Whitebread, Richard Prince, Andres Serrano, Robert Mapplethorpe, Carl Andre, Maya Lin, and Jeff Koons, amongst others.
Get to know your professor
Elizabeth Legge
For my undergraduate degree…
I studied English at the University of Toronto and Art History at Cambridge University.
My hometown is…
Toronto, ON
I am surprisingly good at…
Fast and inaccurate typing.
Fun fact:
I made John Lennon laugh.
A fun fact about my field of study is…
Art history books have a lot of pictures.
In a sentence, what you’ll learn in my course:
Think about why people get more upset about art than about other social realities.
One of my favourite things about teaching first-year students is…
They are not yet specialized in a field, and so, bring diverse points of view to questions of art.
My best advice for those starting their first year…
To the degree possible, don't try to do too much at once.
NAME: Chelsea Rochman.