Art History

Prehistory - Antiquity - Dr Zoltán Fábián - semester 1

• Prehistoric art: Palaeolithic mural and mobile neolith,
• Prehistoric art from the Near East,
• Sumerian and Acadian art,
• Babylonian and Assyrian art,
• Ancient Egyptian art,
• Minoan art,
• Mycenaean art,
• Greek art (archaic, classical),
• Hellenistic art,
• Etruscan art,
• Roman art.

Art of the Middle Ages - semester 2
Early Christian art, early medieval art, the art of Byzantium, Romanesque art, Gothic art.

Renaissance - Dr Ildikó Fehér - semester 3
Familiarisation of students with the most important sculptors and painters, as well as the most important centres of renaissance in Hungary and in the world:
I. Italy: Florence, Venice, Mantova, Rome - The artists of the Quattrocento of Florence, the Medici courtyard; the uniqueness and forms of the colouristic painting tradition of Venice; the Gonzaga family of Mantova and its patronage of art; Mantegna and his influence on
northern painting. The great papal commissions of the age: Raffaello, Michelangelo.
II. Germany: the paintings of Dürer, Cranach and Holbein. The effects of reformation: altered values and norms, new development of new genres.
III. Hungarian Art in the Age of King Mátyás: Buda, Esztergom, Visegrád. Architectural relics, painting relics of the Corvina Library. Italian masters in Hungary, aristocratic patronage.
The lecture series is made complete with a museum session to be held on one occasion during the semester:
- Guided tour of the renaissance exhibition at the Hungarian Museum of Fine Arts.

Baroque - Dr Ildikó Fehér - semester 4
Familiarisation of the students with the most important figures and centres of baroque and manieristic art in Hungary and in the world:

• Italian manierism: Pontormo, Bronzino, G.Romano, Arcimboldo, Parmigianino;
• Roman baroque art: painting: Caravaggio; sculpture, architecture: G.L.Bernini;
• Baroque art of the German Lowlands: Rubens; and painting in 17th century Holland: Vermeer, Rembrandt, circumstances and key artists of the development of new genres: still life, landscape, group picture;
• French baroque: development and rules of academic painting: N.Poussin, C.Lorrain, Le Brun;
• Spain: royal court painting: Velazquéz;
• Hungary: art patronage by aristocratic families: Kismarton, Fraknó, Sárvár, Gödöllő, Fertőd, Fraknó, Ráckeve; Jesuit constructions: Nagyszombat, Győr. The art of Donner, Maulbertsch, Mányoki. Portrait painting: gallery of ancestors.
• The lecture series is made complete with museum sessions to be held on two occasions during the semester:
• Guided exhibition tour at the Hungarian Museum of Fine Arts.

Classicism and 19th Century Art in Europe, Part I - semester 5
Semester 1: This course, beginning with classicism, discusses the changes that take place (as of the last third of the 18th century) in intellectual life and in the arts in the wake of the great art periods (last one: baroque-rococo). (Antique excavations, antiquity-cult, enlightenment, rationalism, industrial civilisation and citizenship as new factors: French revolution, the shaking foundations of Christian faith, new aesthetic, academies, etc.). J-L. David, Canova, Houdon, Ingres; the Hungarian biedermeier: Barabás, Borsos. Hungarian classicist sculptor: István Ferenczy. Turn of the 18th/19th centuries, on the borderline of classicism and romanticism → visionary works: Goya, Füssli, Blake
Romanticism as the first intellectual landslide of the 19th century
German romanticism: Runge, C.D. Friedrich
French romanticism: Gericault, Delacroix
English romanticism: Turner
The role of romanticism in the development and evolution of national arts; Hungarian national romanticism.

Classicism and 19th Century Art in Hungary and in Europe, Part II -  semester 6

Semester 2: From realism to Cézanne's art, this painting-centred lecture series focuses on French art.
Barbizon school: Corot, Millet; László Paál
The great realist trio: (Millet), Courbet, Daumier
Realism in Great Britain: Pre-Raphaelites: their art in the context of romanticism and realism; Lajos Gulácsy
The romantic realism of Mihály Munkácsi
Impressionism as the first real ism: aesthetic, technique; Degas, Renoir, Monet
"Hungarian impressionism": Pál Szinyei Merse, and Baia Mare/Nagybánya.
Pointillism: Seurat, Signac
Symbolism: attitude and aesthetics → The formal innovations of synthetism: Pont Aven: Gauguin
The art of the symbolists: G.Moreau, P.de Chavannes, O.Redon
Japanism: Gauguin, Van Gogh; Nabik and J. Rippl-Rónai
The last genius of postimpressionism: Cézanne

Classical Avantgarde I - Dr. János Sturcz - semester 7
Late symbolism, the beginnings of modernism: the northern "moralists": Edward Munch, James Ensor, painters of the questions of human existence. The cotemporary relevance of Viennese secession: the representation of the body in the art of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. The beginnings of autonomous visuality: the fauves, Henri Matisse. German expressionism: the Brücke group and the intellectual objectives of Der Blauer Reiter group. Abstraction and hidden symbolism in the work of Wassily Kandinsky. The oeuvre of Paul Klee
Cubism: the "esoteric" dialogue of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The first Avantgarde movement: futurism. Individual oeuvres and political objectives. Futuristic sculpture, photo and performance. The influence of international trends on Hungarian art.

Classical Avantgarde II - Dr. János Sturcz - semester 8
The historical significance and contemporary relevance of Marcel Duchamp's oeuvre. The dadaist groups of New York, Zurich and Berlin: common features and differences. The appearance and art historical significance of collage, photomontage and assemblage. The Merz Gesamtkunstwerk aspirations of Kurt Schwitters. Max Ernst: on the borders of dadaism and surrealism. The suprematist and productivist directions of Russian constructivism. The oeuvre of Kazimir Malevich and Vladimir Tatlin. Wladislaw Strzeminski?s unique perception of abstraction of. The De Stijl group and Piet Mondrian. The role of Bauhaus and László Moholy-Nagy, their significance in art history. The figurative and abstract branches of surrealism (Salvador Dali, René Magritte, Joan Miró, André Masson, Yves Tanguy). Myths, dreams and surrealism. The timeliness of avantgarde and the postmodern. The appearance and mixing of international trends in Hungarian art.

Late Modernism and the Neo-avantgarde, 1945-1970 - Dr János Sturcz - semester 9
The development of abstract expressionism, Arshile Gorky and Willem de Kooning. Abstract expressionism based on linearity: Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Mark Tobey. Colour field: Clifford Still, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman. European abstract expressionism: tachisme, matiére peinture, calligraphy. Wols, Fautrier, Mathieu, Hartung, Fontana, Burri, Tapies, Dubuffet. Pop art in the United States and Europe. Neo-dadaism: Rauschenberg and Johns; Dine; Warhol, Lichtenstein, Rosenquist, Oldenburg, Segal. Nouveau Realism: Klein, Arman Spoerri, Tinguely, Saint-Phalle. Happening: Kaprow, Dine, Oldenburg. European Actionism: Vostell, Rainer, Nitsch, Brus, Schwarzkogler. The significance of the Fluxus movement. Hard edge painting and minimalism. Hungarian variations, interpretations and "fruitful misinterpretations" of international trends.

Postmodern Reaction and Contemporary Art, 1970-2002- Dr. János Sturcz - semester 10
The postmodern reaction: postminimalism, process art: Morris, Hesse, Le Va, Benglis; land art: Smithson, de Maria, Heizer, Simond, Aycock, Halt, Christo; land art in Europe: Long, Dibbets, its afterlife: Turrell. Arte povera, Kounellis, Merz. Performance and body art: Beuys and the Eastern European influence. Abramovič-Ulay, Gilbert and George, Acconci, Oppenheim, Naumann, Burden. Women's Art and the body: Pane, Jonas, Mendieta, Schneemann, Piper, Wilke, Antin, Anderson, Horn, Rosenbach. Concept art: Kossuth, Lathan, Buren, Weiner, Huebler, Art and Language group, Beechers, On Kawara, Opalka. Installation, video art - Wilson, Viola, etc. - Women's Art and sculpture: Bourgeois, Smith, Winsor, Miss, - New Environment. Graffiti art: Basquiat, Haring.
Simulacrum and art: Koons, Prince, Steinbach. Appropriation art: Levine, Bidlo. Neo-conceptualism: Gober, deconstruction and postfeminism: Krueger, Sherman, Holzer the new generation of Women?s Art: Antoni, Emin, Kozyra. Neogeo and the new abstraction: Halley, Bleckner, Taffee. The influence of international trends on the art of the Eastern European region and Hungary. The effect of multiculturalism on art. Analysis of the current mega-exhibitions (ex.: Venice Biennale, Kassel Documenta, etc.).