MTuWThF, 12:30 PM-1:20 PM, C2 203
Required film screening: MW, 7:00 PM-10:00 PM, BH 340

Fulfills College A&H Requirement

Instructor: Natasha Ritsma
E-Mail: nritsma@indiana.edu

Tortured Genius.  Outcast.  Misunderstood visionary.  What stories
are told about artists in contemporary Western culture?  In what
ways is the life of an artist constructed in biopics, documentaries,
and Hollywood films?  In 1980, Griselda Pollock published a
breakthrough article entitled “Artists Mythologies” in Screen
magazine critiquing Vincente Minnelli’s 1956 depiction of Vincent
van Gogh in Lust for Life.  Pollock problematized Minnelli’s
depiction of van Gogh as a stereotypical portrayal of the tortured
artist-genius.  It has been twenty-five years since Pollock’s essay
has circulated, and nearly fifty years since Minnelli’s film was
released, nevertheless the Modernist myth of the tortured artistic
outsider male genius still perpetuates as a guiding trope in
creating artist-focused films.  Why can’t we let go of this myth? In
this class, we will look at the ways Art History and Film History
intersect, overlap, and remain distinct from each other.  What is
the radical potential of an artist film?  Why is this rarely
achieved?  We will read texts from the fields of Art History, Gender
Studies, Film Studies, and Cultural Studies in investigating how
notions “truth,” “authenticity,” and “objectivity” are addressed,
neglected, and negotiated.  We will watch and discuss films such as
My Kid Could Paint That (2006), Who the $#%& Is Jackson Pollock?
(2006), Crumb  (1994) and Rivers and Tides (2004).