Month: September 2023

The Armory Show was first presented at New York City’s 69th Regiment Armory, on Lexington Avenue between 25th and 26th Streets, from February 17 until March 15, 1913. Organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, the show introduced Americans to the latest, avant-garde styles and innovators – – including many cutting-edge contemporary European painters and sculptors.

For Thursday, you’ll visit the 1913 Armory Show.

First, take a look at these representative “classical” paintings to remind yourself of what traditional art looks and feels like :

 

After enjoying these paintings, head over to the Armory Show. Take your time and wander through the galleries.  As you do, pick out three paintings or sculptures that you think are the most “modern” (especially in relation to more “traditional” images like those above).  Click this link  to curate your mini-exhibition (password = “Armory” – – without quotes). Curate your portfolio of visual modernism by writing a couple of paragraphs that explain what makes each of your three works of art modernist – – i.e. decidedly not “traditional.” Complete this tour/tour guide by Monday (10/2) morning.

On Tuesday, we’ll talk about the Armory Show and about Ezra Pound’s tiny poem – -“In a Station of the Metro.” (No annotations necessary.)

If you did not surrender a copy of your “Mystery Text” assignment to me in class last Tuesday (9/26) – – DO NOT EMAIL A COPY.  This will only create scads of confusion.  INSTEAD, slide a printed copy of your assignment under my office door (HUM 553) as soon as possible – – definitely no later than Monday, October 2.

 

Thanks in part to the weird power outage – – we’re at least a week behind our syllabus.  Not a big deal.  On Tuesday, we’ll play a little catch-up and talk about Robert Frost‘s and Edna St. Vincent Millay‘s poems.  This will also give you some extra time to work on your “Mystery Text” assignment.

For Thursday, read the poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay.  Make three annotations – – fielder’s choice (comment as you wish).  We’ll use Tuesday to catch up on our syllabus, i.e. talk about Frost and Millay.

Also, for Tuesday, be sure to take a look at our “Mystery Text Assignment.”  Bring any questions, concerns, etc. to class.

For Thursday, read the poems by Edgar Lee Masters and Edwin Arlington Robinson.  Both poets are often seen as early or “pre” modernist.  I think if we look closely at both, we can see continuities with Adams, Du Bois, and Perkins Gilman – – especially a shared sense of old ways (or “forms”) pressured and fissured by change and disruption.  Make one annotation on at least three different poems by either author.  Can you see the continuities that I think I see?

On Tuesday, we’ll talk about the poems by Robert Frost.  Frost is often seen as the bard of rural, folksy, nature-filled New England.  However, I think he’s a lot more serious and nefarious than this conventional identity.  In fact, I think Frost’s greatest delight is in punking his readers.  Make three annotations on any of his poems – – but perhaps especially “Two Roads,” “Mending Wall,” and “Stopping by Woods” – – and think about moments where Frost seems to go out of his way to undermine or reverse our expectations as readers.

For Tuesday, read Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story – – “The Yellow Wallpaper.”  Make three annotations.  For this round of annotations, let’s focus a little on narrative structure and do some reverse annotations: make one annotation at the end of the story (final page or so), one annotation in the middle of the story (next several pages), and one annotation at the beginning of the story (first page or two).  Start with the last annotation – – noting something surprising or confusing.  Then, work backward – – using the reverse annotations to look for moments related to your last annotation.