Art History Unstuffed
On line. At your convenience. In your own time. On your own terms.
For too long art history has been held hostage by scholars speaking to scholars and not to people. The purpose of this site is to educate and to inform and to do so with respect to the intelligence of the readers. Designed as a site for serious students of art history in need of solid substantive material, Art History Unstuffed is written for Twenty-First-century learners who prefer reading “text-bytes” and “sound-bytes” of targeted information.
Written by Dr. Jeanne S. M. Willette, a published scholar who has researched and consolidated both well-respected classical sources and vetted the latest research, this site creates a middle ground between arcane scholarly jargon and informed discourse and presents a detailed account of Modern, Postmodern, Philosophy and Theory that is accessible to all readers interested in the history of the modern and contemporary periods.
Enjoy and Learn
This site is responsive to computers, cell phones and tablets and will resize for your reading convenience.
Art History Unstuffed is listed on the ACI Scholarly Blog Index.
Recent Posts
Current chapters of the topic of the season, part of an ongoing research project.
Dada in Berlin: The Mechanical Man as Sculpture
One of the most interesting assemblages to come out of the infamous 1920 Dada Messe in Berlin was a strange headless figure, whose graceful lines recall Greek bronze statues of young gods and victorious athletes. This black mannequin referenced the Russian artist,...
Photo-Montage as Anti-Design: Hannah Höch
There is no question that the most famous of the Berlin photo-montages today, made by Hannah Höch (1889-1978), is Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany. A photomontage, which is unusually large for a collage and...
The Photo-Montage Revolution: Dada in Berlin
When collage was revived, under a new name after the Great War, the mood among the artists was decidedly different. The Great War had been, for artists, a time of disillusionment and despair. For some of these artists, especially the German-speaking ones, the conduct...
About the Author
Art historian and art critic, Dr. Jeanne S. M. Willette lives and works in Los Angeles. An art historian at Otis College of Art and Design, the widely published author covers the local art scene and is the publisher of the website Art History Unstuffed.
With an international audience, this website and its accompanying podcasts provide the 21st version of learning about art, history, philosophy, and theory.
How To Use This Site
Welcome to Art History Unstuffed, and to education in the twenty-first century
For Students
In contrast to the traditional text books, Art History Unstuffed exists on online where there is infinite space. The site can therefore go into depth and provides a fuller discussion of topics in art and theory.
For Teachers
Designed as an addition to classroom instruction, Art History Unstuffed is not a course but an extension of topics found in a survey art history class.
For Artists
Professional artist and students in studio art courses can find fast, easy access to information about famous historical artists.
For Museums
Art History Unstuffed can be a valuable resource in presenting information on modern and contemporary art for docent programs, which concentrate on training the teachers on the collections in your museum.
Podcast
Seeing to present art history to a variety of learners, Art History Unstuffed presents the Soundbytes in Modern Art podcast. These episodes are available as single units or can be found as a virtual book on iBooks, free of charge under the title: Art History Unstuffed: The Podcasts. Each episode discusses a single topic at greater length than the written posts, which are about 2500 words each. Each podcast ranges from 15 to 20 minutes and is part of a series that treats an artist or a topic over an hour of listening. The episodes are, therefore, discussions at a higher level and are geared more to graduate students and to colleagues than to the beginning student.
Episode 58: New Deal Art, Part Two
NEW DEAL ART AND ARTISTS
In the decades before local community museums were common, New Deal art was, for many communities, the only access to art. Although often disparaged as being too “folksy,” New Deal murals were only one part of an extensive government program which not only supported artists but also professionalized these groups. This podcast makes the case that New Deal art was the part of a process of “readiness” of American artists to challenge the hegemony of European Modernist art.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Episode 57: New Deal Art, Part One
THE STORY OF ART UNDER THE NEW DEAL
Long ignored and often neglected, the art made during the New Deal was far more impactful for American art than is usually realized. For the first time, the American government supported artists and art through a number of programs that made “American” art for Americans. The result was that a nation was introduced to art which came to towns and cities across the nation. For many Americans in the 1930s, the New Deal art in the local post office was an introduction to the idea of “art.”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Episode 56: Nazi Art, Part Four
WHY DID THE ARTISTS “SELL OUT?”
Long sequestered and rarely viewed, recent art historical writings have begun to examine the art of Fascism. This series of podcasts, in four parts, attempts to answer a series of questions: what were the goals of Nazi art, who were the Nazi artists – the painters and sculptors – and what was the impact of Nazi art? This podcast discusses the ways in which artists were co-opted by the Nazis, the reasons why artists collaborated with fascism, and the rewards of working for Hitler. This concluding episode asks if it is possible to make “art” if the works were dedicated to the goals of pure evil?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Videos
The complete Art History Timeline – this twenty-seven episode series of five minute videos span Western art history, from the Caves to Romanticism. Produced with the assistance of Otis College of Art and Design, these can be used by students and teachers as introductory, supplementary or review material.
Shop
Show off your smarts. Art history unstuffed merchandise makes great gifts for you and your colleagues.
The Writing of Cubism:
The Construction of a Discourse, 1910-1914
$20.00
New Artwriting:
Creating a Culture of Cyber Criticism
$10.00
Falling Through Postmodernism.
Volume One: Blindness (Volume 1)
$30.00
Forthcoming Books
To continue to the circulation of her contributions to Heathwood Press, Dr. Willette has assembled the articles, published and not yet published, into a new book on the avant-garde. This new book will include other articles available on Academia.edu and Heathwood Press. This most recent series on the historic avant-garde was being written in response to the centennial of the Great War. After a remarkable span of five decades, the avant-garde was ended by this war in Europe. The war exiled and killed the artists, ended art movements, and scattered avant-garde art, now left to the mercies of totalitarian regimes. Now that a century has passed it is time to re-examine the avant-garde and re-write its details, reexamine the art historical assumptions, which constructed the idea of provocative art. This forthcoming book also seeks to relocate forgotten art, left behind in the rush towards the future.
Dr. Willette is currently completing an entirely new kind of book on design, a book that is multi-modal. Offering multiple modes of output, this book offers the readers several ways of receiving information, slide shows, podcasts, texts and images. The interactive book, Design and the Avant-Garde, 1920-1940, will be divided into several volumes. Volume One will focus on the interconnections between art and design at the fine-de-siècle period, leading up to the creation of “modern” design.
“Painting is self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.”
— Jackson Pollock