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74590-01 - Practical course: Art Defiant: Legacies of War, Multiculturalism and Anti-Imperial Resistance in Ukraine's Art, 1910s-70s (3 CP)
| Semester | spring semester 2025 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Kateryna Denysova (kateryna.denysova@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | The start of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 exposed the lack of knowledge internationally about Ukraine’s history and culture. It also highlighted how overwhelmingly entrenched the Russo-centric narratives and interpretations had become, both in academic discourses and popular consciousness. This course seeks to rectify the existing blindspot by introducing students to Ukraine’s visual culture from the first half of the twentieth century. We will examine Ukraine’s art production in various media, including decorative and monumental art, graphic design, photography and film, against the backdrop of the changing socio-political landscape. Analysing how artists worked with indigenous pictorial traditions to construct Ukraine’s modern cultural identity, we will also consider how this engagement and artistic vocabulary evolved under different ideological regimes. With select case studies from art history, focusing on women artists where possible, we will interrogate and critically reassess the existing art historical canon that led to Ukraine’s artistic output becoming overshadowed by and appropriated into that of ‘Russia’, in all its various guises. At the same time, by investigating intercultural transfers, the course proposes to move beyond the established national paradigm to reinvest in studying intercultural exchanges within Ukrainian culture. During the course, students will read a selection of texts from art history and other disciplines and have an opportunity to research and present in class the works of visual culture and/or their creators. |
| Bibliography | Katia Denysova. ‘From Folk Art to Abstraction: Ukrainian Embroidery as a Medium of Avant-Garde Experimentation’. In Arts 11.10 (October 2022). Halyna Hryn. ‘The Executed Renaissance Paradigm Revisited’. Harvard Ukrainian Studies 27.1-4 (2004-2005): 67–96. Oleh S. Ilnytzkyj. ‘Ukrainian Futurism: Re-Appropriating the Imperial Legacy’. In International Yearbook of Futurism Studies, ed. by Günter Berghaus, 37–58. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2011. Ivan Kozlenko. ‘From Symbolism to Avant-Garde: The Emancipation of Ukrainian Cinema in the 1920s’. In In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900-1930s, ed. by Akinsha et al, 92–7. London: Thames & Hudson, 2022. Hillel Kazovsky. ‘The Art Section of the Kultur-Lige: Yiddish Avant-Garde in Kyiv (1918-1922)’. In In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900-1930s, ed. by Akinsha et al, 30–5. London: Thames & Hudson, 2022. Angelina Lucento. ‘The NKVD and the Political Origins of Socialist Realism: The Persecution of the Boichukisty in Ukraine’. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 23.3 (Summer 2022): 457–92. Myroslava M. Mudrak. ‘Malevich and His Ukrainian Contemporaries’. In Rethinking Malevich: Proceedings of a Conference in Celebration of the 125th Anniversary of Kazimir Malevich’s Birth, ed. by Charlotte Douglas and Christina Lodder, 82–120. London: Pindar Press, 2007. |
| Comments | Die Übung startet erst in der 2. Semesterwoche am 24.02.2025. |
| Admission requirements | Studierende der Geschichte aller Studienstufen sowie Studierende anderer Studienfächer, in deren Module die Übung verknüpft ist. Bei Überbelegung werden Studierende der Geschichte bevorzugt zugelassen. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Monday | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 2 |
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 24.02.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 2 |
| Monday 03.03.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 2 |
| Monday 10.03.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Fasnachstferien |
| Monday 17.03.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 2 |
| Monday 24.03.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 2 |
| Monday 31.03.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 2 |
| Monday 07.04.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 2 |
| Monday 14.04.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 2 |
| Monday 21.04.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Ostern |
| Monday 28.04.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 2 |
| Monday 05.05.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 2 |
| Monday 12.05.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 2 |
| Monday 19.05.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 2 |
| Monday 26.05.2025 | 12.15-14.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 2 |
| Modules |
Electives Bachelor History: Recommendations (Bachelor's degree subject: History) Modul: Archive / Medien / Theorien (Bachelor's degree program: Eastern European Studies) Modul: Areas: Osteuropa (Master's degree program: European History in Global Perspective) Modul: Basis Geschichte: Ostmitteleuropa (Bachelor's degree program: Eastern European Studies) Modul: Basis Geschichte: Russland / Sowjetunion (Bachelor's degree program: Eastern European Studies) Modul: Forschung und Praxis (Master's degree subject: East European History) Modul: Gesellschaft in Osteuropa (Bachelor's degree program: Eastern European Studies) Modul: Gesellschaft in Osteuropa (Bachelor's degree subject: Eastern European Cultures) Modul: Kunst in Osteuropa (Bachelor's degree subject: Eastern European Cultures) Modul: Kunst in Osteuropa (Bachelor's degree program: Eastern European Studies) Modul: Literatur im Zusammenspiel der Künste und Medien (Master's degree program: Literary Studies) Modul: Moderne / Gegenwart (Bachelor's degree subject: Art History) Modul: Profil: Moderne (Master's degree program: Art History and Image Theory) Modul: Slavische Kulturwissenschaft (Master's degree subject: Slavic Studies) Modul: Werk und Kontext (Master's degree program: Art History and Image Theory) Modul: Werk und Kontext (Master's degree subject: Art History) Module: Europeanization and Globalization (Master's Studies: European Global Studies) Wahlbereich Master Geschichte: Empfehlungen (Master's degree subject: History) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | Aktive Teilnahme. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Departement Geschichte |