Tutorial Programme

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TUTORIAL PROGRAMME

Tutorials form a seminal part of the paper and will treat topics that may not be covered in lectures – so miss them at your peril! They also provide an opportunity for debate and discussion, particularly important when we are looking at the plausibility of a range of varied interpretations. They will include gallery visits and the opportunity to discuss original paintings.

Week 1:

 

There are no tutorials in the first week of the semester.

 

Week 2:

 

After introducing ourselves, we will begin our tutorials with the visual analysis of landscape paintings (sadly only in slides in this case), looking at a range of images to discuss ways in which painters depict landscapes, and to familiarise ourselves with different compositional devices and techniques that form some of the standard conventions of landscape art.

 

Week 3:

 

We will be testing the idea of the ‘empirical’ landscape to see whether landscapes are ever entirely neutral and unmediated. Bring along images of landscapes for us to talk about. They may be your personal holiday photographs, or clippings from magazines, travel brochures, calendars or picture postcards. Or you may choose to bring popular landscape images applied to other favourite objects such as CD covers, biscuit tins or tablemats. Be inventive! Whatever image you choose, it should have some personal meaning for you. Be ready to talk about your image to the group. Consider whether the images are ‘composed’ and what meanings they might be intended to convey.

 

Week 4:

 

This week we will be examining some of the key ideas that coloured taste in the 18^th and early 19^th centuries, considering the set of short readings included in your course book. They are selected from contemporary writings on the beautiful, the sublime and the picturesque: Burke, Gilpin and Knight are particularly well known for their contribution to the debate. The selected texts are taken from

 

Burke, Edmund.  A philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and the picturesque. London: Routledge, 1958.

Gilpin, William. Three essays: On picturesque beauty; On picturesque travel; and On sketching landscape: to which is added a poem On landscape painting. Farnborough, Gregg, 1972.

Knight, Richard Payne. An analytical enquiry into the principles of taste. Westmead: Gregg International, 1972.

 

NB  You must all read these texts to prepare for your tutorial.

Week 5:

 

We will visit the Auckland Art Gallery to discuss 17^th- and 18^th-century landscape works in the collection – a wonderful opportunity to see original paintings and prints, instead of reproductions in books or on slides. We will take the opportunity to look at the use of media in painting and printmaking.

Meet in the foyer of the ‘old’ gallery at your tutorial time. If you are delayed go through to the Lower Wellesley Gallery, which you will reach by going straight through the first and second galleries and then turning to the left.

 

Week 6:

 

We will view John Berger’s programme Possessions from the 1972 BBC TV series Ways of Seeing, in which he included Gainsborough’s Mr and Mrs Andrews, as the basis for a discussion of the influence of the art market and landscapes as possessions.

 

Week 7:

 

Picking up on the ideas in Berger’s video, this tutorial will be devoted to discussion around the everyday understanding of landscapes and the way they have become a part of everyday popular culture. In preparation for this tutorial you are asked to find an advertisement in a newspaper or magazine that uses landscape as part of its selling strategy. This is common in real estate and tourist ads, but avoid these and find ads for other products. Members of the class will take it in turn to explain how they think the landscape functions and what message it conveys in their chosen advertisement.

 

Week 8:

 

We will be looking at an Open University video on Constable’s Leaping Horse as a basis for a discussion of ways of examining Constable’s landscapes paintings.

 

Week 9:

 

This tutorial will be a visit to the Auckland Art Gallery to examine New Zealand landscape paintings in the original.

 

Week 10:

 

The theme for this week’s tutorials will be the use of European landscape conventions in the portrayal of the New Zealand landscape.

 

Week 11: (RP)

 

Rangihiroa Panoho will lead the tutorials on topics related to this week’s lectures.

 

Week 12:

 

The format of the examination paper will be discussed. This is your opportunity to ask questions about problems you are encountering in your revision. Look up old exam papers on the university web site and bring along tricky questions for discussion.