British Portraiture: Curating the Self, 1600-Present

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Gather a range of historical images, identifying the stylistic and other design features, tropes and patterns which help art historians attribute and date individual works of art.
• Draw connections between traditional art history and social history.

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Consider how visual media are used to represent selfhood.
• Changing concepts of the self.
• Reflect on contemporary attitudes towards self-fashioning, identifying how social media has evolved from earlier technologies of representation.
• British art history from 1600 to the present.

We will begin by considering the range of technologies employed in self-representation, from Instagram and Facebook to oil painting, follwed by instruction in the history of British portraiture and changing ideas of the self. We will then begin to survey the City Art Gallery's holdings, using online tools as well as visits to the Gallery's storage facility. In your group you will begin to discuss possible themes for your exhibition; individually you will research your chosen portrait. Further guidance will be given on picture research, label writing and exhibition "hangs", some of it delivered through individual tutor consultations. Finally the agreed exhibition theme will be presented to curatorial staff at the City Art Gallery.

Teaching and learning methods

Lectures.

"Looking through drawing" in City Art Gallery

Tour of City Art Gallery exhibition.

Visits to City Art Gallery collection store.

Museum label-writing workshop.

Group work on exhibition planning.

Independent reading and research for essays.

Individual consultations with module convenor.

Presentations.

Resources & Reading list

Internet Resources

Art UK Website.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal