Since the mid-nineteenth century, the international art world has operated without the previously powerful institutions of Church, State, and Academy. In the chaos that has ensued, artists, dealers, collectors, museum directors and curators, critics, and academic art historians have struggled to affect the course of modern art. At stake is leadership in the form of "influence"-a term of peculiar significance to the art world. This class will take an historical overview of changing patterns of influence from Manet and the Impressionists to the leading artists and art world figures of the present day. In the face of changing demographics and a postmodern sensibility, the concept of artistic leadership today is undergoing continuous re-definition. Through specific case studies from 1870 to the present, we will examine how and why only certain art-not all-has gained visual authority through the interaction of creativity, exhibitions, marketing, and persuasive theory. Such diverse writers as Janet Wolff and Tom Wolfe, Leo Steinberg and Clement Greenberg, Michel Foucault and Walter Benjamin and Roland Barthes will be studied; and many current art world figures will be interviewed. Evaluation will be based on class participation, two tests, two 5-page papers and one virtual exhibition. Prerequisites: ArtH 101-102 or permission of the instructors.

MATHEWS and L. SHEARER