Counterfeits/Trademarks/Trompe l’oeil: Art and Intellectual Property

Noam M. Elcott

This graduate seminar will interrogate real signs and signs of the real through three loosely related phenomena: intellectual property (esp. trademarks), fiat money, and trompe l'oeil. Special attention will be paid to legal history and theory, philosophy of money, and semiotics. Case studies and artworks will traverse the early modern period to the present, including c. 1700 England, late 19C America, Cubism, and Pop. Graduate students from all disciplines are encouraged to apply.