DON'T TAKE THIS IF YOU'RE NOT AN ART MAJOR
DON'T TAKE THIS IF YOU'RE NOT AN ART MAJOR
DON'T TAKE THIS IF YOU'RE NOT AN ART MAJOR

If you are an art major, well, I'm sorry but this is a painful rite of passage you must endure. The lectures are alright, but they're based off the readings which are very expensive and take hours to decipher (in some cases after interpreting a single paragraph for a good thirty minutes you'll find that they contain absolutely no valuable/relevant information and/or they make completely contradictory statements). It really is a poor choice in that it's better off on a coffee table than a classroom desk. Jan is very intelligent and quite sweet but unfortunately he's difficult to learn from. The only positive thing I can say is that if you're a good writer you'll have an alright time bs-ing into an A. The work seems terrible at first but somehow I always managed to end up with a good grade.

Modernism is a subject so contentless that it can hardly be called a subject. The only skill you will learn from this class is how to bullshit. The textbooks are 20 pounds of nonsense. The only reason they are so wordy is that they're trying to cover up the fact that they're not saying anything. Tumlir drones on and on about modernism as if it has any purpose other than to put you to sleep. Don't take this class if you have any respect for whatever is left of "higher education."

A lot of people will complain about the modernism series. That does not, however, mean that Jan Tumlir is a bad professor, and that the courses are not interesting. If you make the conscious effort to be interested, the classes are an intellectual challenge. Jan is an dazzlingly intelligent man. Moreover, he has a deep knowledge about art history, and the words he uses to describe them are eloquent and even artful in their own right. He can speak, and speak, and speak, but if you're tuned in you'll be so impressed, as I was, with the way that words drip off of his tongue. You're listening to a brilliant book of prose, but you must piece together and organize the ideas yourself to wrap your head around the concepts. Take detailed notes, stay involved, and stay intrigued.