Elaine O'Brien

Art 1C :: Modern & Contemporary Art

  How to Learn About Contemporary Art / The Art Assignment / PBS

Course Description:

This course introduces the history of art and architecture from the middle of the 18th century to the present. We begin with the Rococo, a period and style that marks the dissolution of the age of absolute monarchy in Europe and the beginning of the modern era. In the contexts of the revolutionary changes that marked modernity – industrialization, urbanization, capitalism, global trade networks and markets, class struggle and colonialism - we study artists’ responses to their times in major works of art. Subjects include Neo-Classicism, Romanticism and the rise of the avant-garde, Realism, Impressionism, and the new 19th-century art media of photography and film. Symbolism, Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism, Dada, and many canonical artworks of the 20th century through Pop and Minimal art of the 1960s are introduced. Postmodern art: conceptual art, performance, Neo-Expressionism, video, and new media from the 1970s to the 1990s mark the major cultural turn that characterizes art today. The course concludes with exemplary works of global contemporary art made in the 21st century.  

Heads up: This course contains content that you might find disturbing. Do not take it if you are upset by art that challenges norms, including societal, religious, and sexual norms.

Note: This course satisfies General Education requirements for AREA C: The Arts and Humanities. It is recommended for freshman or sophomore years. There are no prerequisites, but it is recommended that Art 1A and/or Art 1B be taken before Art 1C.

Catalog Description: A 3-unit lecture-based survey of the history of world art from the late 18th century to the present: from the European Rococo, Enlightenment, the Age of Science and social revolutions, through Neo-Classicism, Romanticism and the rise of the international avant-garde, Realism, Impressionism, Symbolism, photography, and film. In the 20th century, Fauvism, Cubism, the Bauhaus, Expressionism, Pop, Minimal art, Postmodernism, conceptualism, performance, video and new media are considered from global perspectives and artistic production of the 21st century.  Part of the art history foundation sequence.