GLOBAL MODERNISMS

ARTHIST 205

ART IS GLOBAL (and always has been). Today, we find Egyptian protest artists inspiring activists around the globe via the internet, but in earlier times, Roman glass and Buddhist icons moved along the ancient Silk Route, networks of exchange flourished in the medieval Mediterranean region, and colonial empires brought visual cultures into volatile contact. Learn how to analyze images and objects produced through such exchanges that occurred around the world from ancient times through the contemporary. Develop skills needed to live fully in a world in which borders are no barriers to the movement of images, objects, and ideas and to deepen understanding of cultural differences and interactions. By exploring works in a range of media and tracing processes of cross-cultural exchange, develop sensitivity to visual and material form and a solid foundation in the practice of visual and material analysis.

ARTHIST 354

Interdisciplinary study of cross-cultural exchange and conflict, focusing on the visual arts, with sections on literature, film and music from the Americas, Africa and Europe.

ARTHIST 227

Overview of the emergence and development of modernism in the visual arts between approximately 1880 and 1970, begining with the origins of modernist visual art in the late 19th century, then moving on to the proliferation of avant-garde movements in the first half of the 20th century before concluding with the crisis and collapse of modernism in the post-World War II period. Movements covered include Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism. Major topics: the breakdown of traditional pre-modernist artistic styles and genres; invention of radical new techniques such as abstraction and collage; impacts of the political, social, and technological upheavals of the modern era; relations between modernist art, racialization, and colonialism; the transition between modernism and contemporary (or post-modernist) art.

ARTHIST 365

Traces out some of the radical changes in art produced after roughly 1950, or what might be called contemporary art. focuses on American and European art after the "decline" of Modernism. That entails becoming familiar with movements ranging from color field painting, to postmodern production, to performance, video, and installation. Additionally, attention will be paid to artists and artwork that are not adequately represented by the traditional categories of art history.

ARTHIST 481

Outline of major developments in global visual art from the 1960s to the present, with an emphasis on influential recent theorizations of contemporary art that have been developed by critics, art historians, and artists themselves. Topics include: the globalization of the art world, re-definitions of art after modernism, politics of contemporary art, issues of identity (race, gender, sexuality), technology and new media, the art market, and theoretical approaches to contemporary art.