This seminar will introduce students to multiple strategies of social, cultural, and political resistance in contemporary art as it pertains to a global majority defined by racial, economic, political, and even meteorological inequities. Through a series of ten case studies, students will gain in-depth knowledge of key figures and groups in the contemporary arts of resistance, including Afrapix Collective, Kader Attia, Nick Cave, Forensic Architecture, Titus Kaphar, Barbara Kruger, Sung Neungkyung, Carey Newman, Doris Salcedo, and Hito Steyerl. Each week focuses on a different artist, their strategies of resistance and the contexts in which they operate. Blending historical and theoretical texts, with film, video, web based research, and rigorous conversations, this course will introduce students to the main themes and issues of contemporary activist art.

HISTART Concentration Distributions: Europe and the US, Modern and Contemporary

Image: Titus Kaphar, Absconded from the Household of the President of the United States, 2016, oil, canvas, and rusted nails on canvas, 60 × 48 inches. Photo by Jeremy Lawson Studio.

Keywords: philosophy, psychology, anthropology, film, gender, race