This course explores the outburst of creative energy which radically changed the visual arts in the 1960s and 1970s. Looking at the work of artists from Western Europe, the U.S., Japan, South America, and Eastern Europe, we shall consider both the specificity of the social and political circumstances that shaped the desire for change and the unifying interests that crossed national borders. A central theme of the course will be the shift in theory and practice from an artist as object-maker to an artist as investigator, inventor, practitioner, or thinker. To illuminate it, we shall consider the precedent of historical avant-gardes, key positions on the relationship of art to politics, the impact of new technologies, responses to rising consumerism, and the changing structure of the art system.

Additionally, we shall look at relevant developments in music, film, literature, and dance to appreciate the intensity and continued impact of this historical moment.

Estimated cost of materials; $50 or less. D. 4