This course is an introduction to modern American and European art. Surveying the different kinds of experimental and avant-garde art produced over the past hundred years, it examines the reasons why artists rejected traditional artistic forms and developed new ways of making art in response to changes taking place in the world around them. The course begins with the radical avant-gardes of the early twentieth century. It then moves on to discuss the Modernist, Realist and Surrealist work of the mid-twentieth-century, the experimental and alternative practices of the 1960s and 1970s, and the turn to Postmodernism in the later years of the past century. It finishes with a discussion of tendencies in present day art. A range of different forms of art are studied, including photography, film and video, in addition to painting and sculpture. There two main themes. What major changes took place in understandings of visual representation and conceptions of art in the modern period; and what do these developments in art tell us about the political and social realities of the modern world?

Textbooks/Other Materials: No set textbook. Recommended texts: Art of the Avant-Gardes, edited by Steve Edwards and Paul Wood Varieties of Modernism, edited by Pal Wood Themes in Contemporary Art, edited by Gill Perry and Paul Wood

Estimated Cost of Materials: $0-50.

History of Art category for concentration distributions: D. Europe and the U.S., 4. Modern and Contemporary.