HHIS-222: History of Art 3

Students will engage with the history of visual culture in the second half of the twentieth century, with an eye to how the conventions of artistic practice, its criticism, and its exhibition change during this era. We will consider a variety of media, including painting, photography, film, performance, sculpture, and installation, and will examine the shifting roles of each in the realm of contemporary culture. We will also investigate the changing significance of terms such as Modernism, avant-garde, and author within the social and cultural realm. We will remain focused on the always-changing political landscape over the past sixty years, including the trauma of one World War, the Cold War, the various liberation movements starting in the 1960s, the dissolution of the Communist Bloc, and the AIDS crisis, in addition to the ever-growing late-capitalist globalization we continue to experience today.