Contemporary Art

Catalog description

This course begins with a consideration of the general reaction to Western Modernism that began in visual art after the 1950s and has come to be known as the period of “Postmodernism,” and proceeds to examine issues that define art and challenge artists today. Themes include but are not limited to originality, appropriation, deconstruction, identity politics, post-feminism, commodity critique, installation and performance, digital media, activism and globalism. Students become familiar with the key artists and critics whose ideas informed postmodernism and continue to inform artistic practice today, and the class examines art and critical theory associated with major themes that have emerged in recent art locally, nationally, and globally.