Modernism and Its Other: Realism in the Shadow of Expressionism

Catalog description

The idea that the artist expresses his/her individuality and then communicates that “self” to the rest of “humanity” through a higher, transcendental language has dominated the discourse and practice of modernist art. In retrospect, the art that dominated most of the first half of the 20th century was of an expressive nature, while art that in any way addressed direct and specific social issues was banished by the art world’s major institutions. Students will look at the circumstances of how Realism became subordinate to expressionism. The course will examine the roots of both movements, taking us at times into the 18th and 19th centuries, but we will concentrate on how institutions like the Museum of Modern Art helped to define how we see the history of 20th century art as being predetermined and following teleology. Students will explore how modernism’s “other”, namely Realism, survived and gained new currency in practices of late 20th and early 21st-century art.