War and Art

Catalog description

How can art show new ways to live? People have lived and worked amongst the ruins of war throughout history, creating work that has gone on to define Western art. Our course will reveal the different anxieties of wartime and postwar worlds, where artists like Goya and Picasso attempted to come to terms with newly reshaped societies. In moments of rupture, artists ask questions which seem to be on everyone's lips: how can we build a better world? How can art change politics and society? We will tackle conflicts from the Battle of San Romano (1432) to the Napoleonic Wars, the World Wars of the 20th century, and the Algerian War of Independence. To understand how art responds to war over time, we will consider the historical, cultural, and sociopolitical contexts, looking at artists such as Paolo Uccello, Antoine-Jean Gros, and Lee Miller, while we will read texts by Sun Tzu, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Paul Fussell. Art will be the focus of each seminar and students will develop their critical ability to respond thoughtfully and incisively towards some of the most astonishing (and harrowing) imagery ever created.