This course examines developments in art and visual culture from the middle of the twentieth century to the present through selected discrete topical units. Students will engage critically both visual examples and seminal texts produced by significant art historians, philosophers, art critics and artists. We will read key primary works and also a selection of interpretive studies that address issues of modernism and post-modernism in the United States. Class discussions will be devoted to consideration of this reading and to questions of visual and cultural interpretation.

Prerequisites

ART 180 or ART 190

Cross Listed Courses

HIST 313

Every other Fall, even years

This course will explore photography’s shifting identity from the end of modernism to the present. Students will develop a critical framework for discussing and writing about photographs by gaining an understanding of this complex visual medium which consistently crosses the boundary separating high art and popular culture. This class will relate the history of photography to our personal experiences with this omnipresent form of visual information.