Art & the History of Art 155 - Contemporary Art

This introductory course explores art produced between 1960 and 2016. We will take a transnational approach, from the emergence of Pop art as an international phenomenon in the 1960s to the mushrooming cloud of biennials in the twenty-first century. The course will sometimes look at art’s intersection with architecture, film, and visual culture more broadly. The geopolitical and geo-economic entanglements of both art and art history will never be out of sight. We will keep in mind the following questions: How have new technologies, civil rights movements, emergent subjectivities, new forms of theoretical inquiry, and processes of globalization shaped the work of art? How have artists critiqued both institutions and the art historical canon? How does contemporary art both participate in and stand apart from the world in which and for which it was made?

Limited to 40 students. Fall semester. Professor Vicario.