Art History 374 - SEM:STUDIES IN 20TH CENT ART

Topics course. This course investigates the historical origins of abstract art from late Impressionism and Post-Impressionism to the avant-garde movements of the twenties and thirties. What prepared artists for the shift towards abstraction? What were the aesthetic, psychological, and political implications of non-figurative art? And finally, what was the reception of abstract art by critics and scholars? In answering these and other questions, this course works towards elucidating how an art of colors and shapes alone ? ?representing nothing? ? became imaginable in the early twentieth century and wide-ranging consequences of this aesthetic and theoretical innovation. Serious attention will also be devoted to the evaluation of contemporary historiographical debates about early abstract art and the development of research, writing, and public presentation skills at an advanced level.

Topic: The Origins of Abstraction, 1870-1930. Instructor Permission. Not open to first-years, sophomores