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What makes modern art modern? This course covers all you've always wanted to know about modern art and never dared asking. This course offers a general introduction to modern art from 1850 to 1945. It examines key art movements from Impressionism to Surrealism in their cultural and social contexts while introducing you to art historical methodologies and key art theories.
This course will investigate a range of models and practices of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Modernism. Classes will focus on key movements and artists and will cover the dominant ‘isms’, including, but not limited to, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Dada and Surrealism. These movements will be set in their social, political and historical contexts, and will cover issues of modernity and urbanism, utopianism, stylistic imperatives, political radicalism and the two World Wars. We will also consider questions that Modernism has raised for critics, theorists and historians. The course focuses on Modernism in painting, but it will also include classes on Modernist sculpture, photography and film. ARTH103 provides a valuable contextual background for ARTH215: Contemporary Art.
Knowledge and understanding of Modernism in its wider art historical context.Familiarity with canonical works of Western art from c. 1860 to c. 1945.Recognition of key artistic concepts and interrelationships between artistic practices, critical debates and social and historical developments.
Barbara Garrie
There is no one set text for this course and readings will be posted on Learn weekly. However, all students are strongly encouraged to read: Charles Harrison, Modernism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press and Tate Gallery, 1997). Also recommended: N. Stangos, Concepts of Modern Art: from Fauvism to Postmodernism (London: Thames and Hudson, 1994). Anne D’Alleva, How to Write Art History, 2nd Edition (Laurence King Publishing: London, 2010). Michelle Facos, An Introduction to Nineteenth-Century Art (Hoboken: Taylor & Francis, 2011).
NEW Study Art History by DistanceIn 2014 'ARTH103 Picasso Who? Introducing Modern Art' will be available to study on-campus and by distance learning. For more information about flexible learning and how to enrol in this course please visit the Distance Learning page http://www.arts.canterbury.ac.nz/distance_learning/index.shtml
Domestic fee $670.00
International fee $2,850.00
* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.
For further information see Humanities .