Art History 228: Mayhem, Machines, Manifestos: Modernism in Art and Architecture

Modernism in the visual arts and the built environment is more than “my kid could paint that” and clean lines on HGTV. In this course, we will study key makers, movements, works, exhibitions and institutions in the canon of modern art and architecture before 1945, as well as scholarship that has called this canon into question. Emphasis will go toward the social, political and material conditions under which modernism emerged and flourished as an aesthetic category, and how modernism articulated different senses of an avant-garde marked by nation, class, gender, sexuality and race. Our ultimate goal is to learn how artistic and architectural modernism was invented, mobilized and modified in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Students will sharpen their visual and spatial literacy skills and deepen their historical knowledge of art and architecture. Lecture-based with presentations, short papers and exams.. May be taken for credit toward the Art-Environmental Studies major.