ARTH 367 Studies in 20th-Century Art and Architecture: The Rise and Fall of Modernism

• Tuesdays, 2:45pm-5:15pm
• Online: Access through Moodle
• Instructor: Dr. Marco Deyasi

In our current age of pandemic and unrest, it might seem as though the politics and institutions of the modern world are passing away in favor of an unknown future. But what is the “modern world,” really? How did it come to be? How can art help us understand it? And how did artists try and shape it?

This course examines the rise of a distinct worldview and mode of life—called “modern”—and the artistic forms that responded to it—modernism. From the development of industrialized capitalism and the growth of cities, artists were there, chronicling and critiquing. When modern science emerged with Einstein and Darwin, artists were there, eagerly appropriating and transforming their ideas. When activists fought for equality and a political voice, artists were there, fighting alongside them. Modernism was always an insurgent form of art, fundamentally tied to the efforts to imagine a different future.

This course will emphasize the cultural politics of art in the modern period, from those artists who wanted to liberate the world through painting, to those architects and designers whose utopian visions became oppressive. If you are interested in how artists have resisted capitalism, this course is for you. If you are interested in how artists responded to modern race and racism, this course is for you. If you are interested in understanding why we live and think the way that we do, this course is for you.

This remote/online course will have an optional synchronous component—weekly lectures that will be recorded. The entire course can be completed asynchronously.