Dramatic changes characterise the 20th-century visual arts. We see an explosion of media, from traditional paint on canvas to conceptual art, installations, interventions, performance and video art.
Over six sessions we will look at some of the ideas about the new, the modern and the future that became influential during the 20th century and beyond, and demystify the concept of avant-garde art.
Particular areas of focus will include the road to Abstraction, new media, feminism, gender politics, issues of race, and art produced outside of Europe, including the United Staes, Japan and India. We will consider the influence of avant-garde art in Paris in the first part of the 20th century before its eclipse by New York after World War II, and the later importance of London and Berlin as centres of the international art market.
1: The shock of the new
2: The road to Abstraction
In this session we will look at the dual impact of Sigmund Freud and of World War I on many European artists.
Learn how war and politics created the background to the emergence in 1916 of Dada and discover the influence of this movement. We'll trace its morphosis in 1920s Paris into Surrealism and the art of Salvador Dali and Dora Maar, and look at Marcel Duchamp, godfather of Conceptual Art, whose practice ripples through the decades and finds echoes in the work of contemporary artists, including Martin Creed.
4: From Abstract Expressionism to Pop
This week we look at Abstract Expressionism, the term applied to new forms of abstract art developed by American painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning in the 1940s and 1950s.
We will also consider Abstract Expressionism as a precursor to the art of the1960s, thinking about the work of Norman Lewis and the ‘spiral group’ in particular. After the break, we consider more closely the work of Pollock, de Kooning and the position of women within the Abstract Expressionist group before looking at Rothko’s 'Seagram murals', and consider the challenge to Abstract Expressionism represented by Pop Art.
5: YBAs and Damien Hirst
This week we look at the impact of the Young British Artists, such as Cornelia Parker, Jenny Saville and Sam Taylor Wood, who rose to prominence in the 1990s, and at the powerful effect of Damien Hirst on the art market.
In our final session, we look at themes of feminism, gender politics, issues of race, and of non-European art in the work of artists such as Yayoi Kusama, Kehinde Wiley and activist collective, the Guerilla Girls.
We reflect on changing approaches to how we view art; its democratisation via graffiti art and its most famous practitioner, Banksy, and how this impacts the art market. In the second half of this session, we will review our journey through the modern to the contemporary art world.
