Fall 2007: Tuesday/Thursday 11:10am - 12:30pm, ARTS 335

Provisional Syllabus (MS word file)

Course texts:
Hal Foster et al, Art Since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism, vol. 2: 1945 to the Present (2004)
Additional texts on course website

To understand the range of activities that make up contemporary art-making, we need to understand the art of our recent past. Why did many artists turn away from traditional media of painting and sculpture toward all manner of conceptual, site-based and performance-based practices? How can art address social and political issues? And what role can art play in a culture already saturated by images?

AHS 182 will examine visual art and theory since 1945, focusing on work produced in the United States and Western Europe. Beginning with the aftermath of WWII, the course will investigate the emergence of radical art practices in the 1960s and 1970s, before tuning to the rise of post-modernism and more recent efforts to rethink the visual arts. The course surveys major artists and movements, and introduces students to critical issues in the study of art and culture. Although designed for Art History majors, it will also be of interest to students in Studio Art, film/media, and other humanities disciplines. The course will include visits to the Sweeney Art Gallery and California Museum of Photography in Riverside, and an optional field trip to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles to see the Matta-Clark and Murakami shows.
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For more information, please email Professor Kotz at ewkotz@ucr.edu

*Prerequisite(s): AHS 017C or upper-division standing or consent of instructor (if you wish to request instructor consent, please email Professor Kotz before the first day of class describing your academic background and desire to take the course).