Introduction to American Art: The Twentieth Century

This course examines fine art in the US from roughly 1900 through the 1970s, with special attention to modernism and the rise of modern art. Through slide presentations and group discussion, most major figures of the period—Georgia O'Keeffe, Edward Hopper, Alexander Calder, Jackson Pollock, and Andy Warhol among them—will be placed in historical and cultural context. Key events, institutions, and critics of these decades will also be considered. We will look at the role of cultural episodes like the Harlem Renaissance, and the increasing prevalence of women in the art world, as markers of increasing diversity and changing values. Readings by leading scholars will allow a wide-ranging introduction to art historical methods of interpretation. Discussion in sections will help place this art within the context of social history, the invention of national identity, and parallel developments in popular visual culture.