Contemporary Art

(4 Credits)

First concentrates on the development of contemporary art in New York, London, and Berlin. Discussion of the decade 1975-1985 is organized around the opposition between art as social critique and art as spiritual expression. Discussion of 1985-1995 focuses on the re-emergence of narrative, and on identity and bodily experience as organizing metaphors. Discussion of 1995-2010 focuses on comic-book imagery, amusement park installation, and allegorical abstraction. Finally, considers the diverse art scenes of Russia and Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and Australia, and China from 1989 to the present. Considers how "Western" art formats have provided vehicles for responding to diverse experiences such as the collapse of Communism, rapid industrialization, and ethnic and religious conflict.