Constructing the Canons of Modern Art: 1860-1960

3 units

From textbooks to museums to private collections, we experience histories of modern art though selections that present narratives of which art matters the most -- to artists, to critics, to the general public, and, supposedly, to history as a whole. How have established canons come to be, who are they for, and how do they resist or engage revision over time? This course examines narratives of modernism and its relationship to rhetorics of criticism, the power of the art market, sensationalized biographies, the practices of collectors and museums, nationalistic interests, and histories of exclusion. Who rises to the top in significance? In what ways have women artists, artists of color, and LGBTQ artists been included or excluded? Key art critics and art historians include Fry, Barr, Pollock, Nochlin and Saslow. Artists may include but are not limited to Manet, Monet, Morisot, Cassatt, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne, Bell, Modersohn-Becker, Claudel, Tanner, Sickert, Valadon, Duchamp, Cahun, Picasso, Beckmann and Krasner. Students will research comparative case studies and create their own alternative timelines of modern art from 1870-1950. Prerequisites: L01 215, Intro to Modern Art; and one 300-level Art History course.