Contemporary Art in France

3 units

This course will cover artistic styles and movements from 1945 to the present, including art informel, art brut, new realism, the Situationist International, and new wave film. Artworks will be studied in the context of cultural debates, on topics such as post-WW II reconstruction, decolonization, consumerism, the '68 revolution, the influence of the mass media, and changing conceptions of national, ethnic, and gender identity. Reading knowledge of French is helpful.