Modern Art in Fin-De-Siecle Europe, 1880-1907

3 units

This course examines artistic production at the turn of the century in France, Belgium, England, and Scandinavia. Beginning with the reevaluation of impressionism and naturalism in France, we examine Neo-Impressionism (Seurat and Signac) and Symbolism (Moreau, Van Gogh, Gauguin, the Nabis, Rodin, and Munch), as well as later careers of Impressionists (Cassatt, Monet, Degas, and Renoir). We will consider cross-national currents of Symbolism in Belgium and Scandanavia; the Aesthetic Movement in Britain; the rise of expressionist painting in French art (particularly with the Fauvism of Matisse and Derain), and the juncture of modernist primitivism and abstraction in early Cubism (Picasso). Prerequisite: L01 113 or permission of instructor.