WesMaps - Wesleyan University Catalog 2019-2020       Summer Session       Winter Session       Home       Archive       Search
CS92PROD
Art After 1945
ARHA 253
Spring 2020 not offered
Crosslisting: AMST 249

This course examines artistic production between 1945 and 1980 with a primary focus on the United States. The historical conflicts of that tumultuous period brought new challenges for artists as they attempted, in their work, to respond to the "caesura of civilization" brought about by the Holocaust and World War II, to contend with the consolidation of postwar consumer capitalism and mass culture, and to situate their work in relation to the far-reaching social upheavals of the 1960s and '70s. Practices linked to the early 20th-century avant-garde (such as abstraction, the ready-made, Dada, and surrealism) echoed in these years as attention shifted from the canvas and studio to greatly expanded contexts of reception and public experience. The boundaries of the art object transformed in turn as artists developed new forms and new models of spectatorship to confront a world that had placed enormous pressure on traditional concepts of humanist subjectivity. Topics include New York School painting, pop art, minimalism, process art, conceptual art, performance, site-specificity, and institutional critique.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ART
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (AMST)(ARHA-MN)(ARHA)(ARST)

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email ? Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459