What you will study
The five blocks you&/courses/modules/a236/39;ll study in this module are:
Block 1 – Art and its Institutions
In the first block, you&/courses/modules/a236/39;ll explore the different ways art can be understood, practised and experienced in the modern world. It takes as its starting point the invention of the art museum or public gallery in the mid-eighteenth century, showing how these institutions have helped to define the work of art as a special category of image or object ever since. It examines a range of artistic practices, from painting and sculpture to ceramics and film, and considers the hierarchies and exclusions that determine why some images and objects are singled out for special veneration as art.
Block 2 – Visual Cultures of Modernity
This block explores the transformation of visual cultures brought about by the massive diffusion of non-art images, thanks to a series of new reproductive technologies such as lithography, photography and digital image-making. It will cover an expanded field of images that shape the modern visual environment, including not only fine art but also advertisements, scientific illustration, political satire, and family photography. By analysing these images, you&/courses/modules/a236/39;ll explore how modernity has been characterised by the mass reproduction of images, transforming not only how images are made but also how they are used and interpreted.
Block 3 – Art in the Modern World
In this block, you&/courses/modules/a236/39;ll explore how art has been transformed since the late eighteenth century as artists have sought to engage with different aspects of modern life, from revolution and industrialisation to sexual politics and disability rights. You&/courses/modules/a236/39;ll also examine how art historians have explained the stylistic change in art since the eighteenth century. In doing so, there will be an accessible introduction to some important concepts, such as ‘modernism’ and ‘avant-garde’, which are used to make sense of the political implications of artistic innovation.
Block 4 – The Past in the Present
This block explores how the innovations and upheavals of the modern period contributed to a new and growing fascination with the past and how this often tells us more about the values and concerns of the present. This will be done by focusing on a diverse range of artworks, institutions and examples of visual culture from a range of cultural contexts that reflect on the legacies of the past in the present. In addition to foregrounding art and visual cultures, you&/courses/modules/a236/39;ll also be introduced to heritage studies, a discipline adjacent to and heavily influenced by art history.
Block 5 – Visions of the Anthropocene
In the final block, you&/courses/modules/a236/39;ll explore the contribution that art and visual cultures have made to the growing awareness of a rupture between humans and the natural environment over the course of the modern period using a broad range of materials, from paintings to performance art, taxidermy to urban planning. The block will cover some familiar names, such as William Morris, alongside many lesser-known artists and designers. You&/courses/modules/a236/39;ll also be introduced to the concepts of ‘The Anthropocene’ and ‘ecocriticism’ and examine how they relate to analysing art and visual culture.
You will learn
By studying this module, you will:
- gain knowledge and understanding of the different cultural contexts in which works of art have been produced, consumed and interpreted in the modern world
- engage critically with works of art, primary texts and secondary sources, drawing appropriate conclusions based on this evidence
- become familiar with current scholarship and a range of theoretical approaches in relation to studying art history and visual culture in the period in question
- develop a degree of independence in producing reasoned arguments that engage with the themes and academic debates around the nature of art in the modern world.