Modern Art Remixed
Exploring Modern and Contemporary Art
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Edgar Degas
Little Dancer Aged Fourteen 1880-1 Tate |
This dynamic new introductory course offers a fresh and insightful look at modern and contemporary art, examining the developments, theories, concepts and myths that have shaped modern art over the last 100 years from a variety of perspectives. Led by art historians Mat Gregory and Jane Morrow, who led the course Re-view: Exploring Twentieth Century Art at Tate Liverpool last year, each weekly session combines themed illustrated presentations with workshops held in the galleries, exploring Tate Liverpool’s new collection display The DLA Piper Series: This is Sculpture.
Modern Art Remixed takes a thematic rather than chronological approach to the story of modern art, examining not only the techniques and materials employed by artists of the modernist period, but also the wider social and cultural context in which these art works were both created and received. More than just an introductory art history class, this is a unique opportunity to discuss the work of seminal artists up close and at first hand in an open and informal environment. No experience necessary.
£120 (£95 concessions), booking required
Price includes materials and refreshments
Price is per term
TERM 1: BEYOND THE VISUAL
Tuesday’s 6 October – 8 December 2009
18.00-20.00
The first of three exciting ten-week terms, Beyond the Visual looks beyond commonly accepted notions, expectations, and perceptions of modern art, exploring a range of historical perspectives. It considers the story of modernism in context, investigating some of the social, political, cultural and historical factors that have shaped the work and lives of modern and contemporary artists. Looking beyond just aesthetics, beyond anecdote, and beyond the traditional canon of art history, it becomes clear that there is no art history, but rather an infinite number of art histories.
Modern Art Retrospective
Week One, 6 October 2009
In this first session we will have the chance to get to know each other and introduce the themes and ideas that will be studied in the first term. We will also explore the roots of modernism, questioning the chronological system that has conventionally been used to teach the history of modern art, and provide you with the opportunity to discover new and fresh perspectives from which to engage with this history. A workshop on the gallery floor will follow, giving you the occasion to familiarise yourself with Tate Liverpool’s exciting new DLA Piper Series: This is Sculpture collection display, which we will work with throughout the course.
Stories from the City:
Modern Art and the Metropolis
Week Two, 13 October 2009
This week’s session explores representations of modern urban life, and the historical relationship between the metropolis and the creation of art. Looking from the turn of the last century to present, we will see how experiences of the ever-changing cityscape - social, political and physical - have informed, provoked, and inspired new developments in art ...and just as the city has changed art, so too has art changed the city.
The Unconscious Effect
Week Three, 20 October 2009
Just as Modern artists generally sought to break the boundaries of traditional forms and notions of art, so too did they aim to transform the way people think. This was the overriding endeavour of the Surrealists who sought to uncover their unconscious and liberate the mind of taboo and previously condemned subjects and images in art such as sexual desire. They meddled with the conflict man has between his concealed mind and the need to behave for social conformity. This session will explore these notions whilst examining the enormous effect that this movement had on artists work to the present day.
Two Tribes...
American Abstraction and the Cold War
Week Four, 27 October 2009
Following the events of World War Two, New York is generally thought to have replaced Paris as the centre of the modern art world, and throughout the 1950s Abstract Expressionism was promoted by the American authorities as a symbol of democratic freedom and western cultural values. This session examines these ideas within the context of Cold War politics, focussing upon both the artistic and political importance of American post-war abstraction. We will look at the reaction in Europe to what some writers and intellectuals saw as American cultural imperialism, and examine the responses of a number of European artists.
Historical Revisions (Part I)
Week Five, 3 November 2009
As students of modern art, we are often told the same formulaic story of an art history dominated by the Western world, giving the illusion that the only art which could possibly have any significance is created by the white, middle class, Western male. Considering Colonialism, transatlantic slavery, and the passages of immigration and emigration that have taken place over many centuries, it is clear that we are not hearing the full story. Tonight we will explore a range of significant works by international, non-western artists, and discuss how the dominant canon of art history can be revised and re-written from a variety of historical perspectives, considering what this means for artists today.
Painting is Over ...Long Live Painting!
Week Six, 10 November 2009
During the decade or so that followed the Second World War, France was changing rapidly, due in part to the influx of American-inspired consumer culture and state-led modernisation. Just as Asger Jorn, a member of the CoBrA group, declared that: ‘Painting is over,’ artists associated with the Nouveau Réaliste movement turned to the burgeoning throwaway culture as the subject and material of their art, predicting the imminent death of easel painting in their 1960 manifesto. By the end of the decade, amidst an atmosphere coloured by discontent and protest, the very relevance of the art object itself was being questioned. This session explores European counterculture during the 1950s and 1960s, and the way in which challenges to the social, political, and cultural status quo affected both the role of art and the perceived status of the artist.
Historical Revisions (Part II)
Week Seven, 17 November 2009
Pre-19th Century, women artists and their significant place in art history was virtually nonexistent. This state of play remained through to the mid 19th century, which saw a small number of female artists emerging. However, society has nevertheless seen many changes for women: the ability to vote, contraception, supposed equality in the work place, and the acknowledgement that their contribution to society throughout World War Two and beyond is a powerful force to be reckoned with. In this session we will discuss the social and historical contexts that have affected the recognition of women’s work, and explore notions of gender and sexuality in the This is Sculpture display.
That’s Art?
Art, Beauty, Ritual, and Shock
Week Eight, 24 November 2009
The term ‘art’ is something that has been simultaneously taken for granted and scrutinised throughout the twentieth century. From Marcus Harvey’s Myra to Manet’s Olympia, the history of modern and contemporary art is littered with moments fuelled by scandal, indignation, and shock, often when works have either failed to conform to classical aesthetic expectations, or provoked public outrage owing to their subject matter. In this session we will look more closely at these traditional Western expectations of art, considering the idea that, even before Modernism, art was not always just about the perceived beauty of something like Michelangelo’s David or Botticelli’s Venus. We will explore various ways in which notions of art and beauty might be, and have been, defined.
The Future of Statues
Week Nine, 1 December 2009
The new This is Sculpture display sets itself the task of questioning what can be defined as sculpture; considering it as a genre that consistently redefines itself, adopting new materials and media in its creation. This session looks at the momentous development of modernist sculpture exploring the context and changing modes of industry that have affected the weird and wonderful world that makes sculpture what it is today. We will also look at the impact that these changes have made to Modern and contemporary art as a whole.
What’s New?
Modern Art, Postmodernism, and Possibly Beyond...
Week Ten, 8 December 2009
What does postmodernism actually mean? When did it start? What is it, and what comes next?
It isn’t clear whether these questions can be satisfactorily answered or, even if they can, whether or not they are the right ones to ask. To a theorist like Hal Foster, postmodernism was something directly related to globalisation, and the shifting social order of the media-saturated world we live in. According to writers such as Rosalind Krauss, Frederick Jameson, and Jean Baudrillard, postmodernism challenges the old modernist divides between such things as high and low culture, civilised and primitive, culture and nature. Postmodernists like Jean-Francois Lyotard rejected the grand narratives of modernism, as well as the idea that western European cultural values were universal. In this session we consider some key examples of postmodern art and theory, examining why it is such a significant yet contested concept.
TERM 2:
Tuesday’s 26 January – 30 March 2010
18.00-20.00
TERM 3:
Tuesday’s 4 May – 6 July 2010
18.00-20.00
