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Tate Modern courses

Demystifying Contemporary Art: A starting point if you don't know where to begin

22 October – 19 November 2018
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Tania Bruguera, Tatlin’s Whisper #5 2008. Tate. © Tania Bruguera.

A crash course in contemporary art at its most baffling

What happens when anything can be art? What is the role of the artist today? What are we looking at? And what is contemporary art anyway? Contemporary art can feel daunting, but it doesn’t have to be hard work. Over five weeks, we’ll unpack some of its more challenging forms by looking at works in the Tate Collection. We’ll cover painting, film, installation and multimedia works to give you a foundation to draw on the next time a work of art leaves you completely clueless. This course is for those curious to understand. No prior knowledge necessary.

Week 1: Overview

What’s so scary about contemporary art? How do we define it? We’ll look back at key works of Abstract Expressionism, and the impact they have had on how we think of art today.

Week 2: Technology

In exploring art that seeks to represent our times, we’ll take a particular look at works that incorporate technology and digital media, from sculptures made from household appliances to installations that make use of your smartphone.

Week 3: Craft

Often, it’s the perceived lack of skill involved in much contemporary art that gets people worked up. But many contemporary artworks involve a great deal of craft, in the classical sense. We’ll explore questions of skill and craft through works in the Anni Albers exhibition, and a look at Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain.

Week 4: Politics

Much of the art being made today has a strong political message, or functions as a form of social activism. Artists are using their work for a purpose, to take a stand, change attitudes, step out of the gallery and intervene in everyday life. This week, we’ll look at a variety of different approaches to reinventing the world, exploring Jenny Holzer’s Artist’s Room and Tania Bruguera’s Turbine Hall Commission.

Week 5: Appropriation

What does authorship mean in the age of ‘copy/paste’? Who is the artist ultimately, and how do we see their role? Drawing on themes we have covered throughout the course, we’ll use our visual skills to piece together what is going on in works of collage and sampled film, in particular Christian Marclay’s The Clock. We’ll end the course with some practical tips on getting the most out of a gallery visit, and approaching art as more than a sum of its parts.

Biography:

Jessica Cerasi is a curator and writer. She has worked as Exhibitions Manager at Carroll / Fletcher gallery; Assistant Curator of the 20th Biennale of Sydney in 2016; and previously Curatorial Assistant at the Hayward Gallery, London. She is most recently the co-author of Who’s Afraid of Contemporary Art?, published by Thames & Hudson

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Dates

22 October – 19 November 2018

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