00951 - History of Contemporary Art

Learning outcomes

The principal aim of the course is to give basical, theorical and storical instruments whithin of the contemporary art. Also the seminary will give hermeneutical instruments to let students understanding hystorical and sociological contest where works of art and artistic movements born, even thanks to their psycology and culture attitude.

Course contents

Historical part:

From Romanticism to Symbolism
Synthetic routes through the nineteenth century European art

That part of the course aims to give a brief introduction and overview of contemporary thematize a journey that begins with Romanticism, Realism and continue with the pre-Raphaelites, Impressionism, the Neo-Impressionism and Symbolism.

Monographic section:

Western contemporary art movements and poetic
by German Expressionismto Neo-avant-garde

This part of the course will tackle the most important events of contemporary Western art of the twentieth century by developing a route that starts from German reaches the mid-twentieth century (with the American Abstract Expressionism and European Informal) . It is a crucial time for the very identity of the contemporary as in recent decades has demonstrated not only a rejection of naturalism and realism, but also, as is known, the rise of the great avant-garde movement (such as 'Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, abstract, Dadaism, Surrealism ...) and then lots of other trends (such as Abstract Expressionism or the Mexican muralist) that have interacted with those movements in a critical perspective of innovation. But this path, in parallel with the essential features of these trends, provide an opportunity to consider analytically the poetic art of some great artists of this era - one of the most exciting and compelling of all art history - such as Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Modigliani, Soutine, Grosz, Balthus, Brancusi, Giacometti, Moore ...

Readings/Bibliography

General bibliography of the course:

AA.VV, Modern Art, Thames and Hudson
R. Barilli, Scienza della cultura e fenomenologia degli stili, BUP
A. Breton, Manifesti del Surrealismo, Einaudi
A. De Paz, Avanguardie storiche e dintorni, Tendenze e poetiche dall'Espressionismo tedesco all'Art brut, Liguori Editore
R. Hughes, The shock of the New, British Broadcasting Corporation
G. Steiner, Grammatiche della creazione, Garzanti
T. Tzara, Manifesti del Dadaismo, Einaudi
D. Wheeler, Art since Mid-century, 1945 to the present, The Vendome Press

A SPECIFIC BIBLIOGRAPHY REFERENCES FOR THE EXAM WILL BE PROVIDED AT THE END OF COURSE.

Teaching methods

The course consist of pratical and theorical field training in identifying artistic materials of contemporary art and linguistical-structural, historical-sociological and psychoanalitical analysis.

Assessment methods

The students are invited to attend the seminary and they will be expected to demonstrate competence with writing text and illustrate a personal point of view about the themes object of the course.

Teaching tools

Slides, videoprojector, paper material, background music for the art images.

Office hours

See the website of Alfredo De Paz