Themes and Topics in Art History

2024/2025

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

Delivered at:

Undergraduate Programmes Curriculum Support

Course type:

Elective course

When:

1 year, 3, 4 module

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Modern art is a very complicated and controversial phenomenon which cannot be anymore approached with the simple measuring stick of the intuitive criterion “beautiful/ugly”. As we are bombarded by an astounding array of images, objects and performances offered by modern artists it is very easy to become overwhelmed, skeptical or conservative trying to deal with this seemingly unruly chaos of ideas and forms of artistic creativity. It makes the viewer wonder whether the term “art” still has any meaning, whether the great art of the past has not been turned into profanation, an empty gesture or a mere financial instrument. In this class we engage into a critical analysis of the modern art, the origins of its key ideas and its creative rethinking of the pressing political and social issues. The course is targeted at researching the different strategies that artists use to understand the modern world, the historical context in which their art is created and received by audiences, the ways in which the world is changing. The students will have an opportunity to discuss the state of the global culture, how art participates in the collective life of the society. The course teaches the students to express their ideas in clear, structured and engaging presentations, as well as written texts in the English language. We will focus on the levels of description, contextualization and analysis as the key steps to speaking and writing about art. Formation of an informed judgment, based on reflection and art-historical knowledge rather than aesthetic intuitions is the key goal of the course along with the development of complex language skills, expanding general and subject-specific vocabulary, familiarization with the writing style of texts in the fields of art history, art critique and visual culture.