STUDY PROGRAMME
Painting and Visual Arts

AFAM CODE
ABST47

DISCIPLINARY AREA
Style, History of art and costume

DISCIPLINARY FIELD
History of modern art

CREDITS
6

APPROACH
Theoretical

The course in History of Modern Art covers the chronological era from the second half of the 19th Century to the ‘40s of the 20th Century, introducing the main figures and artistic movements starting from Gustave Courbet, with a deeper insight on the historic avant-gardes. Beside studying artists and works of art, the course focuses on the Social History of art, and analyses, through thematic investigation and the side reading of some significant political and cultural movement, the main theories as well as the artistic and exhibition practice of modern times.

The programme consists of one single module, which grants 6 CFA credits.

By the end of the programme, successful students will be able to:

• Acquire theoretical-methodological tools to understand, analyse and develop incisive models to understand and represent modern works of art

• Acquire the ability to identify complexities and issues of the interpretation processes in history of art, through focuses and study cases, colloquial affinities and epistemological fields that, often unconsciously, artists might share

• Develop a personal approach, promoted by the thematic investigation of the political and social context in relation to the historic-chronological configurations, the institutions, the debates and the social conditions of the analysed historic era

The course in History of Modern Art revolves around the analysis of art from the mid-19th Century to the 40’s of the 20th Century, and covers, through thematic analyses and the reading of some significant political and cultural phenomena, the main accords of theory and practice of art and display in the modern era, far from the dominant semiotics, trying to understand the logics and colloquial orders of history as one among the many possible narrations.

In trying to find a different tool to write history, the course identifies all the most up-to-date research perspectives: ready-made, collage, photography and film, performance and political action, environment and display. The observation field develops around the relation between art and society, the historic links, the exhibition events and the institutions that have established the artistic practice of the 20th Century.

• Theoretical/project based classroom lectures

• Workshops

• Use of tutorials, videos or other media tools for detailed study

• Classroom debates and presentations

• Individual study and research

• Field trips (conferences, meetings, visits to exhibitions as organized by the professor or department)

Assessment is based on the overall competence of the students and may include:

• Oral exam

• Written exam

• Submission of papers, projects or research work

Further details on specific tests can be provided by the professor during the course. Assessment criteria include commitment, active participation and personal growth of the students over the course.

• Art Since 1900, Foster Hal; Krauss Rosalind; Bois Yve-Alain; Buchloh Benjamin.

• Ways of Seeing, John Beger.

• Walter Benjamin, The work of art in the age of Mechanical Reproduction.

Further bibliographic recommendations may be provided by the professor during the course. A lot of the referenced material, together with other in-depth study material, can be consulted online in MyNaba, in the Library section.