ARTH2258 · Fine Arts

Modernism and the Avant-Garde, 1900-1945

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

In this introductory course we will unpack some of the crucial episodes in art of the first half of the twentieth century, including Italian Futurism, international Dada, Surrealism, De Stijl, the Harlem Renaissance, and Mexican Muralism. We will explore how these avant-garde formations sought to break down the barrier between the making of art and the making of life itself, inventing ways of sliding art into the everyday lives of people on the street, at home, and in the factory. Why, these artists ask again and again, must art be siloed in privileged gallery spaces that uphold repressive models of gender, class, and race? What new utopian futures are opened up when these spaces are negated or left behind?