Issues in Contemporary Art: From Postwar to the Age of AI

Course Description

Summary

This 4000-level course examines major developments in modern and contemporary art from the aftermath of World War II to the present, considering how artists have responded to and helped shape the political, social, technological, and economic conditions of their time. Rather than following a progression of movements and styles, the course is organized around how artistic practices emerge within larger struggles over power, identity, representation, technology, labor, territory, and the production and circulation of images. Beginning with the postwar period, the course examines the impact of the Cold War, decolonization, civil rights and liberation movements, feminism, globalization, and the expansion of the international art market. It follows the changing relationships between art and politics through questions of race and racialization, gender and sexuality, migration and displacement, Indigenous sovereignty, environmental crisis and extraction, war and political violence, protest and activism, and the changing conditions of labor and cultural production. Throughout, the course looks at the ways technological transformations have reshaped artistic practice and visual culture, from photography, television, and video to computers, the internet, digital and new media, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and networks. Finally, it focuses on how artists have challenged established definitions of the artwork, the artist, the viewer, and the institution through conceptual, participatory, performative, social, and interdisciplinary practices.