ART 345 Art as Action: Art and Politics in the 20th and 21st Centuries
What is the relationship between politics and art? This question will guide our course. Moving across the twentieth-century through present-day, we will explore the many ways that western artists have sought to achieve social and political transformation through their work. We will ask whether art can be at once politically powerful and aesthetically impactful, and we will also weigh the merits of such a goal. We will consider a range of different mediums that artists have used to make social statements and to support political action, from painting to performance art to posters, as we examine topics including Mexican muralism, American painting during the Cold War, the Guerrilla Girls, and the art of Black Lives Matter, among other fascinating and historically important episodes. A special unit dedicated to civil unrest during the 1960s will involve museum visits.
Cross Listed Courses
ART 345, CLAS 345, COMM 382