ART 370 Special Topics in Art History

Recent ART 370 Special Topics courses offered

 

World Art after 1989

Cross-listed with INST 270. This course will examine the impact of globalization on contemporary artistic practice. We will consider several themes emerging as part of a globalizing effect after 1989. These include the use of new media, new concepts of place, new artistic strategies and relations to an audience, post-colonialism’s role in art, major exhibitions, and the prevalence of nationalist and transnationalist themes. We will look at contemporary artists across the globe active between 1989 and the present to gain an awareness of the basis on which we conceptualize and appreciate contemporary art in a global context. We will be visiting several art institutions both locally and in Chicago. No prerequisites (AR, G)

 

Cold War Art & Media Cultures

This course explores the ideas and concerns of the cold war era, 1945-1992, through visual and media cultures. We will examine the visual arts of East and West, media theories, and cultural-political events across borders and in an international context. Topics include the politics of abstraction and figuration, television and suburbia, fashion and fear, utopian projects, revolution and protest, the 1955 Family of Man exhibit and the first western German Documenta exhibit of the same year, the Berlin Wall, official and unofficial Soviet art, and Eames’ multimedia architecture. Key questions asked are: How were cold war ideas, hopes, goals, fears, and concerns mediated into visible form? What are the differences and similarities in media and cultural production across cold war borders?

 

Museums, Representation, and Cultural Property  

Cross-listed with ANTH 270/370. Explores how museums have acquired, displayed, and interpreted cultural objects and represented cultures, peoples, and heritage, in the past and present. Topics include the artifact trade, representational and ethical issues, and effective exhibit presentation. The class meets with museum professionals, takes fieldtrips to various museums, and mounts exhibits using IWU artifacts. Offered alternate years, May Term.