AH3061 Early 20th Century Art

“Every act of creation,” said Pablo Picasso, “is first of all an act of destruction.” In the field of art, the early 20th century is undoubtedly a time of accelerated collapse for the artistic vocabulary, the values and the canon identified with the great Western tradition inherited from the Renaissance. What are the motivations of this breakdown and what kind of creation did it give rise to? This class examines the drastic transformations occurring in the field of visual arts (concentrating on painting and sculpture) from the late 19th century (impressionism, post-impressionism) to the radical passage to abstraction in the mid-1910s. This panorama of a rapidly changing art scene will end on the emergence of post–World War I avant-garde movements such as Dada and Surrealism. Major figures, such as Cézanne, Picasso or Kandinsky will be studied with particular attention, while major movements—including Cubism, Fauvism—will be given specific attention. Readings of related literature, including the critical reception of the art of the time and artists’ writings, will contribute to the understanding of this crucial period.

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