Topics in Modern Art: Avant-garde Strategies

This course on ”Topics in modern art” discusses relevant subjects on art, architecture and visual media, within the period 19th to the 21th century. Students will gain specialization within a given subject related to modern and contemporary art and architecture, as well as theory and methods relevant for the given topic. The topic Avant-garde strategies examines the importance and influence of avant-garde art from 1850 to the present. While several of the vanguard works of art were dismissed as non-art in their own time, posterity has rehabilitated them as important works of art. One famous example is Marcel Duchamp's Fountain (1917), which can be seen as a deliberate intervention in the artworld. The course will discuss various similar interventions, from the 2nd half of the 19th century until the present, and examines their cultural and social/political strategic significance. The course will also discuss the possibilities of an avant-garde art today.

Knowledge

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will have gained:

• in-depth knowledge and understanding of how modern art and architecture are used in different discourses and relate to various social conditions
• knowledge of key works in modern and contemporary visual art and architecture, linked to the current topic - insight into how the relevant subject is treated in the academic literature

Skills

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will know how to:

• discuss and theorize various artworks in relation to the relevant thematical approach
• formulate and discuss current and key issues related to the topic of the course
• present the subject matter in both oral and written form

Lectures and seminars. Excursions can also be included in the instruction. All activities are joint with KUH3200. The course will also have compulsory exercises. The students are required to keep posted on messages from the department or teacher at Blackboard. This course is taught in Norwegian only.