Semester:
Offered:
Maria Gough
How does modernist innovation and experimentation in the visual arts relate to the European quest for empire? How was European modernism shaped by imperial ambition and colonial expansion? By the domination and subordination of others? By the exoticization of Asian and Islamic cultures, and the “primitivization” of African and Native American traditions? To what extent were modern artists implicated in such endeavors, and to what extent did they oppose or critique them?
With these questions in mind, this course examines major works of modern art produced between 1860-1940. It is structured as a chronological survey, thus providing students—particularly those new to the study of art history or modernism—with an accessible format in which to learn about both the aesthetics and the politics of modern art. Wherever possible, the class will incorporate first-hand examination of works in the Harvard Art Museums or the MFA Boston. We will read artists’ writings, art-historical texts, and sections from three books that have been fundamental to the framing of the course: Aimé Césaire’s Discourse on Colonialism (1950), Ariella Azoulay’s Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism (2019), and Michael Rothberg’s The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators (2019).