Introduction to Art History III: Modern Art--Impressionism to Abstraction (Flex)

Welcome to an Introduction to Modern Art! In this course, students will learn the basic traits of Modern art movements of the late 19th and early 20th century, through 1950, and why these movements shook the art world to its very foundation! Many people scoff at these movements, with many noting “my child could have done that!” However, I would like to expose students to the social and often political motivating factors behind the development of each of these movements and how they stem from traditional art practices, even if they seem to have no connection! Students will learn about ten different art movements through lecture, discussion, and a handful of outside assignments. Each week will feature a case study that will look in-depth at a single piece and as students to engage with the movement in a direct way.  

PARENTS: This is a FLEX Class, meaning there are no weekly meetings and every assignment and lecture is completed at the student's pace. Each week contains a fifty-five-minute lecture, a weekly group critical thinking discussion question in the classroom, and an optional at-home project that relates to the week's topic. Assignments are given for further individual exploration at home, but not required. Grading is optional.

The course schedule is as follows:

Week 1: Impressionism 
During Week 1, we will analyze Impressionism, the first big shift away from traditional art practices of the previous few centuries. Students will start with Courbet, who first tested the boundaries of traditional academic style paintings and evaluate the paintings of Impressionists such as Manet, Degas, Van Gogh, and Monet. The discussion will emphasize the impact of Modernity on the art world during the late 19th century. This week’s case study will be Monet’s infamous Water Lillies series, through which we will discuss how Impressionists thought of color, light, and materials. Students are invited to create their own Impressionist inspired artwork or research another Impressionist at home for homework! 

Week 2: Post-Impressionism and Fauvism
During Week 2, students will jump into post-Impressionism and Fauvism at the turn of the century! This unit will emphasize the expressive use age of color in each of these movements and important techniques for the application of paints, as developed by each of these groups. This week’s case study will be Seurat’s “La Grande Jatte,” also known as “Sunday Afternoon in the Park, emphasizing the scientific application of paint used by Seurat known as stippling. Before this lecture, students will be asked to watch a short video on the impact of modernity in Europe. Students are invited to create a Van Gogh inspired masterpiece at home or discuss the connection between art and science for homework this week

Week 3: German Expressionism and Futurism
Week 3 emphasizes how politics influence artistic practice through an evaluation of German Expressionism and Futurism. Our discussion of German Expressionism focuses on how the destruction of World War I left entire populations feeling alienated and lost, leaving these artists struggling to cope. Our case study is Edward Munch’s famous “The Scream,” through which we will discuss how irrational color and dark subject matter was used by the German Expressionists to try to convey their new anxieties. Students will be asked to watch a piece of “Night on Bald Mountain” from “Fantasia” to prepare for this discussion as well. Further, we will discuss Futurism and how it was I spired by early iterations of Fascism across Western Europe, particularly in Italy, and how, unlike other movements of the time, it embraced the concept of Modernity. For homework, students are asked to create artwork that emphasizes movement or research one of a handful of politically inspired art movements. 

Week 4: Cubism and Constructivism
Week 4 is all about geometry! This week we will discuss how art is becoming more and more abstracted through the movements of Cubism and Constructivism. This week’s case study is Picasso’s "Guernica" and "Ma Jolie" as a way of discussing how artists transition to abstraction and geometric patterning. We will discuss further abstraction of form through the Russian Constructivist movement that focused on abstract forms, rather than recognizable subject matter, in contrast with Picasso. Students are invited to create artwork using geometric forms or find and research the history of one of a few Picasso paintings and compare them to what we saw in class for homework. 

Week 5: Dada and Surrealism
Week 5 is when everything gets weird! In Week 5, we delve into the mindset of the Surrealists and Dadas, who both questioned what art truly was and what it should represent. In preparation for this class, students will be asked to watch an animated short completed by Salvador Dali in collaboration with Walt Disney in preparation for discussing Surrealism. Surrealism sought to evoke psychological, inward subject matter in a way that was similar to a dreamlike state. Students will be able to discuss how new sciences, like psychology, influenced the art world at this time at the end of the lesson. This week's case study revolves around Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain" and how the Dadas sought to question the practices of the art world through their mockery of traditional artistic practices. What did Duchamp seek to achieve by plastering his name on a factory-made urinal? Further, what does it accomplish when you draw a simple mustache on a basic postcard of Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa"? This week, students will learn how each of these movements pushed the art world to its fringes and asked the institutions of the art world to look inward at their own value systems. Students are asked to find their own objects from home that they could consider "art" and create a label for them, as if in a museum! 

Week 6: Abstract Expressionism and the Impact of Modernism post-1960 
In our final week, students will evaluate the impact of Abstract Expressionism, considered the first true American art form, on the art world in the post-War period. This week's case study will include several works by Jackson Pollock, the most well known of the Expressionists, and students will discuss how art shifted to purely abstracted imagery, as well as focusing on purely abstract subject matter. Students will be able to identify what factors caused artists to shift from representational, familiar imagery, to purely abstracted subjects and how the movements we discussed in the prior five weeks impacted how this movement developed. Students will be able to discuss key concepts of abstract expressionism, including all-over composition, monumentality, and a shift in paint application tools--from paintbrushes to palette knives, cans of paint, hands, etc. To conclude the course, we will briefly discuss how this movement will impact the art world in the 1960s, starting with Pop Art, and how the contemporary art world will evolve from the hands of these artists.