Nov 21, 2024  
DRAFT 2025-2026 College Catalog DRAFT 
    
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DRAFT 2025-2026 College Catalog DRAFT [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

ART 119 - Contemporary Art and Theory

3 Credits, 3 Contact Hours
3 lecture periods 0 lab periods
Thematic and chronological introduction to the practice, criticism, and theory in art since 1960. Including trends, themes and movements in global contemporary art, issues of identity, cultural theory, postmodernism and cultural context.

Button linking to AZ Transfer course equivalency guide  

Course Learning Outcomes
  1. Identify, describe, and analyze important issues in art since 1960, including significant social, economic, scientific, and political shifts.
  2. Evaluate and analyze contemporary art styles, concepts, and techniques using appropriate vocabulary.
  3. Differentiate and contextualize works of global contemporary art practice.
  4. Develop the ability to articulate verbally and in writing the major artistic shifts that emerged after 1960.
  5. Discuss the work of essential artists, art critics and writers and their influence on the development of contemporary art.
  6. Discuss the influence of globalization, identity, social and political context on contemporary art.
  7. Discuss and analyze recent developments in contemporary art theoretically.
Outline:
  1. The Real and Its Objects
    1. Neo-Dada
      1. Happenings
      2. Assemblage
    2. Pop Art
      1. America: East and West Coast
      2. Britain
      3. France: Nouveau Realism
      4. Germany: Capitalist Realism
    3. Kinetic, Op, and Luminism
    4. Minimalism
      1. Post-Painterly Abstraction
      2. Sculpture
      3. Minimalism
  2. Expanded Field
    1. Post-Minimalism / Anti-Form
    2. Conceptual
    3. Arte Povera (Italy)
    4. Land and Environment
    5. Installation and Video, Fluxus
    6. Performance and Body
  3. Ideology, Identity, and Difference
    1. Context / Political Environment
      1. Photography, Photomontage, and Social Reality
    2. Feminism
    3. Social Issues, Material Culture, and Community
  4. Postmodernism
    1. Neo-Expressionism Graffiti
    2. Neo-Conceptual
    3. Appropriation
    4. Photography
    5. Public Art
  5. Assimilations
    1. Warhol’s death and the rise of global exhibitions
      1. Neo-Conceptual exhibition 1989
    2. Performance and Installations
    3. Reconceptualizing Photography
    4. Primitivism and Black Nationalism
    5. Video
  1. Globalization and the Post-Medium Condition
    1. Relational Aesthetics
    2. Post-Modern Condition
    3. Video Installation
    4. System Painting
    5. Redefining Boundaries
    6. Young British Artists (YBA)
    7. Politicizing Public Art
  2. Art After 2000
    1. New Globalization and Digital Art
    2. World Politics and Institutional Critique
    3. Identity, Autonomy, and Self-sufficiency