A review of art in the USA from the time of the earliest European settlement to the first half of the twentieth century, this course will explore the role of art in recording and framing changes in the ways of life and the development of ideas of nationhood. We will discuss art from colonial times, the emergence of the new nation in the late eighteenth century, the importance of landscape to American national identity, the ideas of the frontier and westward progress in the nineteenth century, and the celebration of and anxieties about the emergence of modernity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. (Note: this course does not include Native American art.)
Course aim
To consider a range of works of art from America, linking them to their social, political and historical contexts, and investigating their role in recording and shaping contemporary debates.
Do I need any particular skills or experience?
- This course is for beginners and improvers
By the end of the course I should be able to:
- think critically about and discuss artworks from America within a broader historical context
- describe some of the ways in which American artists engaged with ideas of nationhood
- describe some of the ways in which American artists engaged with the evolving nature of society
- look at examples of art by American artists and comment sensibly on them
What else do I need to know?
Nothing is required.
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