Modern and Contemporary Art in London

About

This module focuses on art works exhibited in London collections and temporary exhibitions, discussing and theorising the evolution of the modern art object from the 19th century to the present.

Through a series of seminar- and gallery-based classes, the module will closely scrutinise a broad range of art objects, including painting, sculpture, photography, and video, to consider how the development of visual technologies, materials and techniques are negotiated by artists and have impacted on the critical methodologies developed by art historians.

Each week will take a different thematic category to foreground discussion, helping to address changing cultural, social and historical contexts in the making of visual art and its relationship to current sites of exhibition and mechanism of display.

Week one: Object

Introduction to Key Concepts and Syllabus
Landscape Painting and Abstraction
The Painting of Modern Life and the City
Cultures of Collecting

Week two: Medium
Introducing the Avant-garde(s)
Dada and the New Century
Early-mid-century Photography
Contemporary British Art in Context
Institutional Critique

Week three: Narrative
Filmic Memory and Affect
Re-thinking History
Public Installation/site-specificity

Course leader

Dr. Tom Snow

Course aim

This module aims to:

- Introduce you to debates in critical art history and equip you with the skills and knowledge to discuss modern and contemporary art in changing historical and material contexts.
- Explore how artworks contribute to social and political discourses, from well‑known works such as British and French painting in the National Gallery to recent experimental practices in independent and temporary spaces.
- Make full use of London’s range of artworks, institutions and spaces to examine how exhibitions directly influence how art history is thought and written.

Fee info