The course introduces the main critical methodologies and fundamental historical knowledge necessary to understand the artistic languages of modernity. Through lectures and selected readings, students will retrace key stages in the development of the visual arts — from the realist movements of the mid-nineteenth century to the avant-gardes of the early XXth century — with the aim of acquiring a methodology for analyzing the poetics, movements, and languages that define modern art.
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The course introduces the major developments in the visual arts from the late nineteenth century to the beginning of the Second World War, examining the formation and transformation of European modernism within the broader context of industrial, urban, and technological modernity. Beginning with the final decades of the nineteenth century, the course will trace the transition from Impressionism and Post-Impressionism to the principal avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century, with particular attention to continuities, ruptures, differences in artistic language, and changing conceptions of the work of art itself. The plural “modernisms” emphasizes the diversity, and often the conflict, among artistic responses to the profound transformations affecting European society between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Particular attention will be devoted to the relationship between art and modernization: the growth of the modern metropolis, industrialization, new forms of consumption and spectacle, changes in work and everyday life, the experience of the crowd and of speed, new conceptions of the body and sexuality, and the emergence of psychoanalysis and new models of subjectivity. The course will also examine the relationship between the visual arts and new technical means of producing and circulating images, especially photography, cinema, the illustrated press, and advertising, considering how these media transformed perception, the representation of space and time, and the very definition of the work of art.
The course will also address the relationship between artistic production, politics, and society, from the utopian ambitions of the avant-garde movements and the cultures of revolution to the experience of the First World War, the crisis of European democracies, and the rise of totalitarian regimes. Particular emphasis will be placed on changing ideas about the role of the artist and of art in modern society: from the pursuit of aesthetic autonomy to the ambition to intervene directly in the transformation of life, and from formal experimentation to the development of new models of communication, education, and collective participation.
Alongside the historical and critical reconstruction of the major artistic developments and leading figures of the period, a central part of the course will be devoted to close analysis of individual works. Painting, sculpture, photography, collage, assemblage, graphic design, architecture, and film will be studied in terms of their specific materials and visual languages, with attention to composition, technique, processes of production, modes of display, and the relationship between the work and the viewer. The course aims to provide students with the fundamental methodological tools required to identify and describe the formal characteristics of a work, situate it within its historical and cultural context, compare different critical interpretations, and use the terminology of modern and contemporary art history accurately and confidently.
Overall, the course will examine how, between 1880 and 1940, art contributed to a profound redefinition of aesthetic experience and of the perception of individual and collective reality. The experiments of the avant-garde movements transformed the relationships between image and world, representation and abstraction, artwork and object, and art and life, producing new forms of sensibility that remain essential to an understanding of modern and contemporary art and visual culture.
- Federica Rovati, L’arte dell’Ottocento, Einaudi, Turin 2017.
- Federica Rovati, L’arte del primo Novecento, Einaudi, Turin 2015.
- Stephen Kern, The Culture of Time and Space, 1880–1918, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 1983, chapters 4–6.
- Georg Simmel, “The Metropolis and Mental Life”, in David Frisby and Mike Featherstone (eds.), Simmel on Culture, Sage, London 1997, pp. 174–185. Compass Hub
- Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity, Penguin, New York 1988. PenguinRandomhouse.com
- Philippe Dubois, L’atto fotografico, Urbino 2009, pp. 25–108.
- Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 2008.
- Walter Benjamin, “Little History of Photography”, in Selected Writings, vol. 2: 1927–1934, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 1999, pp. 507–530. ResearchGate
- Peter Bürger, Theory of the Avant-Garde, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1984. University of Minnesota Press
- Rosalind E. Krauss, Passages in Modern Sculpture, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 1981. mitpress.mit.edu
- T. J. Clark, The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1999.
- Malcolm Bradbury and James McFarlane (eds.), Modernism, 1890–1930, Penguin, London 1991.
Programme
MODERNISMS, 1880–1940The course introduces the major developments in the visual arts from the late nineteenth century to the beginning of the Second World War, examining the formation and transformation of European modernism within the broader context of industrial, urban, and technological modernity. Beginning with the final decades of the nineteenth century, the course will trace the transition from Impressionism and Post-Impressionism to the principal avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century, with particular attention to continuities, ruptures, differences in artistic language, and changing conceptions of the work of art itself. The plural “modernisms” emphasizes the diversity, and often the conflict, among artistic responses to the profound transformations affecting European society between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Particular attention will be devoted to the relationship between art and modernization: the growth of the modern metropolis, industrialization, new forms of consumption and spectacle, changes in work and everyday life, the experience of the crowd and of speed, new conceptions of the body and sexuality, and the emergence of psychoanalysis and new models of subjectivity. The course will also examine the relationship between the visual arts and new technical means of producing and circulating images, especially photography, cinema, the illustrated press, and advertising, considering how these media transformed perception, the representation of space and time, and the very definition of the work of art.
The course will also address the relationship between artistic production, politics, and society, from the utopian ambitions of the avant-garde movements and the cultures of revolution to the experience of the First World War, the crisis of European democracies, and the rise of totalitarian regimes. Particular emphasis will be placed on changing ideas about the role of the artist and of art in modern society: from the pursuit of aesthetic autonomy to the ambition to intervene directly in the transformation of life, and from formal experimentation to the development of new models of communication, education, and collective participation.
Alongside the historical and critical reconstruction of the major artistic developments and leading figures of the period, a central part of the course will be devoted to close analysis of individual works. Painting, sculpture, photography, collage, assemblage, graphic design, architecture, and film will be studied in terms of their specific materials and visual languages, with attention to composition, technique, processes of production, modes of display, and the relationship between the work and the viewer. The course aims to provide students with the fundamental methodological tools required to identify and describe the formal characteristics of a work, situate it within its historical and cultural context, compare different critical interpretations, and use the terminology of modern and contemporary art history accurately and confidently.
Overall, the course will examine how, between 1880 and 1940, art contributed to a profound redefinition of aesthetic experience and of the perception of individual and collective reality. The experiments of the avant-garde movements transformed the relationships between image and world, representation and abstraction, artwork and object, and art and life, producing new forms of sensibility that remain essential to an understanding of modern and contemporary art and visual culture.
Core Documentation
Essential Bibliography- Federica Rovati, L’arte dell’Ottocento, Einaudi, Turin 2017.
- Federica Rovati, L’arte del primo Novecento, Einaudi, Turin 2015.
- Stephen Kern, The Culture of Time and Space, 1880–1918, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 1983, chapters 4–6.
- Georg Simmel, “The Metropolis and Mental Life”, in David Frisby and Mike Featherstone (eds.), Simmel on Culture, Sage, London 1997, pp. 174–185. Compass Hub
- Marshall Berman, All That Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity, Penguin, New York 1988. PenguinRandomhouse.com
- Philippe Dubois, L’atto fotografico, Urbino 2009, pp. 25–108.
- Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 2008.
- Walter Benjamin, “Little History of Photography”, in Selected Writings, vol. 2: 1927–1934, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 1999, pp. 507–530. ResearchGate
- Peter Bürger, Theory of the Avant-Garde, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1984. University of Minnesota Press
- Rosalind E. Krauss, Passages in Modern Sculpture, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 1981. mitpress.mit.edu
- T. J. Clark, The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1999.
- Malcolm Bradbury and James McFarlane (eds.), Modernism, 1890–1930, Penguin, London 1991.
Reference Bibliography
XIX century (1880-1900): Federica Rovati, L'arte dell'Ottocento, Einaudi 2017 XX century (1900-1940): Federica Rovati, L’arte del primo Novecento, Einaudi 2015. Hal Foster, Rosalind Krauss, Yve-Alain Bois, Benjamin Buchloh, Art since 1900, Thames & Hudson (PDF): 1900-1940Attendance
Students are free to choose to attendType of evaluation
The examination is held in written form, in class. The test assesses students’ knowledge of the main themes, movements, artistic approaches, artists, and works covered during the course and in the required readings. Students are expected to demonstrate the ability to describe, analyse, and interpret works of art using appropriate art-historical terminology and to place them correctly within their historical and cultural contexts. Assessment will take into account the accuracy and completeness of knowledge, the clarity and coherence of the written responses, the ability to analyse works of art, and the capacity to establish relevant connections between artists, movements, works, and contexts.