IAHIS 5354 Art Now
Art Now examines that creative output in light of specific issues: identity, conflict, patronage, displacement, climate change, etc. The course introduces students to the complexity of the shifting borders of global art, where "global" is constantly informed and defined by "local", most prominently around the question of imbalance of economic, political and other forms of power. The first two weeks of the semester are devoted to briefly covering the key traits of postwar art (appropriation, the decentered object, self-consciousness, irony, etc.) that originated in the West, not as a foundation for the subsequent material, but rather as a discourse specific to the West that has an uneven relationship (of both conformity and divergence) to contemporary art from around the world. In the absence of a comprehensive textbook, students read a range of essays and book chapters, and are assessed through take-home tests and research assignments.