HAU24014: Contemporary Art in Context, 1960-2020

Shifts in artists’ (and curators’) practices since 1960 have led to a vast expansion of the parameters of what constitutes an artwork. This module traces the evolution of contemporary art, initially conceived as a series of ‘movements’ – from Minimalism and Pop to Conceptualism – leading to the proliferation of approaches and materials that artists employ today. We will look at the development of new forms and formats including performance art, lens-based media, installation, participatory and socially-engaged practices, institutional critique, and activist art. We will also examine how the infrastructures of the art world – its institutions and exhibiting formats – have informed the way we view and think about contemporary art: the art school, the biennial, the white cube, the auction house, the art fair, and the art market. As well as exploring the work of particular artists and exhibition formats, we will focus upon certain critical debates that have shaped how art is received and valued, including the ‘crisis of criticism’, the curatorial turn, the pedagogical turn, and the question of ‘relational aesthetics’. Particular critical texts will be used to prompt questions about the rhetoric, the politics, and the limitations of contemporary art.