Christo and Jean-Claude. Valley Curtain Project, Rifle Gap, Colorado, 1970-72. (Image courtesy the National Archives and Records Administration. ARC Identifier: 544851.)
Instructor(s)
Prof. Caroline Jones
MIT Course Number
4.651
As Taught In
Fall 2010
Level
Undergraduate
Course Description
Course Features
Course Description
This subject focuses on the objects, history, context, and critical discussion surrounding art since World War II. Because of the burgeoning increase in art production, the course is necessarily selective. We will trace major developments and movements in art up to the present, primarily from the US; but we will also be looking at art from Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, as well as art "on the margins" — art that has been overlooked by the mainstream critical press, but may have a broad cultural base in its own community. We will ask what function art serves in its various cultures of origin, and why art has been such a lightning rod for political issues around the world.
