19th- and 20th-century Art History: the Race for Avant-gardism
It is from now on the agreed term "avant-garde", it is said, that designates artistic and cultural movements participating in the elaboration of new forms and seeking an alternative to what is known as "classical" or, worse, "academic". Hence, we'll be adopting it as a cursor to trace the major movements and creators in France, Europe and the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. We will symbolically fix this panorama between 1819 (the year Saint-Simon assigned incredibly ambitious driving and civilizing functions to art) and 1969 (the year marked by Harald Szeeman's crucial exhibition Quand les attitudes deviennent forme).
Evaluation:
A 4-hour dissertation written in French that tests both the quality of expression (clarity, style, relevance) and the soundness of the argument (authoritative arguments, personal opinions).
Only personal, handwritten notes and hard-copy language dictionaries are allowed during the tests, apart from any other printed documents, as well as electronic dictionaries and translators.
Course language: French
- Profesor: Schlesser Thomas