AR312-6-SP-CO:
Contemporary Art: 1980 to the Present

PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.

The details
2024/25
Philosophical, Historical, and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 6
Inactive
Monday 13 January 2025
Friday 21 March 2025
15
07 November 2023

 

Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)

 

(none)

Key module for

(none)

Module description

This module offers students an overview of the most significant and paradigmatic artistic transformations in Europe and North America from the 1980s to the present. It presents the development, successes and failures of modernism over the late 20th century, and the eventual dissolution of modernist practice into the disparate possibilities of postmodernism.


We will problematize contemporary art as a field where a countless set of artistic theories and practices take place, practices that have constantly challenged and reconfigured our very understanding of art. Students will have the opportunity to closely examine a wide range of artists, projects, and institutional ruptures that will inform our debates on the distinctions between modern, postmodern, contemporary and new media art.

Module aims

The aims of this module are:



  • To expose students to the widest possible range of contemporary art practice after the 1980s.

  • To provide students with the opportunity to consider this work in a number of different contexts, including those of national and international origins, of media, of politics, and of the institution.

  • To make clear the intricate connections between artistic practice, art history, theory and criticism, and the wider culture in which art is produced.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:



  1. Understand the distinction between modern, postmodern, contemporary, and new media art.

  2. Understand the conditions that paved the wave for the emergence of contemporary art.

  3. Understand the work of a wide variety of artists, the production of various seminal exhibitions and events in the period, including their reception and social impacts.

  4. Understand the role of a variety of media in forming the practices of contemporary artists.

Module information

In this module, we will be submerged into the world of contemporary art, a world full of paradoxes, contradictions and controversies, in which is possible to buy God's love for £50m (For the Love of God, Damian Hirst) while simultaneously asking the Congolese population to 'enjoy poverty' (Episode III: Enjoy Poverty, Renzo Martens). Questions that are at the heart of this module include: can enjoying a carrousel ride (Golden Mirror Carousel, Carsten Holler) be a more radical gesture than an artist initiated socio-political movement (Immigrant Movement International, Tania Bruguera)?; What is the spirit of contemporary art? Does it have one? What have been the most significant changes in the relationship between the contemporary artist and the art institution? Have the three market booms since the 1980s had an impact on the production, reception, and dissemination of contemporary art? How has the biennial impacted our understanding of the local and the global? What can confessional artworks (Everyone I have Ever Slept With 1963-1995, Tracy Emin) tell us about our conceptions of the public and the private?


Contemporary art has allowed for experimentation with an unlimited range of media, methods of production, dissemination, and engagement. In this module, we will also open up space for speculation and debate: has artistic production exhausted itself? Is there art beyond contemporary art? If there is, what would it look like?

Learning and teaching methods

This module will be delivered via:

  • One 2-hour combined lecture and seminar per week.

There will also be a Reading Week when no teaching will take place, exact week to be confirmed.

Bibliography

This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.

Assessment items, weightings and deadlines

Coursework / exam Description Deadline Coursework weighting
Exam  Main exam: In-Person, Open Book, 120 minutes during Summer (Main Period) 
Exam  Reassessment Main exam: Remote, Open Book, 24hr during September (Reassessment Period) 

Exam format definitions

  • Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
  • In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary, for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.

Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.

Overall assessment

Coursework Exam
60% 40%

Reassessment

Coursework Exam
60% 40%
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Solange Gulizzi
PHAIS General Office - 6.130; arugadmin@essex.ac.uk.

 

Availability
Yes
Yes
Yes

External examiner

Dr Dominic Paterson
University of Glasgow
Senior Lecturer in History of Art / Curator of Contemporary Art
Resources
Available via Moodle
Of 566 hours, 18 (3.2%) hours available to students:
548 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).

 


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