Module Directory

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.