Storia dell'arte contemporanea

Post War: From “Transatlantic Art” to “The Global Contemporary” and Beyond
History and Diffusion of European Contemporary Art from 1945 to the Present

The course provides a summary overview of the development of Western contemporary art from 1945 to the present. Special attention will be given to the formation of a common European and North American art system in the years 1945 to 1990. It then shows how this system expanded during the decades of globalization between 1990 and 2010 to include Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Finally, the question is asked what future the Western understanding of art can have in a post-Western world.

I. 19.9.2023
“Europa Anno Zero” – Modern Art, Artists and Architects in the aftermath of WWII
II. 26.9.2023
USA 1939-1945: The discovery of Modern Art and Culture as a soft power tool for the new global superpower
III. 3.10.2023
Paris 1945-1955: Surrealism – Informel – Art Brut – Existentialism and Misérabilisme
IV. 10.10.2023
Europe 1955-1964: Documenta and Venice Biennale – The triumph of American Art from Pollock to Rauschenberg
V. 17.10.2023
London/New York/Paris 1955-1962: The New Realisms – Europop and American Pop Art – Le Nouveau Réalisme
VI. 24.10.2023
Transatlantic Movements 1960-1972: Happening – Fluxus – Minimal Art – Land Art - Concept Art
VII. 31.10.2023
Coping with the Past or not? German Art 1961-1989:  ZERO - Beuys - Baselitz – Kiefer – Richter – Polke   
VIII. 7.11.2023
Globalization and The Global Contemporary 1989-2019: Global Institutions and the rise of the Global Art Market
IX. 14.11.2023
Contemporary Art in and from Eastern Europe, Russia, Asia, Latin America Africa and the Global South 1989-2019
X. 21.11.2023
Contemporary Art in and from Eastern Europe, Russia, Asia, Latin America Africa and the Global South 1989-2019
XI. 28.11.2023
Supranational Voices and Movements: Feminism, LGBTQ movement, Postcolonialism, BLM, Art Collectives and Social Activism Groups in Contemporary Art from the 1980s until today
XII. 5.12.2023
Resumé and Outlook: Western Art in a Post-Western World

Introduction to the phenomenology, the historical background and the historical context of contemporary art practices and theories, which question, contradict or deny the traditional western aesthetic doctrine, which from the Renaissance on understands the work of art exclusively as the product and expression of one singular, individual human genius.

In presenza

50% Lectures
50% Seminars

Oral during examination