School of the Art Institute of Chicago Courses

Touring Modernism: From the French avant-garde to American Pop and Beyond

4.9

This dynamic course focuses on the history of modern and postmodern art from the 19th and 20th centuries, with an emphasis on major works found in the collection of the renowned Art Institute of Chicago.  Painting, sculpture, photography, and other media, placed within a larger socio-political context, will reveal how aesthetic expression proves a compelling barometer of the modern human experience. From the advent of European democracy and the parallel birth of the avant-garde artist, whose singular vision boldly shattered prevailing styles and norms, to the radical rise of abstract painting and the even more provocative introduction of everyday objects into works of art, this course will unfold modernism’s defiant embrace of the new. This course will engage the major issues of twentieth-century aesthetic practice, from Freud’s description of the unconscious and the play of dreams as fertile source material for the artist, to the explosive rise of pop art and the dizzying information age that has profoundly shaped contemporary practice. To closely study modern and postmodern art is to learn how to look at the world, to take notice of form, color, and image, and to respond to the richness of visual and material culture that is all around us. This course will not only provide a canonical repertoire of great works of historic art, as well as the context for understanding them, but through the unfolding of such a narrative, these lectures will allow new ways of observing one’s own contemporary world and reimagining its value.

Touring Modernism: From the French Avant-Garde to American Pop and Beyond

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Cultural and Political Influences: Ability to understand the cultural and political contexts of specific art movements. Understanding gender biases and the absence of women artists in the modern period. Understanding racial biases and the issue of primitivism in the modern period.Vocabulary of Art: Ability to articulate concepts of style in terms of describing form, color, line, light, materiality, and space. Ability to describe different techniques of painting, collage, photography etc.Identification and Understanding of the Icons of Art History: Ability to identify key artists and works in their respective time periods, movements and styles. Ability to understand the chronological succession of art movements and why. Understanding the basic biographies of the major figures in the modern and postmodern era.

Making Meaning: An Introduction to Designing Objects, Part I

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Part 1 of Making Meaning: An Introduction to Designing Objects provides an overview of the theories and practices object designers are engaged in today, and how designers use signs, style and utility to generate substance. It also examines the design process in detail, revealing models to help us make sense of its complexity. Starting by illustrating the breadth of the field, the course goes on to explore the power relations and semiotic structures which lie behind object making. It covers how we use objects to express our identity and position ourselves within subcultures, and it analyzes the process of design as it unfolds in the designer’s mind, on paper, through model making, and via other generative “thinking tools”. Incorporating interviews with contemporary professionals the course offers rare insight into the way designers work, the thinking behind their projects, and the methods that lead to successful object-making.

Making Meaning: An Introduction to Designing Objects

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Understanding the breadth of the object design field, its many sub-disciplines and specialisms.Understanding the political connotations of designed objects and how designers express a position through their work.Understanding the working contexts of designers - how designers work in the world and what the different models of practice entail.