Philosophies of Modern and Contemporary Art

Philosophies of Modern and Contemporary Art is a Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies class taught by Christoph Cox.

Course Description
This course will examine the ways that 20th-century philosophers and theorists have approached the art of their time, and the ways that modern and contemporary art illuminate and ground philosophical thought. Via writings by philosophers, theorists, and artists, we will traverse a selected history of 20th-century art guided by a selected history of 20th-century art theory. The course will survey artistic practices such as modernism, postmodernism, conceptualism, minimalism, and relational aesthetics and will examine critical approaches such as formalism, psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, and deconstruction. Students will be responsible for researching and presenting works of art for class discussions. Readings by Heidegger, Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida, Badiou, Greenberg, Fried, Foster, Krauss, Bhabha, Enwezor, Bourriaud, and others.