Modern and Contemporary Art in London UCL

Overview

The Modern and Contemporary Art in London course from UCL Summer School will closely scrutinise a broad range of art objects, including painting, sculpture, photography, and video, to consider how the development of visual technologies, materials and techniques are negotiated by artists and have impacted on the critical methodologies developed by art historians.

Each week will take a different thematic category to foreground discussion, helping to address changing cultural, social and historical contexts in the making of visual art and its relationship to current sites of exhibition and mechanism of display.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students will have:

• Developed a good understanding of London’s major collections and cultural institutions.

• Acquired knowledge regarding art’s relationship to the moment of its making and current site of exhibition.

• Obtained a good understanding of historical shifts in materials and the materiality of modern to contemporary art.

• Gained skills in comparative and alternative ways of seeing and critique.

• Discussed and put into practice several art historical methodologies and vocabularies of critical debate.

• Obtained a good introductory understanding of theoretical notions of production and consumption, and systems of social and cultural valuation.