CLASS 4716 - [Classicism and Contemporary Art]

(crosslisted) ARTH 4716
(LA-AS, ALC-AS)

Spring. Not offered: 2021-2022. Next offered: 2023-2024. 4 credits. Letter grades only.

Co-meets with ARTH 6716/CLASS 7716.

V. Platt.

This course will explore how contemporary artists and designers borrow, replicate, challenge, play with, and subvert the arts of Greco-Roman antiquity. We will survey the influence of classical multiples – from bronze series and plaster casts to digital imaging and 3-D printing; the use of classical objects in critiques of art-world institutions, especially by female photographers such as Louise Lawler and Sara VanDerBeek; subversions of classical monumentality by Black artists such as Kehinde Wiley and Kara Walker; and the influence of classicism upon constructions of European heritage in contemporary fashion and interior design. As a form of “critical reception studies”, this course also examines the complex political legacy of classicism and the role it plays in contemporary discussions of race, from debates over the “whiteness” of classical sculpture to the relationship between state power and monumentality.