ARTH 6625 - Paris, Capital of Modernity?

Spring. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Co-meets with ARTH 3625/SHUM 3625.

K. Presutti.

This course takes a critical perspective on the centrality of Paris to canonical narratives of modernity and modern art and architecture. We will look both at some of the defining art movements of the 19th century and at the influx of people and objects from other cultures—many of whom and which arrived in Paris via colonialist violence and imperialist plunder— that contributed to those movements. Beginning with the French and Haitian Revolutions, moving through Impressionist travels in North Africa and the export of Haussmanization to South America, and ending with Le Corbusier’s plan for redesigning Algiers, the course aims to redress some of the silences and oversights written into the history of modern art.