This course will examine the dynamic relationship between art and social liberation movements in the United States from 1960 to the present. We will analyze a broad range of artmaking practices including abstraction, photography, and street interventions, looking at work undertaken in the contexts of the civil rights, feminist, and Chicanx movements, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and current social movements around police brutality, climate justice, and sexual harassment and assault. Rather than focusing solely on activist art, we will consider the varied ways artists have addressed ideas about liberation. Special attention will be paid to artists who have expressed ambivalence about the fraught intersection of aesthetics and politics. A motivating goal of this course is to enable lively analysis of the multiple strategies that artists have used to negotiate systems of exclusion. There are no prerequisites for this course.
| Distribution Area | Prerequisites | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Arts and Humanities- or -Privilege, Power And Diversity | 1 course |
Fall Semester information
Sarah Cowan282A: Art + Liberation
This course will examine the dynamic relationship between art and social liberation movements in the United States from 1960 to the present. We will analyze a broad range of artmaking practices including abstraction, photography, and street interventions, looking at work undertaken in the contexts of the civil rights, feminist, and Chicanx movements, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and current social movements in the art world. Rather than focusing solely on activist art, we will consider the varied ways artists have addressed ideas about liberation. Special attention will be paid to artists who have expressed ambivalence about the fraught intersection of aesthetics and politics. A motivating goal of this course is to enable lively analysis of the multiple strategies that artists have used to negotiate systems of exclusion. There are no prerequisites for this course.