Art history

Picasso to Kahlo: Transatlantic Dialogues

Module code: V4118B
Level 5
15 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Seminar
Assessment modes: Essay

You will explore around fifty years in the history of 20th-century art, during which the exchange between European and North-American artists intensified.

Starting with the shocking art of Dada artists in New York (Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Man Ray and the Baroness Elsa von Freytag), we will go back to Paris to examine the queer enclave of American artists and critics (Romaine Brooks and Gertrude Stein). Passing via the Degenerate Art exhibition in Munich, we will return to New York and discuss the significant role of Peggy Guggenheim in supporting those artists who fled from Nazi Europe (Leonora Carrington, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Joan Miró).

The module will also look at representations of African-American artists in Paris and Berlin (Josephine Baker), and the stories around the controversial murals of socialist Mexican artists in New York and Detroit (José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo).

Module learning outcomes

• Demonstrate a broad knowledge of art works and the essential characteristics of art production in this period.
• Demonstrate critical evaluation of principal art-historical literature on this period.
• Apply underlying concepts to independently researched topic.