20th AND 21st CENTURY ART IN NORTHWEST LOMBARDY
Although not compulsory, any prior knowledge of Western art, literature, history and geography in ancient, medieval and modern, as well as contemporary times will be of great benefit.
The students' knowledge and learning will be tested through the writing of a paper in a manner and on topics to be agreed with the lecturer.
In order to prepare for the examination, students are expected to study the teaching materials projected in class (powerpoints made available on the e-learning platform) and the bibliographical references provided in class. Non-attending students are requested to contact the lecturer as soon as possible.
The course aims at a thorough and systematic knowledge of contemporary art, with particular reference to the main movements that characterised the 20th century. Students will be provided with the fundamental methodological tools for understanding and analysing the themes and works of art of the period addressed, but above all they will work towards the acquisition of an autonomous reading and interpretation of contemporary art phenomena. Crucial then will be the acquisition of a series of operational skills that will allow, already during the course, the application of the notions received in class to the knowledge and valorisation of the territorial heritage. In a process of constant sharing and active collaboration with the students, the territory will therefore be analysed as a context of cultural production, characterised and characterising. The expected learning outcomes therefore include the ability to read a work of art independently, to orient oneself in the geographical and temporal directives of the main Western artistic phenomena by handling specific and sector-specific vocabulary, to construct one's own cognitive pathway - also bibliographical - of particular artistic phenomena, works of art, cultural sites.
The course aims to deal with some of the main artistic movements that developed in the West in the 20th century and in the present day. For each poetics, the constituent themes and paradigms, theoretical cues, critical frameworks, the protagonist artists and a nucleus of related founding works of the art-historical canon of Western contemporary art will be explored. From these general frameworks, a whole series of case studies will then be extrapolated, focusing in particular on the areas of western Lombardy, in order to learn a method that can make students autonomous in their relationship with the contemporary cultural heritage of a territory, thus developing the ability to understand and valorise the specificities of individual geographical contexts.
The more introductory and general parts of the course will consist of frontal lessons with the projection of ppt presentations, with an approach that will always focus on active participation and strong interaction with the students. Another part of the course will instead hinge on a series of practical exercises involving the performance of operational tasks aimed at the acquisition of a whole series of skills that will make students methodologically autonomous in the study of any contemporary art phenomenon and the close relationship that these may have with territorial paradigms, with a view to favouring differentiated and multidisciplinary approaches each time.