This course tracks the burst of cultural production by contemporary artists of color, trained and based in England from the 1950s to the present. The art under our scrutiny will be Modernist painting and sculpture, and post-Modernist mixed-media art, installations, performances, and film. We will also examine the furor generated by controversial exhibitions in which the work of artists of color was prominently featured, namely, “The Other Story” (London, 1989) and “Sensation” (Brooklyn, 1999). The semester’s reading include art histories and criticism, as well as the social and intellectual texts that influenced these artists: cultural nationalism, postcolonial critiques, the writing of Franz Fanon, British cultural studies, and post-identity theories. Assignments: 2 exams, 3 short precise papers (4 pages each), 1 research paper (10 pages), 2 class presentations.
