Spring 2004

LAS 327 • CONTEMPORARY LATIN AMER ART

Course Description

We investigate the major post-World War II tendencies and movements from abstraction to conceptual art particularly in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela and Colombia by looking at artists such as Jorge de la Vega, Lygia Clark, Helio Oiticica, and Cildo Meireles among others, in their contexts. We study the various forms new figuration took in the 1960s and 1970s and the use of conceptual strategies in the 1970s and 1980s in countries under military governments, to make covert political statements. How effective were these strategies? Does this art change its meaning when the context changes? We explore these and other questions including the significance of alternative spaces in the 1990s and after, by artists seeking to sidestep commercial exhibition venues.

Grading Policy

2 exams each 25% One paper 35% Participation and attendance 15%

Texts

READINGS includes a required course packet and an optional text: J.Barnitz. Twentieth-Century Art of Latin America

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