modern and contemporary art
The department is unique in its rich and diverse strengths in Modern area. A number of faculty provide expertise across a range of geographical areas - from Europe, the United States, Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and Japan- and across periods spanning the 18th century to the present. The program is premised on the belief that representation actively participates in historical, political and social formations. Faculty draw on a range of theories and methods developed through social art history, psychoanalytic theory, subaltern and post-colonial formations, semiotics, and gender theory. The
department's courses in Modern and Contemporary art include theoretical and critical approaches, focusing on subjects such as feminism and representation; theories of modernism; mediating objects and theory, to name but a few. Critical models and methodological approaches are also integrated into courses addressing specific movements and themes (e.g. Romanticism, Surrealism, and Pop Art).
A strong emphasis on the ways in which modernism and postmodernism are manifested or constructed through various periods and circumstances is a primary focus of the program, featured in such courses as The Culture of Dissent: the 1960s; Race, Authenticity and Authority in art of the United States; Alternative Modernisms in Africa and African Diaspora Arts. The department is distinctive in that two faculty, Abigail Solomon-Godeau and Ulrich Keller, cover the area of photography, an essential component of modernist and post-modern artistic practices. Many faculty have a strong interest in museum studies, developing courses in conjunction with local exhibitions so that students have an opportunity to develop their skills in conjunction with objects and exhibition practices. Recent
course offerings by Ann Bermingham, Bruce Robertson and Miriam Wattles have included this emphasis, taking advantage of the visual resources in photography, painting, sculpture and architecture available in Santa Barbara and the Los Angeles area.
Bermingham's current research in nineteenth-century art has focused on the emergence of romantic landscape painting as well as the confluence of popular visual forms and spectacles with high art. She is currently researching the development of plein air painting in Britain in relation to scientific demonstrations and popular spectacles like the panorama and diorama. Both Bermingham and Solomon-Godeau cover the art and theory of the 18th and 19th centuries. Solomon-Godeau also teaches contemporary art and theory of the 20th and 21st centuries. She publishes in all three fields, most recently completing a book on gender, race and the politics of self-representation. Her current research projects include the female nude in French painting and another on photography and the uncanny. Bruce Robertson covers art of the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries. His research interests have covered a range of media and periods, from Hollywood studio photographs to studies on American artists such as John Singer Sargent, Marsden Hartley and Winslow Homer. Laurie Monahan covers 20th century European and post-war art of the United States. Having completed a book on André Masson, Surrealism and violence in the 1930s, her current research is devoted to the relationships between French avant-garde periodicals, pulp magazines and photo-journals of the interwar period.
The burgeoning area of visual culture is represented by the research and course offerings of Robertson, Monahan, as well as Wattles, who focuses on the popular culture of Japan in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Professors teaching in areas such as African Art (Sylvester Ogbechie), East and South Asian art and architecture (Wattles and Swati Chattopadhyay) or Islamic art and architecture (Nuha Khoury) periodically offer courses on modern and contemporary art and architecture from their own geographical areas. Volker M. Welter covers European and American architecture of the 19th and 20th centuries, addressing issues of architectural preservation as well as covering the principle architects and monuments of the last two centuries. Enhancing the Modern/Contemporary
program strength in architecture, many professors actively integrate study of the large collection of drawings and projects included in the holdings of the University Art Museum's Architectural Drawing Center. Students are encouraged to develop projects from the unusual archival resources available on campus. In keeping with the faculty commitment to interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research, the Modern/Contemporary program also offers courses from adjunct faculty who bring expertise on theory and film (Colin Gardner, Dept. of Art), the Russian avant-garde, psychoanalytic theory (Sven Spieker, Dept. of Russian, Germanic, Slavic
and Semitic Studies); and Chicano/a and Latin American arts (Guisela Latorre, Chicano/Chicana Studies). Collectively, the faculty in the Modern/Contemporary field offer a range and variety of course offerings and critical perspectives, and all who teach in these areas are strongly supportive of interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research.
