Art Through the Ages Part II, Wednesdays, 11:00am - 1:00pm, Mar. 12 to Apr. 30, 2025

Learn about art’s fascinating trajectory from the Age of Enlightenment to the pluralism of today. The great 18^th and 19^th century western art movements of Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism and Impressionism reflect an increasingly secularized society, while Expressionism, Symbolism and Post-Impressionism bring the individual artist’s view to the fore.

 

In Africa and Oceania, art retains its traditional role in worship and ritual, while providing inspiration for the European avant-garde including Picasso, Gauguin and Modigliani. The birth of Abstraction signals western art’s final emancipation from representation, culminating in Minimalism, Conceptual and Earth Art. Yet the image returns as currency in Pop Art and Post-Modernism.

Contemporary art, ranging from painting and sculpture to installation and multi-media, is explored in its various roles as vehicle for social criticism, signifier of wealth, barometer of the zeitgeist, or as a soothing respite from the daily grind.

This course is eight weeks of two-hour classes, and can be taken in conjunction with Art Through the Ages I, or independently.  This course is offered through the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies.