AHT 215T Art and Industry in England: 1800-2000
This course explores the relation between the visual arts and British industrial development in the course of the 19th and 20th century. It will consider the representation of a changing landscape in painting and prints, the encounter of aesthetics with the scientific innovation and spirit of the industrial age, the creation of Victorian museums, galleries and art collections within the rapidly developing industrial city. It will also discuss resistance to these changes, as exemplified by the art of the Pre-Raphaelites and the writings of John Ruskin. Secondly, the course investigates the emergence of post-industrial cultural economies in the second half of the 20th century, placing emphasis on visual and aesthetic responses. It addresses the impact of late 20th century regeneration strategies on the cultural field, putting a particular emphasis on the development of contemporary art from the 1980s onward. Thus the course aims to further the students' knowledge of artistic developments in England and Britain during the period, while stressing these developments’ interactive relation with socio-political and economic history.