The period extending from 1925 to the end of the 20th century saw
both the triumph of modernism, and a series of attaches on
modernist “purity” that have continued to the present day.  In this
period we find a radical rethinking of the boundaries between art,
popular culture, and consumer society; we find art dealing with
social issued, history, autobiography, memory, and mortality; we
find various “returns” to realism; and - especially at the end of
the century - we find sharp controversy over acceptable limits of
expression.
	Various forms of social activism, including women’s art,
will constitute an important  segment of the course, carrying us
from the end of the 1960s through the beginning of  the 1970s.  Yet
another  significant  segment will be devoted  to the 1970s, with
special attention  given  to the persistence of painting as both a
rear guard and an avant-garde phenomenon.  In the final weeks  of
the semester we will consider  selected  artists from the last two
decades of  the century.