OSHER 549 - What Is Art?

What is considered "art" has changed throughout time. This course will explore how the definition of art has changed over various time periods. We will focus primarily on the nineteenth through the twentieth centuries--the centuries of the "isms", beginning with Impressionism to Post-Modernism. We will explore the relationships between culture and the art forms produced by that culture at a particular time. Some core questions will be "What are the events that shape artistic expression?" and "What constitutes 'popular' versus 'academic' art?".