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Semester 2

The Modern Art Museum (Level 10) (HIAR10199)

Subject

History of Art

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed 3 History of Art courses at grade B or above, and please note that we will not consider History courses unrelated to Art, or practical Art courses, towards these pre-requisites. We will only consider University/College level courses. Please see Additional Restrictions below.

Course Summary

A course on the theory and practice of the modern art museum, with a particular focus on museum architecture. It is global in scope, and covers key trends from the 1970s to the present.

Course Description

Each week in this seminar-based course, we will focus on a single museum as a case study, understood as representative of a key moment in the development of the modern art museum. There will be up to ten museums covered in detail in the course, from an international range which may include MoMA, New York; the Museu de Arte de São Paulo; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao; the Getty Center, Los Angeles; Tate Modern, London; and the 798 Art District, Beijing. An introductory class explores the main trends in museum design during the past 40 years, and how they are represented by the case studies. Although specific topics may vary from year to year, among the main trends we are likely to study are the recycling of industrial space for museums, the role of iconic museums in city branding, and the impact of the virtual museum on the design of museum buildings. By the end of the course, students will have a good understanding of the principles and concepts behind the design of up to ten art museums worldwide, as well as clear sense of how the field is developing now.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 50%, Coursework 50%, Practical Exam 0%

Additional Restrictions

Unless you are nominated on a History of Art exchange agreement, visiting students are only permitted to enrol in one 3rd year History of Art course each, per semester, before the start of the relevant semester’s welcome period – and spaces on each course are limited so cannot be guaranteed for any student. Enrolment in a second course from this group will depend on whether there are still spaces available in the January Welcome Period, and cannot be guaranteed. It is NOT appropriate for students to contact staff within this subject area to ask for an exception to be made; all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. This is due to the extremely limited number of spaces available in this very popular subject area.

view the timetable and further details for this course