Australian Art: The Modern Period

This course will focus on the modern period in Australian art from the early twentieth century to the 1960s. It deals with a wide range of issues centring on modernity and modernism and will place Australian art within an international context. Key debates around nationalism, provincialism and gender will be considered in depth. Topics will include responses to war, the contribution of/migr/artists, the relationship between art and politics and the role of women artists. A particular emphasis of the course will be on photographic practice as an emblem of modernity; the work of photographers Max Dupain, Olive Cotton and Wolfgang Sievers will be closely examined. The course will employ contemporary methodological approaches to illuminate this crucial period in Australian art and cultural life. Classes will be taught primarily at the National Gallery of Australia and will be based on the NGA collection, using works on display as well as works in storage. Students will be expected to engage directly with works of art in different media including painting, sculpture, printmaking, the decorative arts as well as photography. The course complements 'Contemporary Australian art', also offered by the Art Theory Workshop, which deals with the period from the 1970s to the present.