Art as a Mirror of the World Around Us

“Approaching Art” is a series of introductory courses to contemporary art that deal with seminal key concepts with an instructive, accessible approach. Each course is divided into three easy-to-grasp modules, which also work as independent units, for the enjoyment and understanding of contemporary art, the Museum’s exhibitions, and the works in the Collection.

Conducted by: Iñigo Sarriugarte Gómez, Professor of History of Art at the University of the Basque Country (EHU/UPV)
Type of course: on-site (it can be done online)
Day and time: Tuesdays, 6:00–7:30 pm
Target audience: adults interested in contemporary art
Language: Spanish

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN IN THIS COURSE?

• You will get acquainted with a series of relevant contemporary artists, their production, contributions, and influences, and with a number of specific artworks, placed in their historical, social, political, and artistic context.
• In this approach to modern and contemporary art, you will acquire some basic notions to gain confidence in this field.
• You will explore the work of female artists and the place they deserve in the history of art.
• You will discuss common threads in contemporary art that have acquired great importance and notoriety at a social level, such as equality, diversity, and sustainability.

CONTENTS

Module I: Utopias and Shattered Dreams

October 21: Social, Scientific, and Cultural Transformations
From the late 19th century to the outbreak of World War II, the world witnessed a number of profound political, social, and technological transformations: the growth of cities powered by the late Industrial Revolution; unprecedented advancements in science and technology; the rise of new social classes and social movements. World War I meant the disruption of the existing world order, leaving in its wake a devastated European continent and paving the way for both revolutionary and authoritarian movements. In addition, the profound economic crisis of 1929 aggravated the situation of uncertainty and lack of stability, which led to the rise of totalitarianism in several countries.

Fundamental discoveries in physics, chemistry, and biology led to unprecedented progress in science and technology, transforming the way the world was viewed and bringing in modern times. New philosophical, psychological, and artistic schools—positivism, psychoanalysis, and the avant-garde movements—encouraged men and women to question traditional values and explore new means of expression and knowledge.

November 4: The Emergence of Utopia and Other Looks
Avant-garde art movements, like Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, or Surrealism reflected the uncertainty and the need for renewal of the day. New artistic languages and ways of thinking, under the influence of utopian and idealistic notions, were used in an effort to build a better world through art. Meanwhile, the language of abstraction that emerged in the previous century took root, and the new perspectives and forms of expression helped artists find forms of representation that were far away from reality.

Selected artists: Giacomo Balla, Marcel Duchamp, Vasily Kandinsky, Hilma af Klint, René Magritte, Kazimir Malevich, Maruja Mallo, Piet Mondrian, Kurt Schwitters.

November 18: Artistic Communities and Settlements—Monte Verità and Bauhaus
In the early 20th century, artistic communities were established in Europe and America as spaces to experiment, break away from the established norm, and collectively find new ways of living and creating. Inspired by utopian ideals and driven by the will to challenge social conventions, these communities gathered artists, intellectuals, and reformers.

An emblematic case in Europe, Monte Verità, Switzerland, was considered a forerunner of alternative movements. It brought together artists, writers, and thinkers in search for freedom, life in contact with nature, and experimentation in the spheres of art and ideas in the early 20th century. Monte Verità became a laboratory for new practices combining art, dance, spirituality, vegetarianism, and communal life, anticipating some of the aspects of the countercultural movements of later years.

There were other, similar, initiatives across Europe. The Bauhaus in Germany, for instance, was a creative, interdisciplinary community where art, architecture, and designed were integrated under a transformative, and collective approach.

Selected artists: Josef and Anni Albers, Marcel Breuer, Isadora Duncan, Walter Gropius, Alexej von Jawlensky, Paul Klee, Rudolf von Laban, László Moholy-Nagy, Oskar Schlemmer, Gunta Stölzl, Marianne von Werefkin, Mary Wigman.

December 2: Tour of the exhibition Maria Helena Vieira da Silva. Anatomy of Space.

Module II: In Search for New Freedoms

January 20: Social, Scientific, and Cultural Transformations
The end of World War II marked the beginning of a new era of transformations and a new global order. Against the backdrop of the Cold War, Europe and Japan undertook their reconstruction, which led to unprecedented economic growth in the Western world. Decolonization began in Africa and Asia, changing the political map of the world.

Among the most relevant scientific innovations of the period, the Space Race and man’s first landing on the Moon in 1969, advances in nuclear power and medicine, or the development of new technologies revolutionized communications and everyday life.

Existentialism, structuralism, hermeneutics, postmodernism, and liberation movements framed and gave voice to mankind’s concerns associated with the uncertainty of the post-war world, the reconstruction efforts, and the need to find new meanings for life and new forms of freedom.

February 3: Organicism, St Ives School, Informalism, New York School v. Pop Art
The visual arts reflected the profound changes experienced in the world in the aftermath of World War II, with the tensions and aspirations that characterized societies in need of change. The emerging art movements broke away from traditional aesthetics, promoting artistic languages that were essentially abstract.

In the 1950s, as London was grappling with the consequences of the war, a group of artists gathered in the Cornish town of St Ives. The St Ives School and organic sculpture led the avant-garde in Britain: they promoted the use of nature-inspired forms and the harmonious integration of the artwork and its environment. In France and Spain, the art scene was dominated by Informalism or Art Informel, while in America, Abstract Expressionism promoted abstract, non-representational art on an international level, while Pop Art championed popular culture and figurative art.

Selected artists: Arman, Marisol Escobar, Richard Hamilton, Barbara Hepworth, Roy Lichtenstein, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Andy Warhol.

February 17: The Dematerialization of Art and the Emergence of New “Exhibition Spaces”
In the 1960s and 1970s, against the backdrop of the pacifist and feminist movements, art turned once again to nature, landscape, and the Earth, albeit not under a traditional, figurative approach. Movements like Land Art or Earth Art, Arte Povera, or Atmospheric Art flourished in the art world, seeking new forms of representation or interventions in reality where nature was used as material (soil, wood, the elements, etc.) and/or as creative tool. This led to the emergence of new spaces for artistic creation and exhibition, such as natural or open environments, which transcend the walls of museums and galleries .

Through performance art and certain feminism and pacifist claims, the human body acquires and unprecedented visibility.

Selected artists: Giovanni Anselmo, Jannis Kounellis, Richard Long, Fujiko Nakaya, Robert Smithson, James Turrell, Yoko Ono.

March 3: Tour of the Permanent Collection and the exhibition Arts of the Earth, part 1

Module III: Without Borders: Mother Earth

March 17: Social, Scientific, and Cultural Transformations
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked the end of the Cold War and ushered in a new era, characterized by rapid globalization and significant political transformations. Social movements for the advancement of civil rights, gender equality, and diversity spread across the globe.

The rise of the internet and digital technology revolutionized communications, education, and relationships in society and at the workplace. The Human Genome Project, the use of renewable energy, and space research broadened the horizon of knowledge.

Following postmodernism, philosophy embraced pluralism and diversity while focusing on topics such as democracy, global justice, the ethics of technology, environmental awareness, ecofeminism, and decolonial perspectives.

New artistic practices appear to open up new spaces for reflection about social and environmental issues as well as collective identity.

April 7: Beyond Modern Art in the West: New Ideas and Creative Avenues
In 1989, a contemporary art exhibition was held in Paris under the title Magiciens de la terre, curated by Jean-Hubert Martin. The show had a huge impact in that it challenged Eurocentric and colonial practices within contemporary art exhibitions, featuring both Western and non-Western artists shoulder to shoulder.

Later, the awareness of the true place that each artist occupies opens a continuous debate and reflection on decolonization in contemporary art, questioning the "official" historiography, almost always told from a single point of view, and giving visibility to other artistic practices that previously had no voice.

Selected artists: Agnes Denes, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Barbara Kruger, Cildo Meireles, Ana Mendieta, Huang Yong Ping, Susana Solano, Cecilia Vicuña

April 21: Tour of the exhibitions Ruth Asawa and Arts of the Earth, part 2 

May 5: Contemporary Art and Environmental Sustainability: Art as a Driver of Change?
Over the past few decades, growing awareness of climate change and humankind’s responsibility in it has inspired a generation of artists whose creative purpose and processes try to shed light on this threat through art. Practices such as agriculture, agronomy, botany, geology, chemistry, physics, or biology inevitably intersect with the arts.

Contemporary art practices reflect the way in which we have related and relate to the natural world and the environment around us, how we have gone from being "spectators" to having greater awareness and involvement.

Selected artists: El Anatsui, Olafur Eliasson, Fernando García-Dory, Julie Mehretu, Asunción Molinos Gordo

Image:
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908–1992)
Figure de ballet, 1948
Oil and graphite on canvas, 27 × 46 cm
Courtesy Galerie Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, Paris–Lisbon
Inv. CR587