ART 385 - Seminar in American Art

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as AMST 385 and URBS 385) Topic for 2015/16b: The Visual and Material Culture of U.S. World’s Fairs, 1853-1939. From the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries, world’s fairs played a crucial role in facilitating the emergence of mass visual culture and shaping important developments in the fine arts, architecture, and urban design. Millions of visitors attended these immense global spectacles, wandering through the elaborate but temporary cities erected on the fairgrounds, in order to view public works of art and architecture, anthropological exhibitions, popular entertainments, and juried exhibitions of the latest cultural, scientific, and technological achievements. This interdisciplinary seminar focuses on the art, architecture, and techniques of display at major world’s fairs held in the United States, including New York (1853 and 1939), Philadelphia (1876), Chicago (1893), Buffalo (1901), St. Louis (1904), and San Francisco (1915). We consider how the visual and material culture of international expositions attempted to give form to (or, in some cases, subvert) a new social order during an era of rapid modernization, industrialization, and growing nationalism and imperialism. Ms. Baradel.

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Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.

One 2-hour period.