20th Century Art History

Art 263-01

Professor Joanna Inglot

“When Professor Joanna Inglot suggested that we go to New York for our 20th Century art history final, we really couldn¹t believe she was serious. But she was, and from Friday December 8 through Sunday December 10 we went museum hopping in New York City. After a quick tourist overview on Friday night visiting Times Square and Rockefeller Center, we threw ourselves into the museums. We started Saturday with our final: walking around the Museum of Modern Art, we saw and discussed works by artists we had studied in class. Marc Chagall, Rene Magritte, Meret Oppenheim, Marcel Duchamp, Jackson Pollock, Eva Hesse… It was amazing how much we knew and recognized after a semester of lectures and discussions! And the art meant so much more to us seeing it in person- there is something about a slide that can¹t convey the power and magnitude of a Jackson Pollock painting or the spirituality of a Constantin Brancusi sculpture. Later that day we visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we saw even more of the works we studied as well as their precursors such as Degas, Cassatt, and Renoir. We spent the evening in Soho, getting a feel for the galleries where working artists’ work is on display. Suddenly it was Sunday, and we had our last museum visit to the Guggenheim, where we wound our way up the spiral gallery recognizing Picassos, Braques and KandiskysŠ Studying art means so much more when it is in context. Of course the museums themselves show art¹s context in how they are curated, but New York itself is an amazing environment in itself having been the center of the western art world for a large part of the 20th century. New York City and its museums made the art we have studied come alive in a new way, and made us appreciate art history even more. Not a bad way to take a final.” -Raina Fox Class of 2008 Art History, Humanities and Cultural Studies