Accessibility statement

Art in the USA: 1942-1975 - HOA00083H

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  • Department: History of Art
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: H
  • Academic year of delivery: 2023-24

Module summary

This module aims to give a broad grounding in the development of artistic practice in the USA during the mid Twentieth Century through a range of exhibition histories in the lectures and a focus on individual artists in the seminars.

Related modules

Students who have taken the I-level version of Art in the USA: 1942-1975 are prohibited from taking the H-version of the same module.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 2 2023-24

Module aims

This module aims to give a broad grounding in the development of artistic practice in the USA during the mid Twentieth Century. Diverse ideas developed significantly in this period (such as displaying process, making work in the museum or gallery, addressing the role of the spectator in the experience of an art work, assigning manufacture of works to people who are not the artist, the artist as mass-media celebrity) have influenced contemporary artistic practices right across the globe: this module will introduce these ideas within a critical framework.

Students will develop skills in academic writing, where they will be demanded to address a clearly demarcated historical period - bringing to bear aspects of social history on the works they are looking at, and a national context - which they will be expected to address in its regional, racial, and sexual diversity.

Students will develop skills in class discussion, both presenting clearly and listening carefully.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should have acquired:

  • A broad working knowledge of major questions that are raised by the art works produced in the USA between 1942 and 1975.

  • A broad knowledge of the social context in which the works studied were produced.

  • A broad understanding of the debates within art criticism from the period and the development of artists' writing in this context.

  • The skill to choose an appropriate artwork in order to make a clear and concise argument in a brief essay.

  • The skill to write clearly and concisely about complex ideas.

  • Ability to articulate their own position on the topics we have discussed in the seminar and locate those opinions within the critical literature that we have read in class.

  • Ability to identify and critically evaluate new source material through independent research.

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100

Module feedback

You will receive feedback on assessed work within the timeframes set out by the University - please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information.

The purpose of feedback is to help you to improve your future work. If you do not understand your feedback or want to talk about your ideas further, you are warmly encouraged to meet your Supervisor during their Office Hours.

Indicative reading

  • Altshuler, Bruce. The Avant-Garde in Exhibition. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

  • Altshuler, Bruce. Exhibitions That Made Art History. 2 vols. London: Phaidon, 2007, 2013.

  • Battcock, Gregory. Minimal Art: a Critical Anthology. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

  • Broude, Norma, and Mary Garrard. The Power of Feminist Art: The American Movement of the 1970s, History and Impact. New York: Abrams, 1994.

  • Cage, John. Silence. Middletown: Wesleyan, 1994.

  • Crow, Thomas. The Rise of the Sixties. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996.

  • Godfrey, Mark and Zoe Whitley, eds. Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power. London: Tate, 2017.

  • Greenberg, Clement. Art and Culture. Boston: Beacon, 1961.

  • Joselit, David. American Art since 1945. London: Thames and Hudson, 2003.

  • Maddoff, Steven. Pop Art: A Critical History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.

  • Meyer, James. Minimalism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.

  • Wagner, Anne. Three Artists (Three Women). Oakland: University of California Press, 1996.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University constantly explores ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary. In some instances it may be appropriate for the University to notify and consult with affected students about module changes in accordance with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.