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Modern Art and French Imperialism - SAHT9207
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Campus: College of Fine Arts Campus
 
 
Career: Postgraduate
 
 
Units of Credit: 6
 
 
EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
 
 
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 3
 
 
Enrolment Requirements:
 
 
None
 
 
Excluded: SAHT2223
 
 
Fee Band: 1 (more info)
 
 
Further Information: See Class Timetable
 
  

Description

When Paris was invaded by Nazi troops, the art writer Harold Rosenberg reminisced how it had once been 'the Holy Place of our time. The only one.' Until then, a Modern Art market had flourished in Paris, unsurpassed in scale and complexity by any other nation, and actively supported by the French Third Republic. Whilst encouraging artists worldwide to come to Paris, it also encouraged international collectors to acquire Modern Art made in France. At the same time, the Republic also bought artwork for transmission to French provinces and colonies in its ethnocentric conviction that those at the 'peripheries' would become 'civilized' by this 'mission'. This course will explore how Paris evolved as a unique field of cultural production through the network of institutional interrelationships forged between the French State, Paris Salons, art dealers and patrons. It will examine the huge number and national diversity of artists from Rupert Bunny and Marie Vassiliev to Pablo Picasso, who flocked from cities as geographically diverse as Sydney, St. Petersburg and Barcelona to this Modern Art Centre. As a Postgraduate course, it will also examine the politico-cultural identities of Salons and Dealer-Galleries, the rivalries between them for State funding and market dominance and the coteries that formed between particular artists, art writers, art dealers and art politicians. By charting the dissemination of acquisitions, it will reveal how cultural imperialist strategies deployed by America during the Cold War, were alive and well in twentieth-century France.

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© The University of New South Wales (CRICOS Provider No.: 00098G), 2004-2011. The information contained in this Handbook is indicative only. While every effort is made to keep this information up-to-date, the University reserves the right to discontinue or vary arrangements, programs and courses at any time without notice and at its discretion. While the University will try to avoid or minimise any inconvenience, changes may also be made to programs, courses and staff after enrolment. The University may also set limits on the number of students in a course.