This course will critically examine the many interrelationships between artistic practices and critical, aesthetic and theoretical issues that have arisen out of them and been used to frame and comprehend them. The overall aim of the course is to give students a critical understanding of the central philosophical and conceptual underpinnings of art practice and theory particularly from the 18th century as well as an understanding of how research into these underpinnings is undertaken. Romantic, Modernist and Postmodernist art practices and artists are examined in the context of these framing theories of art practice and reception.