ARTH 370 - Studies in Canadian Art: Abstract Painting in Canada 1900 to Present

• M - 15:00-17:30
• EV-1.605
• INSTRUCTOR: JESSICA VEEVERS
  

This course will provide a survey of Canadian abstract painting from the early 1900s until the present.  We will look at how the different movements originating in Europe, such as Cubism, German Expressionism, and Surrealism, uniquely influenced a distinctive manifestation between early Canadian and American abstract painting. Canadian abstract art has many parallels with the Abstract Expression and Colour Field painting that was developing in New York, but it retained its own unique character and motivation. We will also look at the broad variation in regional expression throughout Canada.  While artists across Canada were similarly motivated to break with traditional modes of representation and envisioned the abstract as a necessary fissure that would allow them to move away from a nationalist narrative to a universal narrative, their regional expression was quite diverse. This course will provide students with a thorough understanding of the development of abstract painting in Canada, a comprehension of the theoretical and material underpinnings that drove these new types of expression, and an appreciation for the place of Canada’s abstract art in relation to International trends.