ARTH 398 - Special Topics in Art and Society: Las Vegas: Fine Art and Architecture and the Spectacle of Populist Art

• M - 09:00 - 11:30
• EV-1-615
• INSTRUCTOR: DR. LOREN LERNER

This course traces the many metamorphoses of  Las Vegas from its foundation as a city in 1905 into the present time. Its focus is on the ways Las Vegas has transformed itself again and again as architects, designers and artists, driven by competition, got rid of the old to make way for the new. In these different manifestations of so-called creative destruction the city has impersonated the Wild West; illuminated itself with twenty-story-high neon signs; created Disney-like theme parks and replicas of Venetian canals, New York skyscrapers, and the Eiffel Tower; and built mega-hotels and casinos. In exploring these transformations of Las Vegas, the course will consider how Las Vegas has mirrored, magnified and at times initiated trends in American art and architecture while promoting the commercialization of culture and nature. Each lecture will be devoted to a particular topic, such as Las Vegas as a frontier town; city of the Atomic Age; early progenitor of postmodernism; international icon of gambling and amusement; desert paradise and sin city for contemporary artists; cinematic source for the city's checkered history of moguls, mobsters, and entertainers; and metropolis where over two million people of exceptionally varied origins go about their everyday lives.