Art and Empire: Representing National Identity in 19th- and 20th-Century Art

Taking as its point of departure the upcoming Frye exhibitions Napoleon on the Nile and Empire, this course introduces the ways art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has participated in, and responded to, “nation-building.” Art historian Kolya Rice presents a general survey of many key artists and styles of the past two centuries. Organized chronologically the course traces a trajectory from Jacques-Louis David, whose paintings fueled the fires of the French Revolution and later buttressed Napoleon’s efforts to forge an empire, to contemporary artists such as Fred Wilson, who are engaged in postcolonial critiques of entrenched, stagnant institutions.

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