CLARTAH021 - From Impressionism to Modernism: The Development of European Art
Art historian Dr. Leo Costello explores late 19th- and early 20th-century European art movements and artists in conjunction with The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), exhibit “Monet to Matisse: Impressionism to Modernism from the Bemberg Foundation.” We chart Impressionism’s growth from a controversial art by a group of young artists to an established, dominant movement in the midst of the urban milieu of Paris. That stage, and the role that sexuality and gender played, is the focus of a class centered on Edgar Degas. In the Post-Impressionist period, we contrast the work of Paul Cézanne and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec as they negotiated the legacy of Impressionism and nature in very different ways. We conclude with the work of Bonnard, Vuillard and especially Matisse through the lens of the decorative in response to modernity and modernism. The class includes a pre-recorded session from MFAH curator Dr. Helga Aurisch, who will provide a lecture on the exhibit.
The pre-recorded session with curator Helga Aurisch and course instructor, Leo Costello, will be available for viewing September 1.
You may also be interested the fall 2021 course Impressionistic Music: From Debussy to Stravinsky, taught by Carlos Andrés Botero.
Course Details
Leo Costello, Ph.D., is an associate professor of art history at Rice University. He specializes in 18th- through 20th-century European art as well as Marxist theory and aesthetics. He is the author of “J. M. W. Turner and the Subject of History” (Ashgate, 2012), and is at work on another book on Turner. Dr. Costello was formerly curatorial assistant in the department of prints and drawings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Dr. Costello received his Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College, has taught many courses with the Glasscock School of Continuing Studies and is a four-time finalist for the George R. Brown Teaching Award at Rice.
Helga Kessler Aurisch, Ph.D., is the curator of European art at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She has organized numerous exhibitions including “Monet to Matisse: Impressionism to Modernism from the Bemberg Foundation,” “The Masterpieces of French Painting from The Metropolitan Museum of Art,” and “Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the National Gallery, Washington.”
Online: Synchronous
This course will be delivered in a synchronous format online. Registered participants will receive login instructions to the course page, which will provide access to the virtual classroom link and other resources.
- From Impressionism to Modernism (pre-recorded presentation by curator Dr. Helga Aurisch with Dr. Leo Costello)
- Course Overview and Early Impressionism: Art in and out of the Salon
- Impressionism Comes of Age: Monet and Money in the 1870s
- Sex and the City: Degas, Gender and Paris
- For and Against Nature: Post-Impressionism in the Work of Cézanne and Toulouse-Lautrec
- Modernity or Modernism? Matisse and the Comforts of Decoration
Department of Art History, Rice University