Ai Weiwei, Teahouse; Photo credit: Cornelia Feye
Online sales have ended. Tickets are available at the door.
Thursdays, October 5, 12, 19 & 26; November 2, 2023
7:30 PM
Seven Decades of Contemporary Art Trends, 1945 to the Present features an art historical overview of the most important art movements from mid-20th century to the present, recognizing geopolitical events reflected in the artwork.
Thursday, October 5 (1945–1950s): Cornelia Feye begins the series in the post-war period. Abstract Expressionism is the dominant art movement and is followed in the mid-1950s by color-field painters and geometric abstraction artists. Artists include Willem and Elaine deKooning, Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Frank Stella, Ronald Davis, and Ed Moses, among others.
Thursday, October 12 (1960s): Minimalism and Pop Art emerge in reaction to Abstract Expressionism. Op art, or optical art, placing its emphasis on visual perception, follows. West Coast artists, including the “Cool School” and “Finish Fetish” at LA’s Ferus Gallery, emerge as innovators. Assemblage artists add a third dimension and found objects into their art. Artists include Donald Judd, Agnes Martin, Victor Vasarely, Bridget Riley, Ed Ruscha, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Wayne Thiebaud, Joseph Cornell, and Louise Nevelson, to name a few.
Thursday, October 19 (1970s): Installation art expands into immersive life-size environments, while performance art incorporates the participation of the viewer into live happenings. In Europe, the Fluxus movement exerts a strong influence. On the West Coast the Light & Space movement is inspired by the California sun and wide-open spaces. With Earth/site-specific art movement, art moves out of the gallery space and into the open landscape. Conceptual art rising to preeminence placing prime importance on words and ideas. Artists include Ed Kienholz, Robert Irwin, Joseph Beuys, Marina Abramovich, Allan Kaprow, James Turell, Larry Bell, Peter Alexander, Dewain Valentine, Walter de Maria, Michael Heizer, Robert Long, John Baldessari, Bruce Nauman, and Jenny Holzer, among others.
Thursday, October 26 (1980s and 1990s): The feminist art that began in the 1970s continues in the 1980s. Traditional fabric and fiber crafts inspire the Pattern and Decoration movement in California and New York. In the era of post-Modernism, artists appropriate aspects of previous art movements into their work. Street artists make their statements on public buildings. Environmental artists work with organic material to create impermanent art. Neo-Expressionism arises. Artists include Barbara Kruger, the Guerilla Girls, Alexis Smith, Robert Kushner, Cindy Sherman, Gerhard Richter, Banksy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Maya Lin, to name a few.
Thursday, November 2 (2000–Present): In discussing which art movements of the 21st century will have a lasting effect, Feye reviews some of her favorite artists from around the world, many of them “who use any medium imaginable and explore universal or societal issues.” Artists include Ai Weiwei, El Anatsui, Cai Guo-Qiang, Olafur Eliasson, Pussy Riot, Australian Barbara Weir, Kay WalkingStick, Kara Walker, Anish Kapoor, William Kentridge, and Alicja Kwade, among others.
About Cornelia Feye:
Cornelia Feye received her M.A. in Art History and Anthropology from the University of Tübingen, Germany. After five years in New York, she moved to San Diego, where she taught Eastern and Western Art History. Her museum experience includes the Mingei International, the San Diego Museum of Arts, the Museum of Man, and the California Center for the Arts in Escondido. From 2007 to 2017 she was the School of the Arts Director at the Athenaeum. Her first novel, Spring of Tears, an art mystery set in France won the San Diego Book Award for the mystery category in 2011. Her second art mystery, House of the Fox, is set in Anza Borrego desert and San Diego. Her third novel, Private Universe, a coming-of-age story and art mystery, was released in 2017. Publications include art historical essays and reviews in English and German. She is the founder of Konstellation Press, an independent publishing company specializing in genre fiction and poetry at the intersection of art, music and literature. Konstellation Press just won another San DIEGO Book Award for our short story anthology Magic, Mystery & Murder.
Series tickets (five lectures): $65/90
Individual lecture tickets: $15/20
The lectures will be in person at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. There are no physical tickets for these events. Your name will be on an attendee list at the front door. Doors open at 7 p.m. Seating is first-come; first-served. These events will be presented in compliance with State of California and County of San Diego health regulations as applicable at the time of each lecture.
Masks optional. If you have a fever, cough, or flu-like symptoms, please stay home.