History of Modern and Contemporary Art

larct1003  2025-2026  Tournai

History of Modern and Contemporary Art
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3.00 credits
30.0 h
Q1
Language
French
Main themes
From the Renaissance to Contemporary Art
This course emphasizes thematic links to understand the three paradigms of classical, modern, and contemporary art, focusing on:
  • Methodology and Lexical Hypotheses: Exploring concepts such as total art and the synthesis of the arts, contrasts between classical and modern, and modern versus contemporary, as framed by theorists like H. Zeeman.
  • Art and Nature: Tracing connections from the Renaissance to realism, art and photography, Impressionism, Fauvism, and Land Art.
  • Art and Space: Examining developments from the Renaissance to Baroque, Cubism and Futurism, Cézanne, abstraction, and Minimalism.
  • Art and the Psyche: Delving into works by Goya and movements such as Romanticism, Expressionism, Surrealism, and Cobra.
  • The Artist and Art: Studying transformations from the Renaissance to Velázquez, Romanticism, Dadaism, Fluxus, and Hacktivism.
  • Art and Society: Investigating themes through Pop Art, Arte Povera, Beuys’ concept of social sculpture, conceptual art, multimedia, transmedia, and digital arts.
Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

Specific Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
  • Apply a structured methodological framework to analyze a work of art,
  • Develop thematic comparisons that effectively distinguish between the successive periods of modern and contemporary art,
  • Establish connections between the history of art and the history of architecture, focusing on both works and theoretical concepts.

General Learning Outcomes

In line with the program’s learning outcomes (LOs), this course contributes to the development and acquisition of the following LOs:
  • LO4.2 Learn and experiment with the concepts and approaches of artistic disciplines.
  • LO4.3 Learn and apply the content of artistic or scientific disciplines to enrich the architectural project.
  • LO4.4 Learn and explain the environmental, social, and economic consequences of architectural choices.
  • LO5.1 Communicate attentively and inclusively with the various stakeholders of the architectural project.
  • LO6.1 Acquire knowledge of disciplinary methods in scientific research. 
  • LO6.2 Adopt a critical attitude free from any preconceptions. 
 
Faculty or entity
> LOCI


Programmes / formations proposant cette unité d'enseignement (UE)

Title of the programme
Sigle
Credits
Prerequisites
Learning outcomes
Bachelor in Architecture (Bruxelles)
ARCB1BA
3
Bachelor in Architecture (Tournai)
ARCT1BA
3