Art and the politics of memory

In this 5-week course we will explore the ways in which art since 1960 has served as a medium for engaging with history and memory following periods of political conflict and upheaval. We will examine the political and cultural significance of art which has challenged the official silences of recent history.
Case studies will include the provocative memory of the Second World War in the paintings of Anselm Kiefer, Gerhard Richter and Luc Tuymans; the ruin and the relic as forms of political critique in the work of Joseph Beuys, Gordon Matta-Clark, and Hans Haacke, and the negotiation of the aftermath of political repression in Spain and Colombia in the installations of Juan Muñoz and Doris Salcedo.
We will examine the role of these artists in remembering and reconstructing a difficult or traumatic past, and explore some of the ways in which their work engages with questions of national and individual identity.