At a glance
• Classroom course
• South Kensington campus
• Thursdays 11:00 - 13:00
• Starts 8 May 2025
• 8 weeks | May to June
• Fees from £160
• Dr Michael Paraskos
Enrol by
27 April 2025
Join Dr Michael Paraskos on a journey to look at the story of twentieth century art in Britain.
Although Britain was one of the global superpowers in the late nineteenth and eary twentieth centuries, it has often been considered a minor player in terms of art, losing out to the more well-known centres for modern art, such as Paris, Munich and New York.
On this course we will challenge that assumption, and introduce you to some of the most exciting, stimulating and original Western modern art of twentieth century, all of it made in Britain.
On the course we will follow a chronological path through British art from the dawn of the twentieth century, through to the early 1970s, and we will see how British artists made the language of modernism their own, borrowing from the examples they saw overseas, but always creating something that looks and feels very British.
Although we will look at artists based in London, such as the Bloomsbury, Vorticist and Camden Town groups, we will also discover how modernist ideas affected artists in places as far afield as Glasgow, Leeds, Cornwall and Belfast, and how many of the most exciting developments in modern British art were made by people from working class backgrounds, as well as women and émigrés.
We will see some familiar names and works of art, but we'll also uncover some surprising facts about modern British art, including its debt to spiritualism, how it challenged authority and how it ultimately became a global phenomenon.
No previous experience of art, art history or modernism is needed (don't worry if any of the terms you have read here are unfamiliar, they will be explained). The course is lively and fun and everyone is welcome.
Class Recordings
Where feasible, for this course sessions will be recorded for subsequent viewing
Attendance Certificate
Successful completion of this course leads to the award of an Imperial College attendance certificate
Terms and conditions apply to all enrolments to this course. Please read them before enrolment
Course Information
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Imperial after:hours Adult Education
Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication
Level 3 - Sherfield Building
Imperial College London
London SW7 2AZ
eveningclass@imperial.ac.uk
Tel. +44 20 7594 8756