This course reviews artists' responses during times of crisis. Whether floods, war,
racial, ethnic and gender violence or pandemics of catastrophic dimensions, artists respond in
thoughtful and powerful ways, creating work that emblematizes the horrors, and provides places
of mourning, memory and healing. This course overviews contemporary art of the past several
decades, showing critical turning points when such crises resulted in major cultural change. The
ideas and aesthetics of the artists’ work selected for study show persistent social conscience and
humanism.
