Università Roma Tre

Contemporary Art - Laurea Magistrale - L/ART 03
Prof. Stefano Chiodi

Course 2011-12
The Photographic medium in contemporary art

The transformation of photography into an artistic medium is one of the phenomena that contributed most significantly to redefining the visual-arts landscape after 1960 and the transition to post-modernism. Challenging the traditional conception that placed painting and sculpture at the top of the expressive hierarchy, artists began to explore the conceptual and formal qualities of photography, at the same time casting doubt on its presumed capacity to capture objective “reality.” Photography has been utilized in diverse ways, but always in keeping with an approach far removed from the techniques and esthetics that had marked its modernist phase, and in fact often in continuity with its more anonymous, idiomatic manifestations (album photos, snapshots, illustrations, etc.). This course focuses on the artistic experiences that contributed to redefining the artistic status of photography between 1960 and 1990, examining works and theoretical developments.