Online registration for Summer Courses is now available. Register online now. The Schedule for fall courses will be posted on July 17.

MoMA courses offer adults the rare opportunity to study modern and contemporary art with leading art specialists during and after public hours in the Museum's galleries and multimedia classrooms. These discussion-oriented classes are taught by university professors, artists, and Museum staff. Enrollment is limited to twenty per course (twelve for studio courses), so sign up today.

Prices for courses are listed below. Sign up for Museum membership starting at $75 and receive free admission to the Museum for a year and the discounted course prices. Additional discounts are available for educators and staff of other museums.

FM headsets and neck loops for sound amplification are available for all courses.

Course guidelines and frequently asked questions

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SUMMER 2009 COURSES BEGINNING IN JULY

Evening Courses

The Politics of Imagination: International Art of the 1960s and 1970s

Five Mondays, 6:30–8:20 p.m., 7/6, 7/13, 7/20, 7/27, 8/3
$260; $220 for members
Instructor: Mari Dumett

This course takes up the idea of the "politics of imagination" as a means to explore the diverse ways international artists engaged in the tumultuous cultural events of the 1960s and 1970s. The aims of the course are to expand our perspective of the art of the decade to a broader geographic area than is often considered and to attempt to understand the stakes of artistic expression in each region. We study work emerging from countries in Western and Eastern Europe, parts of Asia, Africa, and South America, as well as North America in order to understand how a wide array of artists were simultaneously addressing both shared international concerns and problems particular to their local cultures. We consider issues such as Cold War politics and the conflicted positions of artists vis-à-vis communism, capitalism, and self-expression; the Vietnam War; colonialism and national liberation movements; civil rights; and access to new technologies, asking how each of these played out and were experienced depending on where an artist resided. MoMA's summer exhibition In & Out of Amsterdam: Travels in Conceptual Art, 1960–1976, along with works from MoMA's collection, provide excellent opportunities to look at international art from these decades.

Mari Dumett holds a PhD in Art History from Boston University and she teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her current book project is on the international art collective Fluxus. In addition, she is co-curating an exhibition of contemporary sculpture called Sculptural Economies and she writes reviews on a regular basis for the journal Art Papers.

Conceptualisms in Latin American Art: 1960s to the Present

Five Wednesdays, 6:30–8:20 p.m., 7/8, 7/15, 7/22, 7/29, 8/5
$260; $220 for members
Instructor: Claudia Calirman

This course examines conceptual practices in Latin American art from the 1960s to the present, including discussions of the major differences between Latin American Conceptual artists and their European and North-American counterparts. The class examines works of art that use language and the readymade as its primary sources, and engages works with social and political activism from Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, and Uruguay.

Claudia Calirman (PhD, The Graduate Center, City University of New York) is adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design and a lecturer at The Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Daytime Course

Experimentation and Humor in Conceptual Photography

Five Wednesdays, 11:00 a.m.–12:50 p.m., 7/8, 7/15, 7/22, 7/29, 8/5
$260; $220 for members
Instructor: Béatrice Gross

Since the mid-1960s, photography has become instrumental for artists who would not consider themselves to be photographers in the conventional sense. Conceptual art, understood broadly as an art that emphasizes the role of ideas in its productions, placed at its center the practice of photography, implemented in various ways, always experimental, often provocative and comical. Conceptual photographs fundamentally transformed traditional photography. Documenting the specific sites of Land Artists (Robert Smithson, Richard Long), process-oriented experiments, (Jan Dibbets, Douglas Huebler), the artist's own body as a critical site of exploration (Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Vito Acconci, Valie Export), or investigating the medium's inherent seriality and reproducibility (Ed Ruscha, Dan Graham, Sherrie Levine) and relationship to text (Joseph Kosuth, John Baldessari), Conceptual photography played a decisive role in the transformation of art photography, redefining it through its hybridization with other fine arts, notably sculpture and performance, with an often theatrical sense of humor and parody (Bruce Nauman, Sigmar Polke, Charles Ray, Erwin Wurm, Fischli and Weiss).

Béatrice Gross is an independent curator and art critic based in New York. Formerly a curatorial assistant in MoMA's Department of Photography, she is currently a PhD candidate at La Sorbonne, Paris.

SUMMER 2009 COURSES BEGINNING IN JUNE

Evening Courses

What Is Now? Art of This Decade, 1999–2009

Five Mondays, 6:30–8:20 p.m., 6/1, 6/8, 6/15, 6/22, 6/29 SOLD OUT
Five Thursdays, 7:00 – 8:50 p.m. 5/28, 6/4, 6/11, 6/18, 6/25 SOLD OUT
$260; $220 for members
Instructor: Haley Mellin

This course examines the development of contemporary art during the past decade, looking at the current global artscape in a modern, historical, and social context. It provides an introduction to the wide variety of art-historical movements that have developed in contemporary art and untangles the threads of ideas and aesthetics that run through the past decade. Major works and movements in painting, photography, sculpture, and performance are examined, particularly in relationship to the New York art world. The course moves chronologically through the Museum's collection and recent shows, acting as a guide to understanding the current art market and the dramatic shifts in visual production over the past decade. Artists considered include Rirkrit Tiravanija, The Atlas Group, Thomas Hirschhorn, Takashi Murakami, Prada Marfa, Rudolph Stingel, Cai Guo-Qiang, Luc Tuymans, John Currin, Carol Bove, Peter Coffin, The Wrong Gallery, and Reena Spaulings, with historical references to Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Robert Rauschenberg, John Cage, Allan Kaprow, the Situationist International, Dada, Piet Mondrian, and Kazimir Malevich.

Haley Mellin (PhD candidate, visual culture, New York University) is an artist and an adjunct instructor of contemporary art and critical theory in New York University's Department of Art. Her recent curatorial projects include shows at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and Rental Gallery in New York.

Modern in Five

Five Mondays, 6:30–8:20 p.m., 6/1, 6/8, 6/15, 6/22, 6/29 SOLD OUT

$260; $220 for members
Instructor: Matthew Israel

Learn the history of modern art in five classes through the in-depth study of five paradigmatic masterpieces in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art: Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel, Constantin Brancusi’s Bird in Space, Jackson Pollock’s One: Number 31 and Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans. Importantly, while each class is a close discussion of these iconic works, we will not focus solely upon them; we use them to embark on a greater discussion of the major artists, works, and themes of modernism that have been influenced by these works. Much of this discussion is also, expectedly, based in the galleries amidst MoMA’s unparalleled collection.

Matthew Israel (PhD candidate, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University) is an adjunct instructor at New York University's undergraduate department of art history. His writing has appeared in Artnews, Artforum, and Art in America.

An Introduction to Contemporary Chinese Art

Five Mondays, 7:00–8:50 p.m., 6/8, 6/15, 6/22, 6/29, 7/6
$260; $220 for members
Instructor: Michelle Yun

This course explores the rapid evolution of contemporary art in Mainland China from the end of the Cultural Revolution to the present and the creative and political atmosphere that has shaped its direction. Though the primary focus is on Mainland Chinese artists, the class also examines the important role of the diaspora on the reception of Chinese art in the West.

Michelle Yun (MA, Columbia University) is an independent curator and artist based in New York. She was formerly Project Director of Cai Guo-Qiang’s studio.

Artists among Nations: Crossing Cultural Boundaries from Pablo Picasso to Shahzia Sikander

Four Wednesdays, 6:30–8:20 p.m., 6/3, 6/10, 6/24, 7/1 (no class on 6/17))
$210; $180 for members
Instructor: Laura Beiles

We often think of artists’ work in relation to their national or cultural heritage. Many artists, however, may leave their native land and never return. They develop a new relationship with it, re-examining their past and seeing it anew. Instead of relying on the idea that identity must be attached to one nation or cultural history, we now live in an era in which international nomadism; people displaced, in exile, or in transition; and contested territories and changing borders are the norm. This course examines works of art from the early twentieth century to today that address the concept of belonging to a nation or state, evolving representations of national and cultural identity, the relationship between historical artistic tradition and contemporary practice, and the effects of these discoveries on artists’ creative process.

Laura Beiles (MA, Hunter College) is an associate educator and coordinator of Adult Programs in the Department of Education at The Museum of Modern Art

Modern Art 1880–1945

Eight Wednesdays, 6:30–8:20 p.m., 6/3, 6/10, 6/24, 7/1, 7/8, 7/15, 7/22, 7/29, (no class on 6/17) SOLD OUT
$415; $355 for members
Instructor: Nora Lawrence

This course introduces students to the key works and ideas of modern art, from late Impressionism to the beginnings of the New York School. Moving chronologically through the Museum's collection, students encounter an array of renowned and provocative objects, from paintings that challenged the official Academy and revolutionized the conventions of representation, to photographs that capture the dynamism of modern life, to modernist buildings that fill city skylines. Artists covered include Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Constantin Brancusi, Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and many others.

Nora Lawrence (MA, University of Southern California) is a curatorial assistant in MoMA’s Department of Painting and Sculpture, and a Ph.D. candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center. She has taught at the University of Southern California and lectured at MoMA and other museums.

Intersecting Architectures: New York

Five Wednesdays, 6:30–8:20 p.m., 6/10, 6/17, 6/24, 7/1, 7/8 SOLD OUT
$260; $220 for members
Instructor: Jennifer Gray

Manhattan is a grid of coexisting architectural and spatial traditions, a place where modern and postmodern design are in a constant dialogue with the historical and the popular. This course explores the ambiguous, paradoxical, and sometimes contentious intersections of modern and historical architecture through site visits to key buildings in New York City. The metaphor of the intersection is more than symbolic—these various architectures are often located at literal street intersections, their proximity making such trans-historical dialogues between the past and present architecturally legible. For example, the contemporary 40 Bond Street building by Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron references the tradition of cast-iron construction in Soho, popular graffiti art, and Louis Sullivan’s ornamental masterpiece, the Bayard-Condict Building.

This course is not a comprehensive survey of modern architecture, but rather a series of discreet surgical incisions into the built fabric of New York City. Emphasis is placed on major themes in modern and postmodern architecture, but students also learn about the historical precedents that inform each site. Additional attention is paid to site planning, the design of public space, and the public art installed at the intersections under question.

Jennifer Gray (PhD Candidate, Columbia University) is a specialist in American and German architectural history and theory and in European art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her research explores the relationship between social reform and early modern architecture in the United States. She is also a lecturer at MoMA.

Modern and Contemporary Art, 1945–Today

Eight Thursdays, 7:00–8:50 p.m., 6/11, 6/18, 6/25, 7/2, 7/9, 7/16, 7/23, 7/30 SOLD OUT
$415; $355 for members
Instructor: Sandra Skurvida

This course examines major artists, artworks, and movements after World War II. Students explore the emergence of the New York School and its links to a new global economy centered in New York, Dada's revival and Pop's flowering in mass consumer society, Minimalism's formal refinement and emphasis on spatial context, Conceptual art's fundamental questioning of art, the development of multimedia artistic practices, and works made since the 1970s that are still being debated and defined.

Sandra Skurvida, PhD, is an art historian and independent curator specializing in interdisciplinary contemporary art and theory. She teaches at the School of Visual Arts, Parsons School of Design, and Fashion Institute of Technology.

Contemporary Art and the Middle East

Five Thursdays, 7:00–8:50 p.m., 6/11, 6/18, 6/25, 7/2, 7/9
$260; $220 for members
Instructor: Chad Elias

This course considers contemporary art produced in and about the countries commonly referred to as the Middle East. Media representations tend to portray it as a zone of conflict enmeshed in ethnic antagonisms, religious fundamentalism, and terrorist activity. However, in recent years, artists have produced work that both challenges this image and calls for a more complex engagement with the diverse societies and histories of the region. The artists addressed in this course seek to complicate questions of war, displacement, migration, access to water, oil, and land, human rights, national and regional divides, and gender roles and sexuality. In many cases artists may not be living and working in their country of birth but their ethnicity, religion, or citizenship continues to inform their own sense of identity and the terms of their art practice. This course includes discussions of recent works by artists from nations as diverse as Egypt, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

Chad Elias is a PhD student in the department of art history at Northwestern University. His research focuses on contemporary documentary and archival art practices in Beirut. He is currently participating in the Critical Studies Program as part of the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program.

The Provocative Fin de Siècle: Art of the 1880s, the 1890s, and the Beginning of the Twentieth Century.

Five Thursdays, 7:30–9:20 p.m., 6/25, 7/2, 7/9, 7/16, 7/23 SOLD OUT

$260; $220 for members
Instructor: Larissa Bailiff

The contemporary artistic scene has not cornered the market on provocation; the fin-de-siècle period in Europe gave rise to an avant-garde production that was frequently characterized at the time as risqué and/or stridently satirical—qualities very much at the very core of modernism. Utilizing both slides and works in the galleries, this course explores radical painting, drawing, and sculpture by artists such as Paul Gauguin, Auguste Rodin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Aubrey Beardsley, Gustave Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Pablo Picasso. A main focus is MoMA's exhibition of works by Belgian Symbolist artist James Ensor this summer, and in particular the artist's politically engaged, scandalous religious paintings of the late 1880s and early 1890s, which typify both the serious artistic intention and irreverent tone underlying the work of many of the artists discussed in this class.

Larissa Bailiff (PhD, ABD, Institute of Fine Arts) is a specialist in nineteenth-century French art and social history. Formerly an associate educator at MoMA, she has also lectured at other New York museums and has taught graduate and undergraduate courses at both the Fashion Institute of Technology and Pratt Institute.

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Studio Courses

Drawing through the Found: Collage Techniques and Concepts

Seven Mondays, 6:30–9:00 p.m., 6/8, 6/15, 6/22, 6/29, 7/6, 7/13, 7/20 SOLD OUT

$465; $415 for members. Includes $10 fee for materials
Instructor: Lisha Bai

This studio course addresses the history of collage and explores a range of collage techniques. We discuss the significance of collage in twentieth-century art and the revolutionary use of found materials. Using examples from MoMA’s collection, each class explores collage methods and techniques used in different art movements, from Cubism to contemporary art. There are in-class exercises and demonstrations, and students have the opportunity to work in the galleries, directly from pieces on exhibit. Students work with a variety of different media and materials and learn bricolage, papier collé, photomontage, and photo-transfer techniques, along with other mixed-media approaches to collage. Artists covered include Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris, Hannah Hoch, Henri Matisse, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Fred Tomaselli, Wangechi Mutu, and many others.

Lisha Bai (MFA in painting and printmaking, Yale University) is a New York–based artist who exhibits regularly in New York and nationally. She is an art instructor at Pratt Institute and has been a guest critic and visiting lecturer at the Rhode Island School of Design and Tyler School of Art.

Materials and Techniques of Postwar Abstract Painting SOLD OUT

Nine Wednesdays, 6:30–9:00 p.m., 6/3, 6/10, 6/24, 7/1, 7/8, 7/15, 7/22, 7/29, 8/5 (no class on 6/17)
$635; $570 for members. Includes $50 fee for materials
Instructor: Corey D’Augustine

This class teaches students about postwar abstract painting from the perspective of the artist by examining the materials and techniques used in paintings of this period. After two introductory classes that cover the basics of stretching and preparing a canvas, as well as mixing and applying paint, subsequent classes each focus on one artist who is well represented in MoMA's collection. Each class begins with a brief slide lecture to introduce the artist's work, their materials and techniques are explained, and each student completes a small painting. At the conclusion of the class, the students visit the galleries and/or conservation lab to share their insights into the role of material and technique in abstract painting. Artists covered include Barnett Newman, Robert Ryman, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Ad Reinhardt, Yves Klein, and Agnes Martin.

Corey D'Augustine is a painting conservator at The Museum of Modern Art and an artist. He has previously worked at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, and the Matthew Barney studio. He exhibits in New York and internationally.

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Daytime Courses

Surrealist Sculpture: The Uncanny and the Biomorphic

Six Mondays, 11:30 a.m.–1:20 p.m., 6/1, 6/8, 6/15, 6/22, 6/29, 7/6
$315, $265 for members
Instructor: Deborah A. Goldberg

In 1936, the father of Surrealism, André Breton, claimed that "today's reason proposes nothing so much as the continuous assimilation of the irrational," calling for artists to create "Surrealist Objects." Meret Oppenheim responded with her infamous fur-lined teacup. This class examines Oppenheim's uncanny work, along with Surrealist sculptures by Salvador Dalí, Alberto Giacometti, and Joan Miró, in conjunction with a study of the exhibition The Erotic Object: Surrealist Sculpture from the Collection and a visit to The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. The seminar explores important sculptural precedents for the Surrealists, like Pablo Picasso's assemblages and Marcel Duchamp's Readymades, and looks at successors, including Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Gober, Mona Hatoum, Jeff Koons, and Takashi Murakami. We consider Freudian and personal symbolism, misogynistic imagery, and the further dimensions suggested by the conceptual art of today.

Deborah A. Goldberg, PhD, is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts and lectures regularly for The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art. She co-edited the book Alexander Archipenko Revisited: An International Perspective (2008).

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