Other ways to be modern: modernism and its alternatives in 20th-century British art

The received story of visual art in 20th-century Britain is one of successive modernisms, from Vorticism and Bloomsbury, in the teens and twenties, to the triumph of British Pop in the sixties. But other narratives reveal artists finding other ways to respond to the modern world and a range of art that was popular, political and engaged with varied traditions. Looking at and thinking about this work sharpens a critical approach to art historical concept of movement, progress and the avant-garde.

Aims of the course

This course aims to:
1. Help you to think critically about what it means for art to be modern, about how concepts of modern art and modernism are used in art history, and about how these can exclude other ways of thinking about twentieth century art.
2. Introduce the history of British art in the twentieth century, including artists with a high reputation as British modernists but also others who are less well-known working in other traditions or from marginalised backgrounds.
3. develop techniques for looking at and understanding 20th-century art and for thinking about art in its social, historical and political context.

Course Content

In this course we will consider the modern movement in British art, asking why the styles we associate with modernism (such as abstract painting) can be understood as a response to the modern world. In looking at movements and groups such as Vorticism, the Bloomsbury artists, the Independent Group and British Pop art, we’ll explore whether it makes sense to talk of a single modernism or whether there are plural modernisms, with apparent similarities in style and self presentation as an ‘avant-garde’ masking fundamental differences in philosophy.

However, the course will also give particular focus to traditions outside of high modernism, such as social realism and popular art in the 1930s, neo-romanticism in the 1940s and the ‘welfare state culture’ of the Festival of Britain in the 1950s. In each case we will examine how these related to their particular social and political context and how they can be understood as alternative, nonmodernist responses to the pressures and possibilities of the modern world. The course will also look at work in less prestigious media (such as printmaking) and by artists working at the margins, including women and artists from the ‘new’ and ‘old’ commonwealths who moved to Britain.

In doing so, we will consider what factors underpin an artist’s reputation and how modernism has come to dominate the received story of twentieth century British art. We will explore how modernist interpretations have often taken a derogatory view of other types of art, casting it as a mix of effete, timid, middle-class, over-earnest and unsophisticated. We will look at some recent work in cultural history which has developed an alternative idea of the value of the ‘middle-brow’ in art and art history, and we will ask if this can help us better understand both modernism and its alternatives.

Presentation of the course

Each class will contain a mix of elements:
1. Key concepts (such as ‘modernism’, the ‘avant-garde’ and the ‘middlebrow’) will be introduced through concise mini-lectures and hand-outs. Sufficient information will be provided in class to understand these concepts, though any further background reading will be helpful.
2. The history of British art in the twentieth century, and its social and political context, will be introduced through looking at images.
3. The core of each class will be the collective discussion of selected images of artworks. We will think through how these relate to the ideas introduced and how they might complicate received histories and assumptions. You will be asked to contribute your own reactions to the works shown and we will jointly explore interpretations.

Class sessions

1. Modernism and its alternatives The first class will introduce and critically examine the ideas of an art movement and of an avant-garde and it will ask what it was about modernist art – its style and its ideas – that responded to (and shaped) the conditions of the modern world. These topics will be addressed through consideration of Vorticism (e.g. Wyndham Lewis, David Bomberg, Richard Nevinson) and the Bloomsbury Group (e.g. Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant) and of artists outside or to one side of the modernist tradition (e.g. Stanley Spencer, Dod Proctor, Laura Knight, Paul Nash and the wood engraving revival).

2. Popular modernism, public modernism and seaside modernism The second class will look at how modernism was nuanced and inflected in a specifically British national and cultural context. Popular modernism will look at how Claude Flight and the Grosvenor School attempted to create cheap, accessible and modern art through linocut prints. Public modernism will consider how public sculpture took on and resisted aspects of modernism, with attention to, e.g., Jacob Epstein, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Seaside modernism will examine the history of British surrealism.

3. The middle-decades and middle-brow art The third class will focus on the period from 1930 to 1950. It will discuss the ‘middle-brow’ as a concept in cultural history and how it disrupts existing art histories, including assumptions about the pre- and post-war decades as distinct periods. These topics will be addressed through consideration of Ben Nicholson and the Seven & Five Society, John Piper and NeoRomanticism, and the Artists’ International Association.

4. Pop art and popular art The fourth class will look at the emergence of the state as a patron of art and the pejorative notion (in art history) of ‘welfare state culture’ to describe popular art after the Second World War. It will consider the Independent Group (e.g. Eduardo Paolozzi, Nigel Henderson) as a reaction to this culture and an inheritor of the pre-war modernist tradition. It will end by looking at British Pop Art (e.g. Richard Hamilton, Peter Blake, Joe Tilson) and question the relationship between Pop Art, popular art and modernism.

5. Insiders / outsiders The final class will look at how immigrant artists shaped British modernism but also how they were shaped and delimited by their new home country (consideration will be given to Josef Herman, Sidney Nolan, Francis Souza, Frank Bowling). It will review the themes of the course by examining how major collections and curation practices have shaped our ideas of what constitutes modern art. It will end by looking at David Hockney as a paradigmatic figure in what might be thought of as the end of British modernism.

Learning outcomes

The learning outcomes for this course are:
1. A familiarity with selected artists, art movements and styles in twentieth-century British art.
2. An ability to explain and critique concepts in art history as these relate to twentieth-century British art, including movement and period and the idea of the modern in art.
3. Experience of applying the techniques of social art history to look at and understand art works in their social and political context.

Required reading

There are no required readings for this course.

Typical week: Monday to Friday

Courses run from Monday to Friday. For each week of study, you select a morning (Am) course and an afternoon (Pm) course. The maximum class size is 25 students. 

Courses are complemented by a series of daily plenary lectures, exploring new ideas in a wide range of disciplines. To add to the learning experience, we are also planning additional evening talks and events.

Evaluation and Academic Credit 

If you are seeking to enhance your own study experience, or earn academic credit from your Cambridge Summer Programme studies at your home institution, you can submit written work for assessment for one or more of your courses. 

Essay questions are set and assessed against the University of Cambridge standard by your Course Director, a list of essay questions can be found in the Course Materials. Essays are submitted two weeks after the end of each course, so those studying for multiple weeks need to plan their time accordingly. There is an evaluation fee of £75 per essay.

For more information about writing essays see Evaluation and Academic Credit.

Certificate of attendance

A certificate of attendance will be sent to you electronically after the programme.