History of Contemporary Art 2

Please write a 1,000-word thought piece that responds to the following prompt: 

An important aspect of the modern tradition in the visual arts is the belief that works of art can transform social, cultural, and political life. Please select three works of art and show how each is a visual argument for art’s capacity to transform the world. 

Please make the effort to show that you’re thinking deeply and developing your own perspective on this question.

READINGS: 
Art of the 20th-Century, pp. 161-209 (vol. 1); pp. 445-56 (Sculpture, vol. 2).
Art of the 20th-Century, pp. 211-218. 

LECTURES: (slides are attached)

1- Russian Constructivism & de Stijl 
2- American Modernism (explores the impact of European modern art on artists in the United States. In this emerging internationalized global world that has de-centered Europe as the location of “Western World,” with air travel, social media, and technology, an international worldview is easier to presume, it is often difficult to recognize (and respect) the geographical and cultural differences between, say, the United States and the European continent, much less between the United States and other parts of the world, like Africa and Asia. However, it is important to respect just how difficult it was for American artists and those interested in art and culture to receive news of what was taking place in Paris, the center of European (and thus “Western” and “World”) culture. Travel by ocean liner from New York to Paris at the turn of the twentieth century took nearly a week and newspapers and written correspondence was the primary means of communication. And so seeing works of art of modern art from Europe was rare, and often confined to photographs in newspapers or journals.).
3- Picasso and the Life of the Modern Artist: https://us.bbcollab.com/collab/ui/session/playback