On 4 June 1940, Nazi troops entered Paris. Aghast at what he called "The fall of Paris", art writer, Harold Rosenberg, declared: “The laboratory of the twentieth century has been shut down.” As he explained, “Paris had been the Holy Place of our time. The only one.” Modernists ranging from the Australian, Grace Crowley, to the Spaniard, Pablo Picasso “beat a pathway to the door of its inventor”. By examining the interaction between such Modernists and the sites of modern Paris until its occupation by the Third Reich, this course aims to explore ways in which Paris became the "Holy Place" for Modernisms.

To understand how it did so, this course will be conducted in Paris where you will have a unique opportunity to experience its modern sites and culture while absorbing its Modernist art in museums. This will entail navigating the grand boulevards designed by Baron Haussmann, the arcades, new opera House (Palais Garnier), Gare Saint-Lazare, Eiffel Tower and the Trocadéro, such modern “grand magasins” as Bon Marché and Samaritaine, the quartiers of Montmartre and Montparnasse in which Modernists settled, the ateliers of Gustave Moreau, Auguste Rodin and Ossip Zadkine, Surrealist walks to reveal the sex of the city, as well as Le Corbusier's Villa La Roche. By exploring the dialogue between these sites of modernity in and around Paris and such Modernist photographers as Atget, Brassai and Kertesz, such designers as Sonia Delaunay and Emile Gallé, such painters as Marevna, Matisse, Moreau and Picasso and such sculptors as Rodin, the objective of this course is to provide you with an indepth understanding of how these artists and such movements as Realism, Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, Symbolism, Cubism, Purism and Surrealism emerged within a particular constellation of conditions pertaining to modernization. By the end of the course you will understand why artists from Sydney to Moscow flocked to modern Paris until its "fall", and why such Australian Modernists as Grace Crowley, Dorrit Black and John Wardell Power made Paris their cultural home.

Please note: This course involves travel to Paris, France. Students will be responsible for booking their own return airfares to Paris, and for the cost of accommodation, transfers and other costs such as meals. Further information on costs and timing will be available when the course is offered.