Course Catalog

Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement in Britain 1860-1900 NEW!

Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement in Britain 1860-1900 will be on view at the de Young Museum February 18-June 17, 2012. This is the first major international exhibition to explore Aestheticism, an extraordinary artistic movement aimed to escape the ugliness and materialism of the Victorian era by creating a new kind of art and beauty. This course explores how Aesthetic artists and designers promoted the idea of 'art for art's sake' and how the idea of the 'house beautiful' became a touchstone of cultured Victorian life. It will feature paintings, furniture, ceramics, metalwork, and wallpapers on view in the exhibition, as well as architectural and interior designs and tapestries by artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and James McNeill Whistler. This session will examine other aspects of Victorian art, including the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of English artists who took their inspiration from medieval and early Renaissance artists. The Pre-Raphaelites were also drawn to the decorative arts and this course will explore stained glass, book illustrations, home furnishings and textile designs in addition to looking at conventional easel paintings.

This class is not available at this time.

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