**This class will be taught on Zoom**
Many contemporary artists are engaging with and reworking masterpieces from the Western canon. By doing so they challenge traditional narratives and perspectives sparking wider cultural conversations. These reimagined works often address aspects of history that were previously overlooked or problematic.
Contemporary expressionist artists Robert Colescott (1925-2009), Faith Ringgold (1930-2024) and Kerry James Marshall (b. 1955), are distinguished by their attention to a history of representation, which they re-visit, reformulate and revise to reflect on individual and collective Black experience. Equally engaged with social and political histories, and the history of art, Colescott, Ringgold and Marshall, have created works that antic and satirically critique dominant narratives often offering creative alternatives. All three artists join appreciation of the traditional form of history painting, a genre first defined during the 17th century to create insightful works that disrupt historic narratives presenting satirical works that offer a new view to the western art historical canon that has neglected them for hundreds of years.
