Baffled by modern art and architecture? You’re not alone! This collection gives new insight into today’s shifting kaleidoscope of visual culture by placing it in the context of the developments of the 19th and 20th century. In the mid 19th century there was a growing realisation that everything had changed. Industry was booming, and the speed of life increasing. Artists, thinkers and architects strove to find new ways of encapsulating this new world … and modernism was born. The collection describes how throughout the twentieth century different media and artforms were added to the canon, and the sophisticated social structure of the Art-world developed.

This material forms part of The Open University course A226 Exploring art and visual culture.