This lecture course will chart key moments in the history of modern art of the twentieth century, with a special emphasis on the historical and social dimensions of art practice. Necessarily selective, the narrative developed throughout the course will stress those episodes in the history of art that have proven critical to understanding the story of modern and contemporary art as it developed in the western world. The class lectures will provide a synthetic view of the 20^th century, including critical assessment of individual works and broader movements, changes in the production and reception of art, and reasons for the shift from Paris to New York as the home of the "avant-garde." Thematic subtexts will also include understanding avant-gardism as an ideology, the perception and identity of the artist, dialogues and tensions between "high" art and mass culture, and the success and failure of Modernism/s.