Seminar description
In this course we will consider a number of major art controversies over the past 50 years, from the time of the Vietnam War up into the present-day United States and Canada.
Art works and art exhibitions cause scandals called “moral panics” for many reasons. Some of the public may have aesthetic objections: they may think a given work is ugly or too big or just too “abstract” to be meaningful. Other works strike some people as obscene, or racist or sacrilegious. Yet others have political messages that enrage factions of an increasingly polarized and often misinformed public.
The possible consequences for artists from these scandals have included censorship, legal action, cuts to government funding for artists and exhibitions, vandalism, or even destruction of the art-work in question. Today, what do we make of these scandals once we know the historical contexts in which they arose? The larger question is: does art matter?
Get to know your professor
Elizabeth Legge
You can call me…
Prof or Professor or Sir.
I just can't live without…
A view.
Fun fact:
I briefly met John Lennon, and I made him laugh.
My hometown is…
Toronto, ON.
For my undergraduate degree…
U of T English major, Cambridge University history of art
I am surprisingly good at…
Trying again.
If I wasn't teaching, I would be a…
An English friend once said, “If this art history wheeze doesn’t work out, Elizabeth, you should open a cake shop.”
What I'm working on now is…
The representation of children in contemporary art.
Lately, something that has been exciting me about my research/scholarship is…
Discovering that people read it!
A fun fact about my field of study is…
Almost anything in the world can be related to history of art.
I was inspired to get into this field because…
An English professor told me in my fourth year at U of T, “Miss Legge, you seem to be very interested in art.”
My first-year seminar in five words:
Contemporary, political, justice, disruption, joy
In a sentence, what you’ll learn in my course:
When you encounter any cultural item, you’ll wonder what the (figuratively speaking) “bigger picture” might be.
One of my favourite things about teaching first-year students is…
Hearing new ideas about old questions.
My best advice for those starting their first year…
Don't panic.
NAME: Chelsea Rochman.