This course provides a fascinating overview of avant-garde British art and culture from 1750 to the present, through the lens of key artists, theorists and critics. 

For almost three centuries innovative and rebellious artists have been challenging British cultural values. Individual mavericks and renegade groups have constantly reflected and redefined the cultural norms.

Influenced by European art, past artists such as Hogarth, Turner and Sickert departed from the bourgeoise art of the early British Empire, developing an entirely new visual lexicon. After the horrors of two World Wars and the end of the British Empire, American art movements were dramatically appropriated by young British artists such as Pauline Boty, Sarah Lucas and Tracey Emin; shocking society with their unequivocal dissections of gender, race, morality and taste, with the anarchic graffiti artist Banksy causing mirthful mayhem in the streets. Now, confident of its own artistic place in the World, 21st-century Britain has evolved more reflective and empowering artistic practices: scrutinising colonial legacies; highlighting social inequalities; and exposing global injustices - all most timely in a nation trying to redefine its place in a rapidly changing world.

Related study trip

A study trip to London takes us to two of the UK’s leading museums of modern and contemporary art, usually the Tate Britain and Tate Modern.

ASE reserves the right to change the content of course-specific study trips where necessary.