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Artists’ practice lies at the heart of modern and contemporary art teaching at Christie’s Education. Encounters with living artists provide an awareness of the complexity of practice. Image Courtesy John Slyce A mixture of fact and fiction charactises the work of Charlotte Cullinan and Jeanine Richards. Context is the key which unlocks the everyday experiences that are documented in the three dimensional structures that have often been presented as part of Cullinan + Richards’ work. Image Courtesy John Slyce Cullinan + Richards use a web of installations to create shifting vulnerabilities which celebrate painting. Installation View: Copyright Cullinan + Richards, Girl Rider, Mead Gallery, University of Warwick, 2008 Cullinan + Richards’ March 2008 installation ‘Girl Rider’ is based on the extraordinary stunt of a girl in the act of ‘horse-diving’, an extraordinary spectacle which would horrify a modern viewer. Installation View: Copyright Cullinan + Richards, Girl Rider, Mead Gallery, University of Warwick, 2008
Jorge Pardo, Detail, Untitled , 2007, Installation View from the exhibition 'I Love My Wife', Neugerriemschneider Gallery , Berlin. Beat Raeber, a graduate of the Christie’s Education modern and contemporary master’s programme, now working at Neugerriemschneider Gallery, Berlin, hosting a group of students during their field study in Berlin. Simon Starling, the English conceptual artist, who won the Turner prize for his installation Shedboatshed in 2005 is also known for his sound and light works such as Wilhelm Noack oHG, 2006, an installation that explores the history of this metal working firm from its Bauhaus routes through the war until today. Courtesy Neugerriemschneider Gallery, Berlin. Kathryn del Boccio, a Christie’s Education graduate at The Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin.
Previews of Sale at Christie’s King Street form an integral part of the courses at Christie’s Education allowing students to see how decisions concerning display often governing the first impression a work of art makes on the viewer. Sessions with Christie’s experts, gallerists and curators, often in front of the works of art themselves allow students to gain a familiarity and knowledge of individual works of art. This work shows Signac’s interest in harmony through colour and music. The rocks and the sails act as symbols of musical notation; each of the five paintings in this series, of which this is one, was given a musical ‘instruction’ – in this case larghetto, as well as a title: Concarneau: Calme du matin, Op.219 (1891). Auguste Macke, a member of Der Blaue Reiter was killed during the first world war at Pertheles-Hurles in the autumn of 1914. Had he lived he would have taken his place beside Nolde, Kirchner, and Pechstein as one of the leaders of expressionism.
Experiencing the Venice Biennale is unlike experiencing any other contemporary art exhibition in the world. Image Courtesy John Slyce. Jorge Pardo, Detail, Untitled , 2007, Installation View from the exhibition 'I Love My Wife', Neugerriemschneider Gallery , Berlin. Olafur Eliasson, installation view Six tons of Vatnajökull ice taken from Jökulsárlón on the south coast of Iceland, cooling aggregate, styrofoam, wood, lacquer dimensions variable. 2006, Installation View from the exhibition, Neugerriemschneider Gallery , Berlin. The Modern and Contemporary Art programme shifts emphasis each year to take in the latest contemporary shows such as the decennial Sculpture Project at Münster. Pawel Althamer, Path (Sciezka), 2007. Courtesy Münster Sculpture Project.

Master’s Degree - Modern and Contemporary Art: Approaches | Methods | Practices


Designed to be creative and adaptive, our Modern and Contemporary Art programme will allow you to analyse the interests and practices of a fast-changing art world.

All the course work for this programme is directly related to a real-work experience. You will be asked to write reviews, artefact analyses, acquisition reports and curatorial reports. Your thesis will be a catalogue of an exhibition that you would like to stage. Whatever period of study you chose you will receive the same core training. We will teach you the Christie’s Auction House cataloguing procedures and you will be able to assess and write about all forms of art in the period you have chosen to study. As part of this course you will also be introduced to critical writing and thinking about art so that you can either enter the art-world immediately or go on to study further.

Course components

  • The core lecture series - Modern, Anti-Modern, Postmodern - underpins all components of the programme
  • You will participate in two study trips a year to major events in Europe and several visits to UK sites throughout the year
  • Object-based study is central to our teaching and will provide you with the opportunity to study in direct contact with works of art through museum and gallery-based classes, specialist-led handling sessions, studio visits and conservation sessions
  • You will be trained in cataloguing to auction house and museum standards through detailed case studies, assessing issues that affect market value. You'll learn to analyse the different processes of assessment, classification and interpretation used by art institutions
  • Being engaged with current debates about curating will enable you to devise fresh approaches to the display of art works. You will explore practices in art criticism, developing skills to review exhibitions and produce reports
  • Our Culture and Ideology Seminars will teach you the in-depth analysis of relationships between art practices, cultural contexts and critical debates. You will develop skills to deliver presentations and generate seminar discussion
  • You'll be involved in Methodology Seminars - the analysis of technical, art-historical and interpretative text that provide transferable skills for independent research and individual development
  • If you're doing a Master's degree you will prepare a thesis. This is your opportunity to create an exhibition on a small group of objects, independently researched and catalogued, where the key academic and professional skills learned on the programme are utilised.

Topics on this option

  • Modernity: capitalism, city, empire in Nineteenth Century French painting from Edouard Manet to Paul Gauguin
  • Modernisms: ideals of abstraction and expression in painting and sculpture from Paul Cezanne to Mark Rothko; Auguste Rodin to Anthony Caro
  • Photography: dialogues with Fine Art from Alfred Stieglitz to Nan Goldin
  • Avant-gardes: subversive strategies and critical debates - Futurism, Dada, Russian Constructivism
  • Surrealisms: psychoanalysis, sexuality, the body - Salvador Dali, Hans Bellmer, Louise Bourgeois
  • Beyond painting: performance, actions, objects - Jackson Pollock, Yves Klein, Yoko Ono
  • Postmodernism: consumerism, simulation, identity - Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Chris Ofili
  • Contemporary: installation, globalisation, participation - Gabriel Orozco, Sophie Calle, Alfredo Jaar
  • Artists' talks by internationally renowned and emerging artists such as Martin Creed, Carey Young, Jimmie Durham
  • Curators' talks: sessions led by innovative independent museum curators such as Emma Dexter, Simon Morrissey and Anthony Kiendl.

Entry requirements

A university degree. We welcome students with degrees in a range of arts subjects but who have a working knowledge of modern and contemporary art and some awareness of current cultural debates. Non-English speaking students must have IELTS 7 or equivalent.

 

 

 

 

 

Master's - Modern and Contemporary Art

Course Dates

Orientation Week

Monday 24 September 2012 -
Friday 28 September 2012

Term 1

Monday 1 October 2012
– Friday 07 December 2012

Term 2

Monday 07 January 2013
– Friday 15 March 2013

Term 3

Monday 22 April 2013
– Friday 28 June 2013

Course Fees

£22,800

Course Director

Lizzie Perrotte

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University of Glasgow

Visit the University of Glasgow’s website here.

Apply now

Submit your completed application to applications@christies.com.  Alternatively, your application can be returned to: Christie’s Education, 153 Great Titchfield Street. London W1W 5BD

Visit our admissions page