This course explores the major trends and leading figures in modern art from and the rejection of Academic traditions in the early-nineteenth century through the transition to contemporary art beginning in the 1970s and 1980s. This period, between the late-18^th to the end of the 20^th century, is marked by groundbreaking events, innovations, revolutions, and wars. Through a socio-cultural approach, students will discover the birth and evolution of modern art and learn how W. European and N. American artists responded to the social, political, gender, and philosophical movements that evolved and flourished in the modern era.