Modern & Contemporary Art
Art History Courses Online & In London
Get to know the art of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries with one of our expert art historians. If you’d like to be able to discern between surrealism and dadaism or, if you’d like to better understand the art experiments of the avant garde, we have a wide variety of classes on movements, artists and ideas to get you started or to build on your established knowledge. Join us online, in the classroom, in the gallery or out and about in London.
Online, classroom-based and gallery-based art history courses
Many of our courses are also offered online, giving you the freedom to study from anywhere you need to be. We also offer our classes in-person at our Central London location and at many galleries and museums in and around London. Use the Location filters on this page to choose your preferred delivery method. See our guide to online learning for more information about our live online courses.
Learn from expert tutors
At City Lit we are proud of the expertise of our tutors who are all professional art historians working actively in museums, galleries, research and writing, universities and auction houses. As experts in the field, they are able to provide you with the support and guidance you need to develop your art historical knowledge. As teachers they provide student-focused education, helping students achieve their art historical goals, both the personal and the professional.
- Women in art: 1900-1960Course start date: Tue 16 Apr 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Elizabeth EyresOn this course we shall explore and examine the considerable, and significant, contributions of women painters and sculptors to the avant-garde art world during the first half of the 20th century.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information. - Art and melancholy: from the Enlightenment to the Victorian ageCourse start date: Wed 17 Apr 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Emma Rose BarberStudy the art of the period from c.1750-1880 considering Romanticism and the Pre-Raphaelites. We look at ‘romantic’ landscape, the modern moral subject and the depiction of women. Explore the art of women artists who struggled to survive as artists in the tightly controlled world of the art academy where the woman was encouraged to be muse and model rather than creator and thinker. - Friday lates: contemporary art in China - over the Great FirewallCourse start date: Fri 19 Apr 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Meitao QuFrom creation to distribution, the explosion of digital technologies has transformed artmaking in a myriad of ways. In this session, we will journey across the Great Firewall to explore contemporary, new media art China.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - Art, politics & culture in East and West Germany, and after the ReunificationCourse start date: Wed 24 Apr 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Irina ChkhaidzeExplore German art from the 1960s to present, from movements such as Conceptualism, Fluxus, Capitalist Realism and Neo-Expressionism to the most recent multi-media art.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £77.00 - Makers not muses: Claude Cahun, Eileen Agar and Isabel RawsthorneCourse start date: Thu 25 Apr 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Chantal CondronExplore the work of three radical artists whose work and practice defied convention in modern art from the 1920s to 1960s. Discover how each artist challenged and transcended society’s expectations of being a ‘muse’ by living freely and making art in a variety of media, from painting and sculpture to collage, photography and performance.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information. - Visionary experiments: American art of the 1940s and 50sCourse start date: Fri 26 Apr 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayExplore American art during and just after World War II. From abstraction expressionism to social justice in photography and printmaking see how the US's unique context created the foundation for experimental and transgressive art.Full fee £119.00 - Art in Britain since 2000: where are we now?Course start date: Thu 16 May 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Chantal CondronDiscover how exciting, new UK-based artists use both experimental and traditional approaches to art to address issues of identity, history and personal experience.Full fee £119.00 - Modern art in IrelandCourse start date: Sun 19 May 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Henry MartinThis course explores how artists on the island of Ireland have responded to, and created, cultural and social change between 1922 and 2022. Themes include religion, inequality, post-colonialism, modernity, secularism and the Troubles.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - Lunchtime lecture: Reading Old Master Drawings - an art historical insightCourse start date: Wed 22 May 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayWhat is drawing and what is its unique place in the history of art? Come to understand this special medium through an exploration of some of the greatest draughtspeople in Western European art.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £10.00 Senior fee £10.00 Concession £7.00 - Art in 1920s ParisCourse start date: Tue 4 Jun 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayExplore 1920s Paris from the perspective of experimental art movements. From textile design to surrealism, abstraction to neo-classicism we look at how the city of Paris was an active collaborator in the art of the era.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £77.00 - Movements in art: ImpressionismCourse start date: Wed 5 Jun 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Elizabeth EyresStudy the work of a controversial group of painters working in and around Paris from the late 1860s and 1870s and explore how these artists re-thought their creative practice in response to modern life.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information. - The Norwich School - a unique society of landscape paintersCourse start date: Fri 7 Jun 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Elizabeth EyresOn this course you will study the fascinating work of the 19th century Norwich School, a loose association of generations of painters from artistic families who worked in Norwich, Norfolk, one of the most important and wealthy regional capitals of the day. You will explore the beautiful landscapes produced by these artists and also discover work produced by remarkable women in the group.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - 'The future is now': an introduction to video artCourse start date: Thu 13 Jun 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Irina ChkhaidzeExplore the early history of video art, its rise as a medium and its significance as a contemporary art practice. We focus on the influential video works from the 1960s-1980s.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £49.00 Senior fee £49.00 Concession £32.00 - Friday lates: Agnes Martin - pioneer, painter, iconCourse start date: Fri 14 Jun 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Henry MartinThis course examines the unconventional life and artworks of Agnes Martin (1912–2004), regarded as one of the great artists of the Twentieth Century. Topics covered include Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, LGBTQ artists, and the role of the biography in Art History.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.Full fee £19.00 Senior fee £19.00 Concession £12.00 - Movements in art: Post-ImpressionismCourse start date: Wed 19 Jun 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Elizabeth EyresCézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Seurat are all called Post-Impressionists, yet each had different styles and preoccupations. Explore their work and lives and learn why they left such a valuable legacy.
This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.
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