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.
- 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 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £77.00 - 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 - Movements in art: Impressionism
Course start date: Wed 5 Jun 2024Location 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 painters Course 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 - Aubrey Beardsley and the art of queer decadenceCourse start date: Wed 19 Jun 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Sarah JaffrayDiscover the subversive and wildly successful art of illustrator Aubrey Beardsley. Explore his illustrations and how his depictions of gender challenged the status quo of late Victorian Britain.
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 - 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. - Snapshot Queers: Nan Goldin and Wolfgang Tillmans Course start date: Tue 25 Jun 2024
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Henry MartinThis course explores how photographers Nan Goldin (b. 1953) and Wolfgang Tillmans (b. 1968) employ the aesthetic of the snapshot to document queer communities, with a focus on their early careers and unique installation and photographic practices.
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 - Study day: Pop Art, from Warhol to HockneyCourse start date: Sat 6 Jul 2024
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Rachel SandersStudy work of artists such as David Hockney, Richard Hamilton, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol within the context of the international Pop Art movement and the changing world of mass culture, consumerism, and celebrity.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00 - Women in art: 1900-1960 Course 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 age Course 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. - 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 Rawsthorne
Course start date: Thu 25 Apr 2024Location 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 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £77.00
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