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Accessibility statement
This module explores the many exciting transformations in art and visual culture that have taken place over the last 250 years. You'll discover that the idea of art as a special category of images and objects set apart from everyday life is itself a modern invention. You'll learn how our experience of the world has been shaped by the images that surround us. By the end of the module, you'll have a toolkit of knowledge and skills that will help you make sense of everything from famous paintings in museums to photos on your phone.
This module consists of five blocks, each centred on a topic that helps to define the distinctiveness of modern art and visual cultures from the late eighteenth century until the present day. All of the topics are explored in both local and global terms, through case studies relating both to the United Kingdom, its regions and nations, and to distant contexts and diverse cultures.
Block 1 – Art and its Institutions

In the first block, you'll explore the different ways in which art can be understood, practised and experienced in the modern world. You'll see how, ever since the invention of the art museum or public gallery in the eighteenth century, this type of institution has helped to define art as a special category of object. A range of artistic practices is examined, from painting and sculpture to ceramics and film, and you'll consider the different factors, including class, gender and race, that have determined why some images and objects are more highly valued than others. Examples featured range from the Louvre Museum to the Hepworth Wakefield, from Josiah Wedgwood to Sonia Boyce.
Block 2 – Visual Cultures of Modernity

This block explores the transformation of visual cultures brought about by the massive diffusion of images during the modern era, thanks to the invention of new reproductive technologies such as lithography, photography, film and digital image-making. You'll examine how these new technologies have been adapted to serve cultural, scientific, personal, and political agendas, thereby transforming every aspect of modern life. Examples featured include works by famous artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Andy Warhol, as well as advertisements, scientific illustrations, political satires and family photographs. By analysing these images, you'll gain new insights into the mass culture of images that is one of the defining features of modernity.
Block 3 – Art in the Modern World

In this block, you'll explore how art has been transformed since the late eighteenth century as artists have sought to engage with different aspects of modern life, from revolution and industrialisation to sexual politics and disability rights. You'll also be introduced to important concepts such as ‘modernism’ and ‘avant-garde’, which have been used by art historians to analyse and explain these artistic transformations. Key artists featured include Edouard Manet, Marcel Duchamp, Tina Modotti and Jackson Pollock. Overall, the block provides an engaging and accessible introduction to modern art, taking in developments not only in Europe and the United States but as far afield as Mexico and Japan.
Block 4 – The Past in the Present

This block explores the new and growing fascination with the past that has developed since the late eighteenth century in reaction to the upheavals of modernity. In studying the block, you will examine artefacts, images and institutions from a range of historical and geographical contexts that each engage with the past in some way. As you will discover, this engagement with the past is nevertheless profoundly shaped by the values and concerns of the present. The block also provides an introduction to heritage studies, an interdisciplinary field of inquiry closely related to art history. Examples featured range from paintings by the Pre-Raphaelites to dresses by Laura Ashley, from an open-air museum in Stockholm to a Shinto temple in Japan.
Block 5 – Visions of the Anthropocene

In the final block, you'll explore the contribution that art and visual cultures have made to the growing awareness of a rupture between humans and the natural environment over the course of the modern period. In so doing, you will examine a broad range of materials, from paintings to performance art, taxidermy to urban planning. The block examines the contribution of historical figures, such as William Morris, alongside the work of more recent artists and designers, such as the architect Buckminster Fuller and the photographer Edward Burtynsky. You'll also be introduced to the concepts of ‘The Anthropocene’ and ‘ecocriticism’ and consider how they can be used to analyse art and visual culture.
This is an OU level 2 module. OU level 2 modules build on study skills and subject knowledge acquired from studies at OU level 1. They are intended only for students who have recent experience of higher education in a related subject, preferably at the OU.
If you have any doubt about the suitability of the module, please speak to an adviser.
Once you have registered on this module, you’ll have access to an art history forum and a variety of art history bridging activities that you can complete prior to the module starting.
You’ll get help and support from an assigned tutor throughout your module.
They’ll help by:
Online tutorials run throughout the module. While they’re not compulsory, we strongly encourage you to participate. Where possible, we’ll make recordings available.
Course work includes:
You’ll be provided with five printed module books, and have access to a module website, which includes:
The OU strives to make all aspects of study accessible to everyone, and this Accessibility Statement outlines what studying A236 involves. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs.
To find out more about what kind of support and adjustments might be available, contact us or visit our Disability support website.
Art and visual cultures in the modern world starts once a year – in October.
This page describes the module that will start in October 2027.
We expect it to start for the last time in October 2034.
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