This course, MODERN ART & IDEAS, was one of the first courses I ever enrolled in through Coursera. This blog will document the work I did in this class.
Artists respond to and participate in the intellectual, social, and cultural contexts of their time. By studying modern and contemporary art we create a dialogue between the established and the experimental, the past and the present, making connections that bring a greater sense of depth and understanding of the issues and ideas that shape our world.
Be introduced to some of the overall benefits of studying modern and contemporary art through accessible and relevant themes.
Week 01 Learning Objectives
Discover how learning about modern art through universal themes can create connections between art and your personal experience and prior knowledge
Analyze how, beginning in the late-19th-century, artists broke with tradition to create art for the modern age.
Part 1 - Introduction to the Course
1.2. Introduction to Modern Art & Ideas
The introductory video to the course is available on YouTube…
Artifact 1 - MOMA. Introduction to Modern Art & Ideas. YouTube, 25 Sept 2015.
Part 2 - Participate
2.1. Share Your Nationality
Hello learners! One of your fellow colleagues was interested in the countries represented in this course. I myself would like to know this valuable information. Therefore say where you are from and one or two things about your country so we can all learn something new..... I will start.
I am from the twin isle Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, southern Caribbean islands, about 6 miles from Venezuela; the home of calypso, steel pan(drums) and limbo.
Currently I live in South Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. It’s about an hour southeast of downtown Vancouver, Canada. I was born in Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada. One Vancouver artist I admire, is Douglas Coupland - many of his works delve into Canadians and their relationship with space and history.
Artifact 2 - Photo: Steven H. Lee. “Father’s Day, 2004.”
I was adopted by a Korean Canadian medical doctor, Dr Han Choo Lee (See Artifact 2), and his Caucasian Canadian wife, Mrs Beverly Jean Lee (see Artifact 3), before I was even born. Born Hanju Lee, my Dad grew up in Korea under a brutal Japanese occupation. He immigrated to Canada in 1952 to escape the ravages of the Korean War. My Dad had left behind family on both sides, but many were stuck in his childhood village which was in what became the North. It would take almost forty years before he found out what happened to them. It took that long just to get back in touch with them. The farm he grew up on had been turned into a military airbase by the North Korean government. My dad was solitary, and I have no doubt it was because of the isolation, and the lack of belonging that my Dad felt here. I know growing up, he did battle some of his demons by drinking Whisky late at night, getting drunk, and sometimes, getting terribly angry.
He stayed at the YMCA on Burrard Street in Vancouver for the first few months after he arrived. Immigration officials messed up his name, recording it as Han Choo Lee, and not Hanju Lee. He had been trained as a medical doctor and surgeon in Korea. But he couldn’t just setup practice upon arrival, which is representative of employment barriers immigrants often face. He ended up doing more training in Edmonton, and he had to rewrite many of the exams one takes to practice medicine. I don’`t know for certain, but I swear I heard he even had to write those exams in German. I can’t imagine the difficulty of translating medical terminology from Korean to English to German and back. It definitely seems like it was another huge barrier he had to overcome.
While living in Alberta, the first job related to his profession that he was able to get was a job no one really wanted – he would be flown into different northern communities across Canada where residents didn’t have their own health care facilities or doctors. This is often the case with immigrants, in that they have to take whatever work they can get. At this time, my Dad did marry a German woman, but came home one time to find her in bed with another man.
As such, he moved back to Vancouver, where he married again briefly. He setup his own medical practice but faced prejudice as he was often told by white doctors to go back home, as no Korean could ever have a successful medical practice in Canada. Unfortunately, his second marriage didn’t last, and he moved to Williams Lake, the city of my birth, where he met my Mom – and they would be together over 40 years until his death at the age of 80, in 2004. As I mentioned Mom is a Caucasian Canadian, and their mixed race marriage was looked down upon by even members of their own families, leaving them somewhat isolated in Williams Lake.
Artifact 3 - Photo: Steven H. Lee. “Mom with Kikko.”
Artifact 4 - Photo. “Chief ‘Sugar Cane’ Will’ium.” 1879.
There, his practice was largely built upon patients from the local First Nations communities, as well as from other persons of colour who weren’t comfortable seeing the town’s white doctors, due to prejudice, racism and cultural differences. These groups were seen and treated as being intrinsically different by the majority white population in Canada.
Artifact 5 - Photo. “William Pinchbeck.” 1880.
Biologically I know on my mothers side that my great great great grandfather was chief Will’ium of what is known today as the Williams Lake First Nations (WLFN), or more traditionally as the T’exelcemc (people of WLFN), who have belonged to the Secwepemc (or Shuswap) Nation for over 6500 years (see Artifact 4 for a photograph of Chief Will’ium). His daughter Chulminik (Tsuil-menak) would be taken by a colonial settler named William Pinchbeck (Artifact 5), who also had a significant role in the development of Williams Lake as the unceded city that exists today. I don’t know for certain who my biological father was but it’s possible he was also WLFN. I was the product of an affair my biological Mother had, and she couldn’t keep me. My adopted father was her doctor, and he and the woman I know as my Mom, had been trying to conceive but weren’t able to. I’ll never forget how my Mom tells me from time to time how Dad came home and said there was going to be a little boy coming into the world that would need a family - would they want to adopt that little boy? Would they want to adopt me? And they did.