Art in the Making: Materialities of Modern Art reads the art of the 20^th century not through its styles, forms or subject matter, but through its techniques and materials.  Over the past decade, the discipline of Art History has witnessed a “material turn.” In thrall with Thing Theory, art historians and critics have insisted on the materiality of objects and works of art, attending to the physical, affective properties of materials, their durability, heft, ephemerality, and agency. Rather than attending to the finished product we see in museums and galleries, this course will, in Tim Ingold’s words, “follow the materials,” from everyday, salvaged materials to organic materials and body fluids: dust, sand, newsprint, asphalt, wax, urban detritus/consumer waste, hair, wood, mud, stone, latex, chocolate. Through specific case studies, we will investigate the way things, materials and their properties have mattered to modern artists and how they have experimented with and exploited non-traditional materials and their properties, positioning these within the wider cultural contexts in which materials were encountered and understood. Incorporating readings from the field of Technical Art History, theoretical texts will guide our discussions.