The Blues Aesthetic: African-American Aesthetics, Modernism, and Contemporary Art provides an interdisciplinary examination of the influence of Black aesthetics on the landscape of Modern and Contemporary Art. Understanding Black aesthetics as the cultural, ontological, and ideological production of the African diaspora as engendered by and in the wake of the transatlantic slave trade, this course demonstrates the central influence of Black aesthetics within Western and global cultural production since the late 19th century. Mapping from histories of Black music, performance, visual, and oral tradition this course situates the story of Modernism and Contemporary art within a history of Black cultural production foregrounding the participation of Black individuals, aesthetic practices, and reactions of individuals outside of the Black community to each. Together, this course aims the challenge traditional approaches to the narratives of Modernism and Contemporary art and culture so as to highlight the central influence of Black aesthetics and pioneering participation of Black creatives within these fields.