This course examines materials that have played a role in the making of the modern world as well as modern art. Some are of comparatively recent invention; others are ancient but acquired new significance in the global circuits of economic modernity and the changing aesthetic concerns of modern artists. Ranging across vegetable, animal, and mineral matter(s), we will consider materials’ role in racial capitalism as well as art history; their technical properties and attendant conservation issues; their poetics; and their agencies and animacies.