Global Contemporary
What this unit covers
The topics below follow the published Art History course framework for Unit 10. This unit is worth 10.5% of the exam, so budget your time against that rather than against how long the unit takes to teach.
Lessons in this unit
- Identity, Memory & the Body14 min · 3 objectivesExplain how contemporary artists address identity, race, gender, and cultural heritage · Describe how memorials and appropriation reframe history and collective memory · Analyze how photography, silhouette, and installation stage questions of representation
- Materials, Globalization & New Media14 min · 3 objectivesExplain how contemporary artists transform everyday and recycled materials into meaning · Describe how new media and monumental architecture responded to a globalized world · Analyze how artists engage cultural exchange, labor, and the environment
What examiners penalize here
- For Global Contemporary works, lead with the **idea and context**: identity, colonialism, gender, memory, globalization. Shonibare’s "African" fabric is really European-made; Walker’s pretty silhouettes depict atrocity. Naming the concept a work critiques — and how its form delivers that critique — is the heart of the analysis AP wants here.
Practice Art History
Our practice bank is drawn from across the whole course rather than filtered to one unit, which is closer to how the exam asks anyway — it will not tell you which unit a question is testing.
Questions about this unit
How much of the AP Art History exam is Unit 10?
Unit 10, Global Contemporary, is worth 10.5% of the Art History multiple-choice section according to the published course framework. Across all 10 units that makes it one of the lighter units, so it is not where a review phase should start.
What topics are covered in Art History Unit 10?
Global Contemporary covers Postmodernism, Installation, New media and Identity.
How should I study Art History Unit 10?
Read the 2 lessons below first — about 30 minutes — then work practice questions on these topics. Finish with practice questions and read the explanation for every one you get right by elimination as well as the ones you miss.
All 10 units of AP Art History
Unit names, topics and exam weights follow the published College Board course framework for AP Art History. AP® is a trademark registered by the College Board, which does not endorse this site.