51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ

Course Description

Summary

In this course, we will examine the art theory expounded in the writings and lectures of three influential figures in the histories of the visual arts at 51³ÉÈËÁÔÆæ and 20th-century American modernism: philosopher John Dewey (1859-1952), art historian Alexander Dorner (1893-1957), and art critic Clement Greenberg (1909-1994). We will thereby trace not only how modernist discourse informed the emergence of the visual arts as curriculum and practice at Bennington, but indeed how the latter engendered critical and irreducible declensions of Modernism. In this vein, we will also draw on the college's archive and art collection, as well as those of Bennington Art Museum.