Summer 2013: Art and politics
Chicago, New York
Saturdays 1–4PM CST
School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)
112 S. Michigan Ave. room 920
Sundays 2–5PM EST
New School University
Eugene Lang College
65 W. 11th St. room 258
Summer 2013
Art and politics
• required / + recommended reading
Required preliminary reading
• Chris Cutrone, "The relevance of Critical Theory to art today" (2011)
• Cutrone, "An incomplete project? Art and politics after postmodernism" (2010)
Week 1. The meaning of art | Jun. 22–23, 2013
[Artists'] work is to sustain the critical moment of aesthetic experience. [Critics' work] is to recognize it.
-- Susan Buck-Morss, response to Visual culture questionnaire (1996)
• Susan Buck-Morss, response to Visual culture questionnaire (1996)
+ Robert Pippin, "On Critical Theory" (2004)
+ Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms [PNG]
+ Kant's 3 Critiques [PNG] and philosophy [PNG] charts of terms
• Immanuel Kant, Preface and Introduction, Critique of Judgment (1790) [full book PDF]
Week 2. Modern aesthetics of art | Jun. 29–30, 2013
• G.W.F. Hegel, Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics first section:
1 Prefatory Remarks
2 Limitation and Defence of Aesthetics
3 Refutation of Objections
4 Scientific Ways of Treating Beauty and Art
5 Concept of the Beauty of Art
6 Common Ideas of Art
(i) The Work of Art as a Product of Human Activity
(ii) The Work of Art, as being for Apprehension by Man’s Senses, is drawn from the Sensuous Sphere
(iii) The Aim of Art
Week 3. Art and politics in our epoch | Jul. 6–7, 2013
• Leon Trotsky, "Art and politics in our epoch" (1938)
• Clement Greenberg, "Avant-garde and kitsch" (1939)
Week 4. Revolutionary art? | Jul. 13–14, 2013
• Walter Benjamin, "Experience and poverty" (1934)
• Benjamin, "The author as producer" (1934)
• Jürgen Habermas, "Modernity: an incomplete project" (1981)
Week 5. Art and the commodity form | Jul. 27–28, 2013
• Stewart Martin, “Critique of relational aesthetics” (2007)
• Stewart Martin, “The absolute artwork meets the absolute commodity” (2007)
• Theodor Adorno, "Art's self-evidence lost" and "Society", Aesthetic Theory (1970)
