13440

SoSe 21: Modes of Abstraction

Eric de Bruyn

Information for students

languages: German and English

Additional information / Pre-requisites

online, Webex

Comments

Modernist art is perhaps most closely identified with the formal invention of abstraction. As a matter of fact, early histories of modern art tended to focus on the evolution of abstract styles, leaving out many other developments. Indeed, several painters, such as Kandinsky, Malevich, Kupka, or Mondrian, would claim the title of being the first, truly abstract artist, although, more recently, some have claimed that the spiritualist painter Hilma af Klimt beat all these male artist to the punch. Rather than following such a linear narrative of abstraction, in this seminar we shall consider various possible genealogies of abstraction within the visual arts, which range from the 1910s to the present and across various media (painting, sculpture, film). It will be shown how the practice and significance of abstraction became a hotly contested terrain, with some artists and critics proposing a more idealist version of abstraction (e.g., De Stijl, Suprematism) and others a more materialist conception (e.g., Russian Constructivism). For some artists, for instance, the monochrome painting stood for a ‘de-materialized’, vergeistigte notion of art, whereas for others, the monochrome actualized the most ‘concrete’ possibility of art. Declared dead many times over, abstract art has the uncanny tendency to resurrect itself again and again. We shall not only discuss modernist and post-modernist modes of abstraction, but also digital techniques of abstraction. We shall consider abstraction in Western and non-Western contexts, but also the various cultural values of abstraction as related to the realms of science, technology, economy and politics. close

14 Class schedule

Regular appointments

Wed, 10:00 - 12:00 14 Class schedule

Wed, 2021-04-14 - Wed, 2021-07-14 10:00 - 12:00

Wed, 2021-04-21 10:00 - 12:00