ART 563b, Eyeing Pollock: mid-century modernism with and against Greenberg’s grain
G32 GREEN R 2:00-5:00pm

How was Jackson Pollock made modern in the writing of Clement Greenberg? This seminar will examine the forming of mid-20th century modernism as not merely an ocular operation, but an aspect of the “bureaucratization of the senses” over the long term. What were the parameters that Pollock had to occupy to be as modern as, say, Mondrian? What had to be excluded in order for Pollock to become modern in an “American-type” way? We will examine Greenberg’s apprenticeship to European modernism through the Stieglitz group, aspects of leftist theory and avant-gardism in 1930s New York, the wartime presence of painters such as Siquieros, Mondrian, Masson, et al., the cold war canonization of Pollock in the 1950s, and the violent rejection of Greenbergian modernism in the 1980s – eyeing Pollock with and against the formalist grain, to explore developments in painting up to the present. Open to all MFA students, meets biweekly for 1.5 credits, first class meets on 1/17/08. Caroline Jones