The lectures, readings and discussions focus on six major themes: 1) The relationship between art and politics (class, gender, nationalism); 2) Abstraction versus realism or "outer" versus "inner" vision; 3) Primitivism and the search for origins, innocence and freedom from societal constraints; 4) Reactions to modernity, including attitudes toward originality, tradition and the rise of technology; 5) The relation between "high" art and popular culture; and 6) The role of artists and art in a modern society.
Are artists political revolutionaries? Spiritual leaders?
Working-class producers? Or the spoiled lap-dogs of the moneyed classes?
Is art politically or spiritually meaningful or is it merely expensive
decoration? Can it transcend the mundane world or is it mired in
particular economic and social relations? Are art and artistic values
universal and eternal or are they personal and mutable? These are
the questions and issues we will address.