OLLI (Duke University Continuing Studies)- 3044
Winter 2021 Semester
Instructor: Sterling Bowen, 919-389-8293, sterling@sterlingbowen.com
Location: online only (Zoom instructions)
Time: Mondays, 3:30-4:45, Mar 15 through Apr 23
Class Description: If asked to talk about abstract painting—even works we’ve encountered and found engaging—many of us struggle to put what we’d describe as feelings into words. How does an art form that owes part of its place in history to the efforts of so many American artists occupy such an odd place in our culture? This course will start with a historical grounding for looking at abstract painting by examining several stages of its development in the 20th century through a combination of lecture and discussion.
Class format: We will utilize a seminar format, with a topical lecture and directed discussion each class. We will discuss canonical works, and explore some contemporary work and consider the state of the art form in 2021. As we develop a vocabulary to talk about painting, we will apply our new skills by engaging in “critique.”
Supplemental work (recommended): Students will also be encouraged and supported in spending independent time outside of class experimenting with making nonrepresentational artwork. Each lessons’ prompt will be included with the other materials for that class (see below).
Students will also have the opportunity to improve their vocabulary as, each week, they write one paragraph about an abstract artist. Students can explore artists on this website by selecting from a list of hashtags used to categorize artists, by reviewing the thumbnail image gallery of their works (students can click on an image they like to see the name of the artist which produced the work) or using the search bar below.
Students should also read some of the art writing recommended for this class and from other sources the I enjoy- please share your writing with me if you are so inclined!
Class 1 (March 15)
Discussion: Introductions, class expectations
Lecture: Modernism and the Genesis of Abstraction (presentation)
Exercise (after class): make a “good” and a “bad” composition using solid-colored shapes
- Cubism and Abstract Art (MOMA, 1936, catalog by Alfred H. Barr, Jr)
- Inventing Abstraction (MOMA, 2013- compare to above)
- History of Modernism (general overview, Wolfson)
- (László) Moholy-Nagy Foundation
- The Colorful Geometry of Concrete Art
Class 2 ( March 22)
Lecture: Abstraction as Symbolism (presentation)
Discussion: approaches to critique (How we talk about art) and (first) critique time!
Exercise (after class): automatic drawing and draftsmanship exercise
- Carmen Herrera interview
- The Changing Complex Profile of Black Abstract Painters
- Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint (rent on Amazon)
- How Colors Influence the Mind
Class 3 (March 29)
Lecture: Automatism and Expressionism (presentation)
Demonstration and Homework: Creating abstract expressionist work
- How Pollock and the Abstract Expressionists Created a New Visual Language
- Examples of Automatic Drawing
- Art Theory Map
- Joan Mitchell
- Jazz and the New York School
Class 4 (April 5)
Lecture: Experimentation and chance (presentation)
Critique: completed student work from Class 3 prompt
Homework: Read!!! (Optional- review materials from my color class)
- Review: ‘Pretty Raw’ Recounts Helen Frankenthaler’s Influence on the Art World
- The Second Generation Abstract Expressionist Ed Clark
- Poems Without Words (Raphael Rubenstein on David Reed)
- When Abstraction Exploded in Form and Meaning
- Halsey Hathaway’s Impure Abstractions
Class 5 (April 12)
Lecture: Artists whose tools/media shape their work (presentation)
Demonstration and homework: using tools other than brushes
- Dorothy Fratt at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts
- Toward a Unified Theory of Frank Stella
- Why Ellsworth Kelly was a Giant in the World of American Art
- Pierre Soulages: A Century
- Observing Gerhard Richter’s Abstract Painting
- Tony Just at Efremdis Gallery
Class 6 (April 19)
Lecture: Abstraction since 1980 (presentation)
- Peter Halley on Dystopian Geometry, Why He Started Index Magazine, and How the ’80s Were No Party
- Painting in the 1980s: Elizabeth Murray
- Hypnotic and Alluring: Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Nets
- Virtually Formal
- What Happens When We Run Out of Styles?
- Panel discussion: Painting in 2020
Additional Recommended Reading List (check out these other sources, too)
The Golden Age of Abstraction: Right Now
John McCracken: Thresholds (excerpt)
How Piet Mondrian’s Abstractions Became A New Way to See the World
Altoon Sultan’s Powerful Challenge
A Garden or a Grave (review of Brett Flanigan and Ellen Rutt)
