Visible Language

Late twentieth century art (visual) education, in particular urban college art programs, figure in the continuum of questioning authority (authorship, originality and the concrete). This erosion of certainty has pointed faith back to the experiential — consider current debates about “embodied” art experience, for example. While the delicate line between an appealingly non-verbal experience and the disfavored notion of spiritual elevation continues to employ critics, art practice in the classroom can be addressed as the curious fruit of the following (immaterial+material) couplings:

1) 60’s idealism - 90’s economy
2) theoretical writing - object making
3) information - knowledge
4) disposable income - apprenticeship

January 1999  ·  issue 33.1