Writing & Thinking

Course Readings

The following readings are in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format. Full bibliographic information for these readings can be found on the Course Bibliography.

Arthur C. Danto: ART: De Kooning's Three-Seater
Lindsey Gruson: Is It Art or Just a Toilet Seat?

J.P. Hodin: Contemporary Art: Its Definition and Classification

Clement Greenberg: On Modernist Painting

Kasimir Malevich: Suprematism

Leo Tolstoy: What Is Art?

Piet Mondrian: Plastic Art and Pure Plastic Art

Clive Bell: Art as Significant Form

Wassily Kandinsky: Reminiscences

Paul Klee: On Modern Art

Harrison S. Morris: The Art Called Modern

Rhodes Johnson: In Defense of Abstract Art

Morris Weitz: The Role of Theory in Aesthetics

Arthur C. Danto: The Artworld

George Dickie: The New Institutional Theory of Art

Maureen Dowd: Unruffled Helms Basks in Eye of Arts Storm
Mary Devereaux: Protected Space: Politics, Censorship, and the Arts

Richard Meyer: The Jesse Helms Theory of Art

Spy Magazine: My Kid Could Do That
Angelina Hawley-Dolan and Ellen Winner: Seeing the Mind Behind the Art

Roland Barthes: The Death of the Author

Sherri Irvin: Appropriation and Authorship in Contemporary Art