SoSe 25 PS Abstraction (Nisbet)

Dozent: Prof. Dr. James Nisbet

This seminar will investigate “Abstraction” in its many valances within visual arts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. While commonly associated with a series of experiments among the European historical avant-garde in the early twentieth century, abstraction is at once a wider reaching, yet elusive, cultural concept. In its European context, abstraction has been treated as similar to a technology, arising as a “development” or “breakthrough” on the basis of a research agenda set out by “advanced” practitioners. This history would suggest that abstraction—like the roots of Western, colonializing culture at large—was first established on the continent of Europe, before disseminating to other continents and societies across the globe. In this vein, abstraction distinguishes itself as not only free of representational content, but more so as actively rejecting the enterprise and history of representational art altogether. Working through a combination of both art historical and primary source materials, this seminar will examine the creation of abstraction as an artistic practice, while at the same time evaluating its implications as screen for the broader cultural complexities of late modernity.

Blockseminar:
1. Di, 13.5.25, 18 Uhr s.t. Uhr, per ZOOM, Link: https://uni-frankfurt.zoom-x.de/j/61761263301?pwd=PYdxvTYGd41lgI9ifT78PZ2boPhePW.1 
2. Mo, 23.6.25, 9–12 Uhr (SH 0.106)
3. Mi, 25.6.25, 9–12 Uhr (SKW 5B.118)
4. Fr, 27.6.25, 9–12 Uhr (SH 0.104)
5. Mo, 30.6.25, 9–12 Uhr (SH 0.106)
6. Mi, 2.7.25, 9–12 Uhr (SH 3.103)