Instructor: Karen Gonzalez Rice, PhD
Classes: Thursdays from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
January 16, 23, 30, February 6 & 13
Before it became a hip buzzword for living with less, Minimalism was an art world phenomenon that shifted the landscape of contemporary art. Responding to the excesses of both Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, Minimalist artists worked with pared-down forms, tools, and materials. They created a new kind of artistic practice that emphasized repetition and simplicity. In addition, many Minimal artists sought to move art beyond the gallery—to take art outside into urban and rural landscapes—as a way of creating more accessible, more democratic audience experiences. In this class, we will grapple with the mixed results of Minimalist experiments and explore artworks both abstract and concrete, inviting and confusing, egalitarian and elite. While Minimalism has often been represented in art history as white and male, in this class we will consider Minimalist artists with diverse identities and explore contradictory practices within the movement from an inclusive perspective. In the spirit of Minimalism, we will engage with our subject beyond the museum and make use of the rich resources of Minimalist art in and around New London.
Cost: $125.00 for members │ $150.00 for non-members
- The walk-in price for individual classes is $35 members / $40 non-members.
- No seat substitutes if you are unable to attend class.
Registration: Please contact Caitlin Healy, Director of Education, at healy@lymanallyn.org.
Karen Gonzalez Rice’s approach to teaching and research is multidisciplinary, drawing on methodologies of contemporary art history, religious studies, American studies and trauma studies. Her courses at Connecticut College include Late 20th-Century Art, Seeing: Mona Lisa to Instagram, and upper-level courses such as Pop Art & Critical Visual Culture, and Radical Bodies: Contemporary Art & Action.
The United States, as we have come to know it, is an invention. Like no other nation in the world, its settlers and founders had the luxury of being able to invent a culture out of whole cloth. Complicating this process, however, was the presence of indigenous cultures on the land we chose to occupy, and the importation of enslaved populations needed to realize Western European objectives. Central to the tenuous success of this country, though, was an emerging, shared belief in an idea—however mythologized—that of a series of principles and values could be set out in a range of documents, portrayals in art, literature and music. This course explores the evolution of a concept for nationhood, first anchored in 17th century European Enlightenment values, only to evolve as experimental communities—then colonies and states—coalescing into the coherent Republic we know today. The stages of growth over the last 400-years can best be summarized as the evolutionary attributions of The Laws of Nature; The Laws of Religion, The Laws of Man; And The Laws of the City. The cultural impact of art, literature, the written word (documents) and music will be factored into our understanding and appreciation for how we, as a populous, absorbed these overt representations of ‘who we are’ to become who we are, today.