Contents • • • • Key ideas [ ] Greenberg believed that the avant-garde arose in order to defend standards from the decline of perpetuated by the mass-production of consumer society, and saw kitsch and art as opposites. One of his more controversial claims was that kitsch was equivalent to: 'All kitsch is academic, and conversely, all that is academic is kitsch.' He argued this based on the fact that Academic art, such as that in the 19th century, was heavily centered in rules and formulations that were taught and tried to make art into something learnable and easily expressible. He later came to withdraw from his position of equating the two, as it became heavily criticized. Sources [ ] • Greenberg, Clement. Art and Culture., 1961 • Greenberg, Clement.

Ask students to look at photograph 1 and then find which unit it appears in (Unit 2, p. Repeat this procedure for photographs 2-5,trying to ensure that as many students as possible are given the chance to contribute. Ask two or three students around the class to describe the picture and identify what the unit appears to be about. Help them with vocabulary if necessary. Elicit or explain the meaning of the title, and ask students to suggest examples of methods of communication.

Homemade Esthetics: Observations on Art and Taste., 1999. • Rubenfeld, Florence. Clement Greenberg: A Life., 1997. References [ ].

Avant-garde and kitsch Clement Greenberg This is Greenberg's breakthrough essay from 1939, written for the Partisan Review when he was twenty-nine years of age and at the time more involved with literature than with painting.

Contents • • • • Key ideas [ ] Greenberg believed that the avant-garde arose in order to defend standards from the decline of perpetuated by the mass-production of consumer society, and saw kitsch and art as opposites. One of his more controversial claims was that kitsch was equivalent to: 'All kitsch is academic, and conversely, all that is academic is kitsch.'

He argued this based on the fact that Academic art, such as that in the 19th century, was heavily centered in rules and formulations that were taught and tried to make art into something learnable and easily expressible. He later came to withdraw from his position of equating the two, as it became heavily criticized. Sources [ ] • Greenberg, Clement. Art and Culture., 1961 • Greenberg, Clement.

Homemade Esthetics: Observations on Art and Taste., 1999. • Rubenfeld, Florence.

Clement Greenberg: A Life., 1997. References [ ].