Black Mountain College Case: Transformation Trends in Art Education in the First Half of the 20th century
Black Mountain College Case: Transformation Trends in Art Education in the First Half of the 20th century

Summary/Abstract: The reformation process of art education began in the 19th century and achieved its peak in the 1930s. It was manifested in the form of schools with anti-academic spirit – Bauhaus in Europe and Black Mountain College in the United States. The paper is initiated by the main observation that such a strong reformation attempt has never repeated again after the Black Mountain College case. The combination of John Dewey’s educational principles, Josef Albers’ well-thought-out art instruction, as well as the college founders’ idea of essentiality of art education for a contemporary democratic society created the suitable environment for an art education development, which needs to be reconsidered in light of the contemporary situation of teaching humanities, including art education. In spite of more than hundred years of reformation processes, art education still manifests residues of the old, conservative academic spirit and art schools still communicate their own state of exclusivity or even elitism. The main goal of the paper is to emphasise, that the pursuit for a wholesome social position of art was the most striking endeavour of many brilliant thinkers in 19th and 20th century (e.g. Semper, Morris, Lichtwark, Dewey, Albers). Therefore, art educators, as well as art theoreticians of the 21st century must take this into a serious consideration.

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