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ix Preface When you look at a painting like the one on this book’s cover, what do you see? Leaving aside the particular features of the image, you might see a more or less interesting, more or less beautiful, work in the abstract style. Perhaps that style reminds you not only of similar paintings but also of works in diverse mediums that share the traits we have come to recognize as modernist. And seeing that, you might think of the history of this art movement and its distance from us today. This book disputes the notion that modernism is outmoded. It aims to reconstruct some of modernism’s characteristic features, transforming them from stylistic elements into principles of a pedagogical culture. This culture is different from the ones normally recognized today by multiculturalist educators. It abjures identity formation. Instead, its works teach anyone who is interested ways to cultivate an understanding of existence and to resist the distracting forces of consumerism. They accomplish this, as my title indicates, by artistically stressing their mediums. To make this way of understanding modernism plausible, I engage with some of the most influential writing in modernist theory, particularly regarding works in the visual arts. I examine the reasoning of key essays by Clement Greenberg, T. J. Clark, and Michael Fried. Their theoretical points develop out of detailed exegesis, historical contextualization, and judgment of artworks they helped make crucial. Building on their insights and seeking to avoid the impasses they ran into, I try to point out a road not taken, one that connects their work to an unusual configuration of filmmakers, philosophers, and educational theorists, one that moves us from the realm of art history, narrowly conceived, to a project of cultural education. Although I am attentive to this road’s basis in aesthetic responsiveness to concrete works, my exploration of it advances principally through philosophical criticism and speculation, that is, conceptual transformation. Given what emerges as the stakes of this project, I hope this book will elicit interest from several kinds of audiences. I hope that critics, historians, and theorists of modernist art will find thought-provoking my new approach to appreciating the value of that art. Because this approach draws heavily on x Preface existentialism, it should raise new aesthetic, cultural, and educational questions for philosophers working in this area. And because it proposes to support a pedagogical culture growing out of the conversation of liberal learning, I hope it will engage the energies of liberal educators and philosophers of education. Bringing these different audiences together is of course no small challenge. Readers in each are bound to find some of the relevant literature from the other realms unfamiliar. I have accordingly sought to walk a line between glossing enough of the thinking in these literatures to make it accessible to the uninitiated while delving deep enough into its complexities to make argumentative points of substance. My strategy has been to select a few key works to focus on in detail, employing them as motivators for the exposition of my argument, and to allude only to others that introduce necessary points of qualification. I prefer to err on the side of concision and directness in order to reduce the chance of confusing readers with too much esoterica. One regret I have is that it has not proved feasible to supply reproductions of visual artworks. I have tried to minimize the impact of this by discussing works that are commonly known and resisting the temptation to draw attention to the unsung. Many of these works are moreover viewable on the Web. As for the films I take up, I am glad to note that they are all available on DVD. This book grew out of a number of nurturing environments and stimulating conversations. There is no higher, more voluptuous pleasure than to count such blessings. I first conceived of the book’s argument in the library of the International House of Japan, my favorite place for philosophical reflection. Later, I was able to concentrate on a draft of the opening during a sabbatical spent at the University of Tokyo. Over the years, this piece evolved in the warm climate created by my colleagues in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in the Professions, NYU Steinhardt. Parts of it benefited from my discussions with audiences at the Royal Danish School of Educational Studies and at the Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania. The faith put in...

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