Creative Art Criticism and Writing

with An Paenhuysen

Duration: Jul 22 – Aug 19, 2021

Fee: 172€

Max seats: 32

Enroll before: Jul 16, 2021

Dedication: 3 hrs/week

In this course we delve into experimental and hybrid forms of art writing. On a macro-level we will investigate how art criticism can open up to a bigger realm that goes beyond a particular artwork or exhibition, providing insight into ongoing tendencies and movements in contemporary culture. How do critics put the finger on the pulse of their times? On a micro-level we will also look for ways to expand art criticism’s narrative into the poetic and the fictional. What happens when non-fiction and fiction meet in art criticism?

This is a very hands-on course, filled with in-class exercises, active engagement and assignments. The general aim of this course is to develop a better sense of your own personal interests, voice and style. We will experiment with the writing of art criticism not just to find new creative forms but for what it can contribute to the art world in a deeper way.

Week 1. Introduction

• Introduction to the program and course overview.

This is a one-hour-only welcome session. The lecturer will introduce the program and participants will introduce themselves. No prior preparation is necessary.

Week 2. What is trending?

• tracing trends, movements and hypes in the contemporary artworld
• blowing-up and venting in art criticism
• the (dis)advantages of making grand, sweeping statements in art criticism
• writing manifestos in art criticism: where/what is the next revolution?
• assignment

Week 3. Signature shot

• feedback on writing assignment
• what is one’s own voice? Finding your “signature shot”
• investigate historical examples of daring voices in art writing in the 1920s
• learning to control the narrative / develop a sense of construction / writing with the ear
• assignment

Week 4. (Non)Fiction

• feedback writing assignment
• fictional form in art criticism: the art work as starting point for fictional and poetic
• developments
• the question of truth and untruth in art criticism
• the writers’ room or writing as a collective
• assignment

Week 5. New perspectives

• feedback writing assignment
• developing interests in your writing/mapping
• creating new perspectives on art
• deconstructing the trodden path
• writing exercise in class

An Paenhuysen is a freelance writer, curator, and arts educator. She has curated exhibitions at the Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum of Contemporary Art, Berlin as well as the exhibition Gesture Sign Art, Deaf Culture / Hearing Culture in Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien in Berlin. She published a book about the Belgian avant-garde, she has written for exhibition catalogues and for art magazines such as Spex, Artslant, and WhiteHotMagazine.
http://www.anpaenhuysen.de