Proletarian Drawing: West German Pedagogy’s Communicative Turn in the 1970s

Anna-Maria Kanta

Proletarian Drawing: West German Pedagogy’s Communicative Turn in the 1970s

Translated title of the contribution: Προλεταριακό σχέδιο: Η επικοινωνιακή στροφή στην παιδαγωγική της Δυτικής Γερμανίας την δεκαετία του 1970.

Anna-Maria Kanta

History of Art

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The article argues that the medium of drawing was at the crux of a series of West German pedagogical initiatives calling for radical educational reform across elementary and secondary education in the aftermath of the student protest movements of the late 1960s. What propelled the elevation of drawing into an exemplary pedagogical medium during this decade was not only the growing dissatisfaction with traditional art education, but more importantly the intensified inquiry into the proletariat, both as a conceptual and sociological category, an inquiry that in its turn pivoted on the historical experience of the German working class’s susceptibility to Nazi ideology. In the pages of the journal Ästhetik und Kommunikation: Beiträge zur politischen Erziehung [Aesthetics and Communication: Contributions to Political Education] we find a specific pedagogical approach to drawing that reclaims the original meaning of “appropriation” in the sense
of a distinct way of relating to and being in the world, and retrieves the collective and
radical underpinnings of historical memory. As such, Ästhetik und Kommunikation opens the way to a differential definition of the “copy”, one that is intimately linked to the mastering of the past and anchored to the tangible, sensory, class-specific reworking of contested images and signs.

Translated title of the contribution	Προλεταριακό σχέδιο: Η επικοινωνιακή στροφή στην παιδαγωγική της Δυτικής Γερμανίας την δεκαετία του 1970.
Original language	Multiple languages
Pages (from-to)	121-149
Number of pages	29
Journal	e-krisi
Volume	10
Publication status	Published - 2022

Cite this

@article{2ec98920278443cbabe7b17a603b7282,

title = "Proletarian Drawing: West German Pedagogy{\textquoteright}s Communicative Turn in the 1970s",

abstract = "The article argues that the medium of drawing was at the crux of a series of West German pedagogical initiatives calling for radical educational reform across elementary and secondary education in the aftermath of the student protest movements of the late 1960s. What propelled the elevation of drawing into an exemplary pedagogical medium during this decade was not only the growing dissatisfaction with traditional art education, but more importantly the intensified inquiry into the proletariat, both as a conceptual and sociological category, an inquiry that in its turn pivoted on the historical experience of the German working class{\textquoteright}s susceptibility to Nazi ideology. In the pages of the journal {\"A}sthetik und Kommunikation: Beitr{\"a}ge zur politischen Erziehung [Aesthetics and Communication: Contributions to Political Education] we find a specific pedagogical approach to drawing that reclaims the original meaning of “appropriation” in the senseof a distinct way of relating to and being in the world, and retrieves the collective andradical underpinnings of historical memory. As such, {\"A}sthetik und Kommunikation opens the way to a differential definition of the “copy”, one that is intimately linked to the mastering of the past and anchored to the tangible, sensory, class-specific reworking of contested images and signs.",

author = "Anna-Maria Kanta",

year = "2022",

language = "Multiple languages",

volume = "10",

pages = "121--149",

journal = "e-krisi",

issn = "2585-2124",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Proletarian Drawing: West German Pedagogy’s Communicative Turn in the 1970s

AU - Kanta, Anna-Maria

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - The article argues that the medium of drawing was at the crux of a series of West German pedagogical initiatives calling for radical educational reform across elementary and secondary education in the aftermath of the student protest movements of the late 1960s. What propelled the elevation of drawing into an exemplary pedagogical medium during this decade was not only the growing dissatisfaction with traditional art education, but more importantly the intensified inquiry into the proletariat, both as a conceptual and sociological category, an inquiry that in its turn pivoted on the historical experience of the German working class’s susceptibility to Nazi ideology. In the pages of the journal Ästhetik und Kommunikation: Beiträge zur politischen Erziehung [Aesthetics and Communication: Contributions to Political Education] we find a specific pedagogical approach to drawing that reclaims the original meaning of “appropriation” in the senseof a distinct way of relating to and being in the world, and retrieves the collective andradical underpinnings of historical memory. As such, Ästhetik und Kommunikation opens the way to a differential definition of the “copy”, one that is intimately linked to the mastering of the past and anchored to the tangible, sensory, class-specific reworking of contested images and signs.

AB - The article argues that the medium of drawing was at the crux of a series of West German pedagogical initiatives calling for radical educational reform across elementary and secondary education in the aftermath of the student protest movements of the late 1960s. What propelled the elevation of drawing into an exemplary pedagogical medium during this decade was not only the growing dissatisfaction with traditional art education, but more importantly the intensified inquiry into the proletariat, both as a conceptual and sociological category, an inquiry that in its turn pivoted on the historical experience of the German working class’s susceptibility to Nazi ideology. In the pages of the journal Ästhetik und Kommunikation: Beiträge zur politischen Erziehung [Aesthetics and Communication: Contributions to Political Education] we find a specific pedagogical approach to drawing that reclaims the original meaning of “appropriation” in the senseof a distinct way of relating to and being in the world, and retrieves the collective andradical underpinnings of historical memory. As such, Ästhetik und Kommunikation opens the way to a differential definition of the “copy”, one that is intimately linked to the mastering of the past and anchored to the tangible, sensory, class-specific reworking of contested images and signs.

M3 - Article

SN - 2585-2124

VL - 10

SP - 121

EP - 149

JO - e-krisi

JF - e-krisi

ER -