The Arts

Carl Raschke – The Arts

Helping Students and the Public to Understand the Meaning of Modern and Postmodern Art

Carl Raschke’s teaching and writing increasingly is taking him into the theory and appreciation of the arts. His course ASEM 2576 (“Art, Thought, and Spirituality”, formerly CORE 2576) taught regularly at the University of Denver has been very well regarded by students, and explores how modern artists, particularly abstract artists starting with Wassily Kandinsky in the early 20^th century and influenced by new theories of “seeing” in philosophy, science, and psychology, sought to reveal the hidden dimensions and secrets of God, human nature, and the universe.

He has given public lectures and workshops with visual media, including at art galleries and artist organizations, on the “spiritual in art”, as Kandinsky himself called it. These lectures and workshops seek to educate and develop the sensibility of the public viewer when they look at a work of modern art and to help them develop both a confidence and a fluency in discussing through the language of “art talk” what they actually see and experience. Dr. Raschke has published an essay on how all this works with teaching students to communicate and to write in “Writing as a Way of Teaching Students How to Talk ‘Art Talk’”, in Doug Hesse (ed.), Teaching and Troubling Writing Intensive Courses, 2^nd ed., (Denver CO: University of Denver Writing Program, 2010), 75-78. A .pdf version can be downloaded here.