The Aesthetics of Learning

THE AESTHETICS OF LEARNING
Joseph Beuys and Henning Christiansen, Juan Downey, Catherine Wagner
JANUARY 16— MARCH 1, 2019

What does learning look like? What does learning sound like? How are aesthetics a conduit for rethinking the ways in which knowledge and power are formed?

The Mishkin Gallery is part of a public university formed out of the Free Academy of New York, an educational experiment founded in 1847 and the first of its kind in the United States. It was established to provide children of immigrants and the working-class access to free higher education based on academic merit alone. Building off this legacy, The Aesthetics of Learning asks how learning may become an emancipatory and democratic event. If the university is a pedagogic institution that builds and shapes our understanding of the world, then perhaps the university art gallery is a forum for evaluating this function.

This exhibition brings together works from the Baruch College Collection that target the infrastructure of knowledge itself. Each from a different decade and by artists who have taught, these artworks examine the creation of institutional frameworks through three distinct approaches: listening, looking, and communicating. A performance by Joseph Beuys and Henning Christiansen, four photographs by Catherine Wagner, and seven etchings by Juan Downey—do-it-yourself instructions—require action and suggest the possibility of alternate, unrestricted solutions.

What we uncover in these works are distinct ways of challenging the passive reproduction of knowledge and thereby power. An accompanying series of public programs will focus on how we might unlearn, offering space for contemplation and collaboration.

The Aesthetics of Learning is curated by Alaina Claire Feldman, Director of the Mishkin Gallery. Support for this exhibition is generously provided by Baruch College and the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences.

A free illustrated booklet has been produced as part of The Aesthetics of Learning. You can download a copy here: The Aesthetics of Learning

PRESS: Artfully Learning

The Aesthetics of Learning, Installation views at the Mishkin Gallery, 2019. Photography by Shoval Tsuva.