Note: To protect the privacy of our members, e-mail addresses have been removed from the archived messages. As a result, some links may be broken.
Andy Warhol on E!
Wed, 18 Mar 1998 00:42:00 -0600
- Next message: Rosa Juliusdottir: "Re: Mystery Theme Unit"
- Previous message: Michael R. Delahunt: "philosophy humor"
Did anyone happen to see the recent E! True Hollywood Story on Andy
Warhol? It was a 2 hour documentary of his life that gets rather
intimate and touches on some controversial personal elements such as
homosexuality and drugs. As a high school art teacher, I am considering
showing the video to my art classes. The major question I have is if it
would be appropriate for and valuable to the students. Andy Warhol is
without a doubt one of the most important artists of this century. But
all too often it seems a closer look at the person behind the art brings
pain and darkness that society would like to gloss-over or overlook
Interestingly enough, I had a college English professor who felt it was
important to reveal the artists behind the work (in this case, the
artists were writers). I was really surprised at what controversial
people these authors were, yet in my own schooling their writing was
presented without mention of these important yet conveniently overlooked
personal elements. It's kind of like the glossy image of history that's
been painted on the American psyche, such as with Christopher Columbus'
"discovery" of America. We were never taught about the racist thought
involved, which might make Columbus look a little more like Hitler (a
great book on the ways history has been "glossed" is A People's History
of the United States by Howard Zinn).
If anyone else caught the E! documentary, is this something you would
show your classes?
If you didn't see the Warhol special, I'd be interested in seeing a
discussion considering these questions:
1. How much of the truth is appropriate to include in our public
schools?
2. What are your guidelines for censorship?
- Next message: Rosa Juliusdottir: "Re: Mystery Theme Unit"
- Previous message: Michael R. Delahunt: "philosophy humor"