Word: transcendentalist
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...matrix in which most of the impulses of American abstract art, except for its weaker strand of purist geometry, unfolded. In no other country except England and Australia was the relation between abstraction and landscape so strong, but in America it had a special persistence because of its Transcendentalist roots and overtones of mysticism...
...Concord Museum, a natural first stop, provides a cram course in transcendentalism--the belief that the beauty of the natural world is a manifestation of divinity--as well as exhibits about transcendentalist writers Emerson, Thoreau and Bronson Alcott. They were all friends and neighbors, and the galleries reflect their coziness. A room replicating Emerson's study contains his circular writing table and books often borrowed by Louisa May Alcott. Next door is the Thoreau gallery, with the desk, bed and chair from that famous rustic cabin Thoreau built on Emerson's land at Walden Pond, as well as Thoreau...
AbEx, in its transcendentalist ambitions, shunned the specifics of contemporary American culture; its followers created a veritable academy of "authenticity," sign of the hot, tragic and inventive sensibility. Johns wanted to work with something not invented, something so well known, as he put it, that it was not well seen. Hence the flag. In real life, after Johns, it continued to be the common property of all Americans, the climax of their stock of public symbols. But in the art world, it became Johns' own sign. Other artists would use the Stars and Stripes in a spirit of provocation...
...that the Unabomber suspect is in custody, we will hear about his life and his beliefs, and some of us will even download his manifesto. We will learn that, like us, he believes in the power of the individual, just as our transcendentalist fathers taught us. We will learn that, like many of us, he questions whether our society is truly "civilized." And we will learn that he wonders, as do many of us in these overwhelming days, whether technology is really more damaging than useful to the individual. The accused Unabomber is a bad person who happens...
Buell, a scholar of transcendentalist literature who came to Harvard two years ago, enters his new post this summer. A tough task lies ahead for Buell, who has a slate of issues to tackle ranging from advising to curriculum-all of which need attention desperately...