Clement Greenberg; Who he was and his theories

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Clement Greenberg was born on January 16, 1909 in Bronx, New York. His parents were from the Lithuanian Jewish cultural enclave in north-eastern Poland. Greenberg was the oldest of three sons. At the age of five Greenberg and his family moved to Norfolk, Virginia but moved back to Brooklyn when he was eleven. Greenberg graduated High School at the Marquand School and went on to Syracuse University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in languages and literature in the year 1930. During the next two years after college Greenberg taught himself German, Italian, French and Latin; during these years he supported himself by translating German books. In 1934 Greenberg met and married Edwina Ewing had his first son, Daniel, in 1935 and in 1936 had his divorce. In 1938 he attended a lecture about modern European art led by Hans Hoffman. Greenberg wrote an article called “Avant-Garde and Kitsch” in 1939 which showed his first interests in social conditions in creating art. In 1940 he became the editor of the Partisan Review and he regularly contributed to a column in the Nation from...

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