Another point of view on "Art Expert: The Problem with School Art Programs are Teachers Who "Can Barely Draw"

Art Expert: The Problem With School Art Programs Are Teachers Who "Can Barely Draw"
David C. Levy

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/david-levy-the-problem-with-sc.html#

http://mivpaa.blogspot.com/2009/10/problem-with-school-art-programs-are.html

I am in my ninth year as a high school art teacher. After a twenty-year career in illustration, I went to back to school to receive my teacher certification and a master’s degree in art education. I have to say that the vast majority of art ed students I attended classes with (undergraduate and graduate students alike) had very limited ability in terms of traditional art skills such as realistic drawing and painting. Additionally, I have to say that I have been largely pretty unimpressed with most of the teacher artwork that has been on display at the art education conferences I have attended. In my opinion, David C. Levy’s assertion that “many art teachers can barely draw” is correct.

Mr. Levy cites a number of reasons as to why this is. To him, the main reason is that K-12 visual art instruction focuses on “the nurturing of ‘creativity and self-expression’ at the expense of competence.” This is in large part true, as far as I can tell. The question is, why is this so?

It is my assertion that the reason lies within the realm of art philosophy and art criticism over the last hundred years or more. The modern era brought with it a myriad of changes in not only art, but in Western culture as a whole. World War I spawned DADA, with its outright rejection of tradition; Marcel Duchamp and others created a anti-art/non-art aesthetic/non-aesthetic. The Surrealists, influenced by the work of Sigmund Freud, also turned from tradition, exploring the world of dreams and the subconscious mind. In mid-century, the influential New York art critic Clement Greenberg determined that for art to be ART, it had to always be new and different. Painting was no longer about “making pictures”, it became simply about paint on a flat surface. Initially supported by Greenberg, Willem de Kooning, after painting pure abstraction in the late 1940s, returned to figurative painting with his “Woman” series, and he was essentially rejected by Greenberg as being “old-fashioned”. Never mind that most people today would likely consider de Kooning’s Woman paintings as exceedingly modern, if not downright ugly.

Having passed from Abstract Expressionism through Pop Art and Minimalism, we are now in what many consider to be the Postmodern era in art (and Western culture in general). Art has now gotten to the point where, to many people in the upper echelon of the fine art world, we have moved beyond the “art object” itself, and are into the realm of pure concept. For many in the art world, SKILL IS NO LONGER AN ISSUE. In fact, there is now a whole body of literature on the notion of “deskilling” in art.

One might also look back to the counter-culture revolution of the 1960s, where “do your own thing” was the order of the day. Certainly, many art teachers and post-secondary art educators over the last few decades came from that era, and one could argue that many of them have continued to pass along this mentality to art teachers of more recent years.

Indeed, to many art teachers, art is about “creativity and self-expression”, and it is oftentimes also much about helping students explore and express ideas in the political/social arena—one need only look at an issue of Art Education journal to see that this is the case. Never mind that the sociopolitical themes are heavily leaning in one direction. This is, of course, also true in post-secondary art programs, and in the contemporary art world in general.

Art is about many things nowadays, but in the art world and in K-12 visual art education, it does not seem to be much about skill. K-12 visual art standards and benchmarks are for the most part non-specific and open to interpretation; for example: “Intentionally use art materials and tools effectively to communicate ideas.” How about something like “Demonstrate the ability to draw a properly proportioned human figure”? Not a chance. As Mr. Levy implies, a lot of K-12 art teachers would have difficulty doing this.

Is there a solution? In large part, probably not, given the state of art in general in the postmodern era. For my part, I run a program that places a good amount of emphasis on traditional skills. As I like to say, if you can’t write a decent sentence, how are you going to write a whole story?

One final word: art teachers, if your drawing skills are really weak, try taking a few life drawing classes.

Richard Jacobi
Arts Academy in the Woods
Fraser, Michigan
http://rjart.blogspot.com/