On Teaching Art in America

Leonardo, Vol. 5, pp. 339-341. Pergamon Press 1972. Printed in Great Britain ON TEACHING ART IN AMERICA Peter Lipman-Wulf* 1. INTRODUCTION The task of artists is not only to invent or to produce art but also to pass on their ideas and skills to the next generation. Sometimes a mediocre artist is an outstanding teacher; sometimes an outstanding one is not. It depends both on human and artistic capability and originality. The teacher of art has a twofold aim: to assure the continuation of a society’s artistic heritage and to stimulate talented students to develop their creative potential. This double responsibility is especially difficult in our time, when artistic values change so rapidly. Thus, the position of today’s art teacher is no longer as well defined as it was perhaps 100 years ago. I shall describe the special situation of today’s artist-teacher engaged to teach fine arts as his major task, instead of instructing his craft and skill. My remarks will be based upon my American teaching experienceand my work of severaldecades as sculptor and printmaker. Articles in Leonardo have treated attempts to improve the education of professional artists and amateurs but havenot dealt withthe problems of the artist as teacher. They present new methods [l, 21, the Bauhaus methodology [3]and strongcriticismsofcurrent methods [4,5]. In these articles,the teacher is assumed to support new principles but the important problem to teach and at the same time to continue his own creative work is not discussed. A recent survey among professionals in America has shown, that artists and composers receive the lowest income directly from their work [6] and that very few can survive on this income. Thus, artists frequently resort to teaching in order to support themselvesfinancially. The plight of the artist in Western society has been well described by Upton Sinclair: ‘Everyartist is a double personality, living two lives. The impulse of art is a spiritual overflow; the artist absorbs life ... works it over ... to fructify the lives of others. The impulse is ... altruistic ... But also, alas, the artist is a creature with a stomach that must be filled. ...’ [7]. Hirsch mentions the significant role that the artist plays or should play in today’s society [I]. A * Artistandteacherlivingat 361BleeckerStreet,NewYork, N.Y. 10012,U.S.A. (Received16 October 1971.) 339 principal function of an artist is to contribute to the enrichment of human life but, if he is a non-conformist , this is difficult to do within his own society. The artist as an outsider was romanticized, for example, by Murger [8] and glamorized in this role in the garret in Puccini’sopera ‘La Boheme’ [9]. Many artists still find themselves isolated and in conflict with their societies. Some people think that for an artist to be a genius he must be poor. On the other hand, when an artist becomes a teacher, especially below university level, he generally has to conform to the attitudes prevailing in his community. All these problems can perhaps be overcome by the individual artist but the difficulties of carrying on two kinds of work remains a critical point. 2. TEACHING ART IN THE PAST AND PRESENT During the Renaissance, if the artist reached master status, he reigned supreme over a small group of apprentices. He had to train enough helpers to make works that looked as authentic as possible, as though done by his own hand. Benvenuto Cellini clearly describes his relationship to his helpers [lo]. Teachingart asaninstitution began in the seventeenth century in France, where the first official academies were established. Little by little, a few selected artists became teachers in these academies and developed very formal courses, limitedtoaspecialconceptionof whatisart. Students were taught to imitate selected works of the past and, it is true, in the process they became very good craftsmen. Goethe described what it wasliketo learn to draw in the eighteenth century [ll]. Also, the Swiss novelist Gottfried Keller discussed the life of an art student under a tutor and of the stifling teaching methods used at the Munich Academy in the nineteenth century. Already then, artistswere forced to resort to teaching in order to make a living [12]. The teaching...