Page 20 - Studio International - December1996

Anniversary of the International Friends of the Tate). The buoyancy of the movement And so the Mystery—Something' persists to still
Surrealist Exhibition was soon to be overwhelmed by the real terrors of the torment the western mind. And the task of Art Educa-
Second World War, and English painting which had tion is to try to rationalize that 'Something' into
The 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition was held been stimulated but never fully won over, returned an 'Nth Dimension', and to find a means of 'Inculcat-
in June at the New Burlington Gallery in Vigo St. rapidly to a more characteristic insular idealism. Now ing'—not 'teaching'—it into the receptive student—not
It brought to London for the first time a large selection after thirty years we can begin again to assess this 'Inserting it' Into the 'curriculum', to gather the dust
of surrealist work by the leaders of the movement, period as we witness in contemporary painting and of 'exercises'.
including Breton, Magritte, Dali, Chirico, Ernst, sculpture the triumph of many of the ideas that the But how to do this? The answer has to presuppose
Masson, Miró, Tanguy, Duchamp and Giacometti 1936 Exhibition first introduced to London. certain 'understandings', rather than just ice-cold
and work by other European painters that the 'knowledge', on the part of the 'inculcator', capable
apologists were prepared to accept, such as Klee The Connoisseur' prize of being communicated to receptive students who
and Picasso. Some of these personalities also came to reveal the beginning of 'comprehension' in their work.
London—Breton opened the exhibition and Salvador An annual £100 prize 'for one or maybe two, groups This may sound tough-going. But it presupposes a
Dali gave his memorable lecture from the inside of a of work' is being awarded by The Connoisseur separation of preparation of 'Design-students' from
deep-sea divers suit. The effect of these events and magazine to students of the Royal Academy Schools. those who have 'feeling' for the 'Nth Dimension'. It
people on the work of many British artists at this time Awards will be made by the Keeper after consultation also premises teachers who would enjoy sharing with
was of overwhelming importance. The ideas of the with the teaching staff. This year's award is shared such students. However, no matter how 'way-out' the
movement, founded in the discoveries of the psy- by two painters, George Rowlett and John Kiki. proposition may sound, it is becoming increasingly
cho-analysts and representing in part the revolu- clear that something must be done to create the
tionary reaction of a generation that had known the In brief climate in which art can be re-discovered and
stability of pre-1914 Europe and then had had to allowed to develop.
participate in the 1914-18 War, were already familiar A large exhibition of American and British graphics Yours etc.
to painters and writers in this country. Many were is planned for March—April at the Modern Museum, Ernest Philpot
sympathetic to the movement and the exhibition Belgrade. The exhibition may be shown at Belgrade London, S.W.19
contained work by a list of English painters that now later.
seems very strange, for as well as the expected Paul Dear Sir,
Nash, Edward Burra, Roland Penrose, and Henry The drawings in the current Gaudier-Brzeska ex- I welcomed Theo Crosby's contribution to the topic
Moore there were also works by Graham Sutherland, hibition at Victor Waddington come from the personal 'What kind of art education?', also those of Ken
Robert Medley and Julian Trevelyan (a brilliant ex- collection of Mr H. S. Ede, and the net funds from Adams and Christopher Jones; but I would like to
ample of Trevelyan's work dating from this period sales will be given to The Kettle's Yard Foundation take the matter a step further, and remind myself and
has just been acquired by the Tate through the destined for the University of Cambridge. others interested in these contributions that art
education must stand or fall by a 'one to one' rela-
Correspondence tionship between teacher and student. That, in so
far as learning takes place, it is only in the fusion of
What kind of art education? what he has to offer with what you have to offer. So
that if it is to be considered beneficial to bring
Sir, painters into contact with design students at some
An answer to the question 'What kind of art educa- stages in their training, or vice versa, both parties will
tion?', hinges on one immediate and urgent premise: benefit (if anything happens at all).
that art training which has for its objective 'Good Crosby's 'coherence and total involvement in society'
designers' for commerce and industry, has nothing can only be served by a multiplication of these experi-
to do with art. We have to take an extreme stand on ences. More threatening than any system of art
this. education which has so far been devised, to my
The Bauhaus-oriented fallacy that such training knowledge, is the abiding fascination which recipes
makes artists, is exploding itself. Hence the con- (tuned to the past, present and future; or to social
tinuing enquiry—'What kind of art education?' The need, even) hold for us; they are guaranteed to by-
fallacy has conditioned art-school syllabuses for too pass the relationship which this form of teaching
long. It bodes well for art in this country that the quest demands. There is too much doctrine in the business,
goes on, although it seems that facilities and training and cynicism in the student is the result.
are ample for 'design-training'. The training in the Before we touch on the conviction that should go
physical mechanics of drawing, painting, sculpturing into making a syllabus, or on broad aspects of plan-
—with all the 'modern' aids by way of media, methods, ning, should we not look harder at the nature of the
means, thrown in—could hardly be bettered: while process of learning, in art education?
the 'break-down' of aesthetics suitable for art- Yours faithfully,
In a studio lately a visitor fell in love with a somewhat student assimilation has created a body of work year Shelley Fausset
large landscape; drawing the artist's wife aside, he asked by year, which might seem to render our question Head of Pre-Diploma Department
the price. 'Fifty pounds' staggered him, but recovering rhetorical. Central School of Art and Design
himself as he returned to contemplate it, he said, 'I But of course, the malaise from which, we feel, art London, W.C.1
can't buy it all, but I should like some of it. How much is suffering, is not due to any lack of facilities and
will your husband paint me for a five-pound note ?' training. As a fact, it might well be said that it is
From The Lay Figure Speaks suffering precisely from an overdose of these two Imaginative cursiveness
June, 1893 inhibiting dimensions in the training syllabus. What
rather is required is a stiff injection of what I call in a Sir,
Forthcoming issues book I am preparing, the 'Nth Dimension'—that You are a severer critic that I am. You write in my
'Something' that has always invested the kind of Art article, 'British Sculpture: the Developing Scene'
The January issue will include an article by John we seem to be 'nostalgic' for as we ask our question— (October issue): 'Sheer cussedness can dominate the
Berger comparing certain aspects of Poussin and 'What kind of art training?', and which still invests imagination ....' No doubt it can; but then you go
de Staël; 'Some notes on Kandinsky and the idea only too small a proportion of 'works' coming before on to give my example of sheer cursiveness, Francis
of non-figurative art'; an article by Tom Hudson; the public today: that same 'Something' which has Morland's The Kiss. Censorship?
an interview with Magritte; and commentaries from defied philosophers for two thousand years to define, Yours sincerely,
France,- New York, and Argentina. and which not even two hundred years of 'Post- Gene Baro
Baumgartenian Aesthetics has been able to isolate— London, N.W.1
The issue on kinetic art, originally scheduled for much less dismiss or exorcise from its intellectual
January, has had to be deferred to February. consideration of the mystery of art. (Mistake, not censorship. Apologies.—Ed.)
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