Page 20 - Studio International - November 1966

What kind of art education?

Our September issue carried interviews technological advances of the age, which have immediate steps should be taken to prepare the
with Richard Hamilton, Professor Misha changed the whole pattern of human thought and ground for a change of policy which is as logical as it
behaviour. Fettered to an effete tradition the art is inevitable.
Black and Sir Herbert Read in which they
colleges are inadequate to the spirit and needs of the The separation of industrial design from 'fine art'
answered questions about art education. time, while art education, under pressure from tech- (has the term any meaning today?) and craft design
Richard Hamilton favoured an art education nology and avant-garde aesthetics, is in a state of flux poses the question of the future scope and function
which stressed thinking rather than feeling: and serious uncertainty. of the art schools per se. I cannot, of course, agree
'I am concerned with producing people with The situation is paradoxical. The arts are enjoying with my friend Sir Herbert Read that we would
an era of unprecedented popularity and social actually 'benefit from their abolition'. No one seriously
good minds, who are capable of seeing
prestige. We should not, however, allow ourselves to claims that art schools are essential to the artist; but
society as a whole, trained to think construc- be misled by this phenomenon. Art is still only one of many schools can and do create the environment
tively though not necessarily productively'. the frills of education despite official efforts to im- which enables artists to mature and burgeon. 'Art
Misha Black advocated schools of human prove its educational status. Compared with the education (declared Croce) has always advanced un-
ecology out of the university framework intellectual disciplines its position in the academic aided; when it has found one way blocked it has taken
hierarchy is anomalous, to say the least. As E. S. another and asserted itself even among those who
separated from fine arts and not craft based
Dallas declared a century ago, we have inherited an rejected it.' This, of course, is true. But the art schools
industry. Sir Herbert Read also supported
'intellectual squint'. Our values have been corrupted also perform a very important function in producing
the creation of this kind of school and and our vision distorted by a system of education future teachers of art. Good teachers are as neces-
advocated the abolition of art schools. He which has little regard for anything but reason and sary, sub specie eternitatis, as good artists; and while
preferred the idea of schools in which logic. Science and technology have the edge on I take Herbert Read's point that 'the good teacher is
painting and sculpture when it comes to deciding not one who is the product of any formal education',
painting, sculpture, music, theatre and
priorities in the modern world. the colleges produce many whose influence is
dancing all took place uninhibited by the
Dismay and alarm have been added to the art col- essential to the wellbeing and continuity of our
examination system. lege dilemma by the defection of architecture-and, to culture. In this aspect of art college education how-
A first selection of comments on these an increasing degree, of industrial design-from the ever there is room perhaps for a more liberal and less
interviews was published in the October fine arts-traditionally the effective core of the art professional attitude.
school and its raison d'être. Despite the authority vest- But the art schools, of course, have other functions
issue of Studio International.
ed in both the Summerson and Coldstream reports, besides training artists and teachers; they keep alive
they have manifestly failed to come to terms with the the traditional skills vested in the fine crafts of silver,
from Dr T. Elder Dickson, writer and critic, basic problems which avant-garde art and modern glass, pottery, enamelling, etc., teach mural painting
technology have brought to a critical focus (the new and mural decoration, textiles and other decorative
past president of the Society of Scottish
Diploma in Art and Design actually stresses a arts which are necessary to civilized society. These
Artists, and since 1949 vice-principal of the fundamental dichotomy). What the 1954-64 exhibition must at all costs be preserved, especially in an age
Edinburgh College of Art: at the Tate in effect declared was that the boundaries as brutal as the present.
between art and other manifestations of creative Basic training, which has become so fashionable in
Three presuppositions have been necessary activity have completely vanished; it challenged, in art schools recently, not surprisingly, figures promi-
in compiling the following commentary: fact, the very foundation of the art school system and nently in the discussion. The balance of opinion
posed questions which are apparently unanswer- appears to be that some sort of common course in the
(a) that the divorce of fine art and archi-
able. Now we have the paradoxical situation of the first year is essential. But it is not clear whether the
tecture is complete and irrevocable, (b)
'fine arts' being judiciously freed from academic object is to determine the students' individual
that the fine art tradition, hitherto the discipline and 'industrial art' being cautiously geared aptitudes or to provide a training in fundamental
foundation of the academic structure of the to the techniques and procedures of science. skills common to both 'fine art' and design (industrial
art school, is no longer educationally Obviously complete freedom in the domain of the 'fine design and craft design). Personally my sympathies
arts' and strict scientific discipline in the 'industrial are with Herbert Read's view (as against Richard
viable, and (c) that the 'expressive arts'
arts' are each at variance with the basic principles of Hamilton's) that the basic course should aim to
(painting, sculpture and related art forms)
art and art education by which art colleges must exploit, if not actually to cultivate, the students' sense
are discrete activities governed by sub- stand. Absolute freedom of individual expression of form through direct contact with different materials.
jective (spiritual or psychological) laws, (not altogether unusual today) is incompatible with One year, however, is not sufficient to make it
while design is essentially technological in academic responsibility; absolute scientific control possible to decide a student's future; and two years
nature and function.These presuppositions, of design (also by no means unusual today) is in- would be too inhibiting and frustrating to most
compatible with art and the traditional image of the students, especially those whose bent is towards
of course, do not imply value judgements
art school. Here is the dilemma confronting the art expressive art. I am also highly sceptical of the ulti-
pro or con. colleges; for the more they concede to science and mate validity of Richard Hamilton's assertion that the
technology the less they are concerned with art. Only purpose of the basic course is 'to put across the idea
Signs of a serious crisis in the system of art school one answer appears sensible, as all three contri- that any activity should be the outcome of thinking'.
education have been multiplying for some time. Para- butors seem to suggest: a completely new system Thinking and intellectual analysis, I have no doubt,
mount among the causes of this crisis are the collapse and philosophy of art education separating the are very relevant to the industrial design process,
of the authority of the fine arts and the growing alie- expressive arts from design, using the latter term in but not to expressive art, unless he is using the word
nation of architecture and design from the influence its most comprehensive sense to include every aspect 'thinking' in a sense so wide as to include every type
and tradition of the art schools. The first is critical, of the physical environment from consumer goods to of mental activity, non-conceptual as well as con-
because so far nothing has emerged to restore architecture and planning. I am, therefore, in full ceptual. (I am constitutionally prejudiced against
confidence and direction to our culture; the second is agreement with the general line of thinking expressed attempts to intellectualize art; attempts which I
an immediate consequence of the scientific and in the discussion. It is vitally important, however, that suspect arise from our idolatrous regard for logic.)