Page 63 - Studio International - July August 1973

deficiencies in the DipAD brief and points to Coventry may not be typical. The authors point
the more serious limitations and inadequacies of to two major axioms for the orthodoxy of
the ideology which gave rise to it. One gets the knowledge in art schools from the mid-sixties :
feeling of an altogether uncontrolled American formalist painting and
experiment, run by sincere yet irresponsible avant-gardism (or the posture of constant
technicians on an altogether unwitting group of rejection of art styles). Coventry no doubt
subjects. The shock tactics employed by some could be seen to more or less match this model
lecturers, and the general harsh treatment of the and maybe several other colleges as well. But
students, are reminiscent of certain practices of others again wouldn't. Insofar as.the
mental institutions, and the impartial account laissez-faire structure of Coventry led to certain
given to these as the stance of the book further individuals becoming dominant in mediating
the over-all impression of an institution so acceptable knowledge (in this case Conceptual
bent on singular aims that it has lost sight of Art), in other colleges other individuals may
the wider implications of its role and function as have an altogether different set of
a choice in further education. So strongly was predispositions and at some colleges it is hard to
the unquestioning belief in the artist's role find a prevailing orthodoxy.
definition as the individualistic hero of a The book then, has to be regarded as an
conformist society maintained by the staff at initial attempt into a new area. Its revelations
Coventry at the time, that the outcome of the are important as far as they go. But much more
training for the students is an extreme instance work remains to be done in understanding the
of alienation. relationship between the ongoing and historical
It is the seriousness of this continued ideology of art reality and its outcomes and
ideological bearing of the Fine Art course of the consequences in education. q
Diploma which highlights the limitations of the ANDREW DEWDNEY
book.
Perhaps the most important of these is the
choice on the part of the authors to conceal the Gaps
identity of the college and individuals I. The Absolute Bourgeois. Artists and Politics in
concerned. Throughout the book Coventry is France 1848 — 1851 by T. J. Clark.
referred to by the mythical title — `Midville.' 224 pp., 109 illustrations, to in colour.
There are a number of possible reasons for this, Thames & Hudson. £4.50.
none of which I consider justifiable. The most II. Image of the People, Gustave Courbet and the
obvious is that it was done as part of a 1848 Revolution by T. J. Clark.
professional ethic. Not revealing the names of 208 pp., 5o illustrations, 7 in colour.
your clients in order to protect them — a standard Thames & Hudson. L4.50.
device which places the work in a respectable
category. But in this case one wonders what the Attempts to write the social history of art have,
recriminations would be. After all individual art in the past, been criticized for overlooking the
colleges have been held up as exemplary minutiae of social existence in their effort to
models. Perhaps in the nervous climate no read the history of the western world in the
college wishes to be spotlighted. But then the varying trends and modes of artistic production.
cover-up job was not very convincing, at least It has been said that they have not asked how
not to those inside the art sub-world who, one far, in individual cases, stylistic changes may be
would imagine, form the major audience for taken as an index to changes of attitude, and, in
the book. The grapevine at work within the relying on secondary authorities, they have
DipAD system is remarkably sensitive. Really failed to research in detail the particular
this attempt to conceal the identity of the institutional frameworks into which art has
college concerned goes against the main value fitted. These are not criticisms which could be
of the work, which is that of a specific study. made against Mr Clark's work. While he
One other possible explanation stands out. preserves the premise that there is 'no art
As a sociological account the authors are history apart from other kinds of history'
definitely attempting to generalize from their (11 p. 18), he moves away from generalizations
material. In this they are putting forward their and the search for universal laws of the social
study at Coventry as paradigmatic, a conditioning of art, in order 'to discover the
typification. If this was genuinely their aim then actual, complex links which bind together art
they would wish to diminish the interpretations and politics in this period' (II p. to). In doing
of the book as a local study and present it more so, he draws a firm line between his method and
as an analysis of all art colleges and art students. the methods of social historians who have
Although the profile that emerges of art preceded him: what he wants is 'to discover
student belief, from their study, is for the most what concrete transactions are hidden behind
part accurate, it does raise one or two questions. the mechanical image of "reflection", to know
As far as the piecing together of the way in how "background" becomes "foreground";
which the dominant art ideology is transmitted instead of analogy between form and content, to
and received - i.e. the process of socialization, I discover the network of real, complex relations
think they have done a fair job. But, in the area between the two' (II p. 12).
what passes for knowledge within the semantic Instead of the general nature of the artist's
field structuring routine interpretations, encounter with history, he chooses to explore
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