A question I have never really asked myself. What does
being part of an art school mean? I guess the word school made me assume to
learn, to gather information and use that in order to get ‘good’ grades. But what
place does the word art have? Does this one word have the power to change the
concept of school just by putting them together? Especially when it is
considered one does not go to an art school to learn, but is already an artist/
designer, gaining skills and bettering themselves in their chosen path. My
understanding is that you don’t get taught, so why is there a grading scheme? Doesn’t
this defeat the object of an art school, and if one is already an artist or
designer but receives a ‘bad’ grade, does this mean they are no longer an
artist/designer? This is all very confusing, but I feel the restrictiveness of
education does not compliment art. As an artist, you are already a free spirit,
and although that doesn’t mean you know your exact direction, the imprisonment
(in my opinion) holds said designer/artist down and doesn’t allow them to
flourish.
I feel the idea of an art school is to overcome the
misconception of what art is about. What’s the first thing that comes into most
people’s head when art is discussed- Still life, life drawing and the old nude
painting. But these are dating right back to the 1800s, and although still
influential, the art movement has changed dramatically. Artists such as Manet and
the work Olympia have been starting points to
the change within art, causing controversy along the way.
An art school is everything people think it is not. Art
school is no longer a site for the replication and past standards, but is
rather a laboratory for finding out again and again what art and design is or
could be. It’s experimental, it encourages you to come out of your shell and
explore new techniques, but most importantly, it incorporates everything around
you into the work you do.
“Art is taught, but no one knows how.” Daniel
Birnaums, Philosopher of the Stadeschule.
No comments:
Post a Comment