The Praxis of Teaching Drawing

Joanna Nash Department of Culture and Values Faculty of Education McGill University, Montréal

March 1997

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Ad Hoc M.A.

03 Joanna Nash, 1997 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. nie Wellington OttawaON K1AON4 Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada Canada

The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence aliowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de microfiche/fih, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique.

The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thése. thesis nor substantial extracts fkom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. The Praxis of Teaching Drawing

Abstract

This inquiry examines the relationship between studio drawing instruction and art theory, by reviewing practical and theoreticai art books, questioning peers, and conducting a focus group encounter. The resulting data, interpreted in light of 95 years of teaching experience, suggests that the chronology of exercises in al1 the reviewed drawing texts encourages a widespread use of outlining at the expense of a concentmtion on rendering mass and volume. In response to changing demands on art teachers, the author proposes an outline for an updated studio drawing manual which synthesizes theory and practice by addressing compatible themes, and proposes a chronology of effective exercises which enhance student understanding and capacity to render volume and mas. The author concludes that the field of teaching drawing cm be expanded to reflect visual, spiritual and ethical concems, and that reestablishing the primacy of the visual to the teaching of the visual arts is best achieved in a hospi table setting w here the standards and validi ty of the disci pline on be established according to visual critena, and not remote theory.

Cette étude examine la relation entre l'enseignement du dessin en studio et la théorie de l'art, et vise à resserrer ces liens, en réponse aux exigences changeantes faites aux enseignantes de l'art. Après une recension de livres d'art paratiques et théoriques. une interrogation de pairs, et l'animation d'un focus group , I'auteure propose le plan d'un manuel mis à jour, pour le dessin en studio. Interprétées à la lumière de 25 années d'expérience en enseignement, les données permettent de conclure que la progression des exercices, dans tous les manuels de dessin, encourage largement l'utilisation du traçage et retarde, chez l'étudiante, la compréhension de la masse et du volume. Le manuel lie théorie et pratique en traitant de thèmes qui s'y rapportent, et propose une pogression des exercises efficaces qui améliore la compréhension du volume et de la masse. TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 : INTRODUCTION

Chapter 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Practicd texts 2.2 Conceptual texts 2.3 Social theory texts 2.4 Aesthetic texts 2.5 Critical tex&

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY AND FIELDWORK 3.1 Questionnaire 3.2 Focus Group

Chapter 4: ANALY SIS OF LITERATURE AND RELDWORK 4.1 Recurring themes

Chapter 5: PRAXIS: PROPOSED INSTRUCTIONAL TEXT 5.1 Outline for proposed text

CONCLUSION

Bibliography

Appendix 1: Ethics Cornmittee approval Appendix Il: Questionnaire Appendix 11 1: Recommended texts Appendix IV: Focus group questions CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: Background, Issues and Intentions The lack of understanding and acceptance of practical art intelligence is a major contributing factor to the marginalization of the visual artist and the visual arts as areas of s tudy in educational institutions today. But current educational research negates these pejorative attitudes and points instead to the need for new ways of viewing the teaching and learning of art s kills and bolstering the recognition of the unique contributions that visual based knowledge and the visual language have to offer dl people in ail disciplines. Most importantiy. art should be taught in hospitable contexts where the intelligence and capacities of visual arts practitioners is not undervalued. 1n those universi ties still coloured by tradi tional, hierarchical and competitive educational paradigms. an important cnteria of cornpetence is proving one's intelligence exclusively through theoretical discourse and scholarly writing. The overvaluing of language based knowledge over perceptually based knowledge creates a dilemma for studio art teachers and students who may be tacit knowers. These are individuals who think eclectically and consider a problem from many different points of view. Edward de Bono ( 1%7) refers to this mode of thinking as creative and visual and calls it ' lateral thinking': It might be wondered where the artist cornes in. In his search for new ways of looking at things. in his dedication to breaking down the old conventions of perception, is not the artist the supreme user of Iaterai thinking? In the worid of art it would seem îhat laterd thinking is going on ail the Ume under the more self-satisfying name of creative thinking. The artist is open to ideas, influences and chance. The artist seeb to develop an intense awareness. The artist tries to escape from the accepted vision of things often by deliberate use of unreason...... Are not al1 these the very essence of laterai thinking? (p. 124) It is not surprising that a belief persists within educational institutions and society that if an artist is ' bright' s/he has a naive, innocent or instinctuaf cleverness. Even when personal intelligence is recognized it is considered akin to 'common sense', separate from, nonrigorous, and qualitatively inferior to knowledge oJ which has been acquired rational 1y. The authors of Wornen's Wavs of Knowing (Belenky et al. 1986) have established that inarticulateness or silence on the part of students can be devastating in educational settings where personal and subjective knowledge is suspect. What we are left with is a major dialectic; a contradiction that imposes an unauthentic mode of thinking on many - one that opposes form and content. Michael Polanyi ( 1%6) 41sthe artist' s mode of thinking: personal, tacit or embodied knowledge. The inabili ty of many artis ts to adequatel y verbalize em bodied knowledge rein forces the erroneous perception that they are in tellectuall y inferior. The artist-teacher, is a practi tioner and communicator in a particularl y demanding position. Practical or embodied knowledge is largely visual, theoretical and difficult to transmit linguistically. How then is teaching to be accomplished? Silcock ( 1994) examines ' reflective' teaching and its bridging and transformational capacities: "Reflection-in-action is ' practical intelligence' - an integration of mature judgments with sense-motor skills", which ..."means to unite, cogni tively, ternpofally and spatially disparate elements."(p. 276-77) Schon (1983) suggests that practitioner-teachers usuatly do not have prepared teaching strategies but rely on improvisation and moment-to-moment choices for action based on non-conscious, practical judgments moving towards consciously conceived ends. Reflective teaching also reshapes tacit knowledge progressively within new perspectives, transforming it to adapt to the moment-temoment realities of teaching. Griffiths and Tann (1992) acknowledge the teachers' difficulty in reconciling persona1 or 'embedded' knowledge with more idedised conceptions. They propose the mastery of different types of discourse to help teachers sequentially move [rom private theory to more general public ideas. Research about perception reveals the importance of visual intelligence for al1 students in al1 fields, particularly with the increasing use of computers and visual media. Yet, in spite of these findings art classes and prograrns in Universities, pst-secondary, secondary and prirnary schools are being cut and often abolished. When visual arts programs do exist in pstsecondary education they esist as separate from other facul ties. If their separate status would allow art departments to freely establish their own rules and standards, then, they might thrive. But, visuai arts departments generally have less budget and occupy a marginalized position in relation to other fields. These under valued art departments risk being CO-opted by the standards implemented by other academic disciplines - hence the massive influx of theory on the pnctiwl pursuits of visud arts in order to legitimize them. Ironically, in reference to what effect a visual art education can have on other fields of study, it is interesting to note that, as technology advances, visual art prograrns are cut and the possibility of a visual education for al1 students diminishes. How will future students Iearn to read visually? The late Rudolf Amheirn ( 1954), professor of psychology at Harvard, has spent years esamining the visual processing of knowledge, the fusion of seeing and thinking in the 'image-inahon'. He suggests that al1 thinking is visual because it is abstract in nature and patterning and relationships are formulated perceptually. Arnheim clarifies the affinity between language and images and emphasizes the necessi ty for visual li teracy in al1 disci pl ines. Arnheim's proposal of the primacy of visual knowledge has been qualified by Sir Ernst Gombrich, a scholar of art and culture. Gombrich ( 19%) finds the visual image wanting in its capacity to match the staternent function of language, and considers that effective communication occurs when image and caption combine, but even this is influenced by our fore-knowledge of social customs and conventions. Our understanding of the message in a picture depends upon Our prior knowledge of possi bili ties ; too much information or misunderstood information becomes an obstacle to understanding. Gombrich gives examples of misreadings, and reminds us of our beholder's sluzre -the stock of images stored in our minds, which we bnng into the reading of an image. We see what we know, we see what we assume and we see what we want to see. Although the latter theories enlighten us as to the distinct nature of visual intelligence they do not take into account the ski11 component which is formed of body and mind. Skill is practical intelligence in action and blends knowing about, knowing in, and knowing how. Al though everyday art practice lacks words, i t does not lack intelligence. When 1 first entered a university art program in the mid 1970's, students were considered the thinty recipients of tmth and knowledge as decreed by higher authonties, pnncipally male teachers. They habitually gave us devastatingly negative critiques of our artwork, supposedl y in our best interests. My teachers did not speak about their art or their lives subjectively, and they gave the impression that to become an artist was to join a select bohemian men's club. In spite of an educational system which undervalued perceptual intelligence, many male artists stood better chances of sunriving their education and sustaining art careers than female artists. The results of my education were a schizophrenic state of motivation and apathy, an inconsistent academic record of high and low grades, and a sense that my intelligence was iilegitimate and that 1 did not fit into the system. Parallel to rny Fine Arts education 1 took private classes with a local artist who provided me with the technical and personal art-life skills 1 was not leaming in rny 'official' program. In spi te of the mixed quaii ty of my schooling, perhaps because of i t, 1 decided to teach art to adults as an adjunct to my painting career. My earliest classrmm methodology was tentative since 1 was not sure of ' me-the- teacher' . I used the methods of teachers 1 had admired and from whose teaching 1 leamed. Other methods came from technical books; principal1 y, i taught by trial and error. As 1 matured, 1 jotted down informal notes indicating my perceptions of the success or failure of specific esercises, projects and classes. 1 developed a mu1ti- faceted, flesible personal teaching method which included: guided esperimentation, exposure to plenty of visual examples, technical demonstrations, discussion of esisting concepts and open-ended dialogue. My personality and style had significant impact on my overall teaching; 1 wanted to satisfy my needs and those of my students, and be authentic, engaging and situational. I felt a responsibility for the vocabulary 1 used as 1 translated, mediated, interpreted and demonstrated the visual language of art. For the last twenty years I have taught most of my classes in French and teaching in a second language has taught me to think carefull y about the meanings 1 wish to convey. Essentially, 1 define my role as an informed guide rather than an authoritative expert, and 1 look upon my students as my peers. Although they lack art experience they bring varied and rich professional and life experiences to class. Perhaps a brief profile of them would be helpful at this point. Most students have completed high school and range in age from 18 to 70. The majority are white, middle income, educated home workers, re tirees, working professionals and, sometimes - artists-i n-trahi ng. 1 have taught in art school, art centers, universities, workshops, one to one private instruction, and have critiqiied artwork in self-directed work groups. A rnajority of the students are in the work force and many come from the teaching and technicd professions. Students Vary in their levels of motivation, discipline and depth of experience, and although women outnurnber men 1 have not noticed an important difference in performance between male and female students. The major differences 1 have encountered, however, are between 'open' and 'closed' students. The closed student is unwilling to plunge into the unknown and wants to anticipate and control occurrences every step of the way. Experimentation is undertaken with difficulty, whereas an open student embarh upon hislher art encounters with receptivity, curiosity, excitement and a capacity for open-ended pursui t. When 1 meet new students, 1 ask them their narnes, occupation(s), art background and what they they want to achieve in the class. Their responses indicate that the majori ty of the students seek self-affirmation and a refinement of their art skills. A minority seek a professional change to a career in the arts. Most students have little time to devote to their art work, others arrange to pursue it pan time for academic credit while continuing in the work force. A few pursue it full-time and supplement their studio instruction with homework. reading, gailery visits, and intensive workshops. The quality of my student's work has evolved from when 1 began teaching; they are more seriously engaged in their work, and more esposed to art. Perhaps democntic trends have broadened in art education in Québec, and as art has become less elitist it is more accessible to the general public. In the last two decades school administrations viewed adult leaming more seriously and respond to pubic demands for quality in teaching and diversity of courses. Currently an prograrns at dl levels of education are suffenng from cutbacks. As 1 have become a more experienced and mature teacher 1 recognize and accept the 'given' of a student and the self-determined boundaries of their stated goals. 1 am more adept at individuaiising my teaching practices and 'intuiting' where students are in their development, and, how to comrnunicate with them. My satisfaction as a teacher is derived in part from the sharing of art experiences, opinions and values (rather than an imposition of them), and the visual evidence of growth in my student's art work. Periodically I make critical evaluations of my art, and when needed, let experiences and stimulating concepts vitalise my work. Presently, in a moment of heightened awareness of the passage of time, the teacher in me feels the necessity to re-examine, re- evaluate, and evolve the content and form of my teaching. This reassessment poses some pertinent questions: What principles and practices do 1 teach? Where do they corne from? Do they still satisfy me as a teacher? Are they still relevant to the needs of my students? What changes or improvements can 1 make to my teachmg? To answer these questions 1 have anaiysed my teaching style. 1 experiment and improvise with different approaches and projects to keep my teaching eflective and reflexive. 1 frequently update my teaching source materials which include: photogmphic slides, actual art works, reproductions and illustrated books, as well as my own reading and writing about art. My basic objectives in studio drawing classes are directed towards introducing students to the materiai practices of rnaking marks on surfaces and the sensuailtactile satisfaction that these activities can provide. 1 strive to enhance and refine students' capacities for observation, discernment, empathy, self-awareness, and critical, qualitative judgments conceming their artworks and those of others. 1 aim at baiancing the development of technical skills with personai and expressive modes of drawing. And, finally, I emphasize the recording of experience and interpretation of reality over copyine and imitation. In addition to these goals 1 address a nurnber of lacunae in the artistic development of many of rny adult students such as: their lack of exposure to historical and currenr artwork, the gap between their art and their personal lives, their isolation from a greater art context including a sense of community, history, and cultural traditions. And lastly 1 address their underestimation of the transfomative power of art which can uniquely enrich our capaci ty to see and experience the world differentl y. Accordingly 1 initiate discussion about diverse artists and art histories, engage students in constructive art criticism, cultivate their discemment by exposure to art works, and emphasize the relationship of art to our lives. Two decades of engaged teaching prepares me to transmit a large arnount of subject matter in a limited amount of time, bw a persistent challenge remains, the balancitg of theoretical concepts with material practice. Although much has been wntten about the visuai arts, few books integrate practice and theory convitrcitrgly, and most thereby perpetrate their separation. Also, rnany teachers and students are alienated from art theory because so rnuch of it sounds overly pedantic in tone and remote from the ad of drawing and painting. Studio art teachers are irnrnersed in the practicai and particular for a variety of rasons such as cumculum and student demands, time constraints, and teaching orientation. Eisner (1990) cautions us: Theory, of necessity, motadequately encompass particdarity. Particulars arc: specifxc and idiosyncratic, and theory is general and ideal. Theory is useful as a guide, a deof thumb. but will inevitably fail to provide a perfect fit between generalised notions and relationships and the individual classrooms. teachers, and events with which teachers ...mut deal . (p. 195) When theory is dislocated or overemphasized in relation to practice, and the im balance insinuates itself into teaching, i t presents a persistent problem and ongoing concem for educators. But on the other hand, without a theoreticai dimension, art shlls rare1 y achieve rich mu1 ti-dimensional possibili ties. Further questions emerge: How can studentlteacher antipathy to theory be overcome? Which art theories are appropriate and enriching to dnwing instruction? And. when and how should these theories be conveyed? In his introduction to Leamine to Draw (1983), Robert Kaupelis states that his book: Will help point the way for an art teaching profession which, inadvertentIy or otiierwise, bas negIected the development of its own, as well a its students' aesthetic awareness and art historical knowledge, and has continued to use outmoded metbods in the teaching of drawing and other means of creative expression. (p. 9) Advances in dnwing methodologies have been neglected due to the diminished status of drawing in educational institutions, and the commercialisation of art which elevates quick and efficient technical training in illustration/representation over an in depth exploration of the graphic medium. Altematively, contemporary drawing has lost its distinct and separate discipline status and is frequently merged with other media such as painting, photographic and cornputer graphies. Dnwing no longer esîsts as a fashionable medium al1 on i ts own. In response to these problems my M.A. research examines the theories and methods used to teach drawing in pst-secondq art education. The work is directed to an audience of teachers and mature self-directed adult learners, and rny sources denve from practical and theoretical tests, field work, and my own teaching and leaming experiences. The outcome of my research is a proposai for a usable text for curriculum development in the teaching of drawing. 1 am submitting my study in a text format, since my subject, sources and methodology is compatible with prose rather than statistics, tables, or charts. 1t should be noted. however, that because of the nature of the visual subject, the study fits sornewhat uncomfortably inside the standard thesis format and strives to find appropriate words to describe visual phenornena. The personal kno~vledge1 contri bute to the study is îllurninated by 12. years ol experience as an informed practitioner of art and teaching, reinforced by my teaching notes. and discussions with rny peers. My point of vîew as a practitioner is of particular importance in research if that research is to be useful to other teachers. Lytle & Cockran- Smith (1993) have formulated a theory of knowledge for teaching that alters the locus of the lcnowledge base by validating teacher-genented inquiry in contrast with a knowledge base that only values the hocvledge of the universi ty researcher. They argue for a research that arises from the lives of experienced teachers, one expressed in a language that emanates from practice: Because teacher research emerges from pmxis and because it preserves teachers' own words and analyses, it has the potential to be a particularly robust method for understanding whether and how... . teachers consmct their knowledge and theories of practice. how these may change and develop over time. and the impact of these on teaching and leaming.... Teacher research often reveals teachers' explorations of the discrepancies they perceive between their theories of practice and their actual practices. If university-based researchers use as data the tests wri tten by teachers themselves. it is likelp that the domain of teacher knowledge will be refined and eventually redefined as a field of study . (p. 46û) With this in mind 1 consider my resûarch significant on two levels: First, it contends that theory cm be integrated into practice in the teaching of drawing. Second, by dernonstrating this interaction and describing my process, 1 am generating knowledge jiom the field, transforming it and retuming it to be used in the field. In The Discoverv ol Grounded Theorv, Glaser & Strauss (1967) propose that theory 'discovered' from data is legitimate and 'grounded' in practice, and that generating a theory involves a research process. Their research process has important implications for informed practitioners in many diverse fields. For example: The field worker who has observed closely in this social worid has had, in a profound sense, to live there. He bas been sufficiently immersed in this world to know it. and at the same time has rctained enough detachment to think theoretically about what he bas seen and livcd tbrough ..... the evolving systemauc analysis permits a field worker quite litedly to write prescriptions so that other outsiders could get dong in the observed sphere of life and action. (pp. 226-227) If a practi tioner can achieve sufficient distance from hislher practice to thinli analytically and theoretically it follows that theoreticians should be capable of eliminating distance frorn theory in order to gain practicai knowledge. Bengisson ( 1993) suggests that theory and pmtice are not mutuafly exclusive; when the former is subjectified and the latter objectified they cm complement each other to an educational advantage. He proposes two important steps for the integntion of theory into practice: (1) The first condition for the inteption of theory into practicc is that the agent can recognise hinself and his practice in the theoretical knowledge about ir. If he or she can not recognise himself, the howledge is without effect upon practice. And: (2) The second condition for the integration of theory into practice is that the theoretical knowledge is practised. The agent has to try from his understanding. To start with his or her actions will perhaps be clumsy, but with exercise the theoretical knowledge will be intepted into practice in such a way chat it is going to be settled in his or her own lived body. When the elimination of distance has succeeded. the theoretical knowledge will tum into a passive, spontaneously functioning howledge, sedimented in the agent's way of acting and seeing. He or she is then not a begimer any more, but a professiond, acting with skill. (p.210) Historically, artist's discoveries were formalized into teaching procedures passed on frorn rnaster to apprentice. Subsequently, art teaching rnethods were taught in art education institutions, or acquired by practice andfor augmented by texts. My observations and hypothesis derive from extensive reading of scholarly materiai, personal experience. and frorn encounten with peers and results in the theoretical groundwok for rny teaching practice. My present contribution, to the evolving 'what' and 'how' of teaching drawing is the out1 ine for a researched instructional manual ; the content of which derives frorn Praxis , practice informed by theory and theory informed by practice. CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE In search of a theoretical groundwork for the teaching of drawing 1 selected a number of tests for review: studio manuais for guided or independent study, conceptual books emphasizing art appreciation and history with suggested exercises, and final1y, full- theoreticai texts. 1 avoided oversirnplified texts, in particular a plethora of facile "how to' books, and , at the other extreme, idealized discourse which was needlessly opaque and therefore inapplicable. 1 chose texts recommended by art teachers, art students, and some which have proven valuable to my personal practice. Because centuries of theory and practice have sifted down to influence contemporary drawing 1 provide sorne social/historical background to the individuai texts. As well, 1 outline the stated intentions of the authors, their outstanding themes and writing styles, and assess the strengths and weaknesses of these texts and note how they relate to my experience teachng art 2.1 Practical texts. During the Middle Ages al1 artists were craftsrnen who learned and practised their skills to assert the power and prestige of God. Guilds were set up to bnng similar artisans together, to establish and protect their rights and obligations and to control the labour suppl y by 1imi ting num bers of apprentices and teachers. The Mediaeval apprenticeship system allowed only local master craftsmen to teach and male apprentices were effectively, indentured servants. The anstocracy could learn grammar from the clegy and study drawing in the scriptona. A turning point in Western cultural history occurred during the Renaissance when a humanistic philosophy of education was fonnulated îavounng classical studies for dl. not just professionals. Male artists were now accepted as part of the cultural and intellectual elite; they were seen as uniquely endowed individuais participating in godlikc creative endeavours which stnved to move the viewer to an appropriate moral or religious insight. The guildlapprentice system proved inadequate since the guild-master could only convey his skills and not nurture another's genius, so a two-tier leaming system was introduced clearing the way for Academies. They provided informal structures and exchanges for male artists of al1 levels, and painters were trained in the following liberal arts: Grammar, Geometry, Philosophy, Medicine, Astronomy, Perspective, History, Anatom y, Theory of Design, An thmetic. Drawing practice i ncluded the copying of master studies from nature, followed by studies of plaster casts, and culminating in observation of live rnodels. Drawing was now considered an intellectual tool in the formulation of an artistic idea and separate from the craft of execution which was ody a manual skill. The increased status of drawing from technique to i ntellectuai tool was reinforced by Leonardo Da Vinci, who considered drawing a recording instrument by which to investigate nature and therefore a tool for science as well as art. Renaissance art and science were considered related disciplines exemplified by the genius of Leonardo, and art theones and rules were developed from his discoveries and those of other rnasters. These mies rvolvedjkom arr itseff rather than from nature and they provided a basis for ail subsequent systems of academic art education, and accordingly art became its own discipline with establ ished methods of inquiry and teaching. The pejorative connotation of 'academic' derived from the French Académie Royale of the 17th century when Louis XI V insti tutionalized govemment sponsored art academies to oversee patronage, censorship and education. Because the main purpose of the arts was to assert the 'absolute' power and prestige of the state,the academ y becarne the guardian of true tradition in the arts and the art school prototype throughout Europe. The academy was restricted to men only, and non-member artists lost al1 patron privileges if they did not join. The academy demanded strict adherence to niles and they oversaw the teaching of architecture, geometry, perspective, math, anatomy, astronomy, history and dictated aesthetic canons. Drawing was taught from copying master works and plaster casts, and the academy even secured a monopoly on life drawing classes rvhich were forbidden to be taught in the studios of non-member artists. Because academic art adherzd stylistically to neoclassic ideals, drawings were impersonal, technicdly perfected, and brought to a high finish. John Ruskin In 19th Century Britain, as the painters Constable and Turner spearheaded a revolt against the English Royal Academy to free thernselves from the slavish following of academic rules. The influential Victorian art critic John Ruskin also rnanifested a revdl against the academy's grip on the education of artists and artisans. For Ruskin, dnwing was a distinct medium and discipline and a comerstone of any art education. The Elements of Drawine, ( 1857) reflected Ruskin's extreme adherence to a ' tmth to nature' doctrine, as he encouraged the close observation of natural objects rather than plaster casts, and honest personal depiction of nature instead of manual denterity and neatness of execution. Ruskin's dislih of academic ' finish' remains a relevant topic when discussing contemporary drawing; The cool and calculated look of highly finished art is often the product of a conformity to established rules and should not be confused with refinement of perception w hich can be enacted in the rough. Ruskin balances phiIosophical/spiritual positions with practical applications; for example he recommends the begnner not worry about outlines, but rather the gradation of shade - outline is rnerely the edge of the shade: No pupil in rny class king ever allowed to draw an outline, in the ordinary sense. It is pointed out to him. from the first, that Nature relieves one mass. or one tint, against another; but outlines none.( p. 27) And: Everything that you can see in the world around you, presents itself to your eyes only as an arrangement of patches of different colours variously shaded.. .the whole technical power of painting depends on our recoveq of what may be called the innocence of the cye ; that is to Say, of a sort of childish perception of these flat stains of colour, merely as such, without co~~sciousnessof what they si-@y, - as n blind man would see then if suddenly gifted with sight. (p. 27) Rushn understood that begi~ersini tially draw what they know conceptuall y, rather than 'see' the raw unelabonted information before their eyes. His insights were later developed by Kimon Nicolaides: We think too often of the thing we draw in terms of the ways we have seen it drawn.. .. . Do not aiiow familiar labels to interfere with fresh impulses.. .. Disregard ideas that are dready fomdated. or constantiy test them by new fresh experiences.... Redise the actual esistence of an arm or a leg in space as contrasted with the idea of an ann or a leg .... The only way around the limits of our preconceived notions is the physicd action of the five senses. You must get at a direct contact with the mode1..... There is much ta1 k about 'beauty' and much taik about 'tnith' ,but al1 the student need concern himself with is reality - that natural reality which he recognises in normal everyday life and which establishes itself in his mind through his senses. ( 1W 1, p. 3) According to Ruskin, artists painted. ..'The truths around them as they appeared to each man's own mind.". therefore copying master works fell into disfavour. Ruskin related artistic perception to a capacity for moral beauty, and therefore art education functioned to help students perceive the beauty of God's work in the universe. Ruskin believed other subjects should be integrated into the study of art; for instance. geography could introduce the drawing of maps, and history the shape of domestic utensils: 1 think 1 could teach a boy to draw without setting any time apart for drawing, and 1 wouid make him at the same time lem everything else quicker by putting the gx-aphic element in other studies. (Enand, 1990. pp. 136- 137) Ruskin's writing reflects the Victoria voice - judgmental with strong personal conviction. The greatest thing a human sou1 ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can taik for one who cm think, but thousands think for one who can see. To see cieariy is poetry, prophecy and religion, ail in one.(1971. p. si) The author's emphasis on drawing's spin tua1 potential has been reflected or rejected in subsequent trends in art and art education. In my own art and teaching I value Ruskin's respect of nature and his recognition of the spin tua1 dimension of drawing. Kimon Nicolaides The Natural Wav to Draw ( 1941) is perhaps the most influential drawing instruction text - for teachers - produced in the 20th Century. The author utilises his experience as an artist and teacher to the fullest: The job of the teacher, as 1 see it. is to teach students, not how to draw. but how to learn to draw. They must acquire some reai method of findiag out facts for themselves test they be limited for the rest of their lives to facts the instmctor relates. They must discover something of the tme nature of artistic creation - of the hidden processes by which inspiration works ..... LMywhole rnethod consists of enabling snidents to have an experience ... .Art should be concerned more with life than with art. .. .. To understand theories is not enough. Much practice is necessary, and the exercises in this book have ken designed to give that practice. (pp. SHI-.UV) Nicolaides recognized that two important, different drawing styles could cwnist in one artist. A studied contemplative approach could aitemate with an emotional and spontaneous manner of graphic expression. His unique contribution was distinguishing between 'contour' and 'gesture' drawing and formulating a methodology for teaching both. In contour exercises students are encouraged to concentrate deeply on the slow representation of the detailed tactile quaiities of a subject, and in gesture drawings students are espected to react quickly and spontaneously to reveal the essence of what something is dohg rather than what it look like. The author proposes that sight must be augmented by as many of the senses as possible, especially touch, and as such he continually emphasizes the physicality of drawing. Although Nicolaides gives esamples of contour and gesture drawing methods which are linear. he also presents an excellent section on ' modelling', with cxercises targeted at exploiting the substantiaiity of form. The principle drawback of this text for student use is its rigorous esercise schedule; the book is divided into 25 sections, each providing between one and seven three-hour exercises, and constitutes a one year art study program to be used with or without a teacher. Many students find this too daunting an enterprise. Like most of my pers, I integrated Nicolaides into my teaching practices and still find his book vaiid and relevant today. Betty Edwards The evolution of art and art education is influenced by changing currents and trends. During academic control over art in Europe, the primacy of science was officially distinguished over art. In an effort to legitimize their efforts and compensate for the diminished status of art in relation to science, many 30th Century art education researchers affiliated themselves with the social sciences rather than the humanities and adopted a positivistic science mode1 for research. Dmwing from the Right Side of The Brain: (1989) is a popular educational application of psychobiologist Roger W. Sperry's insights into right and lefr brain capacities. Edwards explains cornplex brain functions somewhat sirnplistically as she psi& a scientifïc 'proof to substantiate what artistkachers have applied ' intui tively' for centuries - during creative activity artists experience an altered state that can be evoked by calling upon their inner (non-verbal) senses. She presents exercises such as the drawing of an upside down image to disorient student's habitua1 way of seeing and help them shift from dominant left bmin to sub dominant right brain modes of perception: Presumably. the left hemisphere, confused and blocked by the unfatniliar image and unable to name or symbolise as usual, is medoff, and the job passed over to the right hemisphere. Perfect! The right brain is the hemisphere appropriate for the task of drawing. Because it is specialised for the task, the right brain fin& drawing easy and enjoyablç. (p. 55) Both Nicolaides and Ruskin understood the alternate creative state, and used speed and meditation to help students stimulate it without scientific justification. Presented in a pseudoscientific tone, the text lacks the finesse of Nicolaides and the eloquence of Ruskin as Edwards atternpts to persuade her readers of the ' correctness' of her application of Sperry' s theory: 1 have descnbed to you the basic premise of this book - that drawing is a teachable, Iearnable ski11 which can provide a two-told advantage. By gaining access to the part of your mind that works in a style conducive to creative. intuitive thought, you will leam a fundamental ski11 of the visual arts: how to put down on paper what you see in front of your eyes. Second. through leaning to draw with the method presented in this book you wiIl gain the ability to think more creatively in other areas of your life ....The purpose of

this book is not CO teach you to express yourself, but instead to provide you wi th the skills which will release you from stereotypic expression. This release in turn will open the way for you to express your individdity - your essential uniqueness- in your own way, using your own particular drawing style. (pp. 14-20) It is unfortunate that the tone of discourse is reminiscent of selling a product - a theory of learning to draw - and that Edwards does not acknowledge the contributions of other art teachers to the eristing body of art knowledge. She incorporates many illustrations of student artworks, and does not aim to link her art theories to an art histoncal context. In spite of these shortcomings the book does provide excellent sections emphasizing the rendenng of negative space and 'sighting' angles in order to understand spatial relationshi ps. It is tempting to challenge Edwards almost positivistic claim of one correct rnethodology for teaching drawing. Knowing what makes art art with such certainty reads like an over-simplified assertion. Edward's text is somewhat enigmatic - a 'how-to-draw- book' cum psychological thesis, one that is not entirely convincing as either. Fortunatel y, rnany contemporary educational researchers favour qualitative inquiry rnethods and frequently advocate holistic and non hierarchical modes of knowledge construction. Qualitative researchers value personal knowledge and draw on the humanities rather than social science models. In their descriptive and more expressive modes of writing they are moving closer to art. Robert Kaupelis In contrat to Edward's focus upn the technical shll side of drawing, Kaupelis emphasises the expressive potential of drawing: You must understand fonns, events, experience and intentions (your own and others) on both an intellectuai and an intuitive level. At times, we understand thïngs which are inexplicable in tenns of bociily sensations and feelings..... The artist's major asset is that his understanding is primarily aesthetic.(p. 13) Kaupelis combines artistic, aesthetic, and instructional considerations in Learninp to draw: A creative Approach To Expressive Drawing ( 1983) and incorporates Nicolaides' best teaching methods. He acknowledges Sir Ernst Gombrich's assertions that effective communication visuals should be accompanied by captions. Kaupelis' careful attention to artwork captions provides pertinent, thorough, and profoundly useful anaiyses of the underl ying aesthetic qualities of the drawings he has chosen to reproduce, and his flexible teaching methods grow out of his classrmm experience and procedures: Familiarity with art history is an absolute necessity to understand what man has accomplished artistically in the past as weIl as the reasons for our present attitudes, howledge, and values as related to art. This of course includes the art and the social and economic conditions of the present time as well as the past. (p. 13) Kaupelis encourages students to produce unique and personal work which possesses aesthetic si gni ficance in its form and expressive content, by producing drawi ngs that demand responses and forms that are uncommon, unusuai, and individuai. In a second book for advanced students, Experimental Drawing ( 1980), Kaupelis States: "One of the hallmarks of artists is that they begin to see everything in their environment as having a potential use for either their immediate or some future artistic endeavour."(p. 12). The esercises are directed towards encouraging students to esperiment with new forms in their drawings and to go beyond conventional forms which reinterpret, amalgamate, or extend current or past artistic modes and styles: It is only when an artist breaks out of the current creative!expressive fom parameters that the 'shape' or 'direction' or the 'style' of art is changed. ilnd this is a relatively rare event. It happened with bfassaccio, Giotto. Cézanne. Pollack, and Calder among others" ...... Almost al1 signrficani advances in art have looked strange, ugly. and generally un accessible, even to the artistic dite, when they were first experienced ...... Yet in time, new forms which are unfamiliar at first are absorbed into their historical context and most of us begin to take them for granted. (Kaupelis, 1980, P. 15) Summary: The texts discussed this far were quite similar in content and chronology and favoured a learning process of sequential experiences designed to awaken a student's vision, with the student performing over and over in the face of different problems such as encounters with materiais, studies of observed reality. memory and imagination exercises and composi tioddesign concepts. Texts introduced bcgimer students to line rendering then progressed to tonal drawings for suggesting volume. Perspective was explained according to traditionai Renaissance conventions, and some texts provided design exercises. The books varied in voice, quality and quantity of illustrations, frequency of references to art history. and the inclusion of glossaries and recommended reading lists. 2.2 Conceptual texts 70th Century art educators and their texts reflect the concems of late 19 Century Forrnalists such as Roger Fry and Clive Bell, who defined a theory of pure art which designated ' Signifiant Form' as that which initiates the aesthetic emotion. They believed representation weakened form and therefore they emphasized the predominance of formal art elements (line, shape, tone, colour etc.) over subjective and narrative content in art and design education. Their approach in tum, infiuenced the German Bauhaus School of Design, which had a profound impact on art training, urban and industrial design, and architecture in Europe and North America to the present time. The philosophic roots of the Bauhaus are descnbed by its founder Walter Gropius: In a work of art the laws of the physicai world. the intellectual world and the world of the spirit function and are expressed simultaneously .. . . . Human achievement depends on the proper coordination of dl the creative faculties... they must al1 be thoroughly trained at the same time ... ,My concern with the problem of drawing out the potential artist and of providing him with a stimulating educationai chmate and a chance to acquire a perfect technique prompted me over forty years ago to create the Bauhaus School of Design ... We tried to put him (the student) on a solid foundation by giving him objective principles of universal validity, derived from the laws of nature and the psychology of man. From this basis he was expected to develop his own individual design agproach. independent of the personal approach of bis teacher. (Moynihan, (1980).pp.67-68) Contemporary views about holistic and integrated education owe much to Gropius: Practical and theoretical studies are canied on simultaneously in order to release the creative powers of the student. to help him gxasp the physical nature of materials and the basic laws of design.... Observation and representation - with the intention of showing the desired identity of Form and Content - define the limits of the preliminary course. Its chef function is to liberate the individual by breaking down conventional patterns of thought in order to make way for personal experience and discoveries which will enable him to see his own potentialities and limitations.... Both subjective and objective observation will be cultivated: both the systern of abstract laws and the interpretation of objective matter. (Moyiiihan, 1980, p. 133) Bauhaus students were trained by craftsmen teaching skills and artists promoting creative approaches for new solutions to 20th Century design problems. The school encouraged students to express their personal style, and develop technicd excellence to enable them to know their crafts and use them to imprint their style. Students esplored different materials to understand their limitations and potential, while teachers strove for effective teachi ng, which depended upon winning the hearts of the students. Gropius hired painters and sculptors to teach in the Bauhaus because as fine artists they had found creative solutions in their own work, and could pass on and share such attitudes and outlooks with the students. The personalities and philosophies of the artistlteachers provided the intellectual foundation for the teaching. Al though the Bauhaus meant different things to different people its impact cannot be denied. To cntics, the Bauhaus represented the equivalent of a lab scientist who moved from engineering, through mathematics to biological and mystic models usi ng questionable quasi -expen men tal methods. To its diverse artisttteachers, the Bauhaus was an experimental art educational community which held that abstract art functioned as the visual counterpart to a more purposeful, cooperative human society. By creating new types of spatial relationships, new inventions of forms, and new visual laws, artists created the potential for a new future order. These artist/teachers were convinced that individuals and society could be changed through education, and foresaw a new social order equipped for the future: Bauhaus education did not stop with the understanding of materials and their properties..... the eduwtion was an adventure into space, not a static, bounded space, but a dynamic creative space. ... It seerns that the Bauhaus teachers were visionary artists involved in highly prophetic studies. whether they were fuily conscious of this or not. Today, rnankind contemplates the Space Age. .. .where known niles of ,pvi tational forces and visual perspectives no longer assure familicuity ....Man. developing new awareness through the extension of self by technology, plans to leam to live in outer space. (Moynihan, 1980, pp. 237-238) To future art movements such as Cubisrn, Futurism, Constructivism, Neo- Plasticism and future abstraction as a whole, Bauhaus art represented examples of philosophy embodied in the world. Its scientific inclinations and formalist aesthetic imparted an impersonal and functionalist ' Internationalv style, while some of its teachers, for example, Kandinsky and Moholy-Nagy German-Jewish emigres fleeing Hitler, brought a revitalizing, disciplined, and abstract art-life philosophy to the United States. The following texts, for intermediate and advanced drawing students, reflect a concem for formal design coupled with expressive, emotional responses. Although they contain some practical exercises they are meant to suppon studio practice nther than be direct1y applied in class. Nathan Goldstein The author is a practising artistheacher who acknowledges a debt to Rudolf Anheim's contributions to the psychology of perception. In Figure Drawing: the structure, anatomv and expressive design of human fom (1976). Goldstein has produced an estensive compendium of learning and teaching drawing. He distinguishes his figure drawing book from othen by ignoring a traditional approach to anatomy: instead 1 have tried to integrate with master drawings creative applications of the various parts of anatomy.. ...and to show anatomy' s role as both servant and source of structurai and dynamic inventions .... 1 began with the single assumption that the artist-reader's interest in expanding his or her understanding is motivated more by a wish to embrace those universal facts and forces present in the best examples of figure drawing by old and contemporary masters alike. rather than by a wish for ready-made techniques and solutions. (pp-ix-iix) Goldstein defines a drawing of the figure as a gnphic equivalent with potential to come dive in its own terms to express the artist's truest total response - if the artist can successfully negotiate between fact and feeling, analysis and empathy. These negotiations cannot come from estremes of scrutiny or indifference, but derive from analysis, knowledge, order, and empathy. He contends that in the best figure drawings, representational content not only coexists but interacts with a system of abstract relational and espressive content. And, the author targets design as rhe single rnosi irnportarti facior irz discerriing the qrcaliry ofotzeJgiigure drawirig over motlier: Design affects our apprehension of a drawing's relational life and order - its plastic condition; expression affects our emotional response to both the psychologiwl mood of the design d to the human theme or event depicted- its emotive condition. Design, then. is the visual condition of a drawing's abstract and representritional occurrences. and expression is the emotive effects of these occurrences on the viewer .(p. 177) A qualitative distinction is proposed between artworks that have li ttle interest beyond their descriptive content - emphasizing the artist's technical fàcili ty, objective accuracy, and choice of narrative subject - and, those works that solicit universal csteern and emphasize qualities such as vitality, lasting power, psychological or spiritual attraction. Goldstein acknowledges that artists feel their subject at both a conscious and subconscious level and that exemplary works may be highi y subjective: It is not tbat the best figure drawings exemplify some cultural standard of beauty, for many do not meet even minimal standards of attractive human proportions..... Many are unfiaished prepantory studies. (p. 3) An essential quali ty of these works, therefore, which does not depend upon their overall composition to make them special is some order arid semitiviiy to parts. The author suggests these works possess a 'plastic life' which he defines as a network of visual relationships and energies between marks employed and forms created. If these marks are not related in some way, the confusing and inconsistent visual ' noise' emitted will obscure the figurative meanings. These related marks make suggestions of movement, rhythms, tensions of similarities and contrasts, and have the capacity to generate forces and feelings apprehended by sensitive viewers. 'me best figure dnwings are never merely descriptions of people, places, and things. They emerge from the negotiations between the subject's meamrable actualities and the artists relational and empathetic interests in those actualities- his interpretation of the subject's design and expression. that is. its dynamics. (p. 5) Although drawings can emphasize the figurative or the abstnct, both are integnted systems of depictive and dynamic themes that differ from artist to artist because of different creative and ternperarnentai needs. Individual artworks exhibit both abstract and figurative design and these quaiities are inseparable and mutually supportive. The formal design factors can be anal ysed and assessed separately from the expressive factors. but: Because we mdce these arbitrary divisions, it is important to bear in mind that a drawing's design and expression are reaily understood by the artist as aspects of the same phenornenon in the subject: its allusions to emotive order.,.One of the major themes of this book is to cal1 attention to the high degree of interdependence of the measurable and dynamic factors. (p. 5) Echoing Nicolaides, Goldstein insists that every mark should be felt as well as seen. and the most basic graphic marks must be dive; the smal lest denominators of a drawing are signifiant and cannot be taken for granted. The latter compose the primary content of a visual syntav that communicates and clarifies our rneanings:' '...The requirements of a good design-the interplay, hierarchy. balance, and unity of a drawing's parts and dynamic energies - are met by our ability to perceive relationships." (p. 181). Each mark expresses a personali ty and contri butes to the overall expression that signifies the artist's total identification with the figure's forms. An artist's capacity to assert his/her attitude clearly is crucial to the drawing's success as a work of art and the study of the figure as n corzstr~~ction,a rmchirze, a ~~armorzy,and n voice begi ns w i th the firs t mark on the page. To help readers understand 'strong' design, Goldstein describes what he considers ' weak' design: Drawings made without regard for an ordering of their parts, or where a hierarchy of order systems is absent, do not convey a point of view, but only arnbi,auities and indecision. Such works do not make a total statement; they rnerely emit confusing utterances about their various parts. (p. 179) The author aiso stresses an artist's obligath to consistency of involvement and intent. Drawings that show a Iessening of care to anything within their boundaries suffer a Iessening of order and meaning ....whatever the point of view, and even though some parts of a drawing are more fully developed than other parts. the consistency of the artist's inquiry and conccm must extend to everything that constitutes his subject matter. (p. W) Although the Goldstein test is excellent for both teachers and independent students, its scope and length is daunting for those who do not have the time or inclination to ' study' a dnwing text. Robert B. Hale In Drawine lessons from the Great Masters ( 1964), the author convincingly balances a conceptual outlook ivi th insightful visual anal ysis and practical methods for rendering the human figure. He states that instructors cm on1y help students solve technicai problems, and that technical material gets absorbed into the subconscious which then takes over the control of the hand. Hale sees technique as a means to an end, and considers it the art student's responsibility to engage their feelings and reveal their personal points of view in their artwork. The latter qualities combine to malie both masterpieces and personal statements. Haie notes that the increasing quality of photognphic reproductions allows students to view the technical problems and brilliant solutions of master works via illustrations in tests. His book is amply illustrated with visuals that are not arranged chronologically, but rather in an order that gives clarity to his analyses. Full page illustrations are displayed for detailed study, with smaller versions of the same illustration on the facing page lettered alphabetically in areas where Hale wants the reader to note important graphic features. This process facili tates the discussion of the essentials of good drawing by providing immediate visual examples that pinpoint what the author is tallang about. The author acknowledges that students insist on drawing what they see too litemlly,

and he proposes a cure: " A large dose of perspective, ability to draw from the imagination, and esthetic understanding of what a picture really is" (p.116). To Hale, a drawitrg is the artist's efforr to cornmrtnicafe to the observer, and this is accomplished, in traditional drawing, by ideas represented by sym bols which give the illusion of three-dimensional form. These symbols, which are basic geometric forms, function as basic words of a visual language and evoke meaning by their contest and juxtaposition. Confusion is avoided by the expertise of the artist's knowledge of artistic anatomy, control of light. use of planes and overall design. Hale argues that artists do not necessarily draw what they see, their conceptions of mass change readily in order to solve problems. In order to develop conceptions of mas, it is important for students to think in terms of simple geometric forms and not clog the eyeslmind with details. As regards anatomy, Haie considers that proper proportions do not exist in formula, but in the choice and responsibility of individual artists. A study of anatomy is essentiai, as is familiarity with the history of art. Hale's volume provides a number of excellent practical esercises. He emphasizes that in figure drawing al1 lines should travel over preconceived forms, therefore students should think of convex and egg shapes when viewing the model. Since reinforcing form is of primordial importance, visual distractions must be avoided; for example, cast shadows should be interpreted sparingly, because if they are too intense they destroy the solidi ty of the form they are cast on. Overly strong light may also destroy the illusion of shape. If light or shade is inconsistent, the artist must change and strive for consistency. Once the form has been identified, its shape decided upon. its controlling mass detennined and properly lit. the student must corne to a further decision conceming the exact position of this fom in space. There is a further complication: the artist mut also decide on the position he himseif occupies or wishes to occupy in relation to the form .....~1 form can occupy only one position at a time, and can be pointing in only one direction. ( p. 109) To be able to draw every part of the human body from imagination is a necessary part of the student's training. The author recommends the siudy of individual bones which need to be visualised through the flesh. Like Nicolaides, Hale suggests that students echo the model's pose. He also discusses the synchronisation of al1 art elements (any one drawing principle is related to other drawing principles), stressing that they are interrelated. Anatomy, for esample, must be coordinated with an understanding olline, lighting and mass. Hale suggests that the student identify the personal geometry developed by ÿrtists in master works ..."And finally rernember that you are forsaking the world of works and entering a world of visions." (p. 212) There are some drawbacks to Haie's approach, however; an excellent section on different quali ties of light would have benefited from illustrations. Further, Hale takes for granted that to draw the figure well artists must study from the skeleton. Many art institutions do not have the budget to purchase a skeleton. Yet despite these minor flaws, the book provides an excellent analysis of master works. D.M. Mendelowitz An exhibiting artist and educator at Stanford University has produced two books Drawing (l%7) and A Guide to Drawing ( 1976), in which he incorporates the attitudes and design concepts of the Bauhaus and some meaningful aspects of tradition. The dual foci manifest themselves in a strong emphasis on the history of drawing together with an in- depth analysis of drawing elements. Mendelowitz attributes a scholarly debt to Sir Ernst Gombrich and the educator Victor Lowenfeld, who holds that there are two main types of art expression which represent two extrerne poles of artistic penonality, the vk~ml and the fuzptic . Visual students concem themselves primarily with their visible environment, usine their eyes as their primary instrument of perception, and they react as a spectator to experience. The haptic, or nonvisual type of student is more dependent on touch, bodily feelings, muscular sensations, and ernpathic responses to verbal descriptions, and tends to becomes emotiondly involved in subjective experiences. Mendelowitz applies these classifications when he discusses different drawings, for example in his consideration of Van Gogh (haptic) and Degas (visual). Al though Mendelowi tz's work is well researched, i t suffers from structural drawbacks. The continuity of his discourse is confusing because his two primq themes are broken up; the historical chronology followed by anaiysis of design elements do not mesh. Had he introduced readers to the basic art elements first and then referred to and integrated them into an hstoricai overview, he rnight have obtained a successful integntion. F. Malins In Drawing Ideas of The Masters: Artist' s techniques cornpared and contrasted ( 198 1), Malins writes from the point of view of an artist and teacher of art appreciation. He relies on direct artist's quotations and believes drawing and pairitirig are sytzotzvrnoiis witli feelitig . Malins teaches through the appreciation and anaiysis of noteworthy xhvorks. and effectively deviates from a chronological presentation. He groups master drawings by subject for cornparison purposes. an approach that allows him to compare the treatrnent of the same subject by two to four artists on the sarne page. His illustrations, which occupy 114 -to II2 page, flow easily into accompanying narratives, and he successfully contrats artists with similar artistic intentions and different styles with those having different intentions but using similar styles. Well articulated narratives and appropriate illustrations clearly divulge different artist's drawing and painting thernes and concerns. Mondrian's Apple Tree series, for esample, effectively illustrates how the artist systematically eliminated al1 superfluous detail from his subject and concentrated on espressing the basic linear structure: The tdhas been reduced to a central vertical a.us, around which the branches are indicated by analogous cwcs; these are reIated to a verticallhorizontal system which provides a sensc of stmcture and foreshadows a fundamental element of Seoplasticism the relationship of the vertical and horizontal. (p. 86) By disregarding a historical chronology, Malins is free to connect nch and varied sources around similar ideas. For esample. the important concept of working from generai to specific is introduced by reference to a book published in 1785: A New Method of Assisting the Invention in Drawinp Original Compositions of Landscape by the painter Alexander Cozens. The ariist descn bes his ' blotting' method using a huge, loose brush to paint an idea - so that his interest is in a total, vague image. free of details. He paints different interpretations of this imagined idea: To sketch is to transfer ideas from the mind to the paper ...to blot is to make varied spots.. ..producing accidental fonns... .from which ideas are presented to the mind .... To sketch is to delineate ideas: bIotting suggests hem... So he [Cozens] called the method 'blotting' ,and recornmended putting bIots on paper and using them as the starting-point of an imaginary landscape. It was Leonardo' s wri tings that had suggested the idea to Cozens: 'You shodd look at certain walls stained with damp,' Leonardo advised, 'or at stones of uneven colour. If you have to invent some backgrounds you will be able to see in these the likeness of woods, great plains, hiiis and vdeys in geat variety ....* . But the blots or stains are only a stiirting-point, a stimulus to the imagination; whether or not a work of art results from this depends on whose imagination is stimuiated. (p. 94) Maiin's reliance on a tradition of art 'knowledge' passed on from artist to artist, and on artist's direct quotations grounds his discourse. P.R. Wigg, O.G. Orvick, R.O. Bone, and Stinson (Eds.) 1n Art Fundarnentals: Theorv and Practice ( 1973, these teachedauthors produced their text out of an assumed need and do not claim originali ty. They sought to develop sound attitudes in a temporarily expedient book which students would surpass. They provide a supple method of guidance to encourage understanding and ability in art. As educators. they sought a universal basis for assessrnent of quality and evaluation in art and have as such, selected design and the organic unity of fonn to provide the basis. Students are cautioned: Any leasing (or expansion of outlook) cdls for discarding old and comfortablc standards. a sacrifice which in art frequendy involves many of our cherished opinions. The leamer in art must be willing to concede the possible validity of many unfamiliar forms of individual expression; this means that the learner must place his own taste on trial. (p-1) 1n regard to important questions of taste and uni versal consensus, the authors recognize that art is not exempt from the dictates of fashion: Our own private fixation of concept is but a faint reflection of the paralysis of vision which may affect cultures and populations for generations ..... But it is possible to develop vision which looks through the encrustations of fashion. fad, and temporary prejudice into the boue and marrow or formal structure, the ultimate gauge of soundness in art. Genuine quaiity dws not, iherefore, necessarily subtend popuiar or personal bias. The minor rom of art arc embedded in temporary preference, but the fundamental roots are those which force dom through al1 eras of art and their attendant phraseologies. (p.3) Their central ideas are grounded in Fomalism and can be described as follows: form is universal and makes fundamental mots which survive time through generations of fluctuating taste; form rises above geographical boundanes, and can comrnunicate interculturall y; form can be understood by an empathetic and ysis of an artist's work: "perception or intuition can be sharpened and refined by an explanation of the pnnciples of pictord organization and, even more, by practice in their use." (p.4) This scholarly text explains important art concepts in an accessible manner connecting them to art historicai references and interspersed problem exercises. The text smoothly interrelates concepts such as Narration, Meaning, Reality, Subject matter, and Form. The editors suggest that the general public still thinks of art in 19th century terms of namition - what an image is not ivhat it rneans.. As such, narration should not dominate the visual medium; art is at its best ..."When its fom is communicated directly, with subject matter and symbols playing subordinate roles."(p. 8). Al though art expresses meaning throug h sym bols, the authors feel that information is better sui ted to language, and understanding of artworks is enhanced when the observer attempts to grasp the meaning of works through intuition or instinct. Moving on to how art changes and transfoms reality, the authors contend that creative people alter the frame of reference through which we see things. Therefore a speciai attitude is needed when looking at a piece of art. Al1 art, represenfational or abstmt, hm a subject matter and what is important is not what one uses as subject but how it is treated, and the ' how' involves the most important components of art: forrn and corrterlt : The artist is trying to say something through the subject - an expression or point of view can't be made without some editing. The artist, then, goes beyond literd copying, transforming object shapes into his style or language. Sometimes in doing this he so alters the shapes that they become totally unlike those seen in nature. hother reason for alteration of shapes is the necessity for conforming to the discipline of certain fundamental principles of composition in creating a fully unified wok of art. (p. 45) The forma1 structure of this test hm some excellent features such as definitions of terms given at the beginning of each chapter. In this fashion the editors incorporate a glossary of terminology as the text demands rather than as a long list at the beginning or al the end of the book. The test concludes wi th a usefui chronological outline of Western art. Philip Rawson This author has written two extensive books from the point of view of the maker of drawings. In Seeine through Drawing (1979), Rawson refutes the pst-modem tendency to diminish works from the past: A work of art is more than a historical object. Drawing as an art of time, dernands that we take time to read it, with sympathy. We must avoid the intellcctual arrogance natural to our cuIture which can freeze our rcsponses, and we must accept that master- draughtsmen from other ages and places will always have something worthwhile to show us, and still be able to reveal to us somcthing new about our own feelings and perceptions. What every draughtsman dws is to enact a positive proposition. amounting to a statement without words: 'This'. he says. 'is how it is'. His acts in drawing define the terms in bat proposition: 'this'. 'how'. 'it', and Ys'. He opens up by these creative acts fundamentai questions about our perceptions of form, about the meaning of whtwe perceive, and about what we mean by the reaiity we assume to know. (p.56) Rawson agrees with Goldstein that: A drawing's basic ingredients are strolies or marks which have a symbolic relationship with experience. not a direct, overall similarity with anything real. .4nd the relationships between marks, which embody the main meaning of a drawing. can on1y be read into the marks by the spectator, so as to create their own mode of tnith. (p. 1) The author considers works that attain an aesthetic status as king characterized by the presence of ' numen' - defined as an awe-inspiring quality or one imbued wi th divini ty, which is garnered from our subjective interpretation of existence. For example, Leonardo's scientific invention drawings were the locus of his sense of the numinous. It is necessaq that numinous significance be given to the recorded fact by means of formal resonance if the drawing are to deserve a high aesthetic standing: The special meaning of the work is enclosed in the topic (the tme topic goes beyond the 'subject') and lies deeply implicit in how the subject is deveioped - its forrn. The fonn or ' conceptual framework' is descri bed as the ' tenor' : The tenor is the notional subject or the bare skeleton of the visual idea which can provoke us if we are artists to project on to it. or if we are spectators to accept the projection of. the imagery and visual ideas into which is condensed our expenence of what it is to BE. There is in it a total revelation of reaiity. (p 6) According to Rawson for drawings to successfully communicate to viewers, they need points of reference, and commonly accepted visual principles (methods) that have expressive and structural functions. These principles are capable of slow expansion and alteration in response to changing attitudes. Therefore, before we can play the communication game with the artist draughtsman we must learn hislher principles - the mles of the language when s/he made the drawing. This task of reading is made easier if drawings are not excessive1y ' finished'. The author is exceptionally well versed in Western and Eastern drawing traditions, and he connects observations about 'Zen' calligraphy to contemporary Western drawing. He points out, for exampie that Japanese ' Bunjin' ink painting were only done for the sake of communicating refined esperiences deemed spiritual and religious. Al1 that was demanded was that the artist's 'chi' (spirit, numen) correspond with the moving spirit or the universe, and that he express this quality with his inspired hand. Rawson's in-depth, detailed analysis of fundamental drawing elements is the most extensive of al1 the sources covered in this litenture review. Philosophically, he is probablÿ a Subjectivist, 1 in that he values the personal, expressive element of drawing over al1 other expressions. The subjectivist stance is the other extreme of the formalist stance in which foim takes precedence over any expressive or descriptive quality. Rawson' s capaci ty to interpret contemporary dmwing in light of tradi tional drawing is enlightening: In analysing the technical aspects of drawing it is necessary to break down the methods into artificiaily isolated techniques. But one bas always to remember that great draughtsmen have ken those who have hown how to handle many of these methods simultaneously, and who have shown themselves able continually to develop fresh ways of using them. Thus in fact a method is rarely if ever found in isolation, but each one Rawson recognizes the neceççity for drawing to imply some resernblance to natural or physical forms in three-dimensional space. (' 24 appears as an element in a rich tissue of combined resources. it is. however, one of the characteristics of much modem art that each artist tries to restrict his methods as much as possible, esploring their possibilities to the limit. in the past this was not so much the case, and the quality of older drawing depends very much on its amplification of many resources at once. The greater artists cultivated the ability to manipuiate symbolism covering a wide range of visual categories. (pp. 66-67) Rawson's work is demanding (appropriate for expenenced drawing students on1y), and would profit from a glossq of his definitions of terms. The author acknowledges that reproductions in books give faise impressions of the artwork because the size an artist has given to his work of art determines the way in which viewers receive it. Edward Hill In The Langua~eof Drawing ( l%6) the author attempts to define the vast artistic organism we cal1 drawing. His engrossing, scholarly, yet accessible book is appropriate for beginners and intermediate students'. Although Hill has taken a conceptual approach based on his own experience as a draftsman and teacher his book is both personal and authoritative. His unique contribution is the poetic, metaphoric language he adopts in his struggle to define drawing: The act of drawing is one of mobility, of penetration. of measuremcnt, of sustaining perception and directness; not rhetoric, not grandiloquence. indeed, at some of its greatest moments drawing may appear rude and pceless, a fonn of plain speech..... What can one redly say about drawing'? It awakens our numb vision. It is a nourishing force. It is. so to speak, an indictment to look. (p. 24) Hill alludes to the private nature of drawing unattached to outside demands and concems and contrats pnvate drawings with public dmwings produced for an audience: rnaster, other artists, or public. The author considers drawing a field of struggle with understanding as its goal: Without full participation, awareness, and responsiveness, the contest is a hopeless pantomime, no matter how brilliantly perfomed. The profile of reality can only be drawn by a line traced from deep within thc intelligent eye. (p. 26) Hill describes the necessity for artists to surpass the ski11 of illustration and confront subjects with direct sensuous contact; to examine and feel the qualities of an object wi th the eye and hand. His command of expressive language enables him to discuss artistic ' process' convincingiy without the dogmatic tone of Rawson's discourse: A clever draftsman can produce a satisfying image which 'looks like' a chrysanthcmum without really comprehending what he sees ...Mondrian transcends easy mimicry...He creates a reality as convincing as the chrysanthemum itself. Such comprehensibility could only come from an eye engaged by every nrni and nuance, by a mind possessing a sense of the entire plant. The drawing revds more: an understanding of the ,oraphic

* It is ironic that one of the thorough and well wntten tests on dnwing has ken out of print for the last 10 years. 25 meam that equais the eye's penetration of the object; the two are necessary complements. Mondrian found in the nature of his means, the language of drawing, a parallel to what he experienced as the form of the object. The marks themselves do not deny their material origin, they instead transmute the reality of chrysanthemum into the substance of charcoai and paper. If a drawing diagrams experience while leading this double life, it deserves our most profound respect. (p. 27) Hill examines drawing pedagogy in depth and discusses intelligence and learning from both the student and teacher point of view. Bernard Chaet Another commendable book. appropriate for intermediate and experienced students is The An of Dnwing (1970). in which the author, a Yale University Professor Emeritus, attempts to discover a general rationale for the art and act of drawing. Chaet stresses that his book is not a manual of formulas which serve such lirnited objectives as illustration, nanation, and representation and, like both Hill and Rawson he communicates a deep insight into drawing practice and teaching and brings direct classroom and tutorial esperiences into his discourse. The test's three sections: Drawing: The rneans and materials of vision, Drawing: The process of visualisation, and Drawing: The vision of the masters, complement each other well, and each is succinctly and adequately surnmarized. For Châet, as for Malins, drawing unfolds in terms of artist's vision, not chronology. His test has an appropriate balance between text and visuals. The author excels in the section about materials; he taught a materials and methods course for many years: Drawing is a unique art that employs special tools and materiais. The artist imagines future work in terms of these farniliar materiais, but his interest in them is not carried to the point of preoccupation with 'technique' as an end, separated from subject matter. if a tool or a type of paper excites him. it is absorbed into the whole concept of the drawing. (P.26) A unique feature of this book is its account of a teachingllearning experiment for mature students in the Yale University undergraduate art program. It was recognized that mature, advanced students need a different learning format than that of the directed classroom learning experience. The objective of the project was to create a true environment for learning, exploiting the potential for dialogue between teacher and student, as well as the opportunity for group interaction - cnticism and group discussion. Students were gi ven challenging inde pendent projects outside the formal classroom setting based on the observation of natural forms, and those rnajoring in studio art chose individual themes to be explored in depth for a full year or semester. Each student met with hisllher instructor once a week and the whole group cri ticized each other's work severai times during the year. A close association between teacher and student, and student and student, permitted dialogue and a free but serious interaction which affected the development of ideas. Project themes denved from such subjects as insects, landscape or interiors. The reproductions in the book itself, of the developing student projects give visual validity to the approach; the works evolve from description to understanding, through experirnentation, to final resolution. The beauty of the project lies in the simplicity of its goal - the restricting of students to three natural form thernes obliges them to reinvent from nature and surpass conventional wom-out imagery. As in the Hill and Rawson texts, Chaet's use of expressive language elevates the qudity and authority of the discoune. Here the author translates the elusive visual process into words:

Compared to other visud media, drawing is a magical act. in no other medium çan we go so directly from thought process to image. unencumbered by materiais or extensive preparation. We are able. with experience, to refine our thoughts in a direct way, without complicated techniques. With this immediacy. drawing can accommodate al1 attitudes. whether we are reacting directly to the forms around us. refining forms from rnemory, inventing new forms, or even planning complicated relationships. Whether their purpose is the transformation of forms from the environment or inventions for the sake of plastic action alone, great drawings have a built-in econorny of conception and performance. This economy is often deceiving to begimers, who may not be aware of the selecting process and the boiling down to essence that gave birth to a particdar experience. and who may misread it as simplicity of conception ...... lt is important to study rather than to duplicate. for understanding fosters naturd development, whiIe emulation may lead to a parody of mannerisms.... What we must extract from the masters is the kind of thinking that was employed and the growth of an ability to select, for we carmot start directly where someone else left off. .4 lifetime's experience that has developed an attitude cannot be obtained by mere imitation. Still, it is the work of the masters that puts us on the right track. that makes us see the world of forms and our own environment in a new way and inspires us to develop our own ways of seçing and, just possibly, of inventing our own world of form life. Forms from our imagination or from the physical environment, which we can cal1 life forms-such as a tree in nature or demons in the mind of a Bosch-are transmitted by the artist's vision and ski11 to create something new-a fonn life. This cycle from life fom to form life bcgins in drawing when the artist, haunted by an image or an ideri, puts his pend to paper. (p.278) Châet's text is one which I highly recommend to students, the language is clear and convincing. Surnmary: This overview has revealed that the few books addressed to experienced students are demanding in their goals and references and push students beyond the acquisition of basic skills and methods. The authors encourage drawing from memory and imagination, provide methods for abstracting from nature, and exercises for organizing increasingly cornples designs. Students are introduced to theories which directly influence the ' look' of drawing, such as the significance of forms as symbols, the necessity to integrate and reinforce the basic design of a work, the open-ended exploration of matter and the slow development of a personal style. Although the core material of these books remains sound and valid years after they have been written, they are dated in scope. The following tests explore relevant issues for conternporary students and teachers which could be integrated with the content of the latter texts. 2.3 Social theory texts: Social theory is a hybrid where history, politics, sociology, and psychology encounter philosophy. If we accept that the arts present a forum where li fe-values interact with creative processes then social theory is a relevant subject for the art teacher to study. I have selected a nurnber of authors who present social theory concepts in ways that approach the real lives of my students, and who use unembellished language and make clear references to art and philosophy without diluting the impact of their ideas. Edgar Wind Artand Anarchy (1960) is an important but diffiçult book to categorise. Wind, an art historian, questions the esisting myths and beliefs about art and artists and, philosophically, he appears to be anti- Essentialist and in the Expressive camp of art theory. He stands with humanistic and lire-oriented philosophers and apart from pure formalists (Essentialists), who are principally concerned with the aesthetic surface (fonn) of an. His discourse is connected to material practice by the use of concrete painting and sculpture esamples, and the voice of an art- maker. Wind points to the discornfort of making art - finding the balance between the extrernes of a frenzied addiction or an art of too many contrivances and refinements. The author considers that we suffer from too much art today and need to protect ourseives from irnmunity to it When such large displays of incompatibIe artists are received with equal interest and appreciation, it is clear that those who visit these e-shibitions have acquired a strong immunity to them. Art is so welI received because it has lost its sting. (p. Il) The latter is a vaiid concem for art teachers who search for criteria with which to discern quality in the visuai art available to them. Without cultivating a critical capacity, we are unable to discem irrelevant or superficiai art from substantial and relevant art. As the public gets more deaf to art, artists are raising their voices; artists have always resorted to shock, but once familiar, the shock wears off and becomes a device. Artists want the glory wi thout the nsks, and the resul t, according to Wind is rendering art impotent: "An ' interesting' object has an arresting quality; it arouses our attention; we take cognizance of i t and then let i t go. An ' interesting' experience is one that has no lasting effect." (p. 17) Wind draws on Hegel who predicted that: The moment had anived in the world's history when art would no longer be comected. as it had been in the past, with the centrai energies of man; it would move to the margin, where it would form a wide and splendidly varied horizon. The centre would be occupied by science- that is, by a relentless spirit of rationai inquiry. (p. 12) Risk-taking in art is an essential prerequisite for artists, and of concem to students and teachers w ho strive for excellence and distinction. By playing i t safe and rnoving into the margin, art loses its awesomeness - its capacity to make us fa11 to Our knees. For instance, unlike i ts predecessors, Manet's Christ Mourried by Angels was made for eshibition, to be admired as a painting rather than to fulfil a spiritual function in a church. When art loses its direct relevance to Our existence, it becomes a splendid supemuity and, although it still can be widely enjoyed, it risks becoming a decorative, lightweight diversion. Without limits or constraints, the absolute freedom of art allows it to attach freely to an. substance it chooses, to new shapes - because no shape cm be regarded as final- astate of perpetual self-transformation with an infinite plasticity. Wind esamines how art has participated in its rnarginalization by the advent OC Formalism which espoused: ' Art for art's sake' . During the last century art has tried to pull the speciator away from hislher perceptual habits and disclose new ranges of sensibility. But, in becoming too focused upon ' esperimental' exercises as an end in itself, artists try to mimic scientific procedures in hopes of arriving at 'valid' scientific solutions. When these artworks are exhibited, they reduce the spectator to an interested observer who is excludcd, or detached from vital participation: if art is again to play a more central part in oulives, it means that our lives will have to change, and that is a process which does not depend on artists and art critics alone.... i t might be useful to inquire what we ourselves, in the enjoyment of art, might do, or refrain from doing, to render oui- participation in art more vital. (p. 2 1) Art students are susceptible to the attitudes and reverberations coming frorn the established 'art world' and they frequently misunderstand the place of esperimentation in art. Some product-oriented students avoid olcing the time necessary for experimentation and appreciation; other students experiment al1 the time and rarely produced sustained, in- depth work. Drawing teachers can help art students achieve a balance between open-ended experimentation and working towards a determined end. Wind examines how art history has contributed to the dehumanising of artistic perception. He describes how aesthetic purists, such as Wolffiin in a desire to be objective, look for styles in sources that are not emotionally distracting such as cathedrals or shoes. Such art historians permitted form to dominate content, thus protecting historical grammar from emotional contamination. The perceived benefits of applying the detached formalist view were a freshness and breadth, a freedom from prejudice, a willingness to explore unfarniliar even repulsive art expressions, a risking of new adventures of sensibility. and lastly, a refusai to judge one style by the canons of another. The 1960's response to these refinements was violent: In the place of an art of disengagement. wbich rejoiced in its separation from ordinar). life, we are now to have an art which completely involves us in real life- what in France is called art engagé. .. this .. ..extreme reaction ... ..makes .. .essentiaily the same mistake as the theory it opposes. Both try to escape, in opposite directions. from the plain and fundamental fact that art is an exercise of the imagination, engaging and detaching us at the same time: it makes us participate in what it presents. and yet presents it as an aesthetic fiction. From that twofold mot-participation and fiction-art draws its power to enlarge Our vision by carrying us beyond the actual..... but it brings with it a persistent oscillation between actuai and vicarious experience. .kt lives in this redm of ambiguity and suspense, and it is art only as long as the ambiguity is sustained. Hoivever. suspense is an awkward condition to [ive in, and we are persistentiy tempted to cxchange it for some narrow but positive certainties; and yet we how very well that as soon as the artistic imagination begins to work on us, we Ieave the safe shore for the open sea. (P.=) Wind States that a full abandonment to art would be fatal, but, artists know that although their art is real i t is also an illusion: It scems to me that no theory of art is complete if it ignores the spIit of consciousness which enables the artist to live in two worlds: to sense what is reai and to feign that he senses it, and thus to give to facts the authority of fiction, in which others can partake vicariously. It follows from this that our responsc if we fail to reproduce in ourselves something of the artist' s duai nature. (p. 27) If art students are to fuliy experience the power of art and find their personal espression within its scope they need to encounter the dual nature of art creation. I have encountered students who become lodged in a technicallfomalist or espressivelemotionalist position and fail to understand the balance and interaction of both poles. Wind suggests that a work of art should be judged aesthetically in its own terms, but that we, the viewers, should also decide whether we find those terms acceptable: To achowiedge the force of an artistic actiievement is not a sufficient ground for disregarding its human bias; and to be criticai of that bias is no reason for denying its artistic merits. The advocates of artengagé would like to persuade us that it is not only wrong but wicked to praise a work of art aesthetically if we disagree with its presuppositions; whereas the adherents of pure art wodd like us to accept every artistic achievement on its own terms and never to question the underlying assumptions. (p. 29) The author makes a critique of the process and daims of traditional connoisseurship, by analysing how it made specific attributions of artworks to painters; how it proved the attributions (by frequently making an obscure detail significant); and how judgments went largely unchallenged because as long as comoisseurship was considered a complex matter of perception, its modes were inexpressible. In contrat to traditionalists, Wind favours Giovanni Morelli who he considers the father of the modem technique of connoisseurshi p. Morelli dem ystified the existi ng methodology and replaced it with a simple procedure. He considered the practice of art history/connoisseurshipa learnable skill requiring a certain gift and practice, and his validity claims rested on a clear understanding of the particular characteristics by which an author can be recognized in his work. What his process did was reverse normal aesthetic reaction; for esample, he ignored the presence of major art elements such as: composition, proportion, colour, expression and gesture (they dl cm be easily recognized and copied by less innovative artists and forgers), and noted the seemingly inconsequential, small idiosyncrasies largely overlooked by the less discerning, i.e. the shape of ears and fingemails. Morelli's method demonstrated that little gestures speak more authentically than formai postures and his methods were responsible for the re-attribution of many paintings. To train the eye of the connoisseur. Morelli regarded the study of drawings as more fundamental than the study of paintings, and succinctly comments on the superseding of the ' masterpiece' by the genuine fragment. Phillip Rawson, Edward Hill and Nathan Goldstein also emphasized the vital importance of the basic sketch in disclosing the idiosyncrasies and intimate personality of the artist, and reinforcing Morelli's contention. Drawing teachers would be advised not to underestimate the importance of the basic mark and sketch-fragment, and the opportunity [O direct attention to these frequently overlooked notations which determine the artist's essential 'style'. If society is to become visually literate, the importance of clear mark- m&ng and martreading should not be underestimated. Wind attacks a modem concept which has dominated our view of art because it is taken as basic truth: krzowledge will harrn crearivitv. When ex treme emotionali ty is coupled with an extraordina. shortness of expression, we risk the possibility that freshness may become the sole criterion to value in art. The latter concept, coupled with a fear that knowledge will harm the imagination, creates an imbalanced view of the nature of art. The essence and goal of art is to transmute expression into skill, and when the anist allows thoughts to overpower personal vision and pictorial imagination or flees from knowledge and didactic subjects, one paints oneself into a corner. Once again the risk is an irnbalance - too little or too rnuch knowledge. In the studio it is the responsibility of the drawing tacher to mess the arnount of theory and how to transmute it into practice. In regards to artist's knowledge, Wind concedes that he has never met a signifiant painter or sculptor who did not speak and think well and that their intelligence is made evident in their writing. But, 19th century art withdrew into itself and receded toward the margin of life where it could reign as its own master; it began to lose touch with leaming and other forces that shape life experience. Wind challenges the Formalist's position, and considers the representative element in a work of art so relevant that whenever we ignore or misunderstand a subject. we are Iikely to misconstrue the image by putting the accents in the wrong places: "Our eye sees as our mind reads ....Misunderstanding of factual detail can cause the whole key of a painting to shift. ."(p. 64). In spi te of sentimental or didactic subject matter, power can still come through a painting, and frequently much background knowledge must be hown to rescue a work t'rom oblivion. Wi nd eshibi ts insight into the artist/art worid relationships which would dominate in the 1980's and Lm's, a period where the artist's isolation is evident: For whom. for what purpose or place he will plan a new work. or from what sources he should draw his themes - these are matters rarely suggested to him by an external assimonment;as a dethey are left for him to imagine, to invent. We thus place an excessive burden on the artist's personal choice because. in contmst to artistidly more gifted and lively ages, no points of reference are given ....The ody persons to be met there are a small circle of friends and the artist's dealer. who is there on business. The patron remains modestly outside and waits ....The heroic battles between artist and patron that fil1 the annals of the Renaissance would seem improper and wastefui to the modern amateur..... It would be most unfortunate if one day the dealer in his tum were to be displaced by the auctioneer, who would neither prod the artist, nor plan for him, nor takc any risks. but merely sel1 him. (p. 90) In contrast to the present, the 18th Century true artist was in contact with hislher public. The Romantics, however, introduced the notion of artist as alienated from society, and the suffering artist myth taken to an extreme would have the artist facing self-inflicted constraints - either social or economic - as a necessary condition to producing great art. But the constraints that an artist needs are not social they are forma1 and embedded in their chosen medium. Artists need to brace against limits posed by the materials and their plastic resis tance. During the Renaissance, involved patrons offered a form of ' resistance' because they asserted definite ideas about patronage and when the artist was forceful as in the case of Michaelangelo, a profi table resul t could occur from the exchange. Unli ke yesterday' s artists, today's artists receive no fmitful artistic challenges: .Art was as indispensable to them as their dail y food: they could not tive without it. And that, 1 thid, is the root of the matter. If art were as indispensable to us as it was to them, we would not leave the forecourt of art so empty .... The pressure of our artistic climate is lowered by the absence of an active patronage, with the result that the prudent collecter, who thinks he has diminished his risks, has actually diminished his chances of getting as many significant works as he might. (p. 94) Artists, left too much to themselves, carry introspection to an extreme, and in the resul ting search for substance in art they often revert to their instinctive impulses and project them outward on a scale that is larger than life as did the Arnerican abstnct expressionists. Accordingly for many artists their works denve an authority from their scale and not from their substance. Wind contends that artists are continuing to contribute to their marginalization by producing artworks that are made easily reproducible and open to expropriation by mechankation and commercialisation. -If art is mass produced and mass diffused i t reaches many more people, but i t may serve them badly. Too much art of mediocre quality and conformity reduces art to a lightweight show. To Wind, the biggest foe is the neutralisation of art - rendering it sale, accessible and without pnuine nsk: When an experience is exceptiod. it must be multiplied; and soon it will cease to be exceptioml..... in this cornplacent receptacle, a friendly abyss. the anarchic energies of creation wodd be soaked up into noihing. (p. 10 1) Wind sees the redemption of art in its becoming 'dangerous ' (demanding) again. Wind pinpoints the contradictory nature of art: a) I ts profundity and relevance to humans and, b) Its marginaiization from the mainstream of social order. Frequentlp artists and art students search for a ' spititual' dimension to their lives in the profound depths of art and art pursui ts, and teachers cm address the sociallspiri tual realities of art through the art work and lives of its practitioners. For art to respond to the demands placed upon it, its relevance to life and human pursuits must be stressed in the classroom, and teachen cm positively influence their students attitudes and values. Reinforced in this manner, art can continue to function as the extraordinary dimension embedded in our ordinary existence. Yet as artisis and students immerse themselves in the powerful and transfomative discipline, they experience the isolation of it. It is by discussion, sharing espenences with Our peers, recognizing ourselves in the 1Îves of artists in the past, that we can develop a sense of belonging to a long tradition of art, and gain comfort in not king alone. Teachers can hel p students form these connections. Raymond Williams Williams was the originator of 'cultural studies' in Britain in the early 1960's. Williams considered Post Modernism a cultural and intellectuai deadtock that exerts much power over a whole range of philosophical, aesthetic and political thinking. After his death. essays were edited from lectures and conversations and compiled in: The Poli tics of Modernism: Against the New Conformists ( 1989). Williams situates pst-modemism as a continuation of Modemism which was bom in the old metroplitan centres of Europe in the 19th Century. The very bourgeoisie, once scandalized by revolutionary modemists, have expropriated their forms and gestures and integrated them into capitalism: What is distinctive in pst-moderaisrn, however. is that populist impulse effectively captured in the title of Tom Wolfe's From Bauhaus to Our House or in hdyWarhol's .. .IO0 Campbell' s Soup Cam [is] the mtiseptic. eli tist, directive high-cul turd impulse of Modernism assailed in the name of the warmer, more creaturely world of the mass culture where most of us actuall y live most of the tirne. (p. 23) Because Williams situates the end of Modernism in 1940, ive have no choice but to be 'post Modem'. And, to help us understand Our post-modern selves he traces Modernism's characteristics to a few important features: Freud's view of primacy of sub1unconscious; a radical questioning of the processes of representation; a denaturalization of language; and, self-reflexivity of text (the painter in the painting). Modemists repudiated the fised forms of art and the settled cultural authori ty of the academies and their bourgeois taste, and challenged the necessity for market popularity while major changes were occurring in the media of cultural production such as: photography, cinema, radio, television, reproduction and recording. These new media were settled in major urban centres, dong side the modemist anli- bouqeous artists who adopted either the view that art lay above money and commerce (eh tist) or that art could transform society (revolutionary). Williams descri bes the ideological expropriation of the culturally estranged artist by the new international capitalism. As the condition of these artists became perceived as a normal condition, Modernism quickly lost its anti-bourgeois stance and achieved integration into the marketplace. In spite of its utopian theones, which raised art above class, gender and culture, art gave in to cultural competition and its frequent shifts of schools, styles and fashion conforrned to market obsolescence. The author theorizes how emigrés, dislocated in ci ties, brought changing forms and practices to art. Cut off from their native languages and visual traditions, these artists found themselves in a novel and dynamic common environment from which many of the older forms were distant or discarded. The marginalized artists, wri ters, and thinkers established themselves in the only community available to them - the community of the medium - or their own practices. Williams describes the effect on emergent art forms: To the immi,cgraats especially. with their new second common lanepige, Ian,age was more evident as a medium - a medium that could be shaped and reshaped - than a social custom ....There had long been pressures towards the work of art as artifact and cornmodity, but these now greatIy intensified. and their combined pressures were very cornplex indeed. The preoccupjing visual images and styles of particular cuitures did not disappear, any more than the native languages, native tales, the native styles of music and dance, but dl were now passed through this crucible of the metropolis, which was in the important cases no mere melting pot but an intense and visually and linguistically esciting process in its own right, from which remarkable new forms emerged (pp.45-46) Both the Modemists and the more radical avant-garde defiantly rejected past traditions, but as in the case of the Pre- Raphaelites the revival ol a much older tradition was pennissible. By borrowing from wider sources, for example Asia and Africa, art took on an acceptable primitive or exotic demeanour. The borrowing expanded the creative range and the new (old) foms were woven into the consciously modem. That Modernist art was estremely diverse was attested to by innumerable ' isms7. The artistic intelligentsia becarne the new anstocracy and, as such, they could choose to identify positively or negatively with the bourgeoisie and the working class: Hostile or indifferent or merely vulgar, the bourgeois was the mass which the creative artist mut either ignore and circmvent, or now increasingiy shock, dende and attack. (p. 54) Some artists began to cmsade against the bourgeois family in a critique and rejection of al1 social forms of human reproduction, women, children, domesticity. The author calls the ' modern international bourgeoisie artists' who have emerged since 1945, the ' New Etight7,and perceives their politics as a version of libertarianism in which specific national and cultural formations are dissolved to yield an ideal open market and a truly open society. For the avant-garde, who once embraced marginalism, the 'sovereign' individual has become the ideal in spite of a world controlled by concentrated economic and militan; power, and: In the visuai arts, and in advertising, certain techniques which were once espenmental and actual shoch and affronts have become the working conventions of a wideiy distnbuted commercial art. dominated from a few culturai centres, while many of the original works have passed directly into international corporate tnde. (pp.61-62) That a new art could find its place in a new social order or in a recuperated old order, is still very contndictory to Williams. A social history of art, such as Williams proposes, helps the contemporq art student understand the romantic viewpoints that colour so many attitudes about art and artists. The Impressionist penod is particularly prone to be romanticized, and many contemporary students stay lodged in a 19th century reality. Authors such as Williams help explain the marginaiized position of artists. To partake of art seriously is to embark upon a way of life and not just a methodology, and it becornes an added responsibility of the art tacher to facilitate the reinterpreting of art history, as a social history of art. In our changing multi-cultural society, however, the dandsocial history we teach may not apply to the actual art traditions of Our students. Contemporary teachers in dl fields need to broaden their attitudes about the histories and the traditions they teach, and find ways to integrate and respect diversity in the classroom. Visuals supported by discussion around issues of authenticity and borrowing, private and public expression, personal and political art, prejudice and censorship are important themes for art educators to explore. Pierre Bourdieu A reinterpretation of art history can take a specific stance, and in The Field of Cultural Production (lm),Pierre Bourdieu expresses a Marxist/Relativist point of view. He sees art as a cultural and symboiic product, and addresses the issues of aesthetic value, subjectification, the relationshi p between cultural practices and broader social processes, the social position and role of intellectuals and artists, and the relationship between 'high7 culture and 'low' popular culture. Bordieu argues that systems of domination îïnd expression in ail areas of cultural practice and symbolic exchange, including preferences in taste (dress, sports, food, music, literature, art etc.). His is a theory of radical contextualization. in which accounts of artworks are always seen in relation to their hstorical developrnent; the strategies and paths of the artists are based on their individual and class positions as well as their objective position within the art field. Bourdieu analyses the structure of the field itself, including the position of art, the public, publishers, critics, galleries, academies etc. His andysis of the art field is seen within the broader field of power, and the social conditions of the production, circulation, education and consumption of the artworh. Bourdieu is opposed to the Ersetrtialist (formalist) examination of art because it ignores the mu1 ti faceted context surrounding the production of the work and maintains the chaismatic vision of the artist, both of which are subjective and tend to negate the objective position of art and cultural practice in the field of social relations. Bourdieu's account focusses on the questions of what constitutes a work of art at a given historicd moment, and how the 'value' of the work changes in accordance with structural changes in the field. The author believes the artistic field is relatively autonomous because social and economic factors that effect transformations in the art field are mediated by culture as a whole, and these changes must be refracted into the art field voluntarily. Bourdieu's concept of social reality incorpontes: the position or the artistic field within the dominant field of puiver (Le. the ruling classes); the structure of the artistic field (Le. positions and characteristics of artists);and, the structured and structuring factors that generate practices. Because most artists live in generally poor economic states, Bourdieu refers to intellectuals as pertaining to the dominated fraction of the dominant class. According to Bordieu the cultural field is an autonomous pole, with those artists of the 'hgh' art elite at one far end. These artists aim only at an audience of other artists, exclude the pursui t of profit (poverty may be seen as a virtue), and that of power (it condemns honours and temporal greatness). These characteristics make the 'high' end of the pole favour formal expenmentation and innovation (diverse avant-garde movements are situated at this extreme of the field). A range of cultural practices exist between the 'high' and low' poles. Because art students vqin their social, cultural, and economic backgrounds, taste and exposure to art, the art teacher's responsibility is to recognize this diversity and communicate in ways that can be understood by all students. The teacher's own orientation colours their awareness and values and hislher degree of self-awareness becomes an asset or liability when teaching. Bourdieu considers that works of art exist only for those who have the means of understanding them. Comprehension thus invoives a decoding operation subject to the values established in the artistic field. Therefore, it involves much more than the direct and immediate apprehension of the work; it depends fully on the possession of the code into which it has been encoded, and this is neither a natural nor a universally distributed capability. Connoisseurship consists of noting an artwork's distitictive stylisticjecztiires by relating it to other worh forming the class to which it belongs, and to these works only. Aesthetic competence, defined in this manner, is the result of a long training process which may or rnay not begin in the family (conforming to its level of economic, academic and cultural resources), and is reinforced by the educational system. 1t also involves prolonged exposure to works of art. Bourdieu's work in the sociology of education argues that sclzoolitig reitzjbrces social differe~ices,and the cuiture it transmits is largely that of the dominant classes; social hierarchies are transformed into academic hierarchies. 1n a non-ideal schooling situation aesthetic taste and competency are products of pnvilege available to the chosen few. If education serves a true dernocratic function, however, it should develop al1 students' aesthetic dispositions, and become tolerant to their diverse tastes and competencies. The implications of Bourdieu's theory is that no form of analysis should overlook the social ground or context of the work. Cntics, according to Bourdieu, declare not only their judgment of the work but also their claim to the right to talk about it and judge it. In short, they take part in a struggle for the monopoly of legitimate discourse about the work of art, and consequently in the production of the value of the work of art. The author suggests there is an interest in the disinterestedness of cntics. Being a self-referential Post- modemist, Bourdieu is not reluctant to be self-critical in his theonzing and critiques his own presu pposi tions. The author defines academic art as a state-sanctioned art where the highest artistic authorities hobnob with the representatives of political power, and the exclusive measure of value is official success. The painter is trained to perceive his successes - admission to the Salon, die prizes, election to the Academy and official commissions - as attestations of his artistic value. Artworks exhibiting academic style were meant to be 'read' rather than ' seen': It calls for a scholarly decoding based on a literary culture, ..... This learned reading, which is aware of historicd and literary al1usions and is thus very close to academic interpretations of classical texts, looks for history in the work but without attempting to resituate the work in history. as would the perception demanded by modern art. (p. 245) History thus, is an effective way to put reality at a distance, to produce an effect or idealisation and spiritualization, and thereby paradoxically to create etemity. A historical contextualization corn bined wi th technical formalism yielded the academic ' Cult of technique' which considers technique an end in itself. The cul t is responsible for what Gombrich calls 'the error of the too well made'; the technical virtuosi ty that favours the aesthetic of the 'finished', fulfils al1 the demands and ethicd expectations (taste) inscri bed in the academic psilion. Bourdieu illustrates his arguments with examples of the challenge to the 18th Century French Academic noms by revolutionary artists. He contends that Manet's rejection of academic noms, which sought to impose conventional forms of composition and colour schernes, contributed to the effect of painting ceasing to refer to anything but itself (sel f-referentiality). In other words, form replaces function, and painters shifted the source of authon ty to the artwork, and rejected aesthetic values other than those based on the specific interests of the field. To amdemicians, works by Delacrois, Courbet and in particular Manet's OZyrrzpia appear physically and morally unclean. The work has becorne contaminated by its subject. and king dirty and irnmodest at the same time, i t loses i ts integrity. Anti-academic painters were criticized for placing formal interests over meaning and for sacrificinp moral vitali ty to pure technique. Bourdieu describes how the state says who is a painter and who is not, what is a painting and what is not; and al though he appears to be rnaking reference to the 18th Century French Academy, his description has reference to al1 govemment-run art institutions, including the present ones: The state's rnonopoly of the production of producers takes the fom of a process of

certification or, if one prefers. ri process of consecration through which ihe producers are authorised - in their own eyes as weI1 as in those of al1 legitimate consumers- as legi timate producers, known and recognised by everyone...... Through the jury (which i t appoints) the Academy can forbid them access to the market. since it has the power to decide who is admitted to the Salon, which accredits the painter and assures him of a clientele. (p. 29) Tociay sanctioned groups still exist in the fom of art councils, and the jury systern still selects which artists are to achieve visibility in ' legitimate' venues. Teachers can prepare students for their encounters with the social context in which art esists, - otherwise students cannot see beyond their material endeavours, and may feel cut off [rom a tradition and aiienated frorn the contemporary discipline. The challenge 1 face as an artistheacher is to adopt a balanced view of art. one that is not overly romanticized and unreal, or in contrat, one that reduces art to a mechanicalltechnical process of a consumer product. Ferninist theory Feminist scholarship yielded another sub-discipline of social theory, and owes a debt to the art historian Linda Nochlin. In 1971 she wrote an essay enti tled: Whv Have There Been No Great Women Anists? This seminal question provoked exminations of existing art texts and scholarly writing and gave raison d'être to a women's art rnovernent. Women came to understand why fernale artists were ornitted [rom art history texts, why they had few female mentors in art schools, and why they were excluded from major art establishments. Although women were studying art in greater numbers they were not rnaking the transition into art professionals, and the recognition of their disenfranchisement from the art world caused individuals and groups of women to take direct action. Griselda Pollock ln her book: Vision and Difference: Femininitv, Feminisrn and the Histones of Art (1988). Pollock, a feminist art historian, calls for a paradigm shift in the study of art history. It is not enough for women to be added to the history of art. Because of their unfortunate omission, according to Pollock, it is necessary to change what is studied, what becomes relevant to investigate and to challenge the existing disciplines poli ticall y. Her feminist-mmist-deconstnictionist viewpoint is espressed in a redefinition of the discipline of art history: The structurai sesism of most academic disciptines contributes actively to the production and perpetuation of a gender hienrchy... The cnteria of greatness was male defimed.(pp. 1-2) One method to address this is to make contestual interventions in the histories of art. For instance, to bring a different view point and interpretation to Modemisrn: "Modernist art history celebrates... a seiective tradition which normalises, as the only modemism. a particular and gendered set of practices." (p. 50). In order to integrate art into a comples social totality nther than a specialized, separated activity, it needs to be looked at not as an ob~ect but as a practice - a cultural practice where the conditions of the practice are examined. And the examination must begin from the general totality and then ont0 the study of particular activities. When art is seen as a social practice, it becomes a social history of art, and n feminist methodoiogy of historical materialism does not merely substitute gender Cor cfass but examines the comples interdependence of class, gender, and race, in al1 forms of historical practice. Thereby gender and sesuality are considered as important as other historical forces, and require new foms of analysis. Like Bordieu, Pollock views cultural practices as the means by which we make sense of the social process in which we are caught up, and artistic practices must be located as part of the social struggles between classes, races and genders, each articulating their social reality. What feminists are demanding of art history is a recognition of gender power relations, a making visible of the mechanisms of male power and the social construction of sexual difference, and the role of cultural representations in that construction: Once we insist that sexual difference is produced through an interconnecting series of social practices and institutions of which families, education, art studies, galleries and magazines are part. then the hierarchies which sustain masculine dominance corne under scrutiny and stress...(p. 9) Because the visual arts are one instance of the production of difference, Pollock asks: How does the mechanism work? How does it relate to other social practices? 1s the representation different if the producer is a woman or man? And, will the representation be read differently? in answering these questions gender, class and race are made central to the tems of historical analysis, and the very language of art historical discourse is examined to expose its underlying values and assumptions. The way women artists are recorded or omitted is crucial to the definition and status of art and artist in Our society. Pollock considers that art history is not just indifferent to women - it is a rnasculinist discourse. contributing to the mial construction of sexual difference: The political point of ferniaist art history must be to change the present by means of how we re-represent the past That means we must refuse the art historian's permitted ignorance of living artist and contribute to the present day struggles of living producers. (pg. 14) Feminist artistic practice aims at revolution of socid reality, while feminist theory aims at a revolution in knowledge. Leaning heavily on John Berger's revolutionary Wavs of Seeing ( 1973)- feminists in the arts abhor the representation of creativity as masculine and the beautiful image for the desiring masculine gaze as feminine. They want to emphasize the presence of women as producers of culture and meanings. Pollock adopts sociological frameworks for her examination and she examines the following topics:' women' as sign, representation, signifier, femi nini ty, object of art, and producer of art in light of modernity and psychoanalytic readings; sexuality and its representation in the 1970's; the distinction between private and public spheres; the nature of a point of view ('the look'); and lastly, the interpretation of artworks. Janet Woolf Another feminist writer who links her arguments to specific art practices, esamines the particular fernale experiences which trigger what women artists write and paint. In Ferninine Sentences: Essavs on Women and Culture ( 1990), Woolf focusses on the contemponry ferninist ' politics of the body' and its accompanying risks of appropriation. misreading and essentidism. She emphasises pst modemist devices of: self-reflesivity. irony, juxtaposition, aiienating effects, and the laying bare of the framework (making clear the nature of the medium and of representation). Woolf locates Modernism somewhere between 1890 and 1930, and defines i t as a set of multiple revol ts against tradi tional realism and romanticism, and indicates that Modernism has always been characterized as masculine: Womcn of course, had their own experience of the modem world. and were engaged in articulating this in riterature and painting ..... there is no doubt that women .... artists were as much involved in the revolution in ... visud languages as men. That is why it is both possible and essentiai to rewrite the history of modernism. showing women's role in it. (pp. 58-59) What Woolf proposes in the analysis of Modemist paintings is a method that takes into account the context of the artist, as it examines the formal and representational elements of the image i.e. to look for the ways in which women painters expressed their social position by their representation of space. Woolf takes on the difficult task of defining Post Modem art in relation to contemporary practices. She begins with a list of characteristics of Post Modern culture: It includes pastiche, parody, histoncal quotation, depihlessness, loss of affect. decentnng of the subject ... in the case of some so-called pst modem visual art, the resurrection of figurative art. ...eclecticism, self-reflesivity of the medium itself, and so on. (p. 90) Woolf then defines Post Modem painting as: That work which self-consciously deconstmcts tradition, by a variety of fonnal and other techniques (parody. juxtaposition, re-appropriation of images, irony, repetition, and so on). Such an interrogation is informed by theoretical and critical consciousness. (p. 93) As such it is more than aimless play that disrupts for the sake of disrupting. Visually, post modem representations incorporate text with image and object, in fact the art often appears to negate the visuai. Woolf quotes two feminist art theonsts who want to get the visual back into painting: Katy DeepwetI, who: Documents and cnticises the dominance of deconstnictive work (which she terms 'scripte-visual'). Characteristic of this work, she says. is a rejection of painting in favour of photo,pphy, film, video, performance. She writes in favour of continuing to allow those other feminist practices, mainly based on painting. by artists 'who believc in a coherent bumanist subject 'women' and embrace woman-centred. and somerirnes essentialist, views about a separate female culture in their work. (p.%) And, Rosa Lee, who: Stresses the importance of working with (or retuming to) oil paint and the gestural mark. Engagement with the material laquage of the medium itself is centrai, in which the subversive act consists in the use of traditional conventions without the representational (and pertiiips compromised) content which might be expected. Her objection to deconstructive postmodemism seems to be mainly to its hegemony within the women's art movement, to its marginalization of painting, and to the fact that it therefore does not allow for the possibility of a tadicd reconstruction of artistic language. (p. 97) Woolf concludes: Unlike Lee. 1 do not think it has to be a central project of feminist art to reconstnict the traditional language of art (namely oil paint), though there is no real reason why pst modem art cannot employ paint as well as photography (except for the obvious one that mechanically reproduced images lend themselves more to fmggentation, re-arrangement, superimposition, and other deconstnictive strategies). (p. 98) Summary : Social historians and Feminists have raised Our collective consciousness in regard to society and social values. The selected authors discuss important issues: how diffenng interpretations of the history of art should be presented to students; how social . political, economic, and gender dynamics influence al1 aspects of art and artists; how language and values colour interactions between student and student and student and teacher, and in life drawing classes, students and the mode1 3 Students ask questions aboiit the 'real' world of art and artists, and want answers that reveal and clarify their own positions. An awareness of social art history can embellish and affirm the teaching of the craft of drawing, and in this respect contemponry drawing teachers di ffer from their predecessors and can no longer remai n indifferent to the important themes of Life values, gender, social and cultural issues. The baggage of the contemporary artistlteacher get heavier with the passage of time. 2.4 Aesthetics texts: Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy currently concerned with perception and espanding theories of art, and constitutes a vast field of study. Although philosophy may seem far removed from our day to day lives, many of the themes found in art philosophy tests could enrich the perceptions of contemporary art students. Vanous philosophical considerations and orientations influence what and how drawing is taught. 1 have selected a number of art theonsts who expound provocative viewpoints and pose stimulating, pertinent questions for me the artisvteacher. The following authors propose definitions of art, reveal functions for art, consider the nature of representation and style, question criteria of excellence and authority and state some criticai opinions about art. Compared to the texts of the previous chapter, the following tests are less grounded in the social reality of artists, but rather explore the spiritual and psychological basis of art. Due to the nature of philosophical discourse, these authors cannot provide definitive answers, but they do provoke critical thinking and genente I'urther questioning. Morris Weitz In Philosophy of the Arts ( 1950), the author attempts to formulate a theory of art capable of explaining problems concerning the art object, art creation, art appreciation, in so doing, raising issues conceming the nature of art and reality. Weitz asks: What are the limits of artistic commiinication? Can an espress anything? If so, should art express nonplastic spiri tua1 values? The author admits to the contamination of philosophy by positivism and recognizes the extremist positions taken by many contemporary philosophers whose fear of being wrong limits their quest for possible definitions of the nature of art, beauty, categories of reality. Weitz is critical of strict formalists such as Clive Bell who deny that expressive elements are necessary in artworks, and who feel that narrative representation is a violation In the suburban art center where I frequently teach, the models in the office file were al1 female, white, young and slim. I began to engage models that broke the mold. and noticed how this influenced my students. Some complained the models were ugly, fat, old, and therefore unattractive and uninspiring. These students, however, generally dropped the course or persevered and overcame their restricted tastes. Now, five years later, a diversity of models make up the files and are hired by the other teachers. of the visual medium and really belongs in liierature. He counters their position by stating: The whole problem of representiltion versus non representation and the legitirnacy of representation in art ,as Mised by borh Bell and Fry and their critics, is a speçious issue and rests uitimately upon inadequate analyses of form and content. representation. and the expressive in art. (p. 6 1) The ' Organic theory' proposed by Weitz provides a rich analysis of form, an adequate explanation of the arts, critena for critique, and a rationale that allows for a specific and universal socio-econornic-philosophical interpretation of an. Its theoretic process - the abstracting of certain comtituents from works of art and a discussion of them in relation to certain categories as a cohesive group - has practical application and cm be appl ied in concrete criticisms of specifk works of art. Weitz, unlike Bell, does not rule out certain non-plastic, spintual values in art, suggesting that diversity and.... "Fullness of expression and communication in art does not necessarily destroy its purity or provoke sentimental appreciaiion."(p.63) Also: The greatest art is the successful inte,oration of both kinds of representation: 'That artist is the greacer who cm express and communicate the larger world of values; hence a painter who is able to express, without neglect of plastic values [ i-e.. the representational values of naturel, poetic and psychographic values as well is a gcatcr painter than one who expresses plastic values alone.' (p. 23) Wei tz therefore proposes that an appraisal of 'significant' form mid content become the crux of qualitative assessrnent of artworks, and the subject becomes one of the the formal art elements to be exami ned: Art may include as its constituents lines, colours, tones, words. emotions. concepts, feelings. meanings, representations, ûnd subjects. Just as there is no artistic distinction between form and content, so there is no antithesis between form and ideas, repfesentations and emotions. (p.49) To Weitz, form serves function, and when the expressive intent of the artist or the expressive integrity of the subject make demands, the authentic response rnay be distortion of shape, colour or space. As well artists exhibit individual and particular espressive states of being, and rnay successfuliy or unsuccessfully incorporate social and political themes in their works. But, Weitz draws the line at Iife-negating or destructive art which, he states, lads to action and not contemplation. Regarding standards, Weitz contends that if we accept that art is make-believe, then we achieve some detachment. "1 t is because of the presence of psychic distance.... that our appreciation is prirnarily a disinterested, non-practical, nonmoral, detached, contemplative experience." (p. 181). The author shuns a vaiuing of art based upon a strictly subjective response, and seeks certain objective criteria derived from a consideration of the nature of the aesthetic in relation to other experiences. Here the Organic theory becomes relevant, particularly its principle of integration of ail constituents working as an expressive whole; successful works are those that mos t effective1y integrate al1 thei r constituent parts. Whether a work is serious or arnusing, if the art form stays true to its medium, 'art' is big enough to encompass different kinds of expression, styles and points of view. Weitz pushes viewers to move beyond a solely subjective response to an artwork to an analysis of the constituent parts of the work. The analysis opens ways of understanding why certain subjective responses are provoked or achieved, and to what degree the artist's intentionality can be cornmunicated to the viewer. and participate in the viewers response. Similarly, his theory allows a comprehensive visual analysis which encompasses both the form and content of a work of art and provides criteria for the critique and comparison of artworks in the classroom. Teachers can apply his ideas to the way critiques are conducted in the classroom. John Hospers The test Meaning and Tmth in the Arts (1976)' poses the following questions: Do works of art have meaning?; How does art meaning differ from a word or proposition?; How does meaning differ from expression and representation ? And finally, what are ' truth' and 'reality' in relation to art? Although Hospers supports Weitz visuai encounter with art he enhances the visual-spiritual approach by pushing more profoundly into conceptual questions about truth. In search of answers he defines the primary and secondary materials of artists: 1 shodd like to define the materials of a work of art as ail the experiences the artist had which are reIevant to the production of the work of art, and, through these experiences, whatever objects and events in the world, that stimuiated or inspired the artist to create his work.. . 'rnaterials' for art are not simply the worId or objects in it as such, but the artist's experience which has been rnoulded by these materials and out of which he creatcs his work; the things and events in the world, which moulded and shaped his expenence (which is the immediate material from which his work is drawn). are materials but in a more remote sense. (p. 19) The ' remote' or secondary materiai could be, for esample, a chair seen or imagined which acts as a viszml stimulus to the artist Hospers defines the drawing of a chair as representing or symbolising the actual chair; this chair king the 'referent' of the symbol in the drawing. Conventional symbols are learned e.g. a nod of the head means yes in mr culture; naturai symbols such as a map of USA standing for the entity USA, nimbus clouds signifying min and an oncoming car representing danger, al1 presuppose some expenence but not necessaril y a convention. In art a certain amount of pre-acquaintance is necessary to understand certain visual symbols, and this understanding can enhance and deepen an appreciation of a work of art. According to Hospers, artists Vary in the degree of their adherence to ' true to life' representation, and many paintings and drawings tend to evoke or express rather than represent something to the observer who receives the sensation while in a sensitized state w here associations rnay arise. Hospers quo tes Santayana: When objects express something to us .... we ...remain aware of their affinities to what is not at the time perceived; that is, we find in [hem a certain tendency and quality, not original to them, a meaning and a tone. which upon investigation we shall see to have been the proper characteristics of other objects and feelings, assoçiated with them once in our experience. The hushed reverberations of these associate feelings continue in the brain. and by modifying our present reaction. colour the image upon which our attention is fixed. The quality thus acquired by objects tbrough association is what we cd1 their expression... Expression may thus m&e beautiful by suggestion things in themselves indifferent. or it may corne to heighten the beauty whch they already posscss.... The treasures of the rnernory have been melted and dissolved. and are now gilding the objecr that supplants them; they are giving this object expression. (pp. 68-69) Santayana is describing the ' transfomative' capacity of the aesthetic esperience. If we are affected by an artwork, the evoked effect consti tutes its meaning for us and as the effect gradually changes so does the meaning. At any given time, as with any affective state, the meaning is difficult to describe with words. In the Occident, the chief criterion by which painters are judged has been 'significant form' which Hospers believes cornes from nature and from the rhythms wiihin our own bodil y organisms. As such, he argues for a Iife-affirming element to art: Be11 cannot be quite nght in saying ihat we need bring with us nothing from life to art. for the basis of our enjoyment of these forms lies in a feeling, conscious or unconscious, for the forms and rhythms within us and in the life around us. If we were not as we are, human things, the same foms when presented in a work of art would not evoke the particular emotion Bell speaks of. (p. 1 14) Hospers connects Our response to significant fom with ' tmth' whch he defines as imight i/zto realiiy and not verisimilitude. Even the artist determined to present the whole unvarnished facts of nature has a subjectively coloured attitude; there is no vensimilitude in art, even a pho tugraph represents something which was once three-dimensional and thereby differs from the real thing. The pnnciple of selection and omission reveals the subjective choices of the artist, and technique too is imbued with subjective attitude or personal point of view. Art, therefore, has other functions besides concem with reproducing factual tmths, and should be encouraged to reveal another kind of tmth such as the universal 'essence' which cm develop from a particular, or the far reaching possibilities of human nature. An strives for truth to the felt qualities of experience in general, and fidelity to the directly expenenced qualities of nature. Form is ail-pervasive and is not copied bu^ intuited or discovered: Even to have an intuition of human character in a drama is a creative achievement; how much more difficult, then, is it in the case of something Iike significant form in painting, which is so much further aùstracted frorn the natudistic appearance of things ! This kind of imitation is creation. (p. 193) Artists are true to a new way of seeing or feeling which they cm share or transmit to others and which we can veri fy in our own experience - the latter is what makes it ' tme'. Artists can reveal something which both they and we can see coloured by their temperament. In this sense the visual arts sharpen and ennch our visual sensibilities and enable us to contemplate and perceive things in new ways. As artists remain true to their chosen medium, the transmission of tmth and new ways of seeing moulds the artwork. Truth to experience, aesthetic form, and an expression of Me-values must coe-rist because each item is incomplete on its own, and therefore not entirely tmthful. The author considers the criteria for judging the quality of one work in relation to other works by the degree to which the three ingredients combine into an organic unity. Richard Wollheim 1n Painting as an Art (1984), Wollheim examines pictures and their meaning through a phgsioIogical lens, descn bes his view of the painter's process, and steps to the formation of a 'work of artf. He also explores the interdependence of philosophy and psychology, and states that creative activity becomes a process of self-knowledge when the artwork reflects some complex of inner states that the artist seeks to extemalize. He poses fundamental questions: What is a work of art?; Who decides it is a work of art?; And, how is painting to be practised if it is to be an art? Wollheim examines the way intentions are fonned and give rise to one another, and distinguishes the intentional marks a painter makes on a surface from those made by an intent rnonkey by proposing the possi bility of thematization. The latter is a process by which an artist begins to notice other conditions beside the marks, such as the surface or edge of the format. and allows these previously unconsidered, hence unintentional features to contribute to guiding his future activi ty. The decision-making activi ty continues and &ter the marks, the surface or the edge have been thernatized, the artist notices that certain marks form motifs, and he begins to form more motifs intentionally. The artist begins to see the irruzge as a result of looking at the motifs. Thematisation is by and large pursued so as to endow the resultant surface with meaning. .And meaning may in tuni be glossed as that which we grasp when wc understand a painting: when we understand, not some fact about the painting, but the painting itself. (p. 22) The author stipulates that the medium and materials of painting and the generated meaning in painting are interlocked and inextricable from each other. The process of 'deletion' cornes into play when artists deliberately avoid or attenuate a feature they have previously thematized, because the feature has becorne distracting or weak in the particular work, or a meaningless presence in the art vocabulary of their contemporaries or predecessors: Detetion gets nd of wht once had, but no longer has, meaning .... for the agent to think in these terms, or to take account of other people's work while working on his own, it looks as though the enterprise in which he is engaged must already bc an historical phenomenon .... it must now be an enterprise in which tradition. or a sense of the past as providing a starting-point for the present. constrains ...and encourages - what those who undataice i t do. (p. 23) Thus the human painter leaves behind the monkey, even a skilful one. Reflesive artists think over what they have done, espose inadvertent features of their action, give value to these features, and resolve next time and in the future to put them into practice. Artists do this because of dissatisfaction with the over-familiar, a desire for new resources and a need to revitalise the roots of pictonal meaning. Wollheim categorizes reflexiveness as of a psychological not a semantic order: Thematisation *ses out of the agent's attempt to organise an inberently tnert material so that it will become serviceable for the canîage of meaning .... thematization by an artist must reach to aspects of painting too fine-,pined for lanepage to follow it These will include minute aspects, and ovenll aspects, and relational aspects.... thematization requires an eye. And it requires a hand. .. At a certain stage in the artist's career. important advances, once made, are bded. In saying this 1 have in mind a phenomenon which the more traditionai modes of art-history have always rightly recognized to be at the very centre of their subject: style. (p.26) Wollheim separates two forms of style: the general and the individual. Genenl styles are generic tools of classification such as Cfmsicism or a geûmetrical style, or period or historicd styles like Neocf~.ssicism or Art noweau . There are also the styles of particular schools of painters li ke the Rubenesque style which reveals distinctive characteristics such as powerful volumes or strong contrasts of light and dark. General styles change in response to trends and fashion and the passing of tirne, while individual styIe does not alter and is distinct from and defines the characteristics associated with it. It has psychological reality and emanates [rom somewhere within the artist's mind. Having a pictorial style is tiot like Iinowing a language because it is not learned - it is formed psychologically and bodily, and it imposes discrimination upon the eye. but goes beyond descri bing forma1 charactenstics. 'Signature' differs from style in that it becomes apparent in the superficial mannensms of the painter repeated across a wide variety of works, while style derives from from a profound proficiency deep in the artist's psychology. In painting most conditions are subject to change i.e. innovations in materAs, the scale of paintings, their social evaluation, rules and conventions. As witnessed from the perspective of the painter ( paintings of painters painting) there is one noteworthy constancy -the artist's posture. The bodily stance makes the artist the spectator of his own work; the artist works with and for hislher eyes: The experience which motivates an artist to paint ... must be attuned to the intention of the artist where this includes.... the desires, thoughts, beliefs. expenences. emotions, commitments that motivate the artist to paint as he does. intention excludes such mental phenomena in so far as they mereIy float in the artist's head while he paints. and in no case is it reasonable to think that intention calIs for a totd preconception in the artis:'~ head of the painting that he intends to make-a kind of imer image of an outer picture which does not as yet esist. ... the required experience must come about through looking at the picture: it must come about through the way the artist worked. (p. 44) Moving on to other spectators beside the artist, Wollheim concedes that it is a misconception to think that they must recreate in their minds the same mental condition as the artist had when slhe painted, for them to understand the artist's rneaning. Optimaliy the spectator needs to possess and use three important perceptual quaiities - seeing-in. expressive perception. and the capacity to experience visrial delight, when viewing a painting. These perceptual capaci ties refiect three basic powers of painting: the power to represent external objects; to express mental or intemal phenomena; and to induce a special rom of pleasure. Seeing-in, a form of perception, occun when the viewer becomes visuall y aware of surface nuance, and discerns a spatial advancing or receding of something. This experience has an important characteristic of ~VOfoldedttess , i t precedes representation and becomes personaliy signifiant to the viewer. Representation occurs when the image conforms to an accepted standard of correctness, and is recognized as such by the viewer, only then the intention of the artist is fulfilled and communal significance is achieved. Because babies and animals respond to seeing-in, it is possibly an innate biologically grounded activi ty. For Wollheim, being responsive to pictorial expression does not mean that if a work expresses sadness it must have been painted by the artist in a bout of depression. The emotion does trot have to be currently exper-ienced for it to effect the artist, who might remember i t or reflect upon it. Pictonal expression, ... is not elicited by either an interna1 stimulus or an external event. It is not reactive to circumstances. It occurs within a pattern establishcd by a career or a form of life.(p. 8) Ten years later in The Mind and its Depths (L993),Wollheirn digs deeper into his thesis and asks: Do we know what we see or do we see what we know? He considers the aim of criticism to iuiderstand or to grasp the meaning of the work of art. Criticai theonsts perceive of it in two ways: either meaning is meant to be discovered or retrieved and derives from the creative process or meaning is constructed and imposed by the cri tic, and derives from a self-motivating critical process, freshly imposed from age to age, whose critical aim is revision. Although linguistic meaning can be explained within some such set of terms as rules, codes, conventions, symbol systems, painting cannot, the author deduces that the meaning in an artwork speaks for itself, visually, and does not need theoretical application. For any viewer, art lover or critic, Wollheim stipulates that al1 art work must be experienced, and any additionai knowledge and information must be put to the test by the re-esperiencing of the work. In this way the critical ' truths' are tested As an artist 1 rely on a spontaneous visual-ernotional encounter with artwork, a non-verbal ' felt' response that seems complete on its own. As an artist-teacher 1 have ken trained to go beyond my visual experience of an artwork and analyse the forma1 qualities of the work. The andysis tests rny initial felt response and exercises rny communication skills in providing a verbal response conceming this, to the student. Once the anaiysis of formal elements is complete, 1 try to situate my response philosophically. This obliges me to examine the subjective criteria that idluence rny appreciation of an artwork 1 attune to my tastes, beliefs and biases and how they influence my response. Just as artists are now pressured to manipulate matter cuid language, the demands placed upon an art teacher as an informed viewer are conceptuai and analytical as well as concrete and felt. But we risk that the subtle process may fragment and the initial 'felt' esperience become lost or overburdened by andysis. When an artist's vision is profound, certain qualities in their work move beyond analysis and language and a composite experience emotive, visual, and andyticai is cailed for. Arthur C. Danto In contrast to Woll heim, Danto stipulates that art requires a philosophical consideration and not just a visuai one. In his criticai essays: Encounters & Reflections: An in the Historical Present ( 1986). he suggests that art is established when form embodies meaning: A picture becomes art when, beyond representing its idea. properties of itself become saliçnt in the work of embodiment. Rembrandt's paintings embody and do not merely show light. (pp. 8-9) Danto poses the question, "What is a work of art contnsted with what ' look like' a work of art?". He selects Duchamp's urinai and Warhol's Brillo Box as points of departure for his thesis: Ody when we can imagine works of art that outwardly resemble ordinary things like

urinals or packing cases can we begin COdraw the line between reality and art, which has concemed philosophers from ancient times. if Founrain is an artwork, there must be an answer to the question of why the other urinals ....are not, even if the resemblanccs are perfect. if' Brillo Box is an artwork and the ordinary Brillo carton not. surely the difference camot lie in the obvious differeoces. such as one king made of plywd and the orher of corrugated cardboard, not if the differences between reality and art must divide art from reaiity on a serious philosophical map. (p. 5) Cubists and early Abstractionists remained in the artistic tradition Le. maintained standard subjects, didn't forsake illusionism or pictorial convention, but from the rnid 1%0's CU?, as it had been historically understood, carne to an end. The meaning of 'work of art' became unclear. as they could not always be told apart from real things, and could not be seen as obviously like things that had always ken regarded as works of art. This created a crisis for art history. philosophy, education, production, and criticism; if dl rules and standards are down, what do we teach students, how does one judge artworks, what are the appropriate responses, what are the standards, how can one evaluate? Unless contemporary visual artists enrobe their art wi th a complex philosophical justification and a critical apparatus, their work is not viewed seriously and we are deep into the Post historical phase of the history of art, which Danto refers to as 'Bad Aesthetic Ti mes'. Danto explains that ' Good aesthetic times' are someti mes considered oppressive, i.e. the idea of a masterpiece is associated with privilege and elitism, to the exclusion ol' women and rninority artists, as is the concept of ' greatness', or genius. Therefore ' good aesthetics' could be part of the mechanism of privilege disguised as a standard of taste. Women and other disenfranchised artist groups are rediscovering their own language of form while rejecting the traditionai noms institutionaiized in Our culture of what we have kentaught is good, and even great art. Much of Ferninist, Performance and 'disturbatory' art aims to change society and is not intended to be viewed or e'iperienced across an insulating aesthetic distance, as the distance which separates the viewer from a painting by Matisse. These artists strive for direct provocation of the viewer. The art of revolutionary breakthroughs and perpehrcrl revolution stopped in the mid-sixties, but because esisting media and market structures were hung-, artists produced copious 'new and important works'. Danto, however, sees through the transparency of style without substance which was the case of much of the 'new' art. A multitude of huge scale works loaded with superficial experirnental features: such as rnixed media. melded genres, and historical references, prevailed. "B y ordinary indices, ours should be read as one of the great moments of artistic flowering. The irony is that al1 that canvas and al1 that paint is what everyone has in mind by Bad Aesthetic Times! "(p.307) Danto aslis, when the artist is no longer charged with carrying history fonvard to the nest stage, what lies ahead for the post modern artist? Perhaps new, personal interpretations creating a vi ta1 relationship to one's work, perhaps beauty which does not depend upon history. But how will we gauge such work? The category of ' masterpiece'- works of museum quality, became tamished in the last few decades by the pattern of domination and pnvilege associated with them. But, what will we do with those works of undisputed excellence one would wish to steal? What do we cal1 them? and Where do we house them? Hanging Iess 'valued' works would be a poor political victory even if some blemished museum 'authority' would rub off on thern: The feminist curator by contrast saw it as important to diiute the pool of masterpieces in order to dissolve the power and intimidation they express, to weûken the concept of the museum as defined by masterpieces, making it possible for there to be works there in connection with which the issue of theft has no application, or perhaps in the name of hamessing the museum to other drives, making the production of masterpieces no longer relevant to the art to which the museum is to b e responsible..... my sense is that the masterpiece as an essentially contested concept today is on the defensive because a mord mission is king asked of art other tbaa chat which it came to play in the revolutionary era ....The comment to be made is that there have been many missions for art, al1 fanatically advanced. and each connected with a different mod mission. (pp. 3 19-320) The critical attack on museums is really an attack on the concepts of Mmer and Genius. In the Renaissance, the Master was responsible to ' teach' apprentices, and presupposes a certain institutional reality where the rules are well defined and accepted by those entering the system and emerging as a Master. The masterpiece then, is the product of a reasonabl y instructed industrious person. Genius and the works of genius were traditionally considered a God-given gift and could not be taught or institutionalized. If artists had been considered only masters, historically, they would have a history similar to that of other technologies: a history of practice, breakthroughs, or a history of treatises as in philosophy. The difficult question of qualitative assessment is raised for art educators and public art commissions, and, in these instances artistic genius may conflict wi th other criteria. If genius is the highest cailing of art and demands complete freedom do we have the nght to expect a masterpiece - a work of ultimate originality, and, at what price? Borrowing from Kant, Danto describes genius as the talent (or innate gift) which derives from nature and gives the rule to art - the mle which other non-geniuses can follow. The rule deriving from nature is more than a man made rule, it is a Iaw and a law is universal : It is this uriiversality , 1 think, under which the work of genius addresses mankind as mankind, which then marks the masterpiece in modem usage. even if we are uncornfortable with its Kantian premises. The masterpiece is a work for dl, not just its patron. not just for its cime and place, It is meant as timeless; it is supposed to transeend its historical moment. (p. 327) In transcending its historical moment the masterpiece is concerned with themes of depth which express the meaning of life such as: the responsibilities of love, the transformations of time and change, and encounters with death. A masterpiece must espress hurnani ty; in fact i t expresses the public who commissioned it: It is easy CO see why the masterpiece should be perceived as politically dangerous, especially if we are claiming rights for art produced by groups and classes that are not geniuses. For the genius itself is perceived as a politically disabling category. Nonctheless, 1 think, the masterpiece is a viable and even necessary concept just because there is something to art beyond what bodies of desand contractual relationships and standards of the guild cm specify. (pp. 329-330) Danto proposes how art has become philosophy in the Modemist period: First it was challenged by the advent of motion-picture technology, and thus the capacity for illusion passed entirely outside the hands of painters forcing them either to rethink the nature of painting or simply to become outmoded. And the recognition of the artistic ment of primitive art was followed by a fading of the belief that Western art defined the apex of artistic achievement. Danto contends that Modem art could not meet the latter challenges and therefore required a fair amount of theory, or what he terms philosophy, in order to be perceived as art at dl. For Danto: .kt....has lost for us genuine truth and Me, and has rather been transferred into our ideas înstead of maintaining its earlier necessity in reality and occupying îts higher place... The philosophy of art is therefore a greater need in our days than it was when art by itself as art yielded full satisfaction. Art invites us to intellectuai consideration. and that not for the purpose of creating art again but for knowing philosophically what art is. (p. 34)) In the 1970's when anything went, no one worried about the question of why something is a work of art, when something like it is not: What Warhol demonstrated was that anything, if a work of art, can be matched by something that looks just like it which is not one. so the difference between art and non- art cannot rest in what they have in common -and that will be everyihing that strikes the eye. But once it is recognised that we must look for differentiating features at right angles to their surfaces, the entire urgency is drained from the enterprise of producing counter instances, and the analysis of the concept can proceed without examples and without counter examples: we are in the thin unhistorical atmosphere of philosophy. But once art makers are freed from the task of finding the essence of art, which had been thnist upon art at the inception of Modernism, they too have been liberated from history. ruid have entered the era of freedom. .4rt does not stop with the end of art history. Rlat happens only is that one set of imperatives has ken lifted from its practice as it enters what I think of as its pst histoncal phase ...... The same historical energy that liberates art liberates it from philosophy, and liberates philosophy from it as well. It is a heady moment, inevitably confusing to us dl. @p. 342-345) Danto is describing a moment of deconstruction followed by a freedom of defini tion and confusion of possibilities. But, art persists and some of it exhibits a profundity that cmotbe denied. Therefore, as educators, what are the standards and values we expound? Artistic maturity suggest itself as a criteria. especially when its absence was so noticeable in recent years. According to Danto, Post Modemism has brought art to absolute freedom by erasing boundaries and leaving i t free floating - art making for arf making's sake, and for the immediate future Danio predicts that it will be pst-historical art making which lies in the domain of a pluralistic and relativistic philosophy. The only end to philosophy is to find the truth, and it is Danto's wish that the truth be transformeci into universal truths. Daniel Her witz Henvitz cautions us against too extreme a reliance on theory as he pursues Danto and the avant-garde to examine the close relations they have formed with philosophy and theory in this century. In Making Theorv/Constructing Art: On the Authoritv of the Avant- Garde (1993), he analyzes the role of theory in the contemporary art wodd, and explores the pervasive ' theoretical' mentality that ha possessed large regions of contempor.; philosophy of art, cultural studies. and art criticism. He wishes to show that philosophers and critics exhibiting this rnentaliiy are formed, in part, by the noms of the avant-garde i tself: ,Mine is an organicist approach which attempts to draw a philosophicai moral from rny readings of the avant-garde art example about the knd of marriage with the visual features of an artwork that is required in order for the artist's theory to succeed in even partially structuring her artwork .... My aim is to trace our inherited belief in theoretid empowerment to its source in avant-garde noms (it can be traced to other sources as weii). (pp. 16- 17) Henvitz acknowledges an indebtedness to Richard Wollheirn for his trust in the evidence of the visual, and he wishes to view the theoretid element in art as one of the varied elernents (visual, spirituai, historical) which constitute the art object: Wnting on the theoreticai practices of the avant-garde and their legacies in the present. both a respect for the ineluctable power of the visual in art, and a sense of the mind's king tempered by the eye are crucial. (.uii) By reactivating the eye and refining the mind and making both skeptical of the claims of theoretical transparency, he hopes to approach theory reflectively, examine it cri ticall y and validate it by demonstrations in his readings of the actuai artworks themselves. He considers the intricacies of voice: how an artist's words do and do not spell out a theory; the artist's capacity to hold ont0 the theory in pnctice; and, the ways of weighing the evidence of one's eyes against the evidence of the theory. He challenges modernist artists and philosophers who claim to know what constitutes art, and use theory without reaily esamining it: My readings are meant to undercut ths confidence by stressing the complesity of the art example over ail simplified claims about what prefigures it .... Have we too pervasively corne to mistrust our natural reactions to paintings and to nature and instead made a highly constnicted, highiy compensatory, and highiy empowered tum to theory'? ( 12 1) Henvitz sets out to show that art history, and specifically the art of Andy Warhol, resists Danto's claims about art's theoretical prefigurement: The extraordinary thing about abstract painting is how flexible its conditions of meaning are and how constrained they are. Without an interpretive code shared by a culture, without a specific context of events to which a painting responds, without a title or a narrative supplied by the painter, an abstract painting will not have much chance of depicting or describing mything. Then it is worth rernarking how an abstract painting is made into a narrative or otherwise turned into a sign of some kind. This typically happens through a dagebetween word and paint. (p.99) Henvitz's book is structured by a set of questions: Why did the avant-garde corne to theonze in the way that it did?; How important was theory for it in the end and why?;What kind of game did the avant-garde play with theory?; What purpose(s) did theory serve?; What is the nature of Our inheritance from the avant-garde?; How important is the philosophical voice in the work, and how do you decide this?; Why is theory called on by art to play a role?; And lastly, what visual conditions must obtain for a theory to actually inform? The author believes the pst modem era cannot be seen as one big picture, but is best constnied as a diversity of underlymg issues. He concedes that theoretical art is not the only contemporary trend and that theory can end rcp repressing the work and valrie of ~he art. To support his arguments, Henvitz focusses on the Constructivists and De Stijl movernents, both offshoots of Bauhaus philosophy. They represented a move away from subjectivity and its associations, emotions, personal intentions and interests, and traces of nature. Their goal was to liberate the real behind czppearmzces and to find objective universal knowledge - miih and not illiision. According to Mondrian, a unique feature to painting and present in no other art, is paint on a two-dimensionai surface in two dimensional space. Consequently Mondrian purged his art of three dimensional reference to nature and 'sentimental regression' to things natunl. He abstracted neutd forms and pure colours from natural ones and sought to eliminate al1 residuai natural meaning. Nature was no longer the source of beauty, but the discarded shell. Henvi tz considers that Mondrian on1y part1y succeeds in his intention of im buing his canvases with an ' abstract and utopian Platonism' When theory cannot completely rule the visuai medium, and the paint subdues the theory, the authority of theory is diminished; when theory does not fuse with the art object visually it has no clear reference and lacks resolution. Henvitz criticises Danto's position using the example of Walhol's art, and asserts that Warhol's goai is seeing and king seen, not bringing forth a theory in visual terms. He wants no narrative, no exemplar of human espression or refinement or knowledge, and like philosophical nihilists he is happy king empty. He revcls in banality; his images hide everything and tell everyone the same thing. Henvitz considers that Danto has tned to give a voice and a philosophy to Warhol, when he and his work lack both: Warhol invites theory by his game of suggesting everything (including al1 possible words) but makes a mockery of theory by refusing to hinge theory to sustained features in his art objects. (p.268) As distinctions between art and philosophy become blurred, the avant-garde seeks philosophical proofs of theories in specific artworks. The visual pleasure that art historically provided is considered inadequate for the thought-provoking and rhetoncally confrontational art of the avant-garde. Art stimulates philosophical examination because it raises profound existentid questions about the nature of li fe, but to have meaning, integrity, and purpose now, artworks are obliged to be clothed in a philosophical context. Paintings are made nowadays whose flirtations with philosophical senousness are meant to engender perspectives about the relations between art. real estate. investment banking, television. gender. ethnicity, and the power of past art while at the same time Iambasting the moddst urge toward high-concept philosophiai seriousness. (pp. 1-2) Herwitz concedes that theory is useful in revealing ideological stances entwined in art, since we no longer naively consider that there is 'pure' meaning to art, Because we now accept that art, like knowledge, is partly stnictured by social and cultural requirements and imposed noms, current theory has grounded abstracted formalism and the self- absorbed connoisseurship of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries into the multi-faceted world in which 'art' was produced. Thus art becomes a product of sociallculturd conte'tts and not isolated masterpieces rooted in our museums. What Our post modern critics have neglected to do, though. in their rigorous deconstruction of the hidden codes of artwork, is to turn their eyes towards the critical decoding of their own theoties. Who authorizes the garnes of theorizing and the rules with which it is to be played? To assume that a transparent relationship can exist between theory and the visual object it defines is to underestimate the power and complexity of the visual metaphor. Avant-garde philosophers and cultural theorists have a shared mentality or style of thinking based on two assumptions: that an artwork is a theoretically defined entity, and that a unique art example can be found that will perfectly illustrate this essential fact about art. Most avant-garde theorists are also committed to the idea that what makes an artwork an artwork is the rigorous character of the theory behind it. Henvitz illustrates this Cartesian mentality wi th esamples from the pst-Bauhaus movements of Constructivism and De Stijl, whose adherents sought total perceptual clarity in which form (simple shapes and colours) is transparent to the eye and perceptual knowledge beyond doubt. The experimental theories of the Bauhaus, fed by utopian viewpoints could not be easily concretized in form. Therefore artists experimented wi th visual and theoreticai images in order to make it comprehensible. Henvitz sees Danto as the contemporary representative and interpreter of the philosophical mentality. When an artwork has been too heavily laden with phiIosophica1 and theoreticai discourse, little food for visud delight is left, and the artwork has become conscious of itself, and incomprehensible to most art love rs. The self consciousness of art rnanifests i tself in an obsession wi th the nature of i ts specific medium and awareness of the cultural context defining its spirit of the times. We no longer recognize a difference between works of art and ordinary material objects; it becornes theory, a property which resides outside of the actual artwork, which transfigures Brillo Boxes into art. When the boundaries between theory and practice are dissolved, the spirit of praxis cannot exist. and theory takes on the spirit of philosophical contemplation. In these instances the contemplation about the nature of art for its own sake prefigures practice and thus undermines i t. When theory is allowed to dominate the visuai, the visuai is not allowed to speak. Many artists are seduced by theory and feel it will invest their art with power and depth, but, if theory takes over the visual, the visual risks king dropped out of art because it is wntten off as nothing more than a semiotic sign waiting to carry whatever meaning is assigned to it. When theory fails to enter into painting with the visual, it overcomes and replaces the visual element, and is then judged by the success of its hype and not challenged or interpreted in terms of practices, feelings or visual features. Although avant-garde norms of theory and originality still dominate art today. rnany artists have become cornpletely disillusioned. Because we have ken unable to relinquish the nom of originality, we turn originality into the new fashion. But, Herwitz sees some hope in the future if we can leam to distinguish between ' real' political theory which aims to change the world. and ' illusionary' theory which gives the hype of empowerment when i t really is not there. This is to be achieved if we subject the norms of theory to the same skepticism to which theory subjects the artwork. Surnmary : The latter art philosophers prov ide di fferent ways of esamining and anal yzing artworks. Weitz' contribution of an organic theory to the critical analysis of an artwork is very helpful in the classroom critique. It provides a point of departure in the discussion of the formal structure of the work, after its initial visual impact has been absorbed. Hospers discourse on the meaning of truih in art can be addressed early on with students. particularl y around issues of representation of reali ty, illusion, illustration and copying. Wollheim's themes, in regard to the viewer and the viewed. the artist's physicd stance. and the influence of the artist's psychological makeup in relation to their work. provides rich material for classroom discussion. The work of both Danto and Herwitz help pose stirnulating questions, and at least attempt some explanations to clarify the vast area of contemporary art with students, particularly dunng slide presentations or visits to art galleries. Enhanced understanding of the issues provides the art educator with greater confidence in provoking a dialogue on a more conceptual level in the classroom. 2.5 Cr itical texts 1 have selected three authors out of an extensive body of writing on art because of the authors' intimate understanding of the practical dynamics of producing art and the finesse of their language. John Berger's persona1 developrnent is multi-faceted: art practitioner - historian - critic - philosopher - and pet. For Berger, art practice fulfils and redeems theory, as theory enlightens and explains practice. My second choice is Peter Fuller, a student of Berger, who shared his views initially, then challenged the Mar-xist premises. Fuller founded and edited the British art magazine ' Modern Painter', until his death a few years ago. The last author is the art cntic Leo Steinberg, who addresses the cnteria used in the analysis and assessrnent of contemporary art. His insight into the mechanics of the artworks is insightful and useful to artists and teachers. John Berger: Although Ways of Seeing ( 1973) is not the author's first book, i t was the most revolutionary and influential to a generation of artists and art theorists. In it he articulates his Manist matenal ist philosophy and central thesis, that a painting ii Jrst and foremost a commodiq which cm be owned and sold. and, posr-Remissmce pictorial conventiom atid coiinoisseurship derive jkom the oil painting 's status as property. For example, the convention of perspective, equates appearances wi th reali ty, and: "The visible world is arranged for the spectator as the universe was once thought to be arranged for God." (p. 16) According to Berger, art historians accommodated the elite in their need to have appearances rendered in a way that sustained the ideological bais of their power. Therefore the fundamental constituents of 'Bourgeois aesthetics' - beauty, truth. genius, fom, taste- were suspect as a mode of interpretation because they mystified the art or the past, and bolstered the authority of the class that owned paintings and for whom many wcre painted. Viewers of paintings found meaning in the subject rnatter because they shared comparable social relations and conventions with the depicted ' reality'. Berger contends that technological means of reproduction, such as photography and off-set printing, have destroyed the authority of the 'original' painting. Andjust as multiplication and fragmentation alter the meaning of a painting so does its contest i.c. a painting - x, in a museum has the status of a unique object and the authority of the elitist institution rubbing off on i t; whereas an image of painting s shown on t.v. has i ts meaning changed by the visuai qualities of the living rwm around the t.v. set and iis three million viewers; so too, the original independent meaning changes when painting s is accompanied by the addition of text For the first time cver. images of art have become ephemerd, ubiquitous, insubstantid, available, valueless, free. They surround us in the same way as a language surrounds us. They have entered the mainstream of life over which they no longer, in themselves, have power. (p32) Berger points out how women were depicted as a category of 'nude' in European painting and how their representation was intended to appeal to the sexuality of the male viewer, patron or connoisseur. The implications of Berger's views foreshadow future feminist and post modem critiques since the social stakes involved in a changing view of history would be significant to any disenfranchised or oppressed group: A people or a class which is cut off from its own past is far Iess free to choose and to act as a people or class than one that htis ken able to situate itself in history. This is why - and this is the only reason why - the entire art of the past has now becorne a politicai issue. (p. 33) In subsequent philosophical essays and novels Berger remolds concepts like a sculptor, changing, deepening and reworking his basic material; he consistently returns to themes of meaning, spacekime and art's potentiality. As his initial understanding matures his later works get markedly more persona1 and are expressed in metaphoric and poetic forms. Therefore 1 have quoted his words in the following selections. In Permanent Red (lm)Berger values drawing not because it records what we have seen, but what it lads us on to see: Each mark you make on the paper is a stepping-stone from which you proceed to the next. until you have crossed your subject as though it were a river, have put it behînd you .....A drawing is an autobiographical record of one's discovery of an event- seen. remembered or imagined....A drawing is essentially a private work, related ody to the artist's own needs; a 'finished' statue or canvas is essentially a public, presenred work- related far more directly to the demands of communication. It follows from this that there is an equal distinction from the point of view of the spectator. In front of a painting or statue he tends to identify himself with the subject, to interpret the images for their own sake; in front of a drawing he identifies himself with the artist, using the images to gain the conscious experience of seeing as though through the artist's own eyes (1960, pp.23-25) Berger's insights help me as an artist and teacher, in that he is able to describe the nearl y indescri bable response to painting. He speaks wi th a practi tioners authoritative voice. 1n Keepine a Rendezvous ( 199 1 ), Berger defines di fferent types of draw ings, al1 created in a different timelspace frame, and each one demanding a response from us with a different capaci ty of Our imagination. He describes direct studies : The lines on the paper are traces left behind by the artist's gaze, which is ceaselessly Ieaving, going over. interrogating the strangeness, the enigrna, of what is before his eyes, however ordinary and everyday this may be. The sum total of the lines on the paper narrate a sort of optical emigration by which the artist, following his own gaze. settles on the person or tree or animal or mountain being drawn. And if the drawing succeeds, he stays there for ever. (p.85) The success of these drawings depends upon how the space created in this alternative world is depicted. Berger describes meagre spaces imitative, exhibiting false virtuosity and mannerisms. To be successfui the space should give a sense of enormity and a breath of Me: " To create such immense space with ink marks on a sheet of paper one has to know oneself to be very small ....When there is enough space, the vision remains open and we enter."( 187). According to Berger, memory drawings encompass those that are made to exorcise a haunting memory and take it out of the mind (for once and for dl) and put in on paper. The. are difficul t, sometimes unbearable images such as Goya's war images. None of these drawings compte with nature because, unlike paintings, they are monochromatic; they are diagnmmatic notes on paper, with the paper keeping it grounded as a drawing, never to be confused with what it depicts. Berger, who initially practised drawing and painting, describes the improvisationai process of sketching a nude mode1 in Permanent Red. He accounts for the refiesivity inherent in the process as he rnakes the fktmark on the white page - and the area of opaque light in front of him ceases to be limi tless: Then. when 1 crossed the body to mark the outline of the far shoulder. yet another chgeoccwed. It was not simply like putting another fish into the tank. The second line altered the nature of thc first.. ..in my drawing. which was inevitably a vision from just one point of view, 1 hoped eventually to imply this limitiess number of other facets..... And so, as some sort of unity was shaped and the lines accumulated on the paper. 1 again became aware of the real tensions of the pose. But this time more subtiy. It was no longer a question of just realising the main. vertical stance. 1 had become involved more intimately with the figure. Even the smaller facts had acquired an urgency and E had to resist the temptation to make every line over-emphatic. 1 entered into the receding spaces and yielded to the oncoming toms. ..Uso. 1 was correcting: drawing over and across the earlier lines to re-establish proportions or to find a way of expressing less obvious discoveries. ( 1960, pp.27-29) The artistiwriter now describes the place of transition where his focus on the subject, and what he might discover from it, gives way to an interest in the actual dnwing: There is a stage in every drawing when this happens. And 1 cal1 it a point of crisis because at that moment the success or failure of the drawing has really been decided. One now begins to draw according to the demands, the needs, of the drawing. If the drawing is aiready in some small way me. then these demands will probabl y correspond to what one might still discover by actuai searching. If the drawing is basically false, bey wiil accentuatc its wrongness. (1960, pp. 29-30) Once beyond this critical point, the artist look at the mode1 differently, and the created reality of his dmving dawns on him: 1 looked, as it were, with more connivance: to find only what 1 wanted to find. Then the end. Simultaneously ambition and disillusion. Even as in my mind's cye 1 saw my drawing and the actual man coincide - so that, for a moment, he was no longer a man poing but an inhabitant of my half-created world, a unique expression of my expriena, even as 1 saw this in my mind's eye, 1 saw in fact how inadequate, fragmentary, clumsy my srnall drawing was. I tumed over the page and began another drawing, starting from where the Iast one had left off. A man standing, bis weight rathet more on one leg than the other. (1960, p. 30) Berger defines 'Realism' situationally because its methods and aims are always changing. The only constant for Realists is in the nature of their relationship to their inherited art tradition. By this definition it would appear that conternporary Realists forbid any precise hopeful reference to the objective world. Berger distinguishes be tween subject matter - what the artist chooses to paint (a person. a landscape, a boat) and conterit which is what the artist discovers and emphasizes in his subject - matter, in order to illustrate that al1 art is formalisation: Equaily obviously much modern Western art has been reduced to meaninglessness as the result of an exclusive concern with form at the expense of content. The critical test is whether the formalisation (which in some cases ody consists of simplifications and in others of obvious distortioo) emphasizes an aspect of the tmth, or is simply made to improvc the forma1 effect of the picture ....ff an artist formalises in order to emphasize an aspect of the tmth, one must inquire whether that aspect of the truth is sufficiently important and significant to justify the neglect or distortion of other aspects.... thus, one arrives at an extrernely important conclusion: a soie cm never bç. criticised ar such ; i t can only be criticised in relation to what the artist is intending to communicate. (E;eeQinga Rendenous,. 1991. p. 2 1 1) If the bourgeois artist's intention is never totally removed from a conscious or hall- conscious concern with status and success, then the artist must foresee:"Whilst he is stili worhng, the likely effect of the finished work according to quite arbitmy criteria - arbitrary because in no way connected with the tmth he may well be trying to comm~nicate.~'(pg. 31 1). Berger affirms the extremism of the early modern masters not because it helped them provoke an actual social revolution, but because it led them to make estremely important technical and aesthetic discoveries. But, in contrast, the contemporary avant- garde lacks an utopian idealism and a sincere poli tical engagement: The extrernism of the so-called avartr-garde now is of quite a different sort. Behind it is the desperation of despair. The man[-garde today are so terrified of what the world is becoming that they try to reduce it to the dimensions of their own unconscious, whiIst boasting that these are the dimensions of the cosmos itself ...... 4fter 1920 it was no longer possible to consider yourself a revolutionary without committing yourself politically (p. 213) In The sense of sight ( 1985). Berger States that al1 painting transforms reality (even Hyper-Realism) and that we must understand the painter's process within its historical context (read tradi tion): Ody by considering a painting's method, the practice of its transformation, can we be confident about the direction of its image, the direction of the image's passage towards us and past us. Every painting cornes from far away (many fail to reach us), yet we only receive a painting fuIly if we are looking in the direction from which it has come. This is why seeing a painting is so different from seeing an object. (p. 100) Berger discusses the elusive concept of tirne: Any image records an appearance which will disappear.. .. .Thus, if appearances, at any given moment. are a coastruction emerging from the debris of al1 that has previously appeared. it is understandabte that this very construction may give birth to the idea that everything will one day be recognisable, and the flux of disappearruicecease.(p. 19) Drawings and photos, however, incorponte different experiences of time: A photograph is evidence of an encounter between event and photographer. A dnwing slowly questions an event's appearance and in doing so reminds us that appearances are always a construction with a history. (Our aspiration towards objectivity can only proçeed from the admission of subjectivity). We use photographs by taking them with us, in our lives, our arguments. our memones. i t is we who move them. Whereas a drawing or painting forces us to stop and enter its time. A photograph is static because it has stopped time. A drawing or painting is static because it encompasses time. (p. 15 1) But, dnwings are more than devices for bringing back mernories, they are diagrams of reflesivity: To draw is to look. examining the structure of appearances. A drawing of a tree shows, not a tree, but a tree-being-looked-at. Whereas the sight of a tree is registered almost instantaneously, the examination of the sight of a tree ( a tree-being-looked-at) not only talces minutes or hours instead of a fraction of a second. it also involves. derives from. and refers back to, much previous experience of looking. Within the instant of the sight of a tree is establishcd a life-expenence. This is how the act of drawing refuses the process of disappearances and proposed the simultaneity of a multitude OC moments .....Onthe other hand, what is unchanging in a dnwing consists of so many assembled moments that they constitute a iotdity rather than a fragment. The static image of a drawing or painting is the resuit of the opposition of two dynamic processes. Disappearances opposed by assemblage ...Vermeers view of Delft across the canal displays this as no theoretical explanation ever can. The painted moment hits rernained (almost) unchanged for three centuries. The reflections in the water have not moved. Yet this painted moment, as we look at it, has a plenitude and actuality that we experience oniy rarely in life. We experience everything we see in the painting as nbsolutely momentary. At the same time the experience is repeatable the next day or in ten years. It wouid be naive to suppose that this has to do with accuracy. Delft at any given moment never looked like this painting. It has to do with the density per square millimetre of Vermeer's lmking, with the density per square millimetre of assernbled moments. (p. 151) For us, therefore, drawings are both the site of departure and become a site of arrivai. Berger elaborates upon themes of time, meaning, and power in painting in Keepine a Rendenous (1991). In contrast to cinema which moves dong sequentidly, and transports us to the scene of the action, painting rnoves inward, towards us. The painted image has the power to bring us to the present, to the ' here and now', and because images are static and changless. the- bring the world home to us. Paintings seem to suspend time because the moment they encompass can be lengthened if it is experienced întensely. This experience is like the experience of human intimacy, it requires time. As the painter ' interrogates appearances', s/he is not just sending out energy, s/he is getting it back In this manner, when drawirig is undertaken as an urgent activity - it becomes a two-way process: The act of painting - when its language opens - is a response to an energy which is experienced as coming from behind the aven set of appearances. Wbt is this ener~'? Might one cd1 it the wiH of the visible that sight should exist'? Every real act of painting is the result of submitting to that will, so ihat in the painted version the visible is not just interpreted but ailowed to take its place actively in the community of the painted. Every event which has been realiy painted-so that the pictoriai language opens- joins the community of everything else that has been painted. Potatoes on a plate join the community of a ioved woman. a mountain, or a man on a cross. This-and this ody- is the redemption which painting offers. This mystery is the nearest painting can offer to catharsis. (p. 13 1) For Berger painting is about the physical, the palpable and the immediate, and abstract artists faced the insurmountable problem of overcoming this: The art closest to painting is dance. Both derive from the body. both evoke the body. both in the first sense of the word are physical. The important difference is that dance, like narration and theatre, has a beginning and an end and so esists in timc; whereas painting is instantaneous ..... Painting. then. offers palpable, instantaneous. unswerving, continuous, physical presence. Et is the most immediately sensuous of the arts. Body to body. One of them king the spectator's. This is not to Say that the aim of every painting is sensuous; the aim of many paintings has been ascetic .... [but].... Mowever the art of painting is used, its use begins wi th a deep sensuous charge which is then transrnitted in one direction or another ....Given that painting is the appropriate art of the body, and given tint the body, to perionn its basic function of reproduction, uses visual signals and stimuli of sexual attraction, we begin to see why painting is never very far from the erogenous. (pp.205-206) Berger's sense of the materiality of painting derives from the: Ancient contract between pigment and flesh. This contract permits the great paintings of the Madonna and Child to offer profound sensuous secunty and delight, just as it confers upon the great Pieiàs the full weight of their mouming-the terrible weight of the hopeless desire that the flesh should live again. Paint belongs to the body ... .. What the painting shows is the body shown ..... It is not the iIlusionist tangibility of the painted bodies which counts, but their visual signals, which have such an astounding complicity with those of real bodies. (p.208) The task then, of the contemporary visual artist, is to convince us of the reality of what s/he is depicting. The specifïc visual vocabulary used must be convincing in and of itself, but once this certitude has been established, the painting should propose a doubt - and thus the work remains an enigma. In an intriguing rebounding discourse of over thirty years, Berger reiterates the theme of timelspace in light of his consistent Mmist/hurnanist viewpoint and Our current ti mes: Post-modernism has cut off the present from al1 futures. The daily media adds to this by cutting off the past. Which means that critical opinion is often orphaned in the present, incapable of seeing beyond sbriil and opportunistic prejudices.(p. 156) A nd: It is no longer a single historical world-as it hils ken from the beginning of the nineteenth century onwards. Nor is it any longer ours. We, in Our culture of comm~ties,are living our crisis; the rest of the worid arc living theirs. Our crisis is &at we no longer believe in a future. Their crisis is us. The most we want is to hang on to what we've got. They want the means to [ive. This is why ou principal preoccupations have become private and our public discourse is compounded of spite. The historical and cultural space for public speech, for public hopes and action, has been dismantled. We live and have our being today in private coverts .....In some privatc spheres ritual stiIl has meaning but ..."p ublicly tbere are no everyday rinial acts, for a ritual requires a permanent sense of past and future and in our culture of commodities and novelties there is neither. (p. 178) Berger's contribution to art theory goes beyond a political or philosophical ideology as he aims to name and concretize the elusive qualities of art. His tenacious references to rnaterial practice ground hi m and his phi losophical speculations. His words rebound between practice and concept the way an artist's hands and mind rebounds between rnatter and intention. Peter Fuller: There is no single work by Peter Fuller which fully describes his thoroughly- developed aesthetic philosophy; he evolved changing responses over the years as his personal growth, sympathies and taste in art developed. His book appeared to me as an oasis in a desert of pedantic theoretical art wri ting. Fuller described himself as an empiricai thinker, who was a protege of John Berger and an exponent of the philosophers Wai ter Benjamin and Sebastiano Timpanaro. A Marxist, he believed in the promise of socialisrn, and conceded that Berger cleared our eyes and demysiified our readings of painting to the degree that we cm never see hem the same way again. But, he did not consider the political-economic relationship of art and society as the most rewarding dimension to the study of the art of the pst. In A Revaluation Of Wavs of Seeine. ( 1980), Fuller cnticizes Berger's reductionism and lack of aJufIy developed materialist theory of expression: 1 see expression as involving the imaginative and physicd activity of a human subject who carries out transforming work upon specific materids (in which I include both histoncaily given pictonal conventions and, of course. such physid materials as paint, supporting surface, etc.). Expression through painting is thus in itself a specifc mfenndprocess:indeed. it is only through this process tfiat the artist's way of seeing, and beyond that of course his whole imaginative conception of his world. is made concreteiy visible to us. (p. 10) Fuller also recognizes that in spite of historical transformations and rnediations humans share a resilient, underlying ' human condition', determined by Our biological rather than socio-econonomic reality, and by Our place in nature rather than our place in historp. He acknowledges and explores this 'cultural constant' in The Naked Artkt (19û3), and points out that historicalIy the biological facts of human existence have changed very little. As such, Fuller contends that aesthetic response exhibits physiological roots and themes of binh, sexuality, aging and death, and that these remain fundamental and powerful elernents in artwork. He pursues the relationship of biology and aesthetic expression by exarnining ' play' and art, two activi ties which move beyond function and necessity, and the formation of 'culture' which distinguishes the aesthetic life of man from that of the anirnals. A child's creation of a cultural experience: creative playing, use of syrnbols, cultivation of imagination are denved out of a necessity to deal wi th reali ty. The way in which man's instinctive activity can relate to his imaginative life. rather than to his immediate struggle for survivai, is ...reflected in al1 his drives. Our sesual drives, eating habits. and needs for shelter and protection for our vulnerable naked bodies al1 conspicuously detach themselves from mere function and necessity. It is this relationship to imagination rather than immediate reality which accounts for the disinterested quality of Liman play. .A also explains why the aesthetic instincts whch humankind shares with other animals acquire in us a freedom from congenital response, and a capacity to be deployed in symbolic and culturai life. (p. 18) Fuller summarizes by descnbing the basic motherlchild relationship as the catalytic force which propels a child's instinctive actions towards a world of illusion and imagination: When the human infant is hungry he does not seek the breast; he imagines i t: and the mother, if she is good enough dips reality into those imaginings, so that the infant believes he has created reality through fantasy. The adult is never free of this longing to create a world through imagination again, and this, 1 believe, is the biologicai core of the culturd activity which erupted in late Neanderthai, and early Cromagnon times, and continues down to our own times. (p. 17) The author continues to explore the cultural constants which give certain art works enduring value. He believes the strongest art works have a close relationship to elements of esperience, and to those constants which do not change, or change at a very slow rate. Fuller's writing reflects his Iife experiences and after undergoing psychoanalysis he pursued his interest in the psychological roots of creativity. Be~ondthe Crisis in Art ( 1980)' is a collection of essays in which Fuller unfolds a matenalist theory of expression which stresses the imaginative role of the artist, the transformations the artist carries out on materials and the traditional conventions of his/her selected art form. Fuller decries the desperate search by contemporary artists for ' new' or 'non' art forms, and equates ' formlessness' with ' hopelessness. When artists abandon their material practices they frequentl y reduce art to echoes of prevailing ideologies or dominant technologies. Fuller saw the visual medium dissolve wi thin the rnodernist tradition, as many artists stopped king concemed with form or aesthetic transformation; the activity of the artist became the dominant theme, and the medium became theory. fn a posthumous collection of essays: Peter Fuller's Modern Painters: Reflections on British Art (1993)' the author describes drawing as an imaginative and disinterested aesthetic activity. Fuller States that drawings cm have a strong relationship to the pursuit of truthful perception, or, at least, to the memory system which functions as the storehouse of past percepts. The power of human imagination is our capacity to see and to represent objects, people, and the world other than the way they are, or appear to be: At its best, imaginative drawing invoives a mingling of subjective and objective experience in a way which transcends mere fantasy and the factuai evidences of immediate perception, alike. The good draughtsrnan creates upon the flat support an iliusion of a third area of experiencing - unattainable through Say dreaming or photopphy - to which the word 'revelation' can legitimately be applied. (p. A) Fuller dismisses what he refers to as the 'objective fallacy': The objectivist tends to believe that there is a technique capable of capturing appearances. and that the more thorougbly one aspires to and masters that technique the better the drawing will be.. ... teaching.. ..which emphasizes measurement, plumb-lines and mies of thumb. (p. 52) The author does not define drawing as seeing, or a way of seeing, but as something consisting of the traces left by a tool drawn across a surface with the intention of making a representation or an abstract pattern. Altematively, drawing can be thought of as that element of a two-dimensionai work of art which functions independently of colour. When we look at nature, it does not present itself to Our eyes as static lines, rather the world renders itself visible as areas of colour. Here Fuller reinforces Ruskin's description of observed nature as masses not outlines: Everything that you can see in the world around you, presents itself to your eyes oniy as an arrangement of patches of different colours variously shaded'. WC may like to think that lines and outlines are naturally given. and that al1 the draughtsman has to do is to read and record hem. In fact. however, they are concepts of com~cts,wbich no amount of Iooking can reveai. A drawing is aiways created. (p. 52) FuIler also cri ticizes the ' subjective fallacy' which has its roots in an older, religious conception of drawing. An inner design engendered in man's mind by God; a spark of divine creative activity manifested through a hurnan being. The outer design being the physical rendenng of this divinely inspired intuition, the visible shape of the structured idea Therefore the artist is reproducing something of divine creativity in his work and the relationshi p between those forms and those of nature are not related. And: if we remove God or the divine from the account. we end up with a completely 'subjective' description of drawing, which owes nothing to its relationship with the world of things seen. (p. 53) The British traditions of landscape and figure drawing manifested a third view more adequate than that of the objectivist and subjectivist accounts. This view emanates from John Ruskin's belief 'That the study of natural foms led men and women iowards the highest of al1 revealed spiri tual tmths. In his view, nature was the visible handi work of God." (p. 55). Ruskin was convinced that the earth had ken literally 'sculpted' by the hand of God and that artists were capable of seeing the spirit in the mass. But aithough Ruskin sought to achieve revelations of the divine by his scnitiny of nature, he becamc disillusioned. The dominance of academicism and the factuality of Danvinism revealed only the factual geographic reality. His faith and that of many artists of the 19th Century was diminished. Fuller describes the efforts of Ruskin's 30th century proteges to reuni te vision and visionary imagination with nature. He points to the art and teaching of David Bomberg who recognized that the on1y psible redemption for art came through renewed imaginative contact with the world of natural form. Bomberg advocated a search for the 'spin t in the mas' rather than just projecting one's own subjectivi ty upon nature. He emphasized the representation of our feelings about fomover the representation of appearance of Forrn: Drawing for Bomberg. was the practicd expression of this new 'approach to mass'. He felt that through learning to draw in his way. we could attune ourseIves to the forces of nature and 'become initiated in the hidden integrations of its structures', and thereby be enabled 'to render our vision of its image in our fervour to make known what is' "(p. 6 1) Fuller embarks upon a defence of drawing and drawing education which reinforces the 'vital third area of experiencing' - the representation of our feelings about form. He is critical of contemporary vacuous figurative art - frequently totally subjective or mindlessly expressionistic, and redises that art, whether abstract or figurative must have a 'spiritual' dimension albei t a secular spin tuality. Stylistically this secular/spin tua1 art balances between originality and the acceptance of tradition as the basis for inventiveness: Good drawing mingles perception and apperception, and involves just such an interplay. This helps us to understand why even-perhaps espectally - in an advanced secular and technological society, the teaching and practice of drawing requires celebration and. where necessary, defence. Drawing involves a relationship between the self and objects and persons in the worfd. which is elsewhere often denied. Drawing involves an affectionaie and creative gaze. a mingling of self and that which is seen or imaginai. of a kind which an automatic vrocess. Iike photography. immediately and inevitably excIudes. Drawing involves heart, head, eye and band in a relationship with objects which implies not just an aesthetic. but also an ethic, which is reconciling and re- binding- a redemption through fom.. .. .The good draughtsman. or woman, develops his or her inhcrited talents to the full; he absorbs and extends the living legacy of tradition. .hd yet. in so doing, he never loses touch-or at least not for long - with his child-Iike, 'transitional' vision. Rather. he presents others with a fully adult version of such a vision, a version created through the exercise of traditional skills, informed and transformed by a lifetime of personai iooking, apperceiving, learning, and above dl. creating. (pp. 67-69) Fuller hopes that contemporary artists will continue the search for Bomberg's ' spin t in the mass'. and even if they no longer believe that the world is the literal handiwork OS God, they will be able to create an illusion of a transi tional environment while they try to replenish and revitalise the intimacy of vision. Leo Steinberg: The art critic Leo Steinberg States in Other Criteria: Confrontations with Twentieth - Cennirv Art ( 1972), 'That al1 given criteria of judgment are seasonal; that other criteria rue perpetually brought into play by new forms and fresh thought" (p. viii) . To Steinberg the contemponry cntic makes things relevant through a mode of seeing, a shifting focus that esamines through retrospect. Multifaceted ways of seeing and interpreting can render even ancient artifacts relevant through current expenence. The critic uses the example of 14th Century polytychs which juxtaposed multiple narratives, therefore obliging the viewer to consider individual images in light of adjacent ones. Another example of multiple viewpoints occurs in Raphael's paintings when he allows the viewers point of view to move unhindered anywhere in the field of action: These cornpositional innovations are radical. What Raphel invents in a mode of fiuid positioning which is most accurately described in contemporary cinematic terms. (p. 320). Where does the possibility of multiple interpretations Ieave us? Lost in relativity? No, Steinberg considers that the contemporary viewer is part of the generation equipped to detect and read mu1 tifaceted visuals, and not to retreat from these readings for fear of king wrong, for frustration with having more than one answer, or thinking that by not interpreting we do not project: in desisting from interpretation, you do not cease to project. You merely project more unwittingly. For there is no escape from oneself and Iittle safety in closing art history off against the contemporary imagination. (pp. 320-32 1) Steinberg puts his methodology to practice and makes cornparisons between drawings of the past and those of the present. He begins by describing the dynamics of traditional quick, impressionistic ' sketching': In past times. when artists were working from nature, an e.xhibition of drawings would have felt different. While. in the process of drawing. the artist's eye was fed by the visible world. there occurred an almost automatic translation. like a conversion of energy. by which the action of seeing became a movement on paper. The drawing took shape almost unchecked by the artist's eyes. which were too closely engaged in the visual field to take much time out for looking down at the page. The result was often a witty elision, and a constant discovering that more could be done with less. (pp.251-352) He compares the latter to the dynamics of the dnwings in the current show: artist's eyes are riveted to page, and hands are articulating and subdividing larger forms. The world is shut out or dimly remembered and the artist seems closeted with his drawing. When inspiration lets up, and there is no observable source to revitalise, artists reson to precise detailing and texturing: The recouse is to repetitive ornamentation and patteming. la fact, one of the charms which one tradi tionall y associates with drawings is made very Iittie of in this show - the darting spontaneity, the reflex to a sudden observation, impulse, or thought.... Perhaps ths is bewuse these vinues of immediacy have lately migrate into easel painting. .Most modem painters do their working out on the canvas itself. so that errors, feints, jilted aitematives, and faise starts build up into a Iayered and historical surface. The one- time excursions into separate sheets are telescoped upon one and the same canvas. w hose upper skin cornes to be charged with the record of displaced possibilities. As a result, the drawing as study no longer has meaning, and. like printmaking, draughtsmanship survives ody as a self-fulfilling art.(pp. 251-252) For Steinberg, the figure drawings in the show only partially achieve a feeling of full ness and volume, even though the artists use chiriascuro shading w hic h general l y succeeds in suggesting mass. Although they succeed in showing sorne illusion of volume they are not capable of using line as a description of plasticity. Unlike Renaissance or Baroque masters, conternporary artists rarely convince us that outline is not descriptive of a thing but that it stands for a process - for a curvature tuming out of sight. In this sense the outline becomes symbolic: in the drawing of contours as such there is of course nothing remarkable. Comics are drawn the same way; an outline is made and we are told that what's inside is a man. To which we assent from sheer habit But the miracle of great dnughtsmanship in the past was not its conventionai use of outiines, but what it compelled us to read around and between the lines. Whether or not shading was used. the contour itself was tensed in a transverse direction - like a edge of a full-beiiied sail with the wind sitting in it. Where no mark was made on the paper. precisely there the fonn swelled to its summit. The drawn Iine, passing through thick and thin, pressing down heavy or light. sometimes brdng and leaping and doubling, became prodigiously descriptive. But it was not Holbein alone, or Reubens. or Ingres. In varying degree this capacity of the contour - moving one way but controiling a region, like a battleship whose power is not in its course but in the range of its broadsides - in varied degree this strength of the contour was a near-universai possession, one of the chief styiistic traits of pst-Renaissance art. And it is this possession which has gone by the boards. in the redistic figure drawings now shown at the Modem. the fonns, even when coaxed with elaborate shaping, remain unachieved. Outiines are traced, but with no lateral span. and the paper won't nse in response. The indicated solids lack the expanding pressure .....What was common possession when it was part of a vigorous style seems now beyond reach. (pp. S5-356) Steinberg asks why this is: Perhaps because it is possible, and at times necessary, to see the linear contour in a different tight. It then appears that the contour intellectualizes what is given to sense. It evades the blunt bdk of a thing to flirt with its margin. It describes, implies, goes around it .... it is knowtedge about, not of a thing ... What 1 am trying to say is that modern art has gained certain valid insights into an order of reality, and that these insights cannot be ignored when that same reality is under discussion. The redity of a dosed solid in a passive space has been too intelligentiy chailenged in recent art to be simply reaffirmed in the old terms by the oid methods of delineation. It is to be reaffirmed - as 1 imagine it will be, since it answers to a common human experience - it will be donc only with new insight and a new passion for form. (pp. 33-257) Steinberg asserts that modem art has not abandoned the imitation of nature as generally believed and that in its best works, representation is still an integral condition. The critic contends that the formalists misunderstood and underestimated the capaci ties of the art they set out to define. Ci ting Manet, Van Gogh and Constable as esam ples, Steinberg tries to convince us of the artist's intentions to be honest More nature. In contrat, however, the Victorian academicians copied formulas about nature - what they saw in life they were conditioned to expect; they could not be surprised. Thus the capacity to invent was out of their reach because they copied pre-existing forms, rather than going back to the nourishing source, nature, and experimenting with their observations and rnaterials. Inventive artists, who exhibit curiosity and an avid sensibility may still continue to apprehend nature, but, are successful in bringing novel visual experience to their art. In this sense the Formalists dismissed nature as source inspiration instead of the tired forms and conventions whch derived from nature: When the lirnits of the depictable in nature suddedy recede before the searching gaze, when earlier works corne to seem inadequately representative of truth, then the artist's power multiplies. (pp. 2952%) When it is convenient to prove a theory, we easily ignore the words and practices or artists; we applaud Cezanne's discernment of structure in the forms of nature, but tend to [orge: his obsession with reality which made his discoveries possible. Nature is capable ol constantly renewing itself to the observant artist: In the formalistic system of ideas the recurrent coincidence of significant form with deepened observation remains unexplained. To avoid perversity we do better to grant that nature-imitation in art is neither mechanicd skill nor irrelevant distraction. Tbe most that can be said in its disfavour is that we of this century happen to have tunied out interest ebewhere. (pp. 2%-297) In relation to non-objective art Steinberg contends that it is mistaken to believe that dl connections with the outer world are cut, and that the artist expresses in pure form only hidher private States of feeling. How are private toms discovered and distilled? And from where do the plastic symbols derive? Steinberg suggests that one source is science, and that both art and science are nourished by 'nature in its latest undisguise'. The contemporary artist echoes certain affinities with science such as: interest in physicai activitp in space, intuition of immaterial functions, mutability of forms, and the renewal and decay of forms. Steinberg credits painters with having great visualizing power, unli ke some theorists who believe that the visual imagination is fixed and circumscribed. As such, painters will be able to invent visuai representations capable of representing, widening, and expanding intellectual abstractions: And this our visuai imagination, thanks to those in whom it is creative. is aiso in perpetual growth, as unpredictable as the extension of thought. ....Modern painting inures us to the aspect of a world housing not discrete forms but trajectories and vectors, lines of tension and scrain. Form in the sense of solid substance melts away and resolves itself into dynamic process. instead of bodies powered by muscle, or by gravity. we get encrgy propagating itself in the void ....., So much then for the dissolution of the solid in contemporary art; the substantial object has been activated into a continuing event. As for space, it is no longer a passive receptacle, wherein solid forms may disport themselves. as once they did in Renaissance or nineteenth-century art. In modem paintings-barring those which are nostaigic throwbacks to the past-space is an organic growth interacting with matter ....if my suggestion is valid. then even non-objective art continues to pursue art's social role of fixating thought in aesthetic form. pinning down the most ethered conceptions of the age in vital dcsigns. and rendering them accessible to the apparatus of sense. @p. 305-306) With these words Steinberg synthesizes the present state of the pictoriai image in practice and, its relationship to the aesthetic consciousness of our times.

Summary : John Berger was the fïrst writer 1 encountered who described a social history of art which had reievance to me as a woman painter. His Marxist stance was appealing because 1 wanted to help destroy the elitism of an which had denied women artists a history, opportunities to study and the pursuit of careers as artists for generations. Fortified by Berger, 1 spent 10 years actively engaged at Powerhouse, a cooperative women's art gallery, working to enhance recognition of women's art in Quebec. In my teaching, 1 choose to demystify art whenever possible by mediating theories and techniques to make drawi ng and painting more accessible to my students. During the 1980's I was inundated by exposure to American art, and the frenzied rush of artists around me to be avant-garde. 1 frequently felt alienated from rny own genention of painters. Amongst al1 the art journais available to me, only 'Modern Painters' provided a consistent resource of refreshing, well wntten articles which reinforced rny belief in the validity of art as a profound pursuit, during times when much of the art I was exposed to appeared trivial or incomprehensible. By esplaining the concepts and insights of the latter authors to my students, 1 have become the mediator of their theories, and have found that students who might never read their books cm understand their ideas, if 1 introduce thern at an appropriate time. In the following chapter 1 discuss interviews with my peers conceming their reading choices and teaching practices, and in chapter 4,1 will relate certain contemporary teachng practices to some of the practical and theoretical themes alluded to in the review of tests. CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY AND FIELDWORK This study \vas undertaken in order to help me answer questions about the theory and practice of teaching drawing as it relates to rny personal practice, to the practice of other drawing teachers, and to related texts. My goal was to rediscover a theoretical groundwork and disclose possible links between theory and practical teaching methods. The means at my disposal were a review of pertinent literature. interviews and questionnaires with my peers, and my personal teaching notes and esperience. 3.1 Questionnaire Questionnaires and cover letters were composed in French and Englis h (Appendices 1 1 1, 1 1 la and 1 l 1b) and discussed wi th a colleague. They were then delivered personally to the visuai art departments of a number of Montreal educationai institutions. In tod 88 questionnaires were given to drawing teachers, of which 1 received 18 responses - L3 English and 5 French over a pend of six months. Candidates for a focus group were selected from respondants of the questionnaire. Questionnaire Data The responses to the biographicai questions were relatively uniform. Respondents: taught at more than one art institution have taught for between 6 - 15 years teach an average of 34 - 35 weeks a year teach adul ts between 18 - 70 years old The books that instructors recommended Vary from practicai technical books to theoretical texts. On1y four French tests were suggested and one respondent proposed his doctoral dissertation. The two most frequently recommended texts were: Drawing from the Ripht Side of the Brain (1989) Betty Edwards: 8 recommendations The Natural Way to Draw ( 1941) Kimon Nicolaides: 6 recommendations * (See Appendix 4) Resul ts from the questionnaires illustrated a narrow range of recommended tests. The majority of respondents recommended the Betty Edwards text: Drawing from the Ri~ht Side of the Brain (1989) dong with other practical texts, and by their comments, many accept the assumptions made by Edwards without question. Two members of the focus group also used this text exclusively, thereby endowing it with an importance far greater than other practical texts. In light of the pseudoscientific claims of the author and the book's positivistic tone, I consider it a disappointing choice. Technically, it guarantees standardized and superficial resul ts. The Nicolaides book was the second favouri te, although 1 wonder how much of the content is used beyond the themes of gesture and contour line drawings. Very few 'conceptual ' drawing books were recommended, only one teacher recommended readings by Berger, and one drawing teacher restricted her texts for drawing classes exclusively to feminist theory. 3.2 Focus group Nine art teachers (selected from questionnaire respondents) met for a discussion in my studio on Sundap March 3 1. 1996. A colleague of mine facilitated the encounter by recording the proceedings and translating for one participant who was not fluent in French. Introductions were made beforehand and refreshments were served. We sat in a circle and 1 gave a brief statement about m y objectives. Participants introduced themselves, narned the institution(s) where they teach, and answered 4 questions (See Appendix IV). Focus group Data The following section presents selected comments in response to focus group questions: Question: What methods do you use to teach drawing? Mike teaches a ' Drawing from Observation' course at CEGEP based entirely on the Betty Edwards text: Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain. He explains that unless students achieve ' the ri ght proportions' when drawing the human face, their work had no value for them. He selects and shows the ' best' and ' worst' examples of student efforts at achieving correct proportions in each class. He showed us serosed information and formulaic description sheets (See Appendis 3,which he distributes to his class. Mike reaches 28 students. which he considers the absolute maximum possible, but stili takes time to work individually with those having problems. He says the Betty Edward test is the only one that addresses the problem of students drawing 'embedded symbols' instead of drawing from their obser-vations. Greta teaches at university and spoke of her enlightening espenence teaching a required art class to a group of graduating music students who expected an easy credit. They resented having to take the challenging and demanding class. Greta took the students and the subject matter seriously, and although the students were pleased with their drawings and the progress they made, they complained about the difficulty of the course and Greta was replaced as teacher the following year. She encountered the Betty Edward's text in 1981 and found the left brainl right bnin theory revealing to her own art and teaching. But, the book fails Greta in that Edwards never esplains how to put right brain and left brain drawings together. Aline who works at an art center offenng non-credit courses loves to teach beginners who have no previous esperience and are open to discovering the magic and mysteries of drawing. She has no conventional order to her teaching, but ernphasises the relationships of individual parts to the whole drawing, and frequently uses drawing reproductions in her teaching. Her methods change constantly; Just when she thinks she has 'the best process' she feels obliged to evolve it again, since the same processes do not work for each student and, each drawing group is different. Aline teaches groups of approximately 14 students and says there are always some failures - students she cannot reach. Other participants agree with her that some students am never be reached, and that 3 hour classes are too short, especially if the tacher wishes to include a cri tique. Carole who teaches at the sarne art center wants students to use their eyes and reall y look at the subject. Then she geü them to taik about what they see. For esample, she will question the students on relationships between a model's features before she gets them to draw the face. She wants students to look at things and notice more and more detail. Carole adds that another big omission in the Edwards book is that there is much too much emphasis on contour and not enough on mass and volume. For some students contour drawings don't work, and to help her students understand mass she shows them Giacometti's dnwings, where he works from the inside of the form to the outside. She &O finds i t important to demonstrate and discuss different quali ties of Iight Marie has taught drawing in two art centers and agrees with Aline that her teaching process changes continua11 y. She descnbed her approach as tradi tional, since her students want to achieve minimum figurative objectives. Marie admits that some students function well wi th contour drawings, but many do not, so she prefers a ' sculptural' approach to drawing, which she could not teach without showing the dnwings of Henry Moore. Marie wnts her students to draw whole shapes and masses because she considers it a help in understanding proportion, and if students establish large masses first then line cm be added to the shapes. She sometimes finds herself tongue-tied when talking to students about drawing, and although she finds the Edwards book helpful, as well as Bernard Chaet's text, she generally uses artist's monographs as examples. Pierre has taught at university, CEGEP,and currently, in an art center. In drawing classes he concentrates on drawing from observation. varied graphic techniques, and art history. Once again, the only test he refers to is the Edwards text. and from it he has adopted Dürer's rnethod for perspective - observing the mode1 through glass. When he teaches drawing to beginner painting students they do a minimum of drawing, just enough to establish a guide for the colour masses. They observe still-lire objects and draw them in contour, paying attention to spatial relationships, and although most students paint realistically. he explains that this is on1y one choice. Pierre's advanced painting students use photographs and draw principle lines minimally in contour with no shadows. Question: How do you introduce theory into your classes? Although Marc is bothered by the word ' theory', he considers it present in the ways students perceive space, and how they translate the 3-dimensional objects they see into 2- dimensional representations. He says that students who work 'stiffly' or formalistically should be allowed to, and in fact, encouraged to push the quaiity further, and if someone expresses himlherself emotionally this should be encouraged too. Marc accepts who students are and works with that rather than any art theory. His unease with the term ' theory' was echoed by the other teachers, and suggests that a definition of theory might be in order. If the definition is broad enough to encornpass the ideas, conventions, habits and experiences of artist/teachers, then perhaps it would be met with less resistance. If ' theory' continues to connote formulas, and 'academic rationaiity' then it will continue to be resisted. Marie rememben ' theory' from her university training, but considers it problematic in the coniext of her classes because of the complex testual language. Since her students want to learn practical and traditional ways of drawing, she fïnds the only successful way she can introduce contemporary irnagery is through visual reproductions, and through these she tries to help them accept work which is not pleasing to the eye. The definition of beauty is a huge educational question for her. Greta is indebted to the lessons her ungrateful music students taught her, because having a developed musical discipline she felt they more readily responded to the demands of drawing. For her the access to students is through emotions. 1 have visited a number of Greta's exhibitions over the years, and in light of her cultural background and education - she is German - it is not surprising that her teaching favours an ernotionallexpressive orientation. Although an artistlteacher may provide an awareness of alternative points of view, they themselves are grounded in a particular vision. Pie r r e feels theo~does not exist separately/rom the practical content of drawirig. W hen concepts and conventions are explained to students, Le. notions of perspective, this constitutes theory. When students look at a still-life and produce something that is different frorn reality, and the teacher explains that the work still has value because of i ts coherent relationships - theorizing is happening. He explains certain notions about proportions ol' the human figure before students draw from the model, but generaily he does not favour abstract theory in art classes unless it has a practical application. Greta brings books and slides to class that represent different ways of seeing the world. She ana1 yses the enamples and points out to students that their job is to find their personal rnethods. She tries to avoid formulas, and concentrates on provoking students to move them away from strictly traditional views. She seeks emotional responses rather than those emanating from the rational intellect. She introduces print-making techniques such as monotypes, to stimulate interest and discussion. Marc asks her if students don? need lots of experience to be able to speak about drawing. Carole responds that it is the teacher's responsibility to build up her student's vocabulary, and that she relies on Wool flin's terminology. Ultimatel y the important questions are: How does this image make you feel? and, What are the formal elements that make you feel this way? Questions and dialogue ensues, and Carole introduces issues of aesthetics and taste. She States that teachers need to have high expectations of their students, and if terminology is explained students will understand it. Greta speaks to her students as she would to other artists, and assumes that the exposure they get to art and art terminology in her class will yield understanding. Once they understand they become more accepting of their own artwork. To expand students attitudes so that they become tolerant and accepting of other visual expressions, as well as their own, is a unique way in which art teachers can influence the values of their students positively for years to corne. Question: What do you need to introduce theory into studio pnctice? Bank of still-Me objects Especially Iarge objects Collection of colour slides and reproductions Aline stated that both she and 1 collaborate in the cost and labour of photographing reproductions of drawings and paintings from books, and have built up a slide collection of over 300 slides. 'On site' opportunities Radically different locations from the conventional classroom space in which to take students to draw . It is suggested that hallways, bathrooms and basements in schools cm provide alternate contexts to dnwing rooms. Sketching outdoors is recommended. Group discussion with other teachers A need and desire for the latter was echoed by al1 the participants. Lights that could be controlled in individual classrooms. Close access to a photocopy machine. It was suggested that this would help students relate drawing classes to their everyday world instead of repeating techniques which have been used for thousands of years. A set of mirrors, a skeleton, andcameras for students to help them record their observations. These devises would help in surprising and dislodging students from their habituai ways of seeing, and change the conventional perceptions students form of their subjects by A greater access to models In spi te of budget cuts al1 teachers wanted more access to models. Models w ho project feeling and personali ty are excellent vehicles for teachers who want to stimulate student responses. A sensitivi ty to the group and an appropriate choice of model are the hallmarks of an aware li fe drawing teacher. Mike says his young students find drawing [rom the model difficult, so he chooses younger, attractive models which make it easier for them. He says unconventional models would be too shocking for novice students. Greta disagrees and admits to sharnelessl y manipulating the choice of models in relation to her students. She selects both sexy female ones to interest young male students, and unconventional ones to provoke emotional reactions - she has posed a fleshy model with a skeleton to achieve this goal. Car ole chooses models wi th presence, who don' t disappear, because her students produce better drawings from these rnodels and ask for them to corne back. Pierre states that the ' theory' behind figure drawing suggests using a large variety of different types of modeis, although students are not very open to this and tend to ask for more conventional types. As the focus group discussion cornes to an end Mike tells me he found the questions about ' theory' surprising and that they "smack of academia". He states he doesn't think about theory in his classes, and when 1 ask him if he does not consider the Betty Edwards book he bases his entire course upon an example of theory, he doesn't respond. I thank the group for their participation. goodbyes are said, and I promise participants an annotated reading list. Conclusions: Mike's reliance on a teaching method of following only one text (Drawing [rom the Ripht side of the Brain), and his lack of exploration into diverse points of view is noteworthy. He assumes, incorrectly, that the Edward's book is the only one acknowledging 'embedded' symbols. Compared with the others, 1 consider Mike's teaching the most ' theoretically' based in a narrow sense of the word, because his chosen text is prernised upon psychobiologist Roger W. Speny's insights into right and left brin capaci ties, rather than king grounded in drawing practice. Greta % teaching method is that of applied practice. She pinpoints an important dialectic in the Edward's book, the failure to integrate the two hemispheres of the bnin when drawing - the intuitive and the rationai. It is just this challenge which most artist and art educators must face in their own work and that of their students. Alice raises some important issues, particularly the necessity to frequently reevaluate teaching methods and Ietting them change or evolve, and the lack of time to adequately teach in 3 hours. Carole's statement that the Edwards book puts too much emphasis on contour and not enough on mass and volume, confirms rny 'theory' about outline. 1 suspect that other teachers would agree as well, but feel they should follow the chronology of exercises in available technical books. Mary echoes this notion by teaching a 'sculptural' approach to dnwing, supported by examples of Henry Moore's work where line is present but functions to emphasise mass not outline. Pierre states that there is 'theory' behind figure drawing. His use of the word suggests that convention and habit are theory, and when concepts and conventions are explained to students. i.e. notions of perspective, this constitutes theorking. Although Marc is bothered by the word 'theory', it exists for him in the ways students perceive space, and how they translate the 3-dimensional objects they see into 3- dimensional representations. Marie remembers ' theory' from her university training, but considers i t problematic in the context of her classes because of the cornplex textual language. It is Greta, however, who presents an example of theory as praxis. She: 'knows' theoretically what she wants to achieve: an unblocking of the right brain intuitive response, which she understands from her own reading and practice; she is convinced that her access to students is through their emotions. and she encourages their emotional response to their work over a rational one, by setting up provocative situations Le. she poses a live mode1 with a skeleton. Lastly, she evaluates the success or failure of the exercise by the visual evidence of the student's drawings, and by this process she confirms or contradicts her initial ' thesis' about how to reach her students. By the latter criteria, Greta fulfils Glaser and Strauss's requirements ( 1967) by 'generating grounded theory' out of her own practice and putting it to use in the classroom. She also fulfils Bengtsson's (1993) criteria, for acceptance of valid teacher generated research, because: 1) she subjectifies theory by letting it corne out of her persona1 esperience and 2) objectifies practice by her qualitative assessrnent of the student's drawings. Summary: The focus group was made up of mature artist/teachers. Many of their experiences echoed my own, few were in contrast. Most of the teachers developed their own ' theories' of teaching, except one who followed a prescribed method from a text. Al1 the teachers were uneasy with the word ' theory' and al though 1 hoped they would define i t in their own terms, they seemed to want me to define it for them. CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS OF LITERATURE REVIEW AND FIELDWORK The review of literature reveaied a tradition and content to the teaching of drawing. It demonstrated that drawing students can be trained or educated - the difference is qualitative and profound. In his 1985 essay: Art in Education Peter Fuller suggests that a meaningful drawing class can offer more than basic drawing skills - it has the potential to open new pathways of perception, stimulate new attitudes, and play a role in cognitive development. In basic training, drawing functions as a method of illustration and visual communication, narration and representation. Generally in these situations, representation refers to producing a strict likeness of the 'model'. Comprehensive communication, manual dextenty, discernment and often, patient rendering of detail influence the success ol skilful representation. Teachers tend to rely heavily on technical rules and formulas denved from books for efficient transmission of information. An overemphasis on technical training onproduce stereotyped compositions that are sliclc, impersonal, and trite, throwbacks to the deadening force of academic art wherc the unblemished and idealized product becornes the primary goal. If this risk is acknowledged, a concession is made, sometimes, towards injecting 'artistic expression' or personal style into the work after the student has learned to render accumtely - but: in teaching. we neglect to sponsor passion as a discipline. the only discipline we teach is that of the deadly diagram supposedly to be fertilized later by personal experience. Later is too Iate. ( Rico Lebrun, 1%1, pg. 25) My discussions with my peers collaborated with my own teaching expenence, grounds the theoretical discourse of the 1i terature review. The following section draws upon two sources of knowledge: the personal and the public. and fuses them with findings to highlight themes 1 consider important and relevant 4.1 Recurring themes: A drawing education The learning of technical skills should combine wi th the following aims throughout the student' s drawing education: a capaci ty to respond and feel empatheticall y towards visual relationships and materiah; an ability to adapt skills and knowledge to new and different artistic problems orjudgments; a means of bringing a unique and personal point of view to form and expressive content, within an awareness of an art historical context. Teaching drawing should match the profound ambitions of art by which generations of artists have sought an understanding of themselves, their experiences, and their envi ronment. Edward Hill ( 1%6) succinct1y defines teaching and learning goals: U- a fertile understanding is ow goal and individual artistic vision our precious concem. then a student can ody be taught to see. Perhaps not even that; it may be that an instructor can only provide experiences which may bring a student to insights. and share with the young artist his own mature vision. (p. 108) And: The student must set understanding as his goal, nor self-expression, the latter will aïse naturally from the former. In this light we can see that the value of the study of drawing goes beyond training professional artists. There is not one of us who could not profit from the education of ou.vision. ( p. 125) Who should teach art? 'Effective' above average teaching cannot be measured, but it can be recognized and encouraged. Outstanding teachers develop a personal teaching style and technique(s). For one year 1 was department director of an art center and responsible for hiring teachers. The administration were not satisfied with the quality of teaching and asked me to hire three new people. 1 was not obliged to conform to seniority or pedigree in my choices. 1 interviewed students to find out what they wanted in their teachers sincc they experience the teacher in practice and can gauge the quaiity of the teaching wi thout king swayed by the academic qualifications which the individual may have accrued. 1 selected a variety of applicants and applied the following criteriâ the applicants were practising artists exhibiting a cornmitment and engagement to thei r art the applicant' s artwork revealed a profound exploration of their chosen medium(s) and a maturi ty of vision the applicant was a relaxed but engaging communicator and had work (life) esperiences which involved social interactions and working with others the applicant responded to hypothetical classrmm situations which 1 presented derived from rny own teaching experiences 1 was not disappointed with my choices and the individuais 1 hired have since gone on to rewarding careers in teaching art. Although not one fulfilled the ' academic' criteria demanded by many institutions, their artistic and personal quali ties and li fe experiences have made them outstanding guides. 1 conclude from my varied research into teaching that discerning students deserve exceptional teachers and that it is possible to distinguish these teachers. Current methods used to hire art teachers and maintain them over many years, however, may not be the optimum approach. Although teachers benefit from dialogue with each other, Our educational systems encourage cornpetition and rivdry instead of forums for dialogue. As such, the quali ty of teaching standards has little opportunity to improve. Free-lance artistlteachers need to create their own forums of exchange. and in some cases their own learninglteachi ng contexts. The Bauhaus provides an interesti ng mode1 of such a context. How to teach drawing Since the teacher's personality may be the most important factor in influencing the student- teacher relationship, self-awareness, flexi bili ty of teachi ng style and methods, and an acknowledgment of one's biases and beliefs are key attnbutes for the artisuteacher to cul tivate. Teachers should avoid espousing extreme ' Formalist' or ' Emotionalist' viewpoints since students deserve a balanced encounter between plastic and spirituai values, specifics and universals, and abstract and non-abstract potentials of expression. A teacher's philosophy is not innate, i t develops from life experiences, influences and education. Drawing teachers' personal practices become their theory ,and their form of teaching needs to match its content. As drawing teachers develop their philosophy, methodology and language, they translate and mediate the visuai into the verbal. Since thinking visually is an alternative paradigm to thinking semantically, discursive language frequently fails to describe an intuitive or felt action. Does a spoken language exist that can articulate the silent dialogue the painter has with hislher materials? What is the explanatory, descriptive. and motivational language needed to teach drawing? Perhaps the transformational language capable of representing actions into words is somewhere between a grunt and discourse accompanied by a visual demonstration. In response to tacit knowers and in respect to the visual medium, the teaching language needs to be poetic enough to trigger the imagination. filled with allusions, metaphors and gestures, and passionate enough to awaken our feelings. Listening to how teachers express themselves may be a key marker to an excellent teacher. For exarnple, Kokoschka's expressive style of instruction was described by his students as engrossing and inspirational: Kokoschka didn' t teach in the ordinary sense. He didn't theorize, he didn't esplain. he was not prescnptive in his methods; rather he told stories, he performed .....Even a crumpied piece of paper, seerningly unworthy of attention. became in Kokoschka's teaching the source of a miracuious event...... 'Look. Look!.... and you will see tbat tbis piece of paper is etemally new and infinitely varied.' By making students aware of the ever-changing light illuminating one crease of this crumpled paper. Kokoschka transformed the perfunctory repetition of drawing the object into an inspired experience..... he hoped to shock the student into seeing the estraordinary within the rnundane and ordinary. ( Moynihan, p. 140) The student Adult students have distinct personalities, differing levels of maturity, and distinct cultural preferences and tastes that they bring to their artwork even if they lack elementary technical skills. If teachers recognize that adult students bring unique and valuable qualities to their studies, then the leaming process can be directed to preserving and channelling these quali ties into artistic activity. Early on in my drawing sessions 1 ask what activities and occupations the students derive from, and allow this data to inform the way 1 communicate with them. 1 frequently intuit the needs of the student and draw on past expenence to ' know' what form of communication is appropnate. If 1 do not select clear and meaningful images or metaphors, I will not succeed in my communication. For example, most students benefit from verbal discourse and visual clues, and 1 have never hesitated to show and demonstrate as well as tell. There is a delicate balance between how much a teacher should present to a student and to what degree students should be encouraged to discover for themselves. The scope of experience. refinement of intuition, and emotional maturity of the teacher will separate the educator from the trai ner, The intentions of adult students Vary. Some are registered in a program for the development of a professional art career. These students generally expect effective instruction that develops their graphic skills and relates drawing to other media and rnethod courses. Others are registered for on1y one or two drawing classes in their whole lives. These students want to develop their graphic skills, their powers of observation. and overall sense of art. Mature educators should be aware of the student's desires and goals in taking a drawing class, and be capable of teaching drawing either as a component of an art education, or as a self-contained introduction to art through drawing. Matter and materials: In the early stages of a drawing education the invention and making of marks takc place esclusively on the page. wi thout the student attempting the representation of objective reality. The production of a recognizable image is demphasized in relation to the action of the materiais and manual gestures. The importance of experïmental ' play' as a satisfying and significant point of departure cannot be overemphasized. but the literature review in this discussion reveded such play to beuttderetnpluzsized in many tests. A reflexive improvised investigation al lows students to discover and develop a physical empathy towards their materials, and provides an opportunity to distinguish between multi-media and media-specific use of materials without getting absorbed in extemal visual observation. Matter and tools reveal their own capaci ties and limits and can help artists discover their personal range of graphic gestures and evolve their graphic minds. As the students' artistic development progresses they can fa11 back on espenmental ' play' whenever they need to revi talize their expression or feel blocked in their evolution. An astute teacher will intuit when to encourage students to work with open-ended objectives, and when to set up limits or predefined goals against which the student must brace. This is part of the teacher's ski11 which is not ' known', but is ' felt'. Exposure to examples of artwork: When derived from material exploration, technique becomes a natural outgrowth of matter, instrumentation and the artist's imer vision, and can be demonstrated by exampies of other artist's works. Practice and visual exposure advance technique. When 1 began teaching 1 would show students examples of other artist's work during my introductory class. 1 have since realized that student's benefit from visual examples when they have gained some experience, therefore 1 show slides later on in the sessions. Building up rny own collection of slides and choosing appropriate occasions to show them has become an important part of my teaching. Copying: Although motor dexterity, perceptual discemment, patience, and copying are still important technical factors. they are part of an overail plan and not ends in themselves in an education. The artist David Hockney, explains: Copying is a first-rate way to learn to look because it is looking through somebody else's eyes, at the way that person saw something and ordered it around on paper. in copying, you are copying the way people made their marks, the way they felt, and it has ken confïrmed as a very good way to learn by the amount of copying that wonderful artists have done. About twenty years ago the idea of coping was completeIy abandoncd in art education in Britain; it was not suggested at dl, even as a way of learning. Somehow painting and drawing had become about personai expression, almost a thenpeutic way of expression that made them perhzips go too inward, losing feelings of the ordinary things about them. But of course we al1 do copy anyway. Most art students at work today are copying, even if it is in rather an indirect way. (Wilson & Wilson & Hurwitz., p. 193) Students need to be exposed to varied and stimulating models when they copy artworks, and: As we have implied one does not acquire a personal haudwriting by emulating a master. The student's goal in copying is not duplication but understanding in the hope bat this insight will belp him to develop his own handwriting and his own attitudes toward form.(Chiict, 1970, pg.253) Rendering objective reality: After the initial phase of their drawing education, students encounter a major challenge as they em bark upon the observation of extemal reali ty: The beginning draftsman is faced with a new problem: three-dimensional howledge must be reevaiuated and translated into two-dimensional patterns based on a fixed relationship between the draftsman's eyes and the object king drawn. Since rtctual spatial depth is absent from the surface of the drawing paper, three-dimensional reality mut be interpreted as a two-dimensionai pattern. Much of learning to draw consists of discovering how things cpmrather than of how they air , and it is not until we begin to draw that most of us redise the tremendous ciifference betweeo what we know about objects and what we see. Learning to draw, then, demands a reevaluation of visual espenence, a new dependence on visual cues about the appeannce of objects and their relationships in space. (Mendelowitz, l%7, pp.4647) Because ' we see what we know', the hand tends to take its instruction from the mind nther than the eye: Drawings reveal the ciifference between the appearance of everyday espenences and our preconceived idea of these visual expenences-preconceived ideas which are based on the schematic images we have in our mind's eye. and which have a tendency to superimpose

themset ves w henever we try [O reevaluate our visual sensations. (Malins, 198 1, pg.9) An important task of the teacher, therefore. is to bnng to the student's attention the circuits of conditioned responses and conventional orientations that may deny perception and inhi bi t visual exploration. If the pre-formed conceptual modes do not give way, seeing authentic raw information cannot occur. The more stnngent the student's technical training the more difficult the task of unembellishing, and many students resist giving up old and reassunng habits of seeing. Specific problem areas are: an over-concern with the exact representation of an object. which can block a student's capacity to form subjective interpretations; the seductiveness of observed surface detail cm blind students to the underlying structure of forms; the complexity of nature (human figure, landscape, etc.) can ovenvhelm students if they are not guided through a process of simplification; the focus on unrelated parts may distract students from discovering an object's essential form-character - i ts overall ness. Outline or silhouette? The representation of solid masses using line is a sophisticated conceptual invention irnposed upon nature - we do not see nature's forms outlined. Edward Hill ( 1966)explains: Two cornnion symptoms of conventional seeing are a concentmion on objects rather than their spatial relationships; and with specific regard to the object. a focus upon outline or characteristic shape..... No draftsman can hope to grasp al1 aspects of what lies before Km;but surely he should seek more than the outliae of objects, (p. 122) And: Isn*t it strange that we usually think of drawings as primarily linear in nature'?Of course this is a resul t of our own conditioning and shortcomings. (Kaupelis, 1983. P. 10 1) The non-substantial, that is to Say. flat, and two-dimensional appearance of many adult student drawings results from the tools used and more importantly. line being narrowly interpreted as outline: .Most art students have ken rrained purely on lines and outlined patches. following the tendencies of twentieth-century art - including, it must be said, sculpture which is also based at present on linear functions extended into three dimensions by schematic developrnent, (Rawson , 1%9. p. 237) The overemphasis of line drawing at this prelirninary stage in the student's training rein forces a misreading of observed solid shape, and the resul ting drawings ful fil the Platonic notion of art king an imitation of an imitation. This is an instance where practice is not synchronized with theory; if texts and teachers are trying to undo pre-conceptualized schema students ought not to be directed to translate sol id, voluminous observed shapes into invented outline early on in their drawing studies. Why the linear schema is so em bedded in the rninds of most adul t students is worth exarnining. Young children usuaily represent their idea of something or someone in outline, for esample, mommy's face may be drawn as a circle filled with three dots and a banana smilc. They 'know' what mommy look like without observing her when they draw; they imagine her, even if she is standing in front of them. Similarly many adult students look with their minds rather than their eyes, and when called upon to observe they fa11 back upon the ' idea' of the subject without really exarnining it visually. Often art classes in public schools ernphasize outline rendering and because many adult students have had no drawing practice since grade school, the habit remains. A major reconditioning is requirzd to combat deeply rooted habits, well learned and pnctised since childhood. In my introductory drawing class 1 arrange dark eggplants on a white surface and ask students to observe and describe verbally what the eggplants look like. Most say the forms are dark and oval shaped. but when asked to draw them most would use a thin outline - contradicting their description. So, 1 direct students to draw the shapes in front of them, quickly and large, using a 3" wide piece of compressed charcoal used on its wide side. Every 10 seconds 1 change the position of the eggplanis. obliging the student to work swiftly. The tirne restriction, the big piece of charcoal used on it side, and the simplicity of the dark forms generally elicits a solid tonal representation of mass rather than an invented linear schema The enercise is reinforced in subsequent classes as students draw black shoes and boots. They quickly understand the rendering of solid masses, and develop a sense of comparative proportions. 1 have found that 3-4 repetitions of these visualldrawing expenences succeed in changing most students 'learned' habits. Once they are capable of representing the solid tonal masses, 1 introduce light and dark modelling to enhance their sense of solidi ty of form, and the advancing and receding appearance of form. Based upon these experiences, 1 consider that line representation is more appropriately introduced Iater or2 as an invented construction when students are detaching themselves from reproducing observed nature for the interpretation and development of more persona1 forms. In this manner their persona1 graphic evolution echoes the development of form in the history cf art. Pre-Renaissance linear representations evolved to foms modelled with light and dark, then ' modem' pûinters such as Manet introduced an informed and purposeful quality of flatness which characterised much of 19th and 20th century art. Rapidity : In spite of the latter theory/pnctice dialectic most teachers are aware of the necessity to help students ' see', and use a nurnber of strategies to facilitate the unlearning of visual schema. For example, speed helps students react quickly and feel viscerally in relation to observation and frees their eyes and hands to cleanly capture an unelaborated essence of something, and not get caught up in the potentid complexi ties of the image. The reasoning mind which has greater opportunity to intercede and influence when students draw slowly. sometimes overburdens the artist's immediate response and dilutes it with irrelevant concerns. Recording quickly suggests 'sketching' rather than 'drawing' and the subtle difference between the two modes of execution needs to be dernonstrated. In quick responsive sketching the significance or meaning of the subject is secondary in relation to its gesture or activity. Therefore, uncomplicated everyday objects that are moved frequentl y or a model taking swift familiar poses ini tially serves the student best. The simpler the object the more easily a student can capture the generai appearance empathetically and structural1y. When sketching quickly, mind, body and matter work integrally as information is reflected back to the eye by the subject. Quick drawings can be rendered in masas well as line, depending upon the student's understanding of volume. At this point the drawing mirrors the act of learning as it becornes a reflection of the visuai mind which is learning to see clearly. 1t is interesting to note that a European teacher informed me that she has her students go from slow detailed drawings of models to faster and faster less detailed ones. She finds her method effective in achieving the same goais as 1 wish to achieve. 1 intend to expriment with this method in the near future. Surprise: Students need to be convinced that their habitual procedures may be stale and limiting and that a change of process is desirable. To overcome resistance to change, teachers. behavioural psychologists, yoga practitioners and others use disonentation to facili tate new respnses. Al though new methods and images appear strange and unfamiliar at first, Our bodies and eyes leam to accept them after a few encounters. The following disorienting conditions aid in dislodging visual assumptions: Sketching with the non-dominant hand inhibits habitual gestures and mental directives and although drawings appear shaky and crude ini tially the objective is not to control rendering but to discover new procedures and performance States Sketching an image frorn an out of focus projection rnakes students more attentive to the formal qualities of tone, proportion, and spatial relationships instead of being absorbed in the meaning or significance of the subject Using unconventional settings and juxtapositions of subjects can discourage clichéd meanings and provoke refreshed observation i.e. Jane's juxiaposi tion of a live model posing with a skeleton. Using different media or unconventional tools to interpret the sarne subject can yield surpnsing results. One of the teachers in the focus group suggested making the student work wi th two large brushes in the same band ..... Evocative music, poetry or prose can stimulate the imagination and slow down the intemal dialogue and judgrnental thoughts of the rational mind that disrupt intuitive action. Nature as pretext: Once effective modes of distracting the conditioned responses of the mind have been discovered and practised, the student is freer to respond with eyes cleansed and unencumbered by preformed concepts. At this stage drawing from external observation is indispensable, since it allows the student to build up a rich and varied visual vocabulary: Just as the wntten or spoken word. by fixing fragments of thought in logical sequences. makes possible the formulation of intellectual concepts of the greatest complexity, so drawing, by fixing visuai impressions in static forms, makes it possible to build knowledge step by step and eventuaily corne to know the nature of forms that are too complex to be comprehended at a single glance. ( ~Mendelowitz,1%7, p. 12) Nature is the subject matter favoured by most texts and by most teachers because it is accessible and familiar, varied and nuanced and it has a traditional and universal recommendation. Châet ( 1970) explains: Drawing from natural forms is basic to dl personal explorations in art and that the assimilation into the artistts memory and complex of sensibilities of ail the forms of nature, including man and his environment, should provide the best support for the artists's search in behalf of his own individual expression,(pg. v) Elements of Form: To facilitate further evolution, students need to be guided to look beyond the surface of things to underlying structures. Thus they move onto the next phase of a drawing education - the objectification of formaf elements. Here, teaching takes a rniddle road between the study of nature and the analysis of form, leaning towards nature as a point of departure then focussing upon the formal elements of the drawing: The significance of an abstract formaiistic outlook for the student is that his attention focuses on the events taking place upùn the drawing surface. He learns the meaning of a line. a mark. a tone - he sees their dynamic interaction with the space of the page. their optical and psychological effects; he cornes to understand the language of drawing in the abstract, (Hill, 1%6, p. 115) The students' earlier esperience of non-objective marks and gestures now becomes e~chedby observation of exted reaiity. Concepts of design and spatial organization are generally not prioritized in a beginner's cumculum, but adult students comprehend these concepts very easily if they practice applying them to their fint drawings. As students compose studies from nature their attention can be directed to the relationship of the parts to each other and to the format of the drawing; for example, shortly dter 1 introduce them to the forms of eggplants they practice different spatial arrangements of the forms within the surface format. Their minds are not cluttered with elaborate representational goals, and they quickly comprehend the importance of positive and negative space arrangements. This attention to design is then reinforced during critiques by focussing on the organic unity of the elements of a drawing: Every work of art--.-isan organic complex, presented in a sensuous medium, which comptes is composed of elements, their expressive characteristics and the relations obtaining among them, (Weitz, 199. p. 61) It is important to familiarize students with the process of analysing structure and design in constructive dialoguekn ticism. So studen ts can benefi t from an immediate response to their homework, cri tical discussion should be incorporated into every class. If we propose ' form' as the organisation of dlthe subjective and objective elements that make up the totality of the work of art, then an analysis of form provides a bais for qualitative assessment: Throughout the history of art, it is in the area of basic principles by which works of art are given order that men have most often agreed lies the locus of beauty in art. Thus beauty. an abstract concept, becomes tangible and universal in terms of form organizaion in art; hence tenns like beau0 of furm or formal bemrty are often applied to great works of art.(Orvik Eds.. 1975, p. 12) An astute teacher experienced in reading the surface of a drawing, can help students understand the workings of their particular vision as they simultaneously give form to felt experience and organic cohesion to abstract, formal elements. Once again. balance must be stressed so that formal design interests intennesh with expressive content. I t needs to be demonstrated to students that ' composition' refers to space organization and not to the totality of ' form' which is the more encompassing 'design' of a work. At this stage of a drawing education, the arrangement of the masses in pictoriai space constitute only one element in the design or form of the artwork. The composition or space organisation is like theatre staging - actors conscieniiously occupy the space of the stage - they do not move haphazardly. Interpretation and invention: As students begin to understand the intertwined processes of empathy and objecti fication, an awareness of the subjective expressive element cornes into play: Drawings can be remarkably telling works of art ....an opportunity to see the artist with his sleeves rolIed up, bis pretensions down, in an immediate, often plerisurable confrontation with the drives generating him to be the image maker he is. Seen in this light, they can readily becorne the basis for an empathetic comectiou between the producer and the consumer of visual art-a relationship filled with promise for esthetic reward. (Knobler, 1%7. p. 202) To transcend the mimicking of figurative reality and move towards broader definitions of representation is an enormous leap for a student because copying is sale and seductive; It is efficiently learned, visually satisfying, and readily appreciated and valued comrnercially. As a result it represents a level where rnany students (and artists) stay lodged: It is necessary to rid yourself of the tyranny of the object as it appears. The quality of absoluteness. the note of authority. that the artist seeh depends upon a more complete understanding than the eyes alone can give. To what the eye can see the artist adds feeling and thought .....if your student efforts are based upon a sincere attempt to experience nature, you wiil know that you are on the right track and picture mciking will take case of itself. The job is to get at the tmth - the tmth as you will be able to undersiand it frrst hand, arrived at by tfie use of ail your senses. When you are really enthralled, reaily stimulated. by a force other thao the visual. strauge looking things are apt to occur, but you will not judge your work by formula or conventional standards. You rnay feel that there is no real necessity for remaining visually truthful or even structurally îruthful in relation to the moment. There is always a bigger truth undiscovered - unsaid- uncharted until you meet it. (Nicolaides, 1941, p. 22 1) As students move away from strict representation towards the 'invention' phase of their art education, drawing frorn imagination is encouraged. Visual ideas can genente from and work with observed reality. At this stage students can be made aware that drawing (like other art forms) has the capacity to mediate their experience of reality. They should be encounged to allow the feelings derived from their transformed view of reali ty to be communicated to viewers. Cr itical alertness and reflexivity: To be fully engagd in the act of drawing involves a state of empathy and responsiveness to material means, to the subject and to oneself. This is not the time for a qualitative assessrnent of the worlin-progress. That cornes later. Now is the tirne for momentaq judgments and awareness of process without self-consciously watching oneself work. What I am refemng to is students' capacity for a reflexive understanding of the dynamics of their work method. Recalling Wollheim's cornments about corresportdencee . 1 stress to students that their work processes can communicate their intentions, and their visual awareness of how they paint permits periodic assessments of how the work corresponds to their inner condition. Their awareness and regulation of their inner state or experience can relate to the inner experience which the artwork may provoke in the viewers. Attuned teachers can help students understand the links between how they do something and how it rnay be viewed. To achieve different results, a process has to be modified or even abandoned. For instance, a student standing too close to hislher easel when slhe draws from the model, may not be aware to what extent s/he Ioses sight of the whole image, and restrict hislher physical motions and gestures. Over and over again in figure drawing classes 1 remind students to stand back and draw with a long, extended amor tool. At first they bounce back to working with their noses to the board lost in seductive detail, but some comprehend that the altemating of close and far physical stance between their bodies and their work surfaces allows them to see the over-al1 and not get lost in specific detail. Self-attuned students are self-monitoring and remind themselves to step back and fonvard at short, regular intervais. They immerse themselves in their subjective state, but are able to cast an objective eye on their process periodically. Less self-attuned students remain stuck in a stance that inhibits progress, unless 1 intervene and remind them to shift position, again and again. Once students have developed a sense of their work process. they can bring more depth and understanding to the critical analysis of their artwork. Teachers should encourage the valuable paralle1 habits of detachment and ernotional involvement unique to visual artists. It serves them in their art work and in their life skills. and makes them more astute criticaily. Authenticity, Authority, Conviction: Visud artists transmit felt experience into visual form. For them 'truth' does not refer only to adherence to likeness, but also, and sometimes exclusively (in abstract painting) to the artist' s visual/emotional conviction. Teachers cm show students examples of artists who are successful in transcending the limits of strict representation of figurative content to imply deeper and broader significance in their work. For example, Rembrandt focussed wi th intensi ty and clari ty on the introspective nature of ordinary people, and his resulting drawings strike a universal note of recognition. Students should be encouraged to tap into their o~vttworld and espenences for their subject matter. When artists value honesty, lree inquiry, and expressive interpretation, ahead of conformity to conventions or formulas, their works will be authoritative and convincing. Qualitative assessrnent based upon intent, meaning and significant form: By selecting appropriate visud examples teachers can demonstrate how artist's tempenments are revealed in their drawings and integrated into the formai structure of their work. Form, then, is the mind's strategy made visible and students cm be taught to read the framework. They onbe introduced to the vital interactions of fom and content and guided in making qualitative assessments by looking for the presence or lack of integration of the expressive constituents of the work. A teacher can pose the question: Does a particular work of art have signifiant form? The answer(s) provide a point of departure for cri tiques. When students become familiar with a procedure for the assessrnent of the work OC others, they can guide their critical eye to their own art. Frequently my students begin a wrkwith a clear intention- an idea, feeling, experience or material point of departure, but during the work process their intent becomes vague, confused, contradictory or understated. What seemed clear and obvious to them at the onset may be misread or lost to the viewer at the completion of the work. Students need helpful sîrategies to detach from the lingering subjective immersion in their work, in order to critically analyse their art more objectively. Teachers can help students accept surprise, improvisation and adaptation in their work processes. Intentionality 4 and meaning: Most of my students are convinced that viewers will know exactly what they meant to communicate and felt when they painted. And, many are shocked when this does not necessarily occur. My classroom discussions around this topic are perhaps the most difficult and conceptual, and are limited to more advanced classes. 1 suggest that an artist's motivation in producing a work may be considered his or her itr~erzriotz.The intention may be an idea or a feeling, depending upon the type of artist, or the particular work. But, the rneaning that the viewer corzshucts out of the work ma? or may not relate to the artist's intention, and is generally out of the artist's control. What the artist can aspire to achieve is the cornmzmicatiotz of feelitrg through their persona1 vision, and the more convinced and authentic their intention, the more likely the artist can provoke the viewer to respond to their artwork. When an artist works in a 'convincing' manner, the image(s) becomes persuasive, and the marks and foms on the surface become imbued with significance and the overall form demands the viewers attention. But once attentive, the viewer determines their own meaning prompted by the visual clues. Keeping in mind Gombrich's assertion that visual communication is enhanced by captions, 1 now ask my students to entitle their work, particularly those who work with non-representational form. During critiques 1 ask students to describe their intention(s) when they embarked upon their work process, then our discussion/critique can examine whether the material means of the process were compatible with the intention or conrradicted it. Choosing specific formai criteria for example, we might decide that a colour, or quaii ty of form give a contradictory sentiment to what the artist intended and desired. In this way the themes of intentionality, meaning and significance can be worked into the critical analysis of artwork. Although i t is difficul t for students to articulate the feelings and ideas behind thcir artwork. constructive dialogue helps them unders tand their personal work process and i ts potentiai effect on viewers. The analysis can be stimulated by probing questions such as: Was the original intent (feeling) of the work sustained? And, does it come through in the present reading? Did the student deviate from hdher initial intent (feeling, idea) ? At what point? Why? Did the work take on a life of its own? And, if having taken on a life of its own, is the result satisfying? What possible meaning(s) could the work convey? Does the work cany conviction in its marks, in its form? Is i t boring, unfocussed or contnved? Why? Responses to these questions should be derived frorn the visual clues that the work emits. It is vital that artist's work processes support their intention(s). Developing an astute visual eye is a complex process made up of subtle components that lie at the heart of a dnwing education. Students need to understand that their work can communicate feeling, 4 In the present discussion I am limiting the term intentionality to describe the student's motivational desire: what they want their art to 'say', and it is not to be confused with the theme of intentionality currently being examined in philosophical discourse. 91 convincingly, but that the viewer imbues the resulting image with meaning, and that rneaning is part of the viewer's subjective response. Drawing practice: The next phase in a drawing education involves intense practice to nurture the intuitive ' simul taneity' that constitutes mature drawing: Before 'everythng' in a drawing can be 'boni at the same time', much effort and practice

bas CO be devoted to the processes of conception, gestation, growth. and birth. One can only progress by gaining such command over the elements that their manipulation becornes second nature and they take deep rmt in the unconscious mind. Here tradi tional arts score heavily. For though sheer intuition may cary an isolated artist fornard for years. there usually cornes a time when negiect of method takes its toll, intensity is lost. and his work runs the risk of lapsing into banality. (Rawson, 1%9, p. 77) By this time students should have some technicd fluency with dry and wet drawing media and are producing drawings that are more complex and purposeful than the study or sketch. They are attuned to the interdependence of form and content, and begin to make critical assessments of their own work and that of others. Their practical experimentation and encounters have ken bolstered by viewing related visual examples. Artists develop the capaci ty to al temate between subjective and objective states rapidly as they render specifics and then step back to view their work as a whole. Dnwing students need to be coached in this important 'dance', since they often get absorbed in detail and lose sight of the whole. Teachers should frequently remind students that the esperience of drawing constitutes a visual, physical and reflective anaiysis. Drawing theory: 1 consider the relationship between art practice and theory to be a fluctuating one. with theory dominating practice when certain ideologies prevail. When ' ideas' take over the visual, they neutralize the power of art by demeaning its practices, feelings or visual features. Usable theory derives from practice and validates the visual experience. 1t is for teachers to judg the appropriate moments when such theory can enrich the work of individual students. 1 have witnessed the frustration and confusion of students who learn first, then draw. They receive theory which is unconnected to visual understanding. For example, the rules and conventions of perspective serve no purpose if students cannot visuaily discem shapes. When students 'see' shapes in relation to one another, they understand ' perspective-in-practice' , and perspective can safely be introduced as one method of rendering space in drawing. Such teaching helps students develop a healthy relationship to the concept and use it or choose not to confom their work to its restrictions. Caution should be practised in the timing and compati bili ty of introduced theory, so that theoretical knowledge doesn't oppress or divert the student's organic growth in vision: For Proust, theory can only corne der the fact of experience because it is the experiencing of individuality and richness which theory must take cognizance of. Theory by itself can never disclose the richness of the example; that takes a picture, a picture assembled from the right details. the right ambiance. the right succession of impressions. the right context of reception.... One wants marriage between theory and the art example. not domination. (Herwitz, 1993, pp. 305-307) Artistic ideas lose their strength if the dynamics of the idea have ken slowed down by pedantry. ' Other-than-visual-an-knowledge' needs to be absorbed by the artist and transmuted into visual art images. When transmutation is unsuccessful, the results can be a sterile hybrid of intellect and art, minus a sensuous, visual medium - for example, the conceptuai texts that occupy wall space in art gallenes. Which texts are appropriate for the art student at this stage? Theory ivhiciz speciJical1~addresses drawiy practice - not the solely lecimical 'hoow-20-do' book bzit the illzisnated 'whv-ive-dobooks '. The following texts are comprehensive esarnples of praxis; Complementary to studio practice, they introduce students to traditional and contemporary definitions, concepts and visual esarnples of drawings, work methods and the critical dialogue necessary to discuss artworks. Al1 three authors are articulate practitioners, but most important1y, they communicate the passion embodied in outstanding drawing. I consider these books most appropriate for the mature aduli leamer, and they are listed in order of accessibility. I recommend Hill, Chaet, and Berger's Wavs of Seeing, to receptive. ' open' students after the completion of 10- 12 weeks of introductory drawing. The Rawson text is appropriate for students pursuing a career in drawing, painting, or art

Astute teachers who can gauge the needs of their students can help them movc dong this reading list as their practice demands: Edward Hill. The Language of Drawing. ( 1966). Bernard Chaet. The Art of Drawinq. (1970). Phiiip Rawson. Drawinq. ( 1969). John Berger: Wavs of Seeing. ( 1972). Permanent Red: Essavs in Seein.. (1960) The sense of sinhi. ( 1985). Keepinp: a Rendezvous. ( 199 1). Pr ocess: Once students have developed a deeper understanding of drawing concepts their leaming needs to be assirnilated into practice. The introduction of a provocative staternent or quotation is a useful method to use in this phase of renewed exploration, for instance, the following quote from Peter Fuller: "A dwing is not so much the representation of the image of something seen, as a record of something made." (McDona1d.J. [Ed.],1993, p. M). To expose the dynarnics of graphic 'reasoning' (process) deliberately, helps students become more self aware by visually revealing their ongoing decisions and judgments. Therefore, students should be encouraged not to erase changes in their work. Examples of ' pen timento' in the drawings of Michaelangelo (non-intended) or Jim Di ne (inten tionai), can help convince students that a resolved work does not need to hide the work process or require a ' pol ished' finish. Form invention: The degree to which form invention takes place in a work and the appropriateness to its rnaterial means needs further study in depth. Bernard Chaet comments : Compared to other visual media, drawing is a magical act. in no other medium cm we go so directly from thought process to image. unencumbered by materials or extensive preparation.... drawing can accommodate ail attitudes. whether we are reacting direct1 y to the forms around us, refining forms from memory, inventing new foms. or even planning cornplicated relationships.. .. Forms from our imagination or from the physical environment, which we can cd1 life forms - such as a tree in nature or demons in the mind of a Bosch - are transmitted by the artist's vision and skiH to create sornething new - a fonn life. This cycle from life form to form life begins in drawing when the artist, haunted by an image or an idea, puts his pend to paper. (1970, pp. 277-279) In order to communicate the integrity of the subject and the intention of the artist, forms must do more than signify - they need to become significanl- If artists accept the unique responsibility of perceiving, interiorîzing and transforming felt experience into a visual metaphor then their endeavours impl y playing by their own rules and king grounded in their own authority. Adherence to anistic ' truth' elevates some artists above the rest, and opens up an important venue for the qualitative assessrnent of art works. Closure: When is the drawing finished? It might be suggested that a drawing is finished when its ' form' (organic totality) becomes convincing and complete. Students frequently anticipate that a work is finished at a precise moment, and that the moment can be pin-pointed by their teacher. Frequently 1 have witnessed students cleaning up a lively and vibrant drawing until i t is contnved and ovenvorked because they are trying to achieve some 'acceptable' outer standard of finish. and are not mare diat the work was suffîciently complete some time before. Closure and intention are related. Some works take on a life of their own, and dictate their direction and end if the artist engages in a reflexive dialogue with the artwork. Artists who cultivate a flesibility of process and capacity for improvisation, can recognize closure as the moment they have no more to say, or more specifically, when they become empathetically detached ( i.e. self-conscious, redundant) from their work. Ar tist's voices: First hand descriptions of the creative process have an unrnistakable authority and can help students deal with their difficulties and fears, and enhance their understanding of art. For exarnple: John Berger beautifully and simply describes the reflexive dialogue that occurs between the artist and the drawing: image-making begins with interrogating appearances and making marks. Every artist discovers that drawing-when it is an urgent activity-is a two-way prwess. To draw is not only to measure and put down. it is also to receive. When the intensity of looking reaches a certain degree, one becomes aware of an equally intense energy coming towards one. through the appearance of whatever it is one is scrutinising .... The encounter of these two energies, their dialogue, does not have the fom of question and answer. It is a ferocious and inarticulated dialogue. To sustain it requires faith. It is like a burrowing in the dark, a burrowing under the apparent. The great images occur when the two tunnels meet and join perfectly. Sometimes when the dialogue is swift, dmost instantaneous, it is like something thrown and caught. 1 offer no explanation for rhis esperience. 1 simply believe very few artists will deny it. It's a professional secret ( 1991,pg. 131) Just as artist and artwork are connected by a reflexive process it is hoped that teacher and student are similarly connected. Teachers attuned to the development of their student's understanding inspire practice and promote theory when appropriate. Style 5 Two definitions of style are important for drawing students. The first refers to trends in artistic forrns noted in art movements or during specific periods of history. e-g.. the style of the Renaissance, ... in the style of Raphael. The second refers to the artist's personal, unique rnethods of working, (thinhng, feeling, and seing) and expressive use of media that gives hidher work an individual and recognisable character. Students often misunderstand the nature of personal style and assume that oncc it is discovered it never changes. and that it applies uniformly to any subject the artist treats. It is useful for teachers to show the landscape sketches of Rembrandt and his capaci ty to employ diverse styles consecutively. Rembrandt dlowed the subject to evoke a stylistic response. nther than imposing a uniform style upon diverse subjects. Style, unlike language is not leamed, i t is formed from the rnotor, psychological and visual reality of the artist. It is more than the similarities or dissimilarïties between paintings by the same artist, and more than the formal characteristics repeated in their works. An artist's style is a living entity: it evolves, changes, matures and can express itself like the personality. Why an artist chooses a specific style is closely related to hislher intended communication. Therefore a sensitivity to students' intentions is of utmost importance when assessing the appropriateness of their stylistic choices. The development of a persona1 style is closely related to work process, and teachers can help students understand the relationship by showing them examples from other artists work when appropriate. Taste 5 The term derives from rny observations and classroom discussions. It is beyond the present scope of my discussion to delve into the various linguistic and philosophical interpretations of the tenn. 95 When taste is limited to personal choice or preference a situation of extreme relativism occurs, and every individual partiali ty would have the same ment and there would be no basis for the cornparison or valuing of one work of art over another. Consensual aesthetic judgments stand in contrast to subjective personal taste, in that they overcome the limits of specific cultural predilections and strive for common, life-affhning human experiences. Thus the connoisseur should be aware of hislher particular discriminatingjudgments while constant1y striving to acknowledge shared understandings. An students encounter value judgments in relation to their art and performance in art classes, and although the issue may be difficult in Our politicaily correct times, teachers would be irresponsi ble to sirnply impose their authoritative values or unquestioningly accept those of the student The education of drawing students involves enhancing their capacities to discem. disaïminate and substantiate their judgments with visuai evidence. In class critiques 1 acknowledge my taste limitations, inform myselr OS the artist's location and intention, and attempt to reach an assessrnent with the student of the success or failure of the work in light of the following cri teria: The work exhibits form in that it functions as an organic whoie in its consistency and coherence or parts to parts, and parts to whole satisfies the demands and limitations of the chosen visual medium, and the compatibility of the medium to the content attests to an engaged and individual esplontion 1 avoid discussing good and bad art, but name what 1 consider the strong or weak aspects of the work. It is vital that teachers allow students to challenge their assessments, as long as the student substantiates the challenge with reasons and concrete visual esamples. Students must be frequently exposed to varied examples of art in order to develop their visual discernent and attitudes: A broader variety of drawing forms are accepted as meaningful today than ever before in history, including drawings based primarily on physical empathy. as well as those derived from visual esperience, (Mendelowitz, 1%. p. 29) Through exposure and discussion of positive and negative responses to art, teachers can help students evolve in their taste and values. Ultimately what I strive to convey to rny students is that art, by king personai, is original, diverse, vital, engaged and consequently, never neutral. Sumrnary My research has expanded my understanding of the tradition behind the teaching of drawing and helped me understand the nature and relationship of art theory to art practice. The dialogue with my peers has given me insight into current teaching practices and the concems of other teachers, and greater insight into my own teaching. Any conclusions 1 have arrived at cannot be proved but can be shared, and thereby join the continuum of knowledge emerging from research into art education. My teaching expenence and enriched understanding combine in the formulation of an outline for an updated drawing manual, presented in the next chapter, which draws on the common themes I identified in my study. I integrate insights into my discipline with methods that have proven themselves expedient in the past, and make one important change in the presentation of material: I consider the accepted chronology of ail the pnctical drawing books 1 exarnined detrimentai to student understanding of volume. By rearranging the order in which concepts, exercises and visual examples of 'line' are presented, the reader's capacity to understand and render mas, volume and proportion, graphically, cm be greatl y enhanced. CHAPTER 5: PRAXIS: Proposed Instr uctional Guide The following outline is informed by the material of the last chapters: The culmination of my M.A. Thesis is the following proposal for a working test. This chapter outlines a proposal for a text which aims at students and teacheis and aspires to cultivate a passion for the practice and appreciation of drawing as i t presents theory that derives from the diverse experiences of practitionedteachers. The text would strive to communicate an effective methodolog): for developing basic graphic skills by presenting exercises that train the student's eye, while directing students towards the discovery of persona1 processes. It would be scholarly yet visually and linguistically accessible to the non-academic milieu, and reflecting contemporary concerns and trends without forsaking those traditional roots ol drawing practice that are still viable and vital. 5.1 Outline of text: 1 reviewed studio tests to enhance my understanding of their underlying premises, content and styles. The text proposed here will reinforce their strengths and avoid their weaknesses, by innovating in the order of concepts and exercises. Because 1 consider that one test cm speak to two or three levels of esperience, there are esercises for begi~erand advanced students. The text will begin by defining and describing the function(s) of dnwing and will provide a historical/social overview to help readers understand the evolution of drawing lrom marks and blobs to a full y realised art fom. The dual responsibilities of art education will be emphasized: the teaching of basic pphic skills within a broader art context. Many visual esamples of traditional and contemporary drawings with appropriate captions and quotations will be provided. Because students need to familiarize themselves with a verbal and visual terminology, an illrrsfrated glossary will be integnted into each chapter. The content of the book will reflect a practi tioner's attitude: tmth to the gnphic medium, a respect for materials, and concepts denved from and tempered by practicc. presented in a convincing (substantiated) manner. 5.2 Annotated table of contents: Prologue and Acknowledgernents The prologue will reflect: a persona1 yet authoritative voie grounded in the experience of dmwing practice. It will explain: who the author is, what she hopes to achieve, to whom the book is directed, why the book is necessary, and how the book is to be used. Readers will be reqrtesfed fo repeat the exercises in different cltaplers wing différent media arid subjects. iintil a thorough urrderstanding is dernomtrated in tiieir ivork. Although most students are registered in classes, it is recommended that groups working without a teacher can follow the written directives and hire an artistlteacher periodically to assess their progress. Introduction: Teaching and Learninn Drawing. This section: describes: the discipline, the teacher, and the student noW. and quotes some conternpomy definitions of drawing links contemporary drawing to its historical tradition by providing an annotated historical chronolog): accom panied by il1 ustrations by leadi ng artists of the day to visually situate major trends and styles is accornpanied by a glossary C hapter 1: The Tools and Instruments of Drawing This chapter: is presented in the form of an illustrated glossary, and estatlishes the important link between basic visual notations and their matenal and instrumeniai means selects drawings that demonstrate how individual marks are repeated into motifs and textures, organised into rhythms, and relate to overall designs Chapter 2: The Stance and Getting Started this section: does not overlook the sensual physicality of the dnwing process- horv the student feels and moves, and leans on the philosophy of a Bauhaus artistlteacher Johannes Itten who felt that students could not interpret their topic or task artistically unless they were empathetically one with the subject they were to depict, that is to Say deeply involved through their senses and emotions. Warming up physically, mentally and emotionally, will be discussed as well as developing a 'critical alertness',and attention to the proximity to the subject and the drawing format students wm-up with ' blind' drawings to enhance their tactile sense and their awareness of the entire format. These warm-ups can be repeated by students of al1 levels whenever necessary to help them focus their attention students experiment freely wi th the building up of surface on different papers, wi th all their materials (dry and wet) using conventional and non-conventional tools and means of mark-making. Students focus on the page and add and reduce marks and textures in layen without representing objective reality advanced students use ' frottage', 'collage', scratching and scraping techniques and appropriate pri n ting procedures Chapter 3: hkingand Seeing Mass (for al1 levels) This chapter. examines perception, the observation of objective reality, the spatial organization of foms within a format, establishing proportions, sighting angles and negative spaces and

includes exercises for the observation and swift rendering of simple, solid black masses, with attention given to design concepts such as: weight, tension, syrnmetry/asymmefry, balancelim balance, working insideJoutside the format.. .. . distinguishes the nature of foms (organic, geometric....), and differentiates between psitive and negative spaces provides a list of questions to help students assess the dynamism and unity of their spatial organisations advanced students render groups of objects and experiment with comples spatial designs i n non-rectangular formats Chapter 4: Modelling. Mass (for al1 levels) Part 1. students use black plasticene to make small models of black shoes or other simple objects. Advanced students use live model (black skin is preferred, or a model dressed in black) these sculptures and other dark objects are lit in various ways, followed by discussion. Exarnples cf light and shadow mass drawings in slide or reproduction from such artists as: Carravaggio, Redon, and Seurat are analysed as well as Botero sculptures ..... students sketch their black sculptures then mode1 the ?-dimensional drawings with chalk and eraser to demonstrate the push (dark) and pull (light) of forms these important esercises are repeated with other media Le. ink, to reinforce comprehension of strong light and dark modelling Part 2. lighting effects are demonstrated on white objects and tonal value scales are discussed and demonstrated. Students practice delicate tonal drawings with a variety of toned formats and media in black and white examples of drawings by Ingres, and Charles Sheeler reinforce student's understanding of detailed, meticulous rendenng of subtle tones students draw black on black still-lives, and white on white ones to help them differentiate subtleties of tone advanced students work with more complex subjects than beginners, while al1 students arc encouragd to linger and practice modelled drawings until they dernonstrate convincirig masses and volumes Chapter 5: Copying artist's images and styles In this chapter: students view a variety of examples of drawings (actual, slides, reproductions), with critical attention directed to tonal nuance and spatial organization. The merits of copying other artist's images and styles are discussed, as well as themes of taste and beauty students choose examples of tonal drawings (photocopies) by a variety of artists, tum the image upside down, and copy the tond nuances the results are critiqued in relation to the student's discemment and achievement of subtle tonal detail a tonal value scale in white, sanguine and black is discussed and demonstrated, and subsequent drawings are executed in the three colours on grey paper in class and in home assignmen ts advanced students work with more complex subjects than beginners and more time is spent in cri tiques, and when students have a solid gnsp of tonal contnsts, other colours can be introduced into the tonal sale Chapter 6: Throw me a Line Line is defined as an invented graphic mark that can be repeated to form textured volumes or used in multiple cross-contours. This is illustrated with works by Seurat, Henry Moore, Mark Tobey .... esercises to reinforce the latter integration of line into mass will be proposed, as well as line esecuted wi th diverse materials and media line used as outline to suggest the 'appearance' of something will be discussed as a concept, supported by eaarnples and captions. In this way line as outline is proposed as only one of many options. Esamples of Japanese drawings, Matisse and Picasso will be used to illustrate quaii ties of flatness and linear suggestions of volume students are show the di fference be tween active, expressive gestural lines and con trolled, considered contour Iines, as well as different interpretations of ' oudine' students are exposed to a variety of drawings using iine in different ways: hatching, stippling, scribbling, ...... advanced students practice fragmenting images with lines and grids in dry and wet media Chapter 7: Thematizing In this chapter: students view exainples of serial works: i.e. the garden series of Jennifer Bartlett, Jim Dine's drawings from the Glyptotek ...... a persondl y significant rzahire subject or theme is selected for development in a series of drawings by each student students are guided in making interpretations from observed reality, and exercise their understanding of concepts and techniques covered in the latter chapters drawings are rendered in a variety of different media and formats. Particular attention is given to: the spatial organisation of masses the nature of selected forms the tonal treatment (effect of light and dark) sequentiai or non-sequential variations on a theme pertinent questions that help students and teachers do critical analyses of their dnwings wilI be listed beginner students concentrate on developing different interpretations and views of the Same subject advanced students experiment with serial drawings, which have a transitional development Chapter 8: Life Drawing: Why. When. Where and Who and How 1n this important section: esamples of figure studies, traditional and contempmy are studied and analysed in slides and reproductions themes of empathy, taste, censorship, life and cultural values cm be discussed white viewing stimulating works a 10 week programme is included for readers wishing an introduction to figure study, reinforcing the practice of: gesture and contour sketches, sighting, measunng and estimating anatomid proportions a 10 week programme for intermediate and advanced students will be suggested, permitting them to advance in their comprehension of rendering hurnan and animai foms, and representing live, moving subjects in contexts students and teachers are guided in different ways and means of setting up interesting and challenging studio scenarios in preparation for working on outside locations Chapter 9: Nearand Far In this section: students are introduced to traditional concepts of space as illustnted in landscape and figure drawings i.e. Rembrandt and Claude Lorrain sighting and measuring techniques are used to demonstrate differences in near and far objects of the same type i.e. 12 eggs esercises are suggested which help students put spatial concepts into practice by having them draw interiors, landscapes and loreshortened models loohng through a glas rectangie and dnwing contours on it with washable markers, help students understand perspective in practice advanced students wanting more theory can be directed to readings and esercises explaining 1 and 3 point perspective Chapter 10: Invention In this chapter: students view exarnples of drawings that elabomte upon, or distance from observed redit): i.e. the 'idea' drawing of Escher, the staircases of Rranesi, Mondrian's apple tree series and contemporary abstract drawings exercises using various devises and pretexts to help students: abstract from redity, draw from memory and invent will be presented, for example: viewing subjects through pattemed film projecting slides on subjects viewing blurred images developing ' blind' marks and notations incorporating script and calligraphc notations improvising from music, poetry, text *constnicting imaginary landscapes, buildings. robots. machines etc. special attention is directed to variations of form and formats. and framing possi bilities Chapter Il: Back to finper painting This chapter comes full circle and retums to the important stage of matenal experimentation. Studen ts: view and discuss prehistoric to conternporary examples of drawings experiment with very different surfaces and formats vary their drawing rhythrns, scale and materials rework unsuccessful drawings with mixed media and bridge the transition between drawing and painting by incorpomting a variety of dry and wet painting media and restricted use of colour Chapter 12: Individual projects Various long term projects are proposed for students: diptich, triptich, and composite drawings a series of night drawings reworking well-known images Summary: Brief recommendations suggesting how students can develop their dnwing prac tice, wi th suggestions for the preservation and presentation of drawings. The text concludes wi th some provocative quotations and visuals. Bibliography: A list of sources Recommended Reading and Viewing: An ample annotated reading list including a list oT artists whose pertinent gnphic works exist in monognphs. Index: Alphabetical reference and page numbers. CONCLUSION If current educational research were able to enhance the possibility of attaining a visual education in the university setting, or if it were to affect the curriculum plans of policy makers, then its practices would be validated. The opposite effect, however, is being witnessed - serious training in the visud arts is dirninishing in availabili ty. Therefore in order to survive as a viable, visual pursuit, drawing (and painting) should consider jumping ship, and distancing itself from inhospi table and tenuous settings. The biggest outcome of this venture, however, is that the teaching of drawing could well become the domain of pnvate industry technicians. The problem with that option is that technical schools risk succumbing to market demands, and teaching drawing solely as a means of representation. Where then, does a comfortable place exist for a drawing education? If a drawing education stands any chance of survival in any context, it needs to regain the authority of the visual and not emulate the semantics of other academic subjects. Drawing must cultivate its unique visuai chancter to maintain legitimacy, and not rely upon its affiliations with academia to enhance its authority. Studio schools, modelled after the Bauhaus provide viable alternatives, require private funding, but may prove to be the most hospitable place for a drawing (painting) education. And, for drawing to remain relevant as a subject in the future, in whichever milieu it is taught, teachers have a dual responsibility: First, for those students taking a drawing class in the course of other art studies. teachers must provide sound basic graphic skills and connect drawing to the content OF other art practices and usable theory. Morover, for general students who encounter only one or two art classes in their lives, the tacher must help them enhance their perception and acquisition of basic graphic skills, nnd develop new awareness and attitudes to art which will remain relevant and rneaningful to these students twenty years later. I would like to argue that the field of drawing education can be enpanded beyond the visual concerns of students as well, wi thout failing victim to semantics or theory. Thc espanded horizon would include a vision which fuses the aesthetic and ethical as it relates drawing to nature and society. Therefore. keeping in mind the attainment of praxis, the proposed drawing manual will reflect only those themes that are grounded in the material practice of drawing. Validated teaching practices [rom the traditions of the drawing discipline will be canïed on, as well as concems and practices relevant to contemporary art. The latter are derived from the appreciation and analysis of contemporary artworks and reflect concems of spatial flatness, fragmentation of images, rnixed-media techniques and reference to subjects relevant in Our present lifestyles and diverse realities. Based on my observations 1 conclude that: the motivated art student seeking an art education, within or without an academic setting, deserves excellence in teaching the visual arts are cultivated through practice, and any interplay with theory must derive from the visuai and retuni to enrich the visual reestablishing the primacy of the visual to the teaching of the visual arts is best achieved in a hospitable setting where the standards and vaiidity of the discipline cm be established according to visual criteria, and not remote theory. the field of teaching drawing can be expanded to reflect visual, spiritual and ethical concerns To respond to these demands drawing instructors need a familiarity with textual sources that fuse drawing practice with theory. Since teachers have limited time for research, a coherent teat, that dnws on a variety of sources and methods, well supported by visual data would be recommended. My research suggests that many teachers have not upgraded their reading lists for close to twenty years. The drawing manual that 1 have proposed aims to relate contempomy themes to grounded drawing methods, responding to the evident shortcomings unearthed in both the theoretical literature review and the qualitative research carried out for this study. 1t is suggested, in conclusion, that such a test would provide a timely, much needed and welcome teaching tool, providing a valuable contribution toward a richer praxis of teaching drawing. References

Ar n heim, R., ( 1954) Art and Visual Perception: a psvchologv or the creative eve. Berkeley: University of Cal ifomia Press.

Belenky, M.F., Clinchy, B.M., Goldberger, N.R., & Tarule, J.M. (eds) ( 1986). Women's wavs of knowine: The developement of self, voice and mind. U.S.: Basic Books.

Bengtsson, J. ( 1993). Theory and Practice: Two fundamental categories in the philosophy of tacher education. Educational Review. 9(3). 205-3 11.

Berger, J. ( 19'72). W-s of Seeing, Middlesex: Penguin Books. ( 1960). Permanent Red: Essavs in Seeinp. London: Methuen & Co. ( 1985). The sense of sight. NY:Pantheon Books. ( 1991). Keeping a Rendezvous. NY: Pantheon Books.

Bourdieu, P. (1993). The Field of Cultural Production. Cambridge: Poli ty Press. Caton, J.H. (1984). The Utopian Vision of Moholv-Nael. Michigan: UMI Research Press.

Chaet, B. ( 1970). The Art of Drawing. NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Danto, A.C. ( 1986). Encounters & Reflections: Art in the Historical Present. NY: Farrar Straus Girous.

De Bono, E. ( 1967). The Use of Lateral Thinking- London: Penguin Books.

Efland, A. D. ( 1990). A History of Art Education: Intellectual and Social Currents in Tacttins the Visual Arts. NY:Teachers College Press. Eisner , E. W. (1990). The Enlipfitened Eve: Ouaiitative Inquiw and the Enhancement of Educational Practice. NY:Mcmil lm Pub1 ishing.

Fuller, P. ( 1980). Seeing Berger: A Reavaluation bv Peter Fuller. London: Writers and Readers. ( 1980). Bevond the Crisis in Art. London: Wnters and Readers. ( 1983). The Naked Artist: Art and Biologv. London: Wnters and Readers. ( 1985) Images of God. London: Chatto & Windus.

Glaser, B.G. & Strauss, A.L. ( 1%7). The Disccverv of Grounded Theoq: Strateaies for Oualitative Research. IL: Aldine. Goldstein, N. (1976). Figure Drawing: the structure, anatomy and expressive design of human fonn. NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Goldwater, R., & Treves, M. (Eds.). (1945). ArtistsonArt. NY: Pantheon Books.

Woodfield, R., (Ed.). (1996). The Essential Gombrich: Selected wntings on art and culture. London: Phaidon Press. 1O6 Griffïths, M. & Tann, S. (1992). Using RefIective Practice to Link Personal and Public Theories. Journal of Education for Teachine, 18 ( l), 69-84.

Hale, R.B., ( 1964). Drawing lessons from the Great Masters. NY:Watson-Guptill Publications.

Daniel Her witz. ( 1993). Making Theorv/Constructing Art: On the Authoritv of the Avant-Garde. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Hi1 1, E. ( 1966). The Landguage of Drawing. NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Hospers, J. ( 1976). Meaninp and Tmth in the Am. NC: University of North Carolina Press. Kandinsky, W., ( 1977). Conceming the Spiritual in Art. London: Dover.

Kaupelis, R. ( 1983). Leamine to draw: A creative Approach To Expressive Drawine. Watson-Guptill Publications: N.Y. ( 1980). Experimentai Drawing. Watson-Guptil: N.Y.

K tee, P. ( 1948). On Modem Art. London: Faber & Faber.

Knobler, N. ( 1x7).The Visuai Dialogue: An Introduction to the Appreciation of Art. NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Kuchling, H., (Ed.). ( 1971). Oscar Schiemmer: Man: Teaching notes [rom the Bauhaus.Cambridge: The M.I.T. Press.

Lebrun, R. ( 1% 1). Drawings. LA: Berkeley Press.

Lytle, S.L. & Cochran-Smith, M. (lm).Teacher Research as a Way of Knowi ng. Harvard Educational Review , a (4), 447-474.

Malins, F. ( 1981). Drawinp Ideas of The Masters: Artist's techniques cornpared and, contrasted: London: Phaidon Press.

Marcuse, H. ( 1978). The Aesthetic Dimension: Towards a cri tique of Marsist Aesthetics. MA: Beacon Press. Mendelowitz, D.M. (1%7). Drawing. NY:Hoit, Rinehart & Winston. Herwitz, D. (1993). Making Theory/Constnicting Art: On the Authoritv of the Avant- Garde. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

McDonald, J. (Ed.). (1993). Peter Fuller's Modem Painters: Reflections on British -Art. London: Methuen. Moynihan, J.P. (1980). The Infiuence of the Bauhaus on Art and Art Education in the United States. 1llinois: Northwestem University Press. Nicolaides, K. (1941). The Natural Wav to Draw: A Working Plan for Art Studv. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. Orvick, O.G., Bone, R.O., Stinson, R.E., Wigg P.R. (Eds.). (W75). Fundamentah: Theorv and Practice. Dubuque: W M. C. Brown Co.

Polanyi, M. ( 1966). The Tacit Dimension. NY:Doubleday.

Rawso n, P. ( 1969). Drawing. Philadelphia: Uriiversi ty of Pennsylvania Press. ( 1979). Seeine: throuh Drawing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation. Ruskin, J. (1971). The Elements of Drawing. NY:Dover Publications. ( 185 1- 1860) Modem Painters. Vol. 14, Vol. 15. London: Smith & Elder.

Sc hon, D. A. ( 1983). The reflective practi tioner: How professionals think in action. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Silcock, P. ( 1994). The Process of Reflexive Teaching. British Journal of Educationd studies, 42 (J), 273-285.

Smith, R. A. (1989). The Sense of Art: A Studv in Aesthetic Education. London: Rou tledge. Steinberg, L. (1971). Other Criteria: Confrontations with Twentieth - Centurv Art. London: Oxford University Press.

Weitz, M. ( 1950). Philosophv of the Arts. NY: Russell & Russell.

Wilson, B., Hurwitz, A., & Wilson B.,. (1987). Teachine DrawineFrorn An. MA: Davis miblications.

Wigg, P. ( 1967). Introduction to figure drawing: Perceptual and conceptual problems in drawing from life. Iowa: Wm. C. Brown.

Williams, R. (1976). Kewords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. Surrey: FontandCroom /Helm. ( 1989). The Politics of Modemism: Against the New Conformists. London: Verso. W ind, E. ( 1960). Art and Anarchy. London: Faber and Faber. Woilheim, R. (1984). Painting as an An NJ: Princeton University Press. ( 1993). The Mind and its Depths. London: Harvard University Press: l MAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (QA-3)

APPLIED - IMGE. lnc -= 1653 East Main Street ,-. -- Rochester. NY 14609 USA ------Phone: 1161482-0300 ---- Fax: 7161288-5989

O 1993. Appliad image. lm.. Ali Righis Fiesenrad