ART SCHOOL MYTHOLOGY for students
Mani Deli
Ideally speaking it addresses no particular style. It is rote. It is a
collection of information on, how to draw any form, painting
technique, craft and the scientific basis of art from drawing to
color. Classical technique is nothing more than a foundation.
To claim that this body of basic knowledge will somehow hamper your
"freedom," is as silly as saying that learning grammar will cramp your
abilities to express your ideas in writing. Of course knowing grammar
doesn't guarantee that you will ever have any ideas,
Rote isn't a "license" to anything. What one does with it good or not,
is for viewers to decide.
However Ignorance of technique and craft is almost always a guarantee
of failure.
Those who haven't learned there craft, a fact which any idiot can
discern by looking at their work, will invent all sorts of warnings
that skill and craftsmanship are dangerous or old fashioned; that if
you learn the basics which they label academic, you will loose your
freedom, your creativity and you will only be able to draw exactly
what you see in front of you and you will produce little more than
candy boxes etc. etc. In reality, they suggest that you remain an
ignoramus.
...no skill no art!
Tired of Modern Art? Check out my web page
Richard
On Tue, 17 Sep 2002 18:34:09 -0400, Mani Deli <ma...@sympatico.ca>
wrote:
I agree 100%.
In fact, mastering real artistic skills gives you MORE freedom to
create and more power to communicate your feelings and concepts. In
every other field, people know that the more you know and the higher
your skills are, the more you can do. But in the field of art, some
people have created a myth that the opposite is true. But that's a
complete lie. You can't write a great novel if you have the english
skills of a first grade child. You can't compose a great symphony if
you can barely play an instrument. If you can't tell what a painting
is supposed to mean just by looking at it, then it is CRAP, pure and
simple. It has FAILED to communicate. Communication is the one thing
that all art has in common. It's supposed to communicate ideas,
feelings, and concepts. And the better your artistic skills, the
better you can communicate.
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keith o'connor (tinmangallery.com
keith
Richard <cool_a...@z.com> wrote in message
news:5nfkouc57vk2e09jb...@4ax.com...
keith o'connor (tinmangallery.com
keith
Robert Genn's Twice Weekly Letter
Insight and inspiration for your artistic career.
http://www.painterskeys.com
September 17, 2002
Dear Keith,
Right now I'm in a "swarm." It's an arty crowd moving among
"alternate" galleries in a once-a-year event. Some of these
artist-run spaces hide in back-alleys and the basements of
condemned buildings. Here and about there are the haunting
faces of the needle exchange. It's the bad end of town. Among
my fellow swarmers are green-hairs, nose-rings, hipsters,
recent art-school grads, the bourgeoisie and other subscribers.
There are big black gestural paintings, small homo-porno
doodling and dumpster imaging, blow-up photos of crack baggies,
bicycle-tread paintings, suspended pantyhose sculpture, a
gigantic Styrofoam crow, a loop movie of coloured snow with a
white-noise soundtrack. We take a burgundy art-deco elevator
with accordion doors through five floors of studios and
galleries. In one place artists focus on a generously tattooed
but otherwise naked man. He strikes five-second poses
accompanied by moaning. Every time he changes positions he
changes the tone of his wordless, primal song.
In another gallery there's a drawing table with a roll of brown
paper. An artist draws while someone else turns a crank that
moves the paper along the table. We all have a go--plastic cup
of mini-cask wine in one hand, charcoal tidbit in the other.
It takes getting used to. At first you have an idea of what
your drawing should look like--then the paper moves and you
have to immediately throw out this notion and go with nothing
but your line. The cranker cranks faster. Three artists draw
on the paper at one time. The artist closest to the cranker
gets the final say.
In another place you can do a felt-tip drawing on Mylar looking
at your model through a window of Plexiglas. In another
there's a mobile easel--you do your drawing by moving the
easel, not the pencil. High on all the fun we merge into the
Chinatown Night Market. Egg-funnelcakes, bubble-tea, taro
snacks, Pocky, durian, gambling. There's a children's train,
devoid of children, chugging alone from somewhere to somewhere.
Best regards,
Robert
PS: "You should often amuse yourself when you take a walk for
recreation, in watching and taking note of the attitudes and
actions of others, or when they laugh or come to blows. Note
these down with rapid strokes, in a little pocket-book which
you ought always to carry with you." (Leonardo Da Vinci)
Esoterica: It is our gift to be tourists of the imagination.
We are time-travelers in a world of shock and schlock. We may
for a time suspend our morality or our sense of propriety. We
marvel at human invention. We flirt with sights and ideas. We
cross these visions with our own. "In an atmosphere of
liberty, artists and patrons are free to think the unthinkable
and create the audacious; they are free to make both horrendous
mistakes and glorious celebrations." (Ronald Reagan)
If you would like to see selected, illustrated responses to the
last letter "Of geese and swans," please go to
http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/swans.htm
If you would like to comment on this letter or give your own
thoughts, systems or opinions, please do so. Thanks for writing
rg...@saraphina.com
If you think a friend or fellow artist may find value in this
material please feel free to copy. This does not mean that
they will automatically be subscribed to the Twice-Weekly
Letter. They have to do it voluntarily and can find out about
it by going to http://www.painterskeys.com
The Twice-Weekly Letters are in Russian at
http://painterskeys.narod.ru/ and in French at
http://www.painterskeys.com/fr/
Cette lettre ainsi que de plus anciennes se trouvent en
francais sur le site www.painterskeys.com/fr/.
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(c) Copyright 2002 Robert Genn. The "Robert Genn Twice Weekly
Letter" may only be redistributed in its unedited form. Written
permission from the author must be obtained to reprint or cite
the information contained within this newsletter.
Purchase a copy of Robert Genn's "The Painter's Keys" - the
seminar in a book for artists and all creative people - online
at: http://www.painterskeys.com/purchase_TPK.htm
Mani Deli <ma...@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:rabfou412u3jfr6u5...@4ax.com...
Andrew D
"keith o'connor (tinmangallery.com" <scot...@rogers.com> wrote:
+Richard <cool_a...@z.com> wrote in message
+news:5nfkouc57vk2e09jb...@4ax.com...
[snip]
+> In fact, mastering real artistic skills gives you MORE freedom to
+> create and more power to communicate your feelings and concepts. In
+> every other field, people know that the more you know and the higher
+> your skills are, the more you can do. But in the field of art, some
+> people have created a myth that the opposite is true. But that's a
+> complete lie. You can't write a great novel if you have the english
+> skills of a first grade child. You can't compose a great symphony if
+> you can barely play an instrument. If you can't tell what a painting
+> is supposed to mean just by looking at it, then it is CRAP, pure and
+> simple. It has FAILED to communicate. Communication is the one thing
+> that all art has in common. It's supposed to communicate ideas,
+> feelings, and concepts. And the better your artistic skills, the
+> better you can communicate.
+All you have to do is figure out what real artistic skill is.
And according to some, it is never learning anything beyond the ability to
pick up a crayon and scribble on the wall when Mum isn't looking. This, we
are advised, is the peak of creativity and everything that follows is
restricted by learning and the more we learn, the less we know (curious
perhaps but hey, it's not my theory). Luckily, these people don't have
much say over the curriculum in literacy and music courses.
There is a belief among the art elite that the greatest paintings are
those that communicate a message only to the rest of the elite. The more
widely understood the message is, the less it is classed as art. At some
point, the message is considered so clear that the work must be dismissed
as illustration. If you haven't been to university and don't live in a big
city then you can't possibly begin to understand what art really is.
The only unfortunate thing about this is that the elite are the ones
running many major public galleries and universities.
Andy D.
"I'm a great speller - but a hopless tpyist!"
Mani Deli
Here is a particularly fine quote worth repeating. Clear concice and
to the point!
(Andrew D) wrote:
>There is a belief among the art elite that the greatest paintings are
>those that communicate a message only to the rest of the elite. The more
>widely understood the message is, the less it is classed as art. At some
>point, the message is considered so clear that the work must be dismissed
>as illustration. If you haven't been to university and don't live in a big
>city then you can't possibly begin to understand what art really is.
>
>The only unfortunate thing about this is that the elite are the ones
>running many major public galleries and universities.
...no skill no art!
Want to get away from the indecipherable imbecilities and absurd pretensions of the modern art establishment?
Nerd Gerl
Mani Deli <ma...@sympatico.ca> wrote in article
<a4rmpucedvvvae7tp...@4ax.com>...
>
> Here is a particularly fine quote worth repeating. Clear concice and
> to the point!
>
> (Andrew D) wrote:
> >There is a belief among the art elite that the greatest paintings are
> >those that communicate a message only to the rest of the elite. The more
> >widely understood the message is, the less it is classed as art. At some
> >point, the message is considered so clear that the work must be dismissed
> >as illustration. If you haven't been to university and don't live in a big
> >city then you can't possibly begin to understand what art really is.
Um... if you are in a university, and live in a big city, you aren't
exactly among the elite, now are you?
> >The only unfortunate thing about this is that the elite are the ones
> >running many major public galleries and universities.
If they can't teach elite art to the point where every graduate
produces elite art, then they are truly not the "elitists" claimed
above, but instead, pocket pickers.
=============
Naked Angel Art
http://www.rcip.com/nerdgerl
keith o'connor (tinmangallery.com
keith
Nerd Gerl <nerd...@rcip.com> wrote in message
news:c45b61ca.02100...@posting.google.com...
Nerd Gerl
article <6NZm9.131694$q41....@news02.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com>...
> perception is reality!
Logic defies both.