Why Art Cannot Be Taught: A HANDBOOK FOR ART STUDENTS
by James Elkins
published
2001
by University of Illinois Press
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binding
Paperback, 224 pages
isbn
0252069501
(isbn13: 9780252069505)
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 69)
James Elkins has proven to be the leading diagnostician of art world follies. This work has become a small classic among artists working in the academic side of studio arts and should be required reading for anyone considering a BFA or MFA in visual art. Based upon his experiences as a student and professor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Elkins offers a wide array of anecdotes and analyses that will ring all too true to those of us who have waded the wild waters of art school. ...more
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Read in July, 2008
recommends it for:
people taking studio art classes
Yes, the title is intended to provoke. The chapter of this book that explores historical methods of teaching art was so stimulating that I almost had to lie down to recover--it explains so much of what you see in museums. Such as how in Renaissance academies, students studied the body partly to understand how emotions (humility, grief, etc.) are expressed in the human face and human gesture, and studied drapery etc. as objects, while in the modern period students studied the body as an object. M...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
art students, art professors
I enjoyed this book, but obviously felt it would have been more useful if I was a student, or a colleg professor. I thought the book provided a good discussion of the inability to teach and even define art. The book starts with a brief history of art education from medieval workshops to modern day colleges. Next is a section called Conversations, or Questions raised in art school. Next is Theories, or the lack thereof, about art education. The section called Critques explores the central method ...more
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1 comments
Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
art students
This book covers a rapid history of art education and then concentrates on the ambiguous experience of the critique and how to take more from this experience. Elkins brings up a very basic but profound idea: following judgement statements to their source as "axiomatic values" in order to understand the core values of one's community and oneself--by simply asking 'why, why, why'.
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Read in August, 2008
this is a good read that just confirms what all we somewhat cynical/realistic folks think about art teaching. it's probably not a good thing to read to gear up for schooltime, but...
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Read in January, 2005
Nothing miraculous here. Some good history of the pedagogy of art, some interesting thought on styles of critique.
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