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Why Art Cannot be Taught: A Handbook for Art Students
by
James Elkins
In this smart survival guide for students and teachers -- the only book of its kind -- James Elkins examines the "curious endeavor to teach the unteachable" that is generally known as college-level art instruction.Elkins traces the development (or invention) of the modern art school and considers how issues such as the question of core curriculum and the intellectual isola...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
May 17th 2001
by University of Illinois Press
(first published 2001)
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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. It...more
As an artist and art educator, I want to start by stating that I really wanted to enjoy this book. Some of its virtues include very interesting approaches to critiques that I would love to try: secretly placing someone else's piece among a series of your own, having someone else "play" you as the artist, including one work you absolutely hate, and/or emulating a famous artist without naming them. This was fascinating, although it took most of the book to get there.
In 2013, it's very difficult t...more
In 2013, it's very difficult t...more
My favorite quote
"It is a simple, inescapable fact that looking at a life model is a charged experience. No matter how used to it you get- and studio instructors can persuade themselves, over the course of years, that models really are nothing but interesting furniture- it still possesses sexual and social overtones. The model is "objectified," used as an example (as in medical school or hospital rounds- and we might also think of prisoner-of-war camps), and his or her personality is erased or d...more
"It is a simple, inescapable fact that looking at a life model is a charged experience. No matter how used to it you get- and studio instructors can persuade themselves, over the course of years, that models really are nothing but interesting furniture- it still possesses sexual and social overtones. The model is "objectified," used as an example (as in medical school or hospital rounds- and we might also think of prisoner-of-war camps), and his or her personality is erased or d...more
James Elkins is a good writer, but even a better speaker (I should say, I enjoy the way he speaks, If he were to actually be sized up for his speaking abilities, compared to great orators of the past, he would probably be categorized by many as an intellectual turd.) But I really like the way he speaks, I have had the opportunity on a few occasions and there are a few good interviews with him on badatsports.com - and this book of all the books of his I have read, is his most conversational. In f...more
Starting from a skeptical position, this excellent book describes the challenges and joys of teaching art. The author outlines the history of art education, noted that there has never been a "traditional" approach, methods and pedagogy involving teaching art has constantly evolved and changed with each era. Smartly, Mr. Elkins dispenses with some of the common perceptions about art school and lays out what is and what is not possible to teach in school. It also features a great section analyzing...more
I most appreciated Elkins' process of detailing the history of art schooling. It's very insightful to recognize that, no matter how we like to believe we're moving forward, so much of our training is bound in the past. Why can't art be taught? Because it's deeper than spoken language. Elkins showed that quite clearly in his exposés of The Critique. What I would like to see taught in the art schools is skilled workmanship and technique, the ability to communicate personal revelation, and most imp...more
I took forever to get into this. I think I got it as a (requested) Christmas gift years ago, but I just couldn't get into it.
As it was, I read the first 2/3 and then got bogged down. I finally finished it and I'm not sure how important that last 3rd really was.
I'm an art instructor at a community college, so the book isn't exactly aimed at me. It says on the cover it is for art students, meaning BFA or MFA students. However, even as an MFA student, the things referred to in the book, particular...more
As it was, I read the first 2/3 and then got bogged down. I finally finished it and I'm not sure how important that last 3rd really was.
I'm an art instructor at a community college, so the book isn't exactly aimed at me. It says on the cover it is for art students, meaning BFA or MFA students. However, even as an MFA student, the things referred to in the book, particular...more
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
Perhaps unintentionally funny, but an especially good guide to navigating critiques, why is a critique like a legal process, or like a seduction, or why do they digress so much? Elkins uses verbatim recordings of crits. For everyone who has gone, or will go to art school.
Mar 29, 2008
Gabriel
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
art students, art professors
Shelves:
art
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
Oct 09, 2012
Melissa Mitchell
is currently reading it
I am having to read this book for my Internship at school and it's a very interesting book. Much more technical than I thought it would be. But for anyone interested in the art field I think it's well worth reading.
Sep 29, 2012
Abreusky
added it
There's a quote from John Baldessari that says: "It's essentially an idea that you can't teach Art, but if you're around artists you might pick up something."
This book goes over the history of art schools/art education. His notes are not that interesting, and it gets a bit thick sometimes--I think he could have used a little more editing. However, it is very instructional about how art education has developed, especially since the Renaissance.
...I'm still reading it, but stalled due to my may classes. I'm taking art classes, and so it's a little weird to read a book about how 'art' can't be taught. I think you cannot be taught how to be an artist, bu...more
...I'm still reading it, but stalled due to my may classes. I'm taking art classes, and so it's a little weird to read a book about how 'art' can't be taught. I think you cannot be taught how to be an artist, bu...more
An excellent prising apart of the portentous Art School system of the last twenty or thirty years.
I get it.
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'.
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...
Nothing miraculous here. Some good history of the pedagogy of art, some interesting thought on styles of critique.
Good inquiry into art, art talk and art making. The title should be read as a question
The discussion of the limitations of critique is especially helpful.
May 23, 2013
Trang
marked it as to-read
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Jan 29, 2008 04:23pm