In this smart survival guide for students and teachers -- the only book of its kind -- James Elkins examines the "curious endeavor to teach the unt...
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Dec 16, 2009
Rob
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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.
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Jun 29, 2011
Lee
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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
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Feb 08, 2012
Apryl
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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 mos
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Jul 15, 2008
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
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Jun 14, 2010
Lori
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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
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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
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Sep 09, 2010
Anya
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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 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 More...
Jan 21, 2009
William
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An excellent prising apart of the portentous Art School system of the last twenty or thirty years.
Apr 03, 2008
Nick
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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'.
Aug 19, 2008
Cherry
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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...
Dec 16, 2009
K
rated it: 
Nothing miraculous here. Some good history of the pedagogy of art, some interesting thought on styles of critique.
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