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ART TEACHING

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 705 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ART TEACHING . It is the tendency of all departments of the human mind to outgrow their See also:original limits. Traditions of teaching are See also:long-lived, especially in art, and new ideas only slowly displace the old, so that art teaching as a whole is seldom abreast of the ideas and practice of the more advanced artists. The old See also:academic See also:system adapted to the methods and aims in art in the 18th See also:century, which has been carried on in the See also:principal art See also:schools of See also:Great See also:Britain with but slight changes of method, consisted chiefly of a course of See also:drawing from casts of See also:antique statues in outline, and in See also:light and shade without backgrounds, of anatomical drawings, See also:perspective, and drawing and See also:painting from the living See also:model. Such a training seems to be more or less a response to See also:Lessing's See also:definition of painting as " the See also:imitation of solid bodies upon a See also:plane See also:surface." It seems to have been influenced more by the sculptor's art than any other. Indeed, the academic teaching from the See also:time of the See also:Italian See also:Renaissance was no doubt principally derived from the study of antique See also:sculpture; the proportions of the figure, the See also:style, pose, and sentiment being all taken from Graeco-See also:Roman and Roman sculptures, discovered so abundantly in See also:Italy from the 16th century onwards. As See also:British ideas of art were principallyderived from Italy, British academics endeavoured to follow the methods of teaching in See also:vogue there in later times, and so the art student in Great Britain has had his intention and efforts directed almost exclusively to the representations of the abstract human See also:form in abstract See also:relief. Traditions in art, however, may sometimes prove helpful and beneficial, and preservative of beauty and See also:character, as in the See also:case of certain decorative and constructive arts and handicrafts in See also:common use, such as those of the rural waggon-maker and wheelwright, and See also:horse-See also:harness maker. Some schools of painting, sculpture and See also:architecture have preserved See also:fine and See also:noble traditions which yet allowed for individuality. Such traditions may be said to have been characteristic of the art of the See also:middle ages. It often happens, too, when many streams of See also:artistic See also:influence meet, there may be a certain domination or ascendancy of the traditions of one art over the others, which is injurious in its effects on those arts and diverts them from their true path. The domination of individualistic painting and sculpture over the arts of See also:design during the last century or two is a case in point.

With the awakening of See also:

interest in See also:industrial art—sharply separated by pedantic See also:classification from fine art—which began in See also:England about the middle of the 19th century, schools of design were established which included more varied studies. Even as See also:early as 1836 a See also:government See also:grant was made towards the opening of public galleries and the See also:establishment of a normal school of design with a museum and lectures, and in 1837 the first school of design was opened at See also:Somerset See also:House. In 1840 grants were made to establish schools of the same See also:kind in provincial towns, such as See also:Manchester, See also:Birmingham, See also:Glasgow, See also:Leeds and See also:Paisley. The names of G. See also:Wallis in 1847, and See also:Ambrose See also:Poynter in 1850, are associated with schemes of art instruction adopted in the government art schools, and the See also:year 1851, the year of the Great See also:Exhibition, was also marked by the first public exhibition of students' See also:works, and the first institution of prizes and scholarships. In 1852 " the See also:Department of See also:Practical Art " was constituted, and a museum of See also:objects collected at See also:Marlborough House which afterwards formed the See also:nucleus of the future museum at See also:South See also:Kensington. In 1853 " the Department of See also:Science and Art " was established, and in 1857, under the auspices of See also:Henry See also:Cole, the offices of the department and the See also:National Art Training School were removed from Marlborough House to South Kensington. Classes for instruction in various crafts had been carried on both at Somerset House and Marlborough House, and the whole See also:object of the government schools of design was to give an artistic training to the designer and craftsman, so that he could carry back to his See also:trade or See also:craft improved See also:taste and skill. The schools, however, became largely filled by students of another type—leisured amateurs who sought to acquire some artistic accomplishment, and even in the case of genuine designers and craftsmen who See also:developed pictorial skill in their studies, the attraction and See also:superior social distinction and possibility of superior commercial value accruing to the career of a painter of easel pictures diverted the schools from their original purpose. For some time after the removal to South Kensington, during the progress of the new buildings, and under the direction of See also:Godfrey Sykes and F. W. See also:Moody, practical decorative See also:work both in modelling and painting was carried out in the National Art Training School; but on the completion of these works, the school relapsed into a more or less academic school on the See also:ordinary lines, and was regarded chiefly as a school for the training of art teachers and masters who were required to pass through certain stereotyped courses and execute a certain See also:series of drawings in See also:order to obtain their certificates.

Thus model-drawing, freehand outline, plant-drawing in outline, outline from the See also:

cast, light and shade from the cast, drawing of the antique figure, still See also:life, anatomical drawings, drawing and painting from the life, ornamental design, historic studies of See also:ornament, perspective and See also:geometry, were all taken up in a cut-and-dried way, as isolated studies, and with a view solely to obtaining the certificate or passing an examination. This theoretic kind of training, though still in force, and though it enabled the department to turn out certificated teachers for the schools of the See also:country of a certain See also:standard, and to give to students a See also:general theoretic See also:idea of art, has been found wanting, since, in practice, when the student in design leaves his school and desires to take up practical work as a designer or craftsman, he requires See also:special knowledge, and specialized skill in design for his work to be of use; and though he may be able to impart to others what he himself has laboriously acquired, the theoretic and general character of his training proves of little or no use, See also:face to face with the ever shifting and changing demands of the See also:modern manufacturer and the modern See also:market. A growing conviction of the inadequacy of the schools of the Science and Art Department (now the See also:Board of See also:Education), considered as training grounds for practical designers and craftsmen, led to the establishment of new technical schools in the principal towns of Great Britain. The circumstance of certain large sums, diverted from their original purpose of See also:compensation to brewers, being available for educational purposes and at the disposal of the See also:county See also:councils and municipal bodies, provided the means for the See also:building and equipment of these new technical schools, which in many cases are under the same roof as the art school in the provincial towns, and, since the Education See also:Act of 1902, are generally See also:rate-supported. The art schools formerly managed by private committees and supported by private donors, assisted by the government grants, are now, in the principal industrial towns of Great Britain, taken over by the See also:municipality. Birmingham is singularly well organized in this respect, and its art school has long held a leading position. The school is well housed in a new building with class-rooms with every appliance, not only for the drawing, designing and modelling See also:side, but also for the practice of artistic handicrafts such as See also:metal repousse, enamelling, See also:wood-See also:carving, See also:embroidery, &c. The municipality have also established a See also:jewelry school, so as to See also:associate the practical study of art with See also:local See also:industry. Manchester and other cities are also equipped with well-organized art schools. The important See also:change involved in the See also:incorporation of the Science and Art Department with the Board of Education also led to a reorganization of the Royal See also:College of Art. A special See also:council of See also:advice on art matters was appointed, consisting of representatives of painting, sculpture, architecture and design, who See also:deal with the Royal College of Art, and appoint the professors who See also:control the teaching in the classes for architecture, design and handicraft, decorative painting and sculpture, modelling and carving. The council decide upon the curriculum, and examine and criticize the work of the college from time to time.

Phoenix-squares

They also advise the board in regard to the See also:

syllabus issued to the art schools of the country, and act as referees in regard to purchases for the museum. Of other institutions for the teaching of art, the following may he named: The Royal Drawing Society of Great Britain and See also:Ireland, which was formed principally to promote the teaching of drawing in schools as a means of education. The system therein adopted differs from the ordinary drawing courses, and favours the use of the See also:brush. Brushwork has generally been adopted for elementary work, too, by See also:London County Council teachers, drawing being now a compulsory subject. Remarkable results have been obtained by the See also:Alma Road Council schools in the teaching of boys from eight to twelve by giving them spaces to fill with given forms—leaf shapes—from which patterns are constructed to fill the spaces, brush and See also:water-See also:colour being the means employed. At the Royal See also:Female School of Art in See also:Queen Square, London, classes in drawing and painting from life are held, and decorative design is also studied. There are also the Royal School of Art See also:Needlework and the School of Art Wood-carving, all aided by the London County Council. The See also:City and Guilds of London See also:Institute has two departments for what is termed " applied " art, one at the South London School of Technical Art, and the other at the Art Department in the Technical College, See also:Finsbury. The See also:Slade School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture, University College, See also:Gower See also:Street, See also:con-fines itself to drawing and painting from the antique and life,and exercise in pictorial See also:composition. There are also lectures on See also:anatomy and perspective. The Slade professorships at See also:Oxford and See also:Cambridge See also:universities are concerned with the teaching and literature of art, but they do not concern themselves with the practice. There are also, in addition to the schools of art named and those in connexion with the Board of Education and the London County Council in the various districts of London, many and various private clubs and schools, such as the See also:Langham and " Heatherley's," chiefly concerned in encouraging drawing and painting from the life, and for the study of art from the pictorial point of view, or for the preparation of candidates for the Royal See also:Academy or other schools.

The polytechnics and technical institutes also provide instruction in a great variety of artistic crafts. A general survey, therefore, of the various institutions which are established for the teaching of art in Great Britain gives the impression that the study of art is not neglected, although, perhaps, further inquiry might show that, compared with the great educational establishments, the proportion is not excessive. Now that the Education Act 5902 has given the county councils control of elementary and secondary education and charged them with the task of promoting the co-ordination of all forms of education in consultation with the Board of Education, it is probable that an elementary See also:

scholar who shows artistic ability will be enabled to pass on from the elementary classes in one school to the higher art and technical schools, secondary and advanced, without retracing his steps, thus escaping the depression of going over old ground. The general See also:movement of revival of interest in the arts of decorative design and the allied handicrafts, with the See also:desire to re-establish their influence in art-teaching, has been due to many causes, among which the work of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society may See also:count as important. From the leading members of this See also:body the London County Council Technical Educational Board, when it was face to face with the problem of organizing its new schools and its technical classes, sought advice and aid. Success has attended their schools, especially the Central School of Arts and Crafts at See also:Morley See also:Hall, See also:Regent Street. The object of the school is to provide the craftsman in the various branches of decorative design with such means of improving his taste and skill as the workshop does not afford. It does not concern itself with the See also:amateur or with theoretic drawing. The See also:main difference in principle adopted in this school in the teaching of design is the See also:absence of teaching design apart from handicraft. It is considered that a craftsman thoroughly acquainted with the natural capacities of his material and strictly understanding the conditions of his work, would be able, if he had any feeling or invention, to design appropriately in that material, and no designing can be See also:good apart from a knowledge of the material in which it is intended to be carried out. It should be remembered, too, that graphic skill in representing the appearances of natural objects is one sort of skill, and the executive skill of the craftsman in working out his design, say in wood or metal, is quite another. It follows that the works of drawing or design made by the craftsman would be of quite a different character from a pictorial drawing, and might be quite See also:simple and abstract, while clear and accurate.

The training for the pictorial artist and for the craftsman would, therefore, naturally be different. The character of the art-teaching adopted in any country must of course depend upon the dominant conception of art and its See also:

function and purpose. If we regard it as an idle accomplishment for the leisured few, its methods will be amateurish and superficial. If we regard art as an important See also:factor in education, as a See also:language of the intelligence, as an indispensable See also:companion to literature, we shall favour systematic study and a training in the See also:power of See also:direct expression by means of See also:line. We shall value the symbolic drawing of early civilizations like the See also:Egyptian, and symbolic art generally, and in the See also:history of decorative art we shall find the true See also:accompaniment and See also:illustration of human history itself. From this point of view we shall value the acquisition of the power of drawing for the purpose of presenting and explaining the facts and forms of nature. Drawing will be the most direct means at the command of the teacher to explain, to expound, to demonstrate where See also:mere words are not sufficiently definite or explicit. Drawing in this sense is taking a more important See also:place in education, especially in See also:primary education, though there is no need for it to stop there, and one feels it may be destined to take a more important position both as a training for the See also:eye and See also:hand and an aid to the teacher. Then, again, we may regard art more from its social aspect as an essential accompaniment of human life, not only for its illustrative and depicting See also:powers, but also and no less for its See also:pleasure-giving properties, its power of awakening and stimulating the observation and sympathy with the moods of nature, its power of touching the emotions, and above all of appealing to our sense of beauty. We shall regard the study of art from this point of view as the greatest civilizer, the most permeating of social and human forces. Such ideas as these, shared no doubt by all who take pleasure and interest in art, or feel it to be an important See also:element in their lives, are crossed and often obscured by a multitude of mundane considerations, and it is probably out of the struggle for ascendancy between these that our systems of art teaching are evolved. There is the demand of the right to live on the See also:part of the artist and the teacher of art.

There is the demand on the part of the manufacturer and salesman for such art as will help him to dispose of his goods. In the See also:

present commercial rivalry between nations this latter demand is brought into prominent relief, and art is See also:apt to be made a See also:minister, or perhaps a slave to the market. These are but accidental relation-See also:ships with art. All who care for art value it as a means of expression, and for the pleasure and beauty it infuses into all it touches, or as essential and inseparable from life itself. Seeing then the importance of art from any point of view, individual, social, commercial, intellectual, emotional, economic, it should be important to us in our systems of art-teaching not to lose sight of the end in arranging the means—not to allow our teaching to be dominated by either dilettantism or commercialism, neither to be feeble for want of technical skill, nor to See also:sacrifice everything to technique. The true object of art-teaching is very much like that of all education—to inform the mind, while you give skill to the hand—not to impose certain rigid rules, or fixed recipes and methods of work, but while giving instruction in definite methods and the use of materials, to allow for the individual development of the student and enable him to acquire the power to See also:express himself through different See also:media without forgetting the See also:grammar and See also:alphabet of design. Practice may vary, but principles remain, and there is a certain See also:logic in art, as well as in reasoning. All art is conditioned in the mode of its expression by its material, and even the most individual kind of art has a See also:convention of its own by the very necessities and means of its existence. Methods of expression, conventions alter as each artist, each See also:age seeks some new See also:interpretation of nature and the imagination—the well-springs of artistic life, and from these reviving streams continually flow new harmonies, new inventions and recombinations, taking form and colour according to the temperaments which give them See also:birth. (W.

End of Article: ART TEACHING

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