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    • Eric Armusik
    • Eve Arnold
    • Anna-Brith Arnsten
    • Olivia Arthur
    • Steven Assael
    • Igor V. Babailov
    • Anna Rose Bain
    • Garin Baker
    • Allan R. Banks
    • Micha Bar-Am
    • Bruno Barbey
    • Colleen Barry
    • Alan Merris Bell
    • Julie Bell
    • Jonas Bendiksen
    • Ian Berry
    • Gulay Berryman
    • ​Werner Bischof
    • Kirsten Leah Bitzer
    • Matt Black
    • Sarah Blesener
    • David Michael Bowers
    • Roger Dale Brown
    • Paul S. Brown
    • Mary Ross Buchholz
    • Kristie Bruzenak
    • Nadir Bucan
    • Dot Bunn
    • Scott Burdick
    • René Burri
    • John Buxton
    • Antoine Bruy
    • Svetlana Cameron
    • Dario Campanile
    • Enri Canaj
    • Cornell Capa
    • Robert Capa
    • Louis Carr
    • Henri Cartier-Bresson
    • Chien-Chi Chang
    • Turjoy Chowdhury
    • Jacob Collins
    • Mary Jane Q Cross
    • David Andrew Nishita Cheifetz
    • Antoine d'Agata
    • Carla D'aguanno
    • Marcos Damascena
    • Bruce Davidson
    • Carl De Keyzer
    • Jon deMartin
    • Raymond Depardon
    • Bieke Depoorter
    • Stephanie Deshpande
    • Patrick Devonas
    • Paul P D'Haese
    • Marina Dieul
    • Shaun Downey
    • Carolyn Drake
    • Thomas Dworzak
    • Nikos Economopoulos
    • Virgil Elliott
    • Megan K. Euell
    • Philippe Faraut
    • Faripour Forouhar
    • Martine Franck
    • Stuart Franklin
    • Leonard Freed
    • Thomas Freteur
    • Joke Frima
    • Paul Fusco
    • Tina Garrett
    • Gilberto Geraldo
    • Daniel Gerhartz
    • Bruce Gilden
    • Max Ginsberg
    • Stephen Gjertson
    • Burt Glinn
    • Jim Goldberg
    • Arina Gordienko
    • Adrian Gottlieb
    • David Gray
    • Daniel Graves
    • Daniel E. Greene
    • Philip Jones Griffiths
    • Harry Gruyaert
    • Jean Guamy
    • James Gurney
    • Clark Gussin
    • Mandy Hallenius
    • Philippe Halsman
    • Gordon Hanley
    • David Hardy
    • Price Harrison
    • George Hartley
    • Christine Hartman
    • Erich Hartmann
    • David Alan Harvey
    • Seth Haverkamp
    • Jeff Hein
    • Tim Hetherington
    • Ron Hicks
    • Greg Hildebrandt
    • Thomas Hoepker
    • ​Sohrab Hura
    • David Hurn
    • Maureen Hyde
    • Jason Patrick Jenkins
    • Richard Kalvar
    • Svetlana Kanyo​
    • Thomas Kegler
    • Michael Vince Kim
    • Michael Klein
    • Josef Koudelka
    • Wang Kun
    • Alain Laboile
    • Sarah Lamb
    • Joshua LaRock
    • Bryan Larsen
    • Urban Larsson
    • Herman Leonard
    • Robert Liberace​
    • He Lihuai
    • Edward Little
    • Jeremy Lipking
    • Vivian Maier
    • Sally Mann
    • Constantine Manos
    • Diana Markosian
    • Steve McCurry
    • Sydney McGinley
    • Sherrie McGraw
    • Susan Meiselas
    • Terje Adler Mork
    • Karen Offutt
    • Graydon Parrish
    • Christopher Parrott
    • Leszek Piotrowski
    • Denise Pollack
    • Aleksi Poutanen
    • Christopher Pugliese
    • Julio Reyes
    • Lissa Rivera
    • Cristina García Rodero
    • Sergio Roffo
    • Cesar Santos
    • David Saxe
    • Nelson Shanks
    • Jordan Sokol
    • Viktoria Sorochinski
    • Paweł Starzec
    • Victoria Steel
    • Gwendolyn Stine
    • Dennis Stock
    • Vicki Sullivan
    • Carol Lee Thompson
    • Dan Thompson
    • Larry Towell
    • Hsin-Yao Tseng
    • Boris Vallejo
    • James Van Fossan
    • Jeffrey R. Watts
    • ​Patricia Watwood
    • Alex Webb
    • Morgan Weistling
    • Shane Wolf
    • Anna Wypych
    • ​Robert Zeller
    • Kailin Zhao
    • Doug Zider
  • Books
    • Colour Control
    • Dynamic Symmetry in Composition
    • Dynamic Symmetry - The Greek Vase
    • Perspective Made Easy
    • Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgment of Pictures
    • The Art of Composition: A Simple Application of Dynamic Symmetry
    • The Art of Composition: A Simple Application of Dynamic Symmetry (1956)
    • The Classic Point of View
    • The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry
    • Treatise in Landscape Painting
  • Articles & Videos
    • 3 Bad Habits All Photographers Should Break (Video)
    • 3 Reasons Why Most Photography Workshops Aren't Worth the Money
    • 5 Approaches to Composition in Photography (And Why They Won't Teach You Anything About Design)
    • 5 Myths About Composition (Video)
    • 14 Line Armature (Video)
    • An Email Addressing the Practical Use of Dynamic Symmetry in Art
    • A New, Old Way to Teach Art
    • Armature of the Rectangle (Video)
    • Art Can't Be Taught?
    • Art Educator Mandy Hallenius: Classical Training in Art Opens Creative Choices
    • Artist Robert Florczak: Classical Ideals Give Culture Depth
    • Breaking Down a Dynamic Symmetry Rectangle (Video)
    • Classical Realism- Part 1, 2, and 3
    • Classical Drawing Atelier - Introduction
    • Classical Painting Atelier - Introduction
    • Compositional Studies
    • Creating a Portfolio: Advice from Magnum
    • Drawing Is Back in Fashion
    • Drawing Is the Heart by Juliette Aristides
    • Dynamic Symmetry and Wildlife
    • Dynamic Symmetry for Photographers
    • Dynamic Symmetry, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Myron Barnstone​
    • Dynamic Symmetry in Fine Art Sculpture
    • Film vs. Digital
    • Gamut in Composition (Video)
    • Geometry of Design - Introduction
    • Greatest Area of Contrast (Video)
    • History Painting and the Problem with Art Education
    • How Skilled Copyists Leave the Louvre with a Masterpiece Every Year
    • How the Arts Develop the Young Brain
    • If Anything's Art, Art's Nothing
    • If Everything Is Art, Then Nothing Is Art
    • Isn't There Something Incomprehensible, Magical, or Mystical About Art?
    • Is Photography Art?
    • Juliette Aristides on Composition: From the Book "Classical Drawing Atelier
    • Juliette Aristides: On Myron Barnstone
    • Juliette Aristides On TRAC With the Atelier Movement
    • Keep Your Composure
    • Kenyon Cox on Modern Art and Composition
    • Lessons in Classical Drawing - Introduction
    • Lessons in Classical Painting - Introduction
    • Magnum Photographers from Different Generations ​Talk About the Fabled Agency’s Past, Present, and Future
    • Mastering Classical Realism​ With Juliette Aristides
    • Myron Barnstone: A Life's Work
    • Myron Barnstone: An art career in perspective
    • Nick Alm: Derived From Empathy
    • One Question with Juliette Aristides
    • Pictorial Composition: An Introduction
    • Practice Doesn't Always Guarantee Success
    • Priceless Advice: A Personal Email From Myron Barnstone
    • The Art of Seeing and Visual Literacy
    • The Art of Selection
    • The Atelier Approach to Art Education
    • The Armature of the Rectangle
    • ​The Consequences of Taking a Stand
    • The Da Vinci Initiative
    • The Difference Between a Fine Art Print and a Work of Art
    • The Failure of Art Education in America
    • The Gap Between Photography and Art
    • The Number One Reason Why a Work of Art Will Fail
    • The Painter's Secret Geometry - Introduction
    • The Pendulum Has Swung With a Vengeance
    • The Place of Photography in Fine Art
    • The Road to Visual Literacy
    • What Are the Benefits of Atelier Trainin​g?
  • Art Highlights
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The Failure of Art Education in America

“He called himself a carpenter; he was, in fact, a cabinetmaker. Mr. Griffith discarded lumber he regarded as inferior. He would cut a board, and test it, and take off a little more with his plane, and finally he would fit the board precisely. He cut every mortise as if he were a jeweler cutting the facets of diamonds. He sandpapered; he polished; he filled every nail hole. He made square corners. He cared.” —James J. Kilpatrick, The Writer’s Art.

Yes, Mr. Griffith cared. He had a standard against which to measure his efforts. Not only did he care, he knew. He must have been well trained. In our day there has been a liberation of feelings; narrow self-interest has been encouraged, and few people admit to the proliferation of shoddy work. If you feel good about what you do, you are blessed. Anyone daring to suggest ways of improving the work of another risks social suicide.

Nowhere is this public display of private feelings more apparent than in the art class. The art teacher must be one of the more compromised by this social phenomenon. How can one offer critical suggestions to a ‘student’ who is experiencing personal fulfillment from fatuous work? The conditions which obtain in most art classes resemble those of a mental institution, where inmates are humored in the fragile hope of improvement.

In the June 1984 issue of ‘Time Magazine’ the respected art critic Robert Hughes reviewed an exhibition of drawings from the Victoria and Albert Museum: “Such nuts and bolts are laid out with unfailing clarity: all the technical stuff one thinks one knows but is hazy about is there. It is reported that 20% of Americans are illiterate, and 45% say they never read books: so it is not too dyspeptic a guess that 99% cannot read a drawing.”

Graphic languages consist of coded marks. The untutored are most unlikely to decipher these on their own, and our times discourage quibblers who concern themselves with the technicalities of proper usage. However, if one is unable to read a drawing, one cannot hope to understand artworks of any kind; drawing is the basic language of all design.

If 99% of Americans are unable to read a drawing, we must turn to our schools to discover why. We shall find that art, the fine arts — the nuts and bolts of the language, is rarely taught, and drawing. . . almost never. Crafts are taught. Something like illustration or commercial art is taught. Crafts and commercial art are not art.

A drawing of an apple is not to be confused with an apple. The standards which determine the quality of an apple are not those by which one evaluates a drawing; drawing is not about appearances. An ignorant but faithful copy of an apple is not a drawing. In few schools, public or professional, will one find drawing taught with respect or understanding. Mr. Hughes has reason to lament. Mr. Kilpatrick has reason to nostalgically describe the work of a fine craftsman, hoping to excite young writers to toil with purpose at the code used to represent our spoken language.

If, as many believe, we mostly get what we deserve; Americans are content with the low standards in art teaching. Art teachers are pleased with the quality of their training, and most art school graduates are untroubled to be numbered among the 99% of Americans who cannot read a drawing.

The exhibition called “Reading Drawings” that is now on view at the Drawing Center is as elegant a teaching show as one might wish to see. Why study drawings at all? Because they are often the clearest index to a painter’s intentions; finished or fragmentary, they are the deposit left by the process of image forming, the residue of the dartings and probings that constitute pictorial thought. 

A century ago, most educated people drew as a matter of course because it was the best way to remember what they saw. Great Aunt Lucinda with her watercolor set, earnestly dabbling in the shade of the Duomo, may have been a figure of mild fun; but she (multiplied by tens of thousands) was also the ground from which the tremendous graphic achievements of a Degas or a Matisse could rise. Such amateur experience added up to a general recognition that to draw, to reconstitute a motif as a code of lines and tonal patches, is to think, and that such thought forms the root of all visual literacy. 


A stroll in SoHo today, by contrast, will furnish any number of artists who can barely trace, let alone draw. Was the long derided practice of drawing from plaster casts rather than the living model really as deadening as we were once told? Assuredly not, as anyone can tell from the almost terrifyingly obtrusive student drawing of a plaster foot by the future English academician, Sir Luke Fildes.

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  • Home
  • About
  • Shop
    • Dynamic Symmetry Art Membership
    • Dynamic Symmetry Grids
    • Phone Consultation (30-Minute)
    • Phone Consultation (60-Minute)
    • Photography Portfolio Review
    • Single Image Review
  • The Art of Composition
  • Design for Photographers
  • Artists
    • Abbas
    • Olga Abramovo
    • Nick Alm
    • Christopher Anderson
    • Keliy Anderson-Staley
    • Michael John Angel
    • George Angelini
    • Denise Antaya
    • Juliette Aristides
    • Eric Armusik
    • Eve Arnold
    • Anna-Brith Arnsten
    • Olivia Arthur
    • Steven Assael
    • Igor V. Babailov
    • Anna Rose Bain
    • Garin Baker
    • Allan R. Banks
    • Micha Bar-Am
    • Bruno Barbey
    • Colleen Barry
    • Alan Merris Bell
    • Julie Bell
    • Jonas Bendiksen
    • Ian Berry
    • Gulay Berryman
    • ​Werner Bischof
    • Kirsten Leah Bitzer
    • Matt Black
    • Sarah Blesener
    • David Michael Bowers
    • Roger Dale Brown
    • Paul S. Brown
    • Mary Ross Buchholz
    • Kristie Bruzenak
    • Nadir Bucan
    • Dot Bunn
    • Scott Burdick
    • René Burri
    • John Buxton
    • Antoine Bruy
    • Svetlana Cameron
    • Dario Campanile
    • Enri Canaj
    • Cornell Capa
    • Robert Capa
    • Louis Carr
    • Henri Cartier-Bresson
    • Chien-Chi Chang
    • Turjoy Chowdhury
    • Jacob Collins
    • Mary Jane Q Cross
    • David Andrew Nishita Cheifetz
    • Antoine d'Agata
    • Carla D'aguanno
    • Marcos Damascena
    • Bruce Davidson
    • Carl De Keyzer
    • Jon deMartin
    • Raymond Depardon
    • Bieke Depoorter
    • Stephanie Deshpande
    • Patrick Devonas
    • Paul P D'Haese
    • Marina Dieul
    • Shaun Downey
    • Carolyn Drake
    • Thomas Dworzak
    • Nikos Economopoulos
    • Virgil Elliott
    • Megan K. Euell
    • Philippe Faraut
    • Faripour Forouhar
    • Martine Franck
    • Stuart Franklin
    • Leonard Freed
    • Thomas Freteur
    • Joke Frima
    • Paul Fusco
    • Tina Garrett
    • Gilberto Geraldo
    • Daniel Gerhartz
    • Bruce Gilden
    • Max Ginsberg
    • Stephen Gjertson
    • Burt Glinn
    • Jim Goldberg
    • Arina Gordienko
    • Adrian Gottlieb
    • David Gray
    • Daniel Graves
    • Daniel E. Greene
    • Philip Jones Griffiths
    • Harry Gruyaert
    • Jean Guamy
    • James Gurney
    • Clark Gussin
    • Mandy Hallenius
    • Philippe Halsman
    • Gordon Hanley
    • David Hardy
    • Price Harrison
    • George Hartley
    • Christine Hartman
    • Erich Hartmann
    • David Alan Harvey
    • Seth Haverkamp
    • Jeff Hein
    • Tim Hetherington
    • Ron Hicks
    • Greg Hildebrandt
    • Thomas Hoepker
    • ​Sohrab Hura
    • David Hurn
    • Maureen Hyde
    • Jason Patrick Jenkins
    • Richard Kalvar
    • Svetlana Kanyo​
    • Thomas Kegler
    • Michael Vince Kim
    • Michael Klein
    • Josef Koudelka
    • Wang Kun
    • Alain Laboile
    • Sarah Lamb
    • Joshua LaRock
    • Bryan Larsen
    • Urban Larsson
    • Herman Leonard
    • Robert Liberace​
    • He Lihuai
    • Edward Little
    • Jeremy Lipking
    • Vivian Maier
    • Sally Mann
    • Constantine Manos
    • Diana Markosian
    • Steve McCurry
    • Sydney McGinley
    • Sherrie McGraw
    • Susan Meiselas
    • Terje Adler Mork
    • Karen Offutt
    • Graydon Parrish
    • Christopher Parrott
    • Leszek Piotrowski
    • Denise Pollack
    • Aleksi Poutanen
    • Christopher Pugliese
    • Julio Reyes
    • Lissa Rivera
    • Cristina García Rodero
    • Sergio Roffo
    • Cesar Santos
    • David Saxe
    • Nelson Shanks
    • Jordan Sokol
    • Viktoria Sorochinski
    • Paweł Starzec
    • Victoria Steel
    • Gwendolyn Stine
    • Dennis Stock
    • Vicki Sullivan
    • Carol Lee Thompson
    • Dan Thompson
    • Larry Towell
    • Hsin-Yao Tseng
    • Boris Vallejo
    • James Van Fossan
    • Jeffrey R. Watts
    • ​Patricia Watwood
    • Alex Webb
    • Morgan Weistling
    • Shane Wolf
    • Anna Wypych
    • ​Robert Zeller
    • Kailin Zhao
    • Doug Zider
  • Books
    • Colour Control
    • Dynamic Symmetry in Composition
    • Dynamic Symmetry - The Greek Vase
    • Perspective Made Easy
    • Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgment of Pictures
    • The Art of Composition: A Simple Application of Dynamic Symmetry
    • The Art of Composition: A Simple Application of Dynamic Symmetry (1956)
    • The Classic Point of View
    • The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry
    • Treatise in Landscape Painting
  • Articles & Videos
    • 3 Bad Habits All Photographers Should Break (Video)
    • 3 Reasons Why Most Photography Workshops Aren't Worth the Money
    • 5 Approaches to Composition in Photography (And Why They Won't Teach You Anything About Design)
    • 5 Myths About Composition (Video)
    • 14 Line Armature (Video)
    • An Email Addressing the Practical Use of Dynamic Symmetry in Art
    • A New, Old Way to Teach Art
    • Armature of the Rectangle (Video)
    • Art Can't Be Taught?
    • Art Educator Mandy Hallenius: Classical Training in Art Opens Creative Choices
    • Artist Robert Florczak: Classical Ideals Give Culture Depth
    • Breaking Down a Dynamic Symmetry Rectangle (Video)
    • Classical Realism- Part 1, 2, and 3
    • Classical Drawing Atelier - Introduction
    • Classical Painting Atelier - Introduction
    • Compositional Studies
    • Creating a Portfolio: Advice from Magnum
    • Drawing Is Back in Fashion
    • Drawing Is the Heart by Juliette Aristides
    • Dynamic Symmetry and Wildlife
    • Dynamic Symmetry for Photographers
    • Dynamic Symmetry, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Myron Barnstone​
    • Dynamic Symmetry in Fine Art Sculpture
    • Film vs. Digital
    • Gamut in Composition (Video)
    • Geometry of Design - Introduction
    • Greatest Area of Contrast (Video)
    • History Painting and the Problem with Art Education
    • How Skilled Copyists Leave the Louvre with a Masterpiece Every Year
    • How the Arts Develop the Young Brain
    • If Anything's Art, Art's Nothing
    • If Everything Is Art, Then Nothing Is Art
    • Isn't There Something Incomprehensible, Magical, or Mystical About Art?
    • Is Photography Art?
    • Juliette Aristides on Composition: From the Book "Classical Drawing Atelier
    • Juliette Aristides: On Myron Barnstone
    • Juliette Aristides On TRAC With the Atelier Movement
    • Keep Your Composure
    • Kenyon Cox on Modern Art and Composition
    • Lessons in Classical Drawing - Introduction
    • Lessons in Classical Painting - Introduction
    • Magnum Photographers from Different Generations ​Talk About the Fabled Agency’s Past, Present, and Future
    • Mastering Classical Realism​ With Juliette Aristides
    • Myron Barnstone: A Life's Work
    • Myron Barnstone: An art career in perspective
    • Nick Alm: Derived From Empathy
    • One Question with Juliette Aristides
    • Pictorial Composition: An Introduction
    • Practice Doesn't Always Guarantee Success
    • Priceless Advice: A Personal Email From Myron Barnstone
    • The Art of Seeing and Visual Literacy
    • The Art of Selection
    • The Atelier Approach to Art Education
    • The Armature of the Rectangle
    • ​The Consequences of Taking a Stand
    • The Da Vinci Initiative
    • The Difference Between a Fine Art Print and a Work of Art
    • The Failure of Art Education in America
    • The Gap Between Photography and Art
    • The Number One Reason Why a Work of Art Will Fail
    • The Painter's Secret Geometry - Introduction
    • The Pendulum Has Swung With a Vengeance
    • The Place of Photography in Fine Art
    • The Road to Visual Literacy
    • What Are the Benefits of Atelier Trainin​g?
  • Art Highlights
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