Williamson

© Beth Williamson 2008
students how to teach art from their own concerns. What this meant was getting
them to abandon the safety of the familiar, take risks and trust their own
process. 55 The significance of this way of working and teaching is that the work
no longer relies on established styles and becomes more exploratory in nature.
Some members of staff were opposed to this way of working and thought
Ehrenzweig’s methods were unacceptable. What troubled them most was
Ehrenzweig’s demand that students search within themselves, freeing up a
libidinal aesthetic that, to some, seemed at odds with learning to teach art to
children. Co-incidentally, it was this same demand that was so fruitful for ATC
students in terms of creative growth (fig. 4). This exploration of the inner self in
the work meant that students were placed in a vulnerable situation, the
conscious in supplication to the unconscious. Indeed, as we have already seen,
some felt themselves to be in the position of analysand rather than student. In
such an analytic space, how might we see Ehrenzweig’s role? As he said
himself,
the task of the analyst and of the art teacher may often be
complimentary. Analysis is needed to resolve the more severe
cases of neurotic and psychotic anxiety which defend the patient’s
ego against the undifferentiated functions of the unconscious and
prevent him from giving up his rigidity. Once this initial obstacle is
removed the teacher affords his pupil the opportunity for mental
gymnastics which help to make his weakened, yet rigid, ego
functions supple and athletic. 56
re·bus Issue 2 Autumn 2008 22