Download PDF - ARTisSpectrum

“But just being passionate is
not enough. For all the emotional
quality one sees in a Van
Gogh painting, he completely
understood color and design.
He studied the old masters,
Japanese prints, worked in a
gallery, was influenced by artists
like Montecelli.”
here to the Western canon) Rembrandt, Titian, Velazquez,
van der Weyden, Rubens, Chardin, Claude Lorraine, Raphael,
Tintoretto, Poussin, Bernini, van Eyck, Ingres, Hals,
Picasso, Cezanne, de Kooning, Seurat, Van Gogh, Matisse
and Corot. Any serious artist is constantly going to museums
to look at great works of art. It is equivalent to learning
technique. You have to continually go back and re-examine
how and why a great work of art works. What makes
it compelling? Is it just the technique of rendering? What
about the composition, the drawing, the division of space,
the color relationships, tonal relationships, the repetition of
form, the negative space between the forms? And yes, the
originality and the passion. But just being passionate is not
enough. For all the emotional quality one sees in a Van
Gogh painting, he completely understood color and design.
He studied the old masters, Japanese prints, worked in a
gallery, was influenced by artists like Montecelli. Cognitive
skills cannot be developed unless one can understand all
those factors that go into making a work of art. And it takes
time.
The commercial question. So by now you must be thinking,
“I’ll be working my office job until I’m 85 before I can expect
any results.” Don’t despair. There are artists showing
and selling their work in galleries every day. But it’s very
difficult to make a living at it. Many serious artists think that
“art career” is an oxymoron. One of my instructors at the
League told me, “If you’re here to learn a trade, leave now!”
I think that you have to be compelled to pursue art. You
have to want it badly. It’s definitely not a career choice.
Of course, there are careers in computer graphics, animation,
cartooning, game design, product design, etc. They
all require fundamental artistic skill. The more one knows
how to draw and understand form and design, the better
one is equipped to master the technologies that drive these
artistic fields.
Have I mentioned the Art Students League? The Art Students
League of New York has adhered to its approach of
teaching and training artists throughout its 134 year history
with these core values: accessibility through low tuition,
autonomy for instructors to teach without administrative or
curricular restriction and freedom for students to choose
and follow their own course of study for as long as they
need and desire.
In the League’s atelier environment, students can opt to
The Art Students League on 57th Street
take classes ranging from academic drawing to abstract
painting to welded sculpture and assemblage. We have
90 instructors, all professional, working artists who teach
with the same passion they bring to their work. Of course
we can boast having taught more artists who went on to
have prominent careers than any other institution: Georgia
O’Keeffe, Lee Bontecou, Frederick Remington, Norman
Rockwell, Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein, Helen Frankenthaler,
Al Held, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Ben
Shahn, Louise Nevelson, Eva Hesse, Maurice Sendak, Cy
Twombly, James Rosenquist, Romare Bearden and Will
Barnet—just to name a few. But these greats represent a
fraction of a percent of our alumni. The League’s community
is a cross-section of students aged 9 to 90, from all
backgrounds and walks of life. Each studio class has students
with years of experience and professional aspirations
working next to novices who have just begun.
The sharing of work and ideas is crucial to the League’s
philosophy and to the growth of artists. The League’s environment
and community will continue to thrive as long as
there is a drive in us to create.
Artistic thinking makes one see the world in a different way.
Everything changes, is renewed, has possibilities. Nothing
remains the same. But only through patience and perseverance
can an artist come to that realization. Artistic
expression is an innate human trait. Everything discussed
here pertains to that. There is no greater human endeavor.
Back to the studio and on to the next competition!
27 ArtisSpectrum