38 t h e c l a s s i c i s t n o . 11

Academy of Classical Design

By D. Jeffrey Mims

s sometimes happens in life,many years may pass before werecognize the significance asingle moment can have forour future. For me, such amoment was the Arthur Ross

Awards ceremony on May 7, 1984 at theNational Academy of Design in New York.Having just turned thirty, and in the augustcompany of accomplished classicists, I was toreceive an award for my fresco work in NorthCarolina. This ceremony, only the secondsince its inception, was held before the greatmural study for the Minnesota State Capitolbuilding painted by the American artistEdwin Howland Blashfield.

This image was familiar to me throughhaving read a 1913 edition of his Mural Paintingin America, which seemed to hold historicalsecrets from an ancient past, inspired with anoptimism that was to be checked the followingyear by the outbreak of World War I.Presiding over this ceremony was HenryHope Reed, Jr., President of ClassicalAmerica and one of its founders. Reed hadbeen born right after the first year of that terriblewar and had begun his life during the waningyears of the American Renaissance. During hislong life, he witnessed the twentieth century’s“secession” (as he so aptly labeled it) fromthe beauty and logic of our classical heritage;fittingly, he was destined to become the leadingchampion of its restoration.

After returning home, I ordered a copy ofReed’s The Golden City, which introduced meto his revolutionary ideas, articulated for me

the purpose of mural painting, and confirmedthe earlier emphasis by Blashfield on its roleas part of a larger ensemble that includedarchitecture, sculpture, and landscape. I haddimly felt this sense of overall design in beau-tiful civic spaces in my earlier travels, butlearning the fundamentals of traditionalpainting had been such a struggle in thosedays that understanding its employment in abroader context was a great discovery.

Now thirty years later, encouragingadvances have been made by a small band ofdetermined artists to recover the nearly lostart of figure drawing and painting; however,very little attention has been given to whatReed considered to be its ultimate application—the decoration of architectural spacethrough mural painting, particularly in thepublic realm. Considered in this context, thefigure is one of many design elements used toorchestrate the decoration of an architecturalspace, joined in this task by painted borders,geometric patterns, cartouches, festoons, andother ornamental devices. But where can these be studied today? It is our emphasis ontraditional mural painting that distinguishesthe Academy of Classical Design from the growing number of studio schools dedicatedto a renewal of the fine arts. The Academy,which began as Mims Studios in 2000, tracesits philosophy at least as far back as that auspicious evening in 1984 when I wasintroduced to Reed and his vision of theallied arts—a vision of built environmentsthat please, inspire, and leave us with a senseof wonder.

To achieve this purpose requires a profoundknowledge of “the classical” and the manyvariations within that heritage—a require-ment involving no small amount of time orpatience—and this is the first lesson taught toour students at the Academy. In the traditionof Renaissance workshops and the art academiesthat evolved from them, our curriculumdevotes a great deal of time to the very thingmodern art education has taught us toavoid—copying. For us, copying has threeprimary goals: The first is to gain a rich visualvocabulary; the second two are closelyrelated—to develop recognition of excellence

Figure 1 (Section opener, pages 36-37): Academy of ClassicalDesign. Students Allison Sexton and Olena Babak atwork on paintings from plaster casts of antique statuary,2013. Photograph courtesy of the Academy of ClassicalDesign.

Figure 2 (opposite top): Academy of Classical Design.Student Peter Daniel working on underpainting a section of a mural copy from Raphael’s ceiling tondo“Justice” at the Stanza della Segnatura, The Vatican, oilon panel, 96” x 120”, 2013. Photograph courtesy of theAcademy of Classical Design.

Figure 3 (opposite left): Academy of Classical Design. “CastDrawing of the Torso Belvedere in The Vatican,” charcoal on white paper, 32” x 22”, 2013, by Peter Daniel.

Figure 4 (opposite right): Academy of Classical Design.“Life Drawing,” charcoal and white chalk on tonedpaper, 27” x 38”, 2013, by Olena Babak.

Figure 5 (following page): Academy of Classical Design.“Acanthus Relief,” 26” x 31”, graphite and watercolor ontoned paper, 2013, by Allison Sexton.

A

a c a d e m i c p o r t f o l i o 39

40 t h e c l a s s i c i s t n o . 11

as well as the ability to recognize its opposite.Two other components within these goals arethe imitation of nature and familiarity withthe historical uses of that ability. The oscilla-tion between realism and idealism found inGreek sculpture is a stylistic conversationwith a variety of accents that continued intothe twentieth century. For the mural painter,the ability to idealize forms and generalizeeffect is crucial for the successful decorationof architectural spaces; but to reach that pointone must first be a humble student of nature.More accurately, I should say nature guided

by antiquity, because in learning to manage acredible likeness, there are also lessons to beabsorbed indirectly through working with themasterful conventions of Greek form.

Meticulous plaster cast work is augmentedwith assignments that reach beyond the mysteries of illusion, such as the making ofcompositional and color studies from differentperiods in the history of Art, as well as thestudy of anatomy and pure ornament. A basicarchitectural vocabulary is introduced as itrelates to classical interiors that have tradi-tionally made use of painted and sculpted

decoration. Unique to our program is whatwe call the Mural Guild, which allowsadvanced students the opportunity to producefull scale painted copies from acknowledgedmasterworks. Each of these studies contributesto the development of the taste and abilitynecessary for future work of a more collabo-rative nature.

Unlike many other art schools, workingfrom life and the model enters our programonly after a profound study of the role it hasplayed in the history of drawing, sculpture,and painting. Such a departure from usualpractice is based on historical precedent, aswell as the need to counteract a contemporaryabandonment of the traditional use of thehuman figure. Each student begins with aseries of two-dimensional copies from thenineteenth-century drawing course of CharlesBargue, taught using a translation developedspecifically for our curriculum. From the verystart, emphasis is placed on mastering theskills needed to imitate nature as beautifullyand as intelligently as possible. Considerationsof time are never allowed to interfere withquality: A project may take from one week to sev-eral months, depending on a number of factors.

Growing awareness of the role of thepainter in architecture has brought an increasenot only of public interest but also of knowl-edgeable partners to collaborate with—includingpatrons, architects, artists, and artisans. HenryHope Reed’s argument for beautiful publicspaces embellished through the allied artsbecomes ever more convincing as we see howthe barren modern alternative has affected thequality of our lives. The growing number ofcommitted people working toward a renewalof “the classical” is testimony to the successof his life’s mission, which continues to givedirection to so many.

D. Jeffrey Mims is founder and director of theAcademy of Classical Design in Southern Pines, NorthCarolina, a non-profit school of art dedicated to the classicaltradition with an emphasis on public mural painting.Mr. Mims is the recipient of an Arthur Ross Award in1984 and the ICAA 2009 Alma Schapiro Prize foran affiliated fellowship at the American Academy inRome. For more information see www.academyofclassicaldesign.org