artful conversations || letters to the editor

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National Art Education Association Letters to the Editor Author(s): Bob Lloyd Source: Art Education, Vol. 48, No. 2, Artful Conversations (Mar., 1995), p. 5 Published by: National Art Education Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193506 . Accessed: 16/06/2014 14:16 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . National Art Education Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Art Education. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 188.72.126.55 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 14:16:42 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: Artful Conversations || Letters to the Editor

National Art Education Association

Letters to the EditorAuthor(s): Bob LloydSource: Art Education, Vol. 48, No. 2, Artful Conversations (Mar., 1995), p. 5Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193506 .

Accessed: 16/06/2014 14:16

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

National Art Education Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to ArtEducation.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.55 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 14:16:42 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Artful Conversations || Letters to the Editor

L E T T E R S T H E L E T T E R S T H E

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101 101 swamp contrived for persons who have a stock of answers that, unhappily, don't fit the questions that matter. That Dr. Sage keeps his feet dry while Arty wallows ever deeper may seem less than char- itable. But in pointing out the fallacies of Arty's thinking, Sage is saving him from the ignominy of possibly being torn to shreds by a more general, less indulgent audience. Conversation ought surely to allow participants the luxury of assuming positions that ulti- mately are seen to be untenable; otherwise, one might never dare move beyond the banal.

What makes Bernard Young's account of the conversation between Amber and Camille Young and Eugene Grigsby so pleas- ant is its unforced pace. Here is someone who has had a successful career, whose expertise as an artist and an educator is extensive and profound, but whose exchanges with his young interlocutors are disarming, and amusing: an invitation to consider how persons at the beginning ofa professional career might arrange their ambi- tions in the pursuit of happiness as well as success.

Educational institutions do not overtly cater to the development of good conversation among the student body, though there might well be benefit in afirst-year course labeledAlchemy 101: Transforming Talk into Conversation. Still, as these articles show, developing productive interchange need not waitforformal recog- nition. Getting started requires personal investment, but no equip- ment, no special clothing, and no monthly dues. The dividends are impressive. Talk, they say, is cheap; but artful conversation is price- less.

Ronald N. MacGregor Editor

swamp contrived for persons who have a stock of answers that, unhappily, don't fit the questions that matter. That Dr. Sage keeps his feet dry while Arty wallows ever deeper may seem less than char- itable. But in pointing out the fallacies of Arty's thinking, Sage is saving him from the ignominy of possibly being torn to shreds by a more general, less indulgent audience. Conversation ought surely to allow participants the luxury of assuming positions that ulti- mately are seen to be untenable; otherwise, one might never dare move beyond the banal.

What makes Bernard Young's account of the conversation between Amber and Camille Young and Eugene Grigsby so pleas- ant is its unforced pace. Here is someone who has had a successful career, whose expertise as an artist and an educator is extensive and profound, but whose exchanges with his young interlocutors are disarming, and amusing: an invitation to consider how persons at the beginning ofa professional career might arrange their ambi- tions in the pursuit of happiness as well as success.

Educational institutions do not overtly cater to the development of good conversation among the student body, though there might well be benefit in afirst-year course labeledAlchemy 101: Transforming Talk into Conversation. Still, as these articles show, developing productive interchange need not waitforformal recog- nition. Getting started requires personal investment, but no equip- ment, no special clothing, and no monthly dues. The dividends are impressive. Talk, they say, is cheap; but artful conversation is price- less.

Ronald N. MacGregor Editor

Dear Editor, As a high school teacher of art, I would argue that there is a body of

knowledge about the elements of art and the language of vision, what Georges Braque would call "les faits pictorials," which is being neglected in favor of the cultural/anthropological focus on multiculturalism. For those students who need and want to know the available tools of picture making, and who are confronted with the presence of violet and taupe in a painting or a tapestry, looking at the work from a multicultural perspective would not lead to a discussion of Johannes Itten's theory of simultaneous contrast or the physiological phenomenon of the eye trying to "pull out" or seek its complement of yellow in the brownish yellow grey.

The student may acquire academic knowledge of South American native pottery, weaving, or mosaic techniques. Though broadening from the point of humanities, this probably will not lead to discussion of retained eye movement through successive volumes by means of transparency when one object is placed in front of another as in synthetic cubism.

I believe the current situation can be traced to the beginning of multi- culturalism in the early '60s and looking to the past; anti-essentialism (more is more); the emergence of small, non-theoretical narratives; and the post-structural writing of Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. Their effect has been to suggest that art or I iterary criticism cannot be stated with any certainty. This is in sharp contrast to Archie Bunker's notion of WWII and the '40s, that then "men were men" and "women were women."

Yet, if graduating seniors and upper-classpersons who may be seri- ous about careers in art are not given specific information about the ele- ments of art used in solving plastic and pictorial problems and communicating visually, they are being short- changed. In other words "let's get technical," and with clarity, the importance of ambiguity notwithstanding.

As I am not an elementary school teacher, I hesitate to say too much about that level of instruction. I believe here multiculturalism is very desirable in promoting a broad cultural awareness and appreciation of other peoples: what used to be called cultural anthropology. But at the end of the educational spectrum, before graduation, there should be knowledge and practice in what used to be called "solving painting prob- lems."

Dear Editor, As a high school teacher of art, I would argue that there is a body of

knowledge about the elements of art and the language of vision, what Georges Braque would call "les faits pictorials," which is being neglected in favor of the cultural/anthropological focus on multiculturalism. For those students who need and want to know the available tools of picture making, and who are confronted with the presence of violet and taupe in a painting or a tapestry, looking at the work from a multicultural perspective would not lead to a discussion of Johannes Itten's theory of simultaneous contrast or the physiological phenomenon of the eye trying to "pull out" or seek its complement of yellow in the brownish yellow grey.

The student may acquire academic knowledge of South American native pottery, weaving, or mosaic techniques. Though broadening from the point of humanities, this probably will not lead to discussion of retained eye movement through successive volumes by means of transparency when one object is placed in front of another as in synthetic cubism.

I believe the current situation can be traced to the beginning of multi- culturalism in the early '60s and looking to the past; anti-essentialism (more is more); the emergence of small, non-theoretical narratives; and the post-structural writing of Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida. Their effect has been to suggest that art or I iterary criticism cannot be stated with any certainty. This is in sharp contrast to Archie Bunker's notion of WWII and the '40s, that then "men were men" and "women were women."

Yet, if graduating seniors and upper-classpersons who may be seri- ous about careers in art are not given specific information about the ele- ments of art used in solving plastic and pictorial problems and communicating visually, they are being short- changed. In other words "let's get technical," and with clarity, the importance of ambiguity notwithstanding.

As I am not an elementary school teacher, I hesitate to say too much about that level of instruction. I believe here multiculturalism is very desirable in promoting a broad cultural awareness and appreciation of other peoples: what used to be called cultural anthropology. But at the end of the educational spectrum, before graduation, there should be knowledge and practice in what used to be called "solving painting prob- lems."

Sincerely yours, Bob Lloyd

Brooklyn, NY

Sincerely yours, Bob Lloyd

Brooklyn, NY

MARCH 1995 / ART EDUCATION MARCH 1995 / ART EDUCATION

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