Museum symposium discusses art education

By John Caldwell
Daily Forty-Niner

Some graduate-level art programs continue to emphasize technical skills despite a growing trend towards theory and research.

"I think an over-emphasis on either one of those things is harmful to a graduate art education," said Kurt Kauper, an artist and faculty member with the Department of Art at Yale University.

Kauper was one of five panelists at an art education symposium Saturday in the Gerald R. Daniel Recital Hall at Cal State Long Beach.

"Teaching Talent: The Shaping of the Artist in the Institution," was an open discussion about the role and impact of graduate art education programs, what constitutes art and what makes an artist.

"I am from Florence," said Francesco Bonami, manilow senior curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. "In Florence, when you come out of the womb of your mother, you are given an MFA."

Bonami stressed the role that schools must play in defining who is an artist as part of a discussion on the concept of the artist as a professional.

"The function of the school is to understand if you are an artist," Bonami said. "In part, the school must teach people to cope with the fact that they are not artists."

Bonami said institutions must also teach students to consider the purpose of their work. He said there must be a reason for it.

"What is to be taught is to understand urgency," Bonami said. "It is a very difficult task."

Tanya Mourand, a French artist and educator whose work is currently on display at the University Art Museum, compared American master of fine arts programs with those in France. Students there receive support in the form of government grants and subsidies, she said.

Many art programs and art forms in France are supported by and somewhat controlled by government in an effort to promote art.

"The quality of a civilization isn't measured by its atomic bombs or the quality of its genetically modified vegetables," Mourand said. She criticized the idea that institutions should teach students to think about selling their art.

"They are selling what should not be sold," she said.

Kauper touched on this as well by pointing out a popular purist theory.

"There's a kind of pure art that is then polluted by arts existence as a commodity," Kauper said. However, he said he does believe it is important to teach students about professionalism.
Jay Kvapil, chair of the art department at CSULB, made some fascinating observations about graduate art programs, asking if there would be the same type and quantity of non-saleable art without universities. He pointed out how accreditation may create one-size-fits-all art programs, and asked if having a master of fine arts degree guarantees things like a teaching career.

Howard Singerman, professor of art history at the University of Virginia, and facilitator of the symposium, said many schools are psychoanalytical in nature, teaching students to think about their art in the context of the world.

"In the 20th century, it's not clear what constitutes a work of art," Singerman said. "Language is the legitimating force for the work."

A second symposium in the afternoon focused on the impact graduate art programs have on the art market. Five new panelists, including educators, artists and gallery owners, discussed how art programs affect graduated artists and those who seek to exhibit and purchase their work.