| ||||
 |
|
|
|
|
Art in our Schools: A conversation with Fred Kleiner
March is Art in our Schools Month, and who better to talk with than the principal author of the most widely read introduction to art history in English for 75 years? Harcourt College Publishers recently released the 11th edition of Helen Gardner's "Art through the Ages," a volume on the history of international art from its beginnings, co-authored by Fred S. Kleiner -- a professor of art history and archaeology at Boston University. Senior education editor Lynn McBrien asked Kleiner about his interest in art and his perspective on educational needs in the areas of art and art history. CNNfyi: How did you become interested in art history? Fred Kleiner: I grew up in New York City in the 1950s and 1960s -- a very dynamic period in the art world, when Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art were new phenomena and the galleries on Madison Avenue were exhibiting the work of younger artists who are household names today. When I was a boy, Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum also opened on Fifth Avenue, a short walk from the fabulous Metropolitan Museum of Art. I had never been in a more revolutionary interior space or a more exciting environment in which to view art. It was hard NOT to be interested in art in a city where there was so much of it, both in the museums and in the galleries. When I entered college (at the University of Pennsylvania), all I knew was that I wanted to be a teacher. I loved school (and still consider myself a student), but I didn't know what I wanted to teach. I studied several areas of the humanities before settling on art history as an undergraduate major. I never took an art history course before my sophomore year, but I quickly became "hooked." I found, however, that on an intellectual basis I was more drawn to earlier historical eras than to contemporary art or even the work of early modern masters like Van Gogh and Picasso. I came out at the other end -- as a Classicist specializing in the art of ancient Greece and especially Rome -- and I completed my Ph.D. in 1973 at Columbia University, spending almost two years in Rome working on my dissertation, and then took a position at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece, as a member of their excavation staff. From there I went on to teach art history at the University of Virginia and, since 1978, at Boston University. I've been uniquely fortunate to have had the opportunity not only to live in Rome and Athens, but to have done two things professionally that few ever get to do. One, of course, is to have been invited about a decade ago to become co-author of the classic (and still most widely read) introduction to art history, Helen Gardner's "Art through the Ages," first published in 1926. That first edition was a textbook that was way, way ahead of its time in many ways, not the least of which being its global approach to the history of art. I have also had the great privilege of serving three terms (1985-1998) as editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Archaeology, the leading scholarly journal in the field of ancient art and archaeology. CNNfyi: In Gardner's "Art through the Ages," the question "What is art?" is explored right away. How do you answer this question? Kleiner: I prefer to answer that question quite liberally, making room both for traditional and universally recognized kinds of "artworks," such as paintings and statues and buildings, as well as media that less frequently find their way into general surveys of the art of the world, such as Gardner's "Art through the Ages." Here I am thinking of such things as textiles, jewelry, photography, coins, pottery, and so forth, all of which we treat more fully in the latest edition of our book. You no doubt ask the question, however, in the context of the very first item in chapter one, a remarkable pebble found in South Africa that bears an uncanny resemblance to a human face and that is about three million years old. Because of the type of stone, the "sculpture" must have been found by a prehistoric man or woman at a site at least 20 miles from the rock shelter in which it was discovered and then "brought home" because of its striking appearance and, perhaps, because of its perceived magical quality. But I don't consider the pebble to be "art." Art, in my view, requires -- at a bare minimum -- human intervention in the modification of natural form. This is just a case of "selection" and not of "manufacture." The latter is a prerequisite for "art" in my mind. So, to go to the opposite end of the timeline, placing a Coca Cola bottle on a pedestal does not make it an "artwork," but when Andy Warhol painted Coke bottles, he created "art." CNNfyi: Paleolithic art found in Africa from 30,000 B.C. is described as the first appearance of art in the Gardner volume. Personally, I can't imagine how there could be human life without art. Have you thought about the notion of human life with no art? Is the theory that, previous to this time, humans were not sufficiently evolved to conceive of creativity? Kleiner: I am not a physical anthropologist, but there is no question that abstract thought (and art) requires a brain that is highly evolved and that the human brain attained this capacity only after a long period of evolution. The more important question for the art historian is whether or not the first "artworks" we possess, namely paintings and sculptures in Africa and Europe dating around 30,000 B.C., can be considered "art" in the normal sense of the term. We will probably never settle the question because the people who produced these works didn't leave any written explanations for us to read, but I don't think anyone would argue that the notion of "art for art's sake" played a role in the creation of Paleolithic wall paintings or sculptures. These were not "interior decorations" for homes. The statues and paintings must have had some ritual or magical significance at a time when mere survival in a hostile environment was a central concern of the human race. CNNfyi: Briefly explain the differences between the study of art and the study of art history. Kleiner: Art history IS the study of art, but "art history" differs from what is commonly called "art appreciation" because art historians believe that artworks can only be fully understood in their historical contexts. Although one can derive great pleasure from the purely aesthetic and tactile qualities of paintings, sculpture, and other objects, one cannot truly understand why the objects were made or why they look the way they do without knowing the circumstances of their creation. That's the "business" of the art historian. We want to know not only why things look the way they do but why they were made at all. Today, for example, it is common for an artist to work in a private studio and create a painting for sale in a commercial gallery that will eventually be purchased by a person the artist has never met and exhibited in a place the artist has never seen. But for most of the history of art, artists worked in the employ of specific patrons (sometimes individuals, sometimes institutions like the Church or the State) who commissioned works of art for specific purposes and specific places. It is impossible to understand those works without finding out what the patrons wished to achieve. CNNfyi: In the preface to "Art through the Ages" is stated, "the history of art is essential to a liberal education." In what ways is this study essential to a complete education? What do you think that all students should know about art and about art history by the time they graduate from high school? Kleiner: That's an interesting question and one that I've never really considered before, although I have some ideas about what one ought to know upon graduating college. The fact is that formal education in the history of art remains a rarity at the high school level, although the number of such courses has increased dramatically over the past several years in tandem with the phenomenal growth in Advanced Placement examinations. AP Art History courses can now be found not only in elite private schools but in many, many public schools throughout the United States. I don't have exact numbers at my disposal, but I believe it is accurate to say that about 10,000 students took the College Board's Art History Advanced Placement exam in the spring semester last year and that the numbers are growing at about a 10 percent compound rate annually. The growth in the study of art history at the high school level is very gratifying. It also gives me great personal satisfaction to know that through the Gardner textbook I am teaching high school as well as college students. Now to answer the other aspect of your question, namely what students should glean from an introductory course in art history, if one is offered at their school. I think instructors should have two paramount goals. The first is to "turn students on" to art so that they will keep looking at art and reading and thinking about art throughout their adult lives, long after their formal education has been completed. The other goal is to introduce students to as wide a variety of art as possible, chronologically and geographically, not sticking to the traditional canon of great works of western art (although they are essential), but taking the global approach that Helen Gardner pioneered 75 years ago, so that students can see how closely art forms are tied to specific cultures. A global history of art can also be a tool for teaching students about such other subjects as geography, history, religion, etc. I can't begin to count the number of times in my own life that I've become interested in a place, person or event through a work of art that first appealed to me on purely aesthetic grounds. Art history can be a "stealth weapon" in a teacher's "arsenal." CNNfyi: Art is one of the first things dropped from school budgets. What are some arguments for insisting that the study of art remain in K-12 education? Kleiner: I suppose I've answered this question in part already in my previous answer. But I would add that although I never aspired to be either a professional artist or a professional musician or singer or actor, I can't imagine having grown up with a curriculum that excluded art, music and drama. Music and drama teachers and studio art teachers have articulated a host of arguments why these subjects belong in a K-12 curriculum. One that is infrequently heard, however, and one that is special to art history, is, in my judgment, of great importance -- and it is only gaining in importance as people gather more and more information from television and the Internet rather than from the printed word. The study of art history teaches one about how art can be used to convey messages, whether it is the political propaganda a Roman emperor displays on his triumphal arches, the message of the Last Judgment in a medieval church portal or modern depictions of the horrors of war or of working conditions in factories as political and social protest. Since we are all on the receiving end of such pictorial messages -- especially during election campaigns -- it is essential that we all learn how to read those messages and learn how images can be used to manipulate public opinion. Shortly after this interview was conducted, the 11th edition of Art through the Ages received the two most prestigious prizes that a textbook can be awarded: the Texty and McGuffey Prizes of the Text and Academic Authors Association. The Texty goes to the best college textbook of the year in the humanities and social sciences and the McGuffey is a special prize for a textbook that has demonstrated excellence over several editions. RELATED SITE: Gardner's Art through the Ages | ||||
