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Volume I
Issue 5
8 September 1999 |
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To the Editor: Some time ago, I opened an art gallery, conceived as a venue for the work of art students. The assumption that there would be an abundance of good painters in the schools proved to be false. Many of the faculties do not know how to paint, and consequently cannot teach painting. Instead they teach contemporary art critical theory, and expect theory-driven work from their students, reducing their work to illustrations of the prevailing theories of art critics. There are rare institutions where the almost completely lost art of painting is taught and practiced. My gallery has developed into a venue for technically excellent "academic" painting. This word is controversial because it has been used pejoratively to describe the imitative nature of French training in the 19th Century. Modernism's requirement for invention and the development of a unique and recognizable "brand name" style has dominated the 20th Century. Cubism's immediate acceptance and dominance all over Europe and the US was based on the ease with which it could be executed. Almost overnight, everyone was a Cubist (or Suprematist or Futurist). Even more of an "I can do that" movement was Abstract Expressionism. This is not to say that there is no great cubist or abstract painting, but invariably each invention led to a decline in the practice of art. Now, my bank officer who takes pictures of roadside wildflowers wants me to look at his "art." Academic painting, on the other hand, requires training and diligent, arduous practice. Most would-be artists would never go to the trouble, while to my eye, quality requires the excellence of this neglected practice. As we approach the millennium, quality is exceedingly rare, and those who will be great artists are often confused about what to paint, and how to use their skills to express their ideas. But some of them will figure out how to combine the Thinking and Doing to produce great works of art. Paul Toner,
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