The Art School Studio and Transformations in the Art Object, 1960-2010

Overview

This module considers the overlooked forces that have transformed the form and meaning of art practice since 1960.  But instead of working backwards from the art object as a fait accompli, we will study the processes of actual and intellectual formation behind the art object’s realisation. This module thus investigates the extent to which progressive pedagogic forces within art education stoked—and continue to fire--new impulses in the field of artistic production.

Art students and today’s emerging artists are products of the generation that constitutes the subject of this course. These artists trained at a time when the possibilities for art practice seemed limitless.  As society at large embraced youth and popular culture, art school students with international aspirations exploded class barriers, fused fashion with Pop and insisted that art was integral to social change.

These possibilities were unthinkable without shifts in pedagogical priorities.  Replacing a craft-based curriculum, the teaching in art schools across Britain began to widen the range of artistic exploration.  This new generation’s techniques, perspectives, and arguments trace their origins to the innovations of the 1960s—a legacy that goes some way to explain the seemingly constant presence of the 1960s and 1970s art scene in contemporary Britain.

Therefore this course will also consider the extent to which many of this generation’s most striking forms of expression maintain their influence on our decade’s most adventurous artists.  Furthermore, it will examine the agonistic struggles in which current art teaching remains locked with its 1960s forebears.

Aims

By the end of the module, students should have acquired:

• a broad understanding of the field of British art education c.1960 until the present day, and a detailed knowledge of specific key moments;
• the ability to analyse specific pedagogical approaches in the context of 20th century British art education; and
• skills in constructing arguments around the relationship between modern and contemporary pedagogical practices and artworks.
• an understanding of the legacy of particular art school practices for contemporary art
• an appreciation of some of the challenges of displaying the art of the period.