What Do Artists Know?

James Elkins

• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780271054247
• eBook ISBN: 9780271060606
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Theory & Criticism

Each of the five volumes in the Stone Art Theory Institutes series, and the seminars on which they are based, brings together a range of scholars who are not always directly familiar with one another's work. The outcome of each of these convergences is an extensive and "unpredictable conversation" on knotty and provocative issues about art. This third volume in the series, What Do Artists Know?, is about the education of artists. The MFA degree is notoriously poorly conceptualized, and now it is giving way to the PhD in art practice. Meanwhile, conversations on freshman courses in studio art continue to be bogged down by conflicting agendas. This book is about the theories that underwrite art education at all levels, the pertinent history of art education, and the most promising current conceptualizations.

The contributors are Areti Adamopoulou, Glenn Adamson, Rina Arya, Louisa Avgita, Jan Baetens, Su Baker, Ciarín Benson, Andrew Blackley, Jeroen Boomgaard, Brad Buckley, William Conger, John Conomos, Christopher Csikszentmihályi, Anders Dahlgren, Jonathan Dronsfield, Marta Edling, Laurie Fendrich, Michael Fotiadis, Christopher Frayling, Miguel González Virgen, R.E.H. Gordon, Charles Green, Vanalyne Green, Barbara Jaffee, Tom McGuirk, William Marotti, Robert Nelson, Håkan Nilsson, Saul Ostrow, Daniel Palmer, Peter Plagens, Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen, Howard Singerman, Henk Slager, George Smith, Martin Søberg, Ann Sobiech Munson, Roy Sorensen, Bert Taken, Hilde Van Gelder, Frank Vigneron, Janneke Wesseling, Frances Whitehead, Gary Willis, and Yeung Yang.

Table of contents

• COVER Front
• Series Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Series Preface
• Introduction (James Elkins)
• THE SEMINARS
• 1. Histories of Studio Art Teaching
• 2. What Parts of Those Histories Are Pertinent?
• 3. The Possibility of a Book on Studio Art Instruction Worldwide
• 4. Artistic Knowledge, Part 1
• 5. Artistic Knowledge, Part 2
• 6. The First-Year Program
• 7. The BFA Degree
• 8. The MFA Degree
• 9. The PhD Degree
• ASSESSMENTS
• The Place To Be (Jan Baetens)
• Reflections (Robert Nelson)
• Art Education in a Mediatized World (Bert Taken and Jeroen Boomgaard)
• A Review (William Conger)
• The Common Denominator (Anders Dahlgren)
• Thoughts on the Seminars (Michael Fotiadis)
• When Art Turns Its Back on the Body (Tom McGuirk)
• Kant’s Assumption What the Artist Knows and the PhD for Visual Artists (George Smith)
• What Might Artists Learn from Architects? (Martin Søberg)
• The War Is Over (Su Baker)
• What’s Art Got To Do With It? (Gary Willis)
• Art Education in the University Itself: A Perspective from General Education (Yeung Yang)
• Art and the Market of Knowledge (Louisa Avgita)
• Knowledge and Value in Art (Rina Arya)
• What Is the Current State of Thinking on the PhD by Art Practice? (Brad Buckley and John Conomos)
• Spook Country: Training for Conflicts of Interest (Charles Green)
• Learning Education (Håkan Nilsson)
• What Artists Know (Laurie Fendrich and Peter Plagens)
• How Do Artists Think? (Janneke Wesseling)
• Beyond Authority (Vanalyne Green)
• When Skill Becomes Attitude (Glenn Adamson)
• Twenty Theses on What Artists Know (Henk Slager)
• Afterword: A Reserve Army of Intellectuals (Howard Singerman)
• Notes on the Contributors
• Index
• COVER Back