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Hillsdale College in south central Michigan is one of a
handful of truly independent undergraduate institutions in
the country, a place where the young artist can find (1) one
of the most tradition-focused studio programs, (2)
state-of-the-art facilities for painting and sculpture, (3)
a liberal arts college education that consistently earns
national praise, and (4) a scenic campus replete with
historic architecture in a gorgeous, landscaped setting.
Furthermore, since its founding a century and half ago in
1844, the school has never accepted any revenues from
federal, state, or local tax funding. Its board of trustees,
administration, and faculty feel better suited than any set
of Washington officials to determine the brand of education
it offers. With a long history of leadership, in many areas,
the college points with pride in particular to its
acceptance of women and black students since before the
Civil War. On numerous accounts, Hillsdale College has
earned high marks around the country.
This
attractive, small college offers many of the undergraduate
majors one would expect to find in any liberal arts college,
including its department of art which finds its home in the
two-year-old Sage Center for the Fine and Performing Arts.
The art center complex encompasses over 50,000 square feet
of working space in a beautifully appointed, two-story brick
and steel building. During its honeymoon months the art
gallery already has hosted exhibits of national prestige.
The inaugural exhibit, occurring in November 1992, was
ROMANTIC REALISM: Visions of Values, produced by
Alexandra York, founder of ART. The exhibit premiered in
Manhattan’s Grand Central Galleries earlier that year and
involved a nationally respected group of painters and
sculptors, including
Hillsdale
College
artist-professors Tony Frudakis, who has taught in the
school since 1991, and myself. For my part, I have taught at
Hillsdale since 1973 and have earned national recognition
for my paintings in egg tempera, watercolor or oil.
Recently, we two have been joined by visiting art professor
Richard Serrin, who left his home in Florence, Italy
intrigued by the possibilities for dovetailing his vision of
an Old Master program in oil painting with existing programs
at a fine American college.
Together, we artist-professors work hard to balance our
commitment to traditional studio teaching with our own
vigorous careers. We have built a program in which the
student experiences a solid core of anatomy-based life
drawing, sculpture, and painting reinforced by an array of
art history courses. We teach all the art history courses in
the department with an insiders’ perspective on the making
of art while maintaining high academic standards. In
addition to the challenges of studio art and art history
experienced in the Sage Center, the young student may round
out his grounding in our Western heritage with courses in
the classics, language, philosophy, and history, all of
which are given in other classroom facilities on campus and
none of which pander to the pressures of the “political
correctness” so much in vogue nowadays.
A walk
around the
Sage
Center
typically reveals a glimpse of an art professor at work on
one of his own projects. Even though each teacher maintains
his own private studio, faculty members are generous in
their commitment to involving students in the progress of
their own creations. Strolling further once comes upon arts
students grinding their own paint, sculpting and casting
works of figurative sculpture, developing their own black
and white or color photographs, and so on. A few more steps
and one sees impressive plaster casts of classical Greek
sculpture on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Turn
a corner and the scene is the computer graphics lab where an
instructor has students working with the latest Macintosh
hardware and software for image scanning and manipulation.
The emphasis within the art major favors the fine art
approach, yet the technical side is represented by computer
graphics and photography.
At the
core of much of the teaching in both art history and studio
courses is the subject of the human figure. “The human form
remains the ultimate challenge for the artist,” states Tony
Frudakis,
There
is nothing else that so well illustrates Coleridge’s
definition of beauty as ‘unity in variety.’ The myriad of
parts of bone, muscle, and sinew are amazingly synthesized
by the body’s underlying order. It is not just the surface
that we want the student to understand but, more
importantly, what is invisible—nature’s geometry exhibited
in the figure’s rhythms, proportions and movement. The
training we offer is timeless, so the student can use it as
a springboard for realizing a personal style in an
intelligent, well-honed manner. For all our concern with
craftsmanship, we want our students to realize their own
dreams and goals in art, not merely copy the style of an
influential teacher.
None
of this study procedure is handled in a stylistic vacuum.
Each art professor, in both his teaching and personal
professional work, is absorbed in the human subject as a
spiritual, intellectual, and moral being, for these three
fundamental aspects of humans constitute the essence of the
established Western cultural tradition that we seek to pass
along.
This
brand of teaching takes place in facilities virtually
unmatched by other liberal arts colleges of comparable size.
In contrast to the understated elegance of most public
spaces in the Sage Center, however, the art studios
themselves are large, stripped-down spaces that have a
slightly industrial feeling, which encourages an industrious
approach by our students. We do not want the creative
process to be hindered by an overly fastidious workspace; we
are free to spill paint or drop lumps of clay on the
concrete floors. On the other hand the studios are well
kept, ventilated, and illuminated environments. We are
working toward an eventual arrangement for upper division
art majors to have their own private workstalls, but that
will probably involve finding additional space close to but
outside the Sage Center, for our program is succeeding so
well that we are already in danger of outgrowing our present
facilities. Indeed, the inclusion of Richard Serrin has
opened up extra courses in life drawing and oil painting,
enabling me to offer courses in my specialties of
portraiture and egg tempera.
Meanwhile, students are becoming more and more successful in
securing commissions to do artwork for outside clients and
help pay for their schooling. On occasion some have served
as apprentices with the faculty on large scale projects. For
example Sasha Kinens, a sophomore from Wauwatosa, Wisconsin,
collaborated with me in the early stages of an oil portrait
of Dr. Russell Kirk, the late distinguished mentor of
conservative political movements, and students Susan Clinard
and Amy Bartley served as apprentices to Tony Frudakis for
an over-lifesize commissioned sculpture of Socrates which
now graces a park developed by the Greek community in
Astoria, Queens, New York. We have, in fact, a highly
talented team of student-artists; the average count of
majors is around twenty, with as many or more additional
students majoring in art. The usual enrollment in a studio
course ranges from six to sixteen students, so each student
gets close personal attention from his or her teacher.
Exposure to professional artwork is reinforced by a
continuous calendar of gallery exhibits that emphasize fresh
approaches to traditional expression. The gallery is
beautifully designed and lit and can accommodate shows of
both two-dimensional and three-dimensional artworks; for
example, two exhibits already shown in the Sage Center which
have enjoyed national or even international tours are: THE
AMERICAN WILDERNESS: Photographs by Ansel Adams and
INDELIBLE IMAGES AND SACRED ENCOUNTERS: A Perspective on
R. H. Ives Gammell and Francis Thompson. In addition,
the gallery regularly schedules exhibits of faculty work,
the Michigan Water Color Society juried annual, and solo or
group exhibits of prominent Midwestern artists. Each spring
the gallery hosts a juried student exhibit involving all
levels and media that offers both cash and scholarship
awards. Finally, each senior art major is required to
exhibit his or her best work in the gallery to fulfill
graduation requirements.
All
students whose talent lies in the direction of the
representational approach to art will find their skills and
vision nurtured by the department of art at Hillsdale. Their
intellects and spirits will be challenged by cognate courses
to be taken in the departments of classics, philosophy and
religion, English, and history. The faculty sympathize with
scores of students at other colleges and state universities
whose realistic artwork has been insulted by artists and
teachers alike who remain under the spell of the avante
garde. The Hillsdale artist-professors respect valid
alternative points of view but emphasize a well-focused
program in traditional approaches instead of seeking to
confound the student with faddish tendencies. We know what
the cornerstone of art is, and we offer a generous hand to
those who wish to build their foundation upon it.
Sam Knecht is head of the art department at
Hillsdale College and an acclaimed painter of portraits and
landscapes.
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