Philosophy: does classical study harm or stunt the artist?
Hi
I was just speaking with a friend of mine who (not a photographer) who argued that he didn't want to study art as that would only interfere with his talent and his expression.
Personally I don't feel this way and seem to recall having had discussions with artistically inclined skeptics who had (after doing their BA) found that they benefited not only personally but interpersonally with the ability to communicate in a newly understood 'language' of description of styles and influences which had previously been unconsciously perceived but not consciously understood or articulateable.
Anyone feel that study kills the art in the artist?
:-)
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I was just speaking with a friend of mine who (not a photographer) who argued that he didn't want to study art as that would only interfere with his talent and his expression.
Personally I don't feel this way and seem to recall having had discussions with artistically inclined skeptics who had (after doing their BA) found that they benefited not only personally but interpersonally with the ability to communicate in a newly understood 'language' of description of styles and influences which had previously been unconsciously perceived but not consciously understood or articulateable.
Anyone feel that study kills the art in the artist?
:-)
Your friend will most likely create a string of cliche's, and have no understanding of the techniques he has at his disposal. You can't depart without knowing where to leave from.
Talent and expression are the ingredients and results of art, not the means by which it is accomplished. I have experience with a couple of people with this attitude. It is usually a cover for laziness or fear. JMO
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--J Brunner, The Prints of Darkness
Not by itself - but a great deal depends on the attitude of the student. Freedom and originality of vision are, IMHO **INDESPENSIBLE** in art, and maintaining that freedom is the most difficult task of all.
That's like a being a writer who refuses to read! Anyone working in any creative medium should consume/study other creative works in his own and other media. A photographer should study painting, music, literature, sculpture, etc., as all of these forms will spark the creative urge and nurture one's creative capacities. Likewise, musicians usually enjoy reading good literature, studying good paintings and photographs, etc. All the creative impulses feed on each other and to deny one's creative capacity the chance to "feed" is like starving a living creature of food.
Anyone who wants to be a better photographer will enhance their work by studying great paintings, listening to great music, reading great literature, and so on. And I mean GREAT products of creativity, the things that have stood the tests of time and survivied and be considered great by successive generations of creative thinkers.
JBrunner is absolutely right -- such attitudes, IMHO, are usually a cover for fear or laziness.
Does this person think he or she is such a giant that they cannot get higher by standing on the shoulders of the great artists of the last couple thousand years?
"I was just speaking with a friend of mine who (not a photographer) who argued that he didn't want to study art as that would only interfere with his talent and his expression."
What is going on in today education on art Academies, your friend is right. Artistically you will get missleaded. Technically you will get a lot from good school. I would sugest: go and be carefull. Study art after the school.
athanastasius Does this person think he or she is such a giant that they cannot get higher by standing on the shoulders of the great artists of the last couple thousand years?
It is over. No Academy has in program such things anymore. They got in head it is not considered art by today standard. It is why we have children like drawings in art galleries.
Enjoy Picasso...
Take any book on art history, look at last pages, it is you will learn about.
Daniel OB www.Leica-R.com
There is no formula, no specific guidelines on how an artist grows and learns.
How one approaches their art and how the world affects them is completely up them.
Everyone's brain works in different ways and cannot predict how an artist will
be influenced.
Some like to study extensively and become experts in others' art before they create their own.
Others, like to shut themselves in a bubble to protect their virginity.
Most though, I imagine, are somewhere in between.
My parents were afraid that going to art classes would corrupt and box me, so when I was growing
up, they refused to let me attend. Later, an art teacher from the School of Fine Arts in Athens warned
me against the same school for the same reasons.
I ended up in a crazy art school (Museum School in Boston), really confused and lost, trying different
art media, techniques and personal styles. I studied everything from ancient and medieval greek art
to chinese and japanese painting and calligraphy. And I can say that they helped liberate my mind.
There is no Virgin, no Pure human.
Everybody has their own world of perceptions and those are create directly and indirectly by the outside.
They are influenced by their parents, their friends, their school, their neighborhood, their government,
the shows they watch on TV, the movies, the music, the books they read, the visual environment they live in,
they emotions, their ideas, their politics, and so on and so forth.
Claiming to be untouched and pure is naive, false and dangerous.
My belief is that artists are not influenced and energized by nature or ideas,
but by other artists. We artists are vampires: we feed of each other.
We drink the auras of other artists and we steal from their art.
Art is one. There is no "my art" and "your art".
We have different expressions and different approaches, but we dip in the same waters.
Art is like a huge sea where we bathe. Alone or in company, we all swim in the same place.
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aristotelis grammatikakis www.arigram.gr black & white film is sexy
Philosophy: does classical study harm or stunt the artist? 
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