The History of American Art Education: Learning About Art in American Schools

by Peter Smith

Overview

The ideas, people, and events that developed art education are described and analyzed so that art educators and educators in general will have a better understanding of what has happened (and is happening) to visual art in the schools. Peter Smith raises the issue of art education's inordinate emphasis on Eurocentric art. He challenges the often expressed notion that the field of education is the cause of art education's problems and proposes that confused conceptions within the art world are just as much a root of the difficulty. No other book in art education history gives such close and analytical attention to the careers of women in the field. The materials on Germanic cultural and historical influences are unequaled as is the scholarly treatment of Viktor Lowenfeld, probably the most influential single figure in 20th-century American art education.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313298707
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	07/22/1996
Series:	Contributions to the Study of Education , #67
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)
Lexile:	1400L (what's this?)

About the Author

PETER SMITH is Coordinator of Art Education/Art Therapy at the University of New Mexico. He has exhibited his art work in many parts of the United States and is a familiar name in art education jourbanal literature with more than thirty major articles. His 25 year background in public school teaching serves him well as a spokesman of institutional art education.

Table of Contents

Introduction
The Beginnings of Education in the Visual Arts in America
The Dismissal of Walter Smith: Historiographic Explanation, the American Art Scene, and Visual Arts Education in the Late Nineteenth Century
Germanic Influences
Franz Cizek and the Elusiveness of Historical Knowledge
American Attempts to Democratize Art: Picture Study
American Women in Visual Arts Education: Outstanding Leaders and the Interaction Between Gender Bias and Art's Status
A Charismatic American
Gender and the History of Art Education: Survival and Disappearance
Of Women and Art Education: Roles of Importance
A Colossus of Sorts
The Post Lowenfeld Era: Radical Dissent and Thoughtful Revisionism
From Aesthetic Education to Discipline-based Art Education: Intellectualizations and Confusions
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

Departs from other recent history of art education in the US by examining currents, figures, and movements in a consistent critical light; interpreting actions by leaders in the context of their time and place; relying heavily on primary sources and oral evidence; and tinging the account with a pinch of the cynicism that is endemic to postmodernism. Smith (art education and art therapy, U. of New Mexico) considers both the efforts that art teachers have made, cultural elements that have largely thwarted those efforts. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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