Masters and their pupils, from Rembrandt to Abramo

Masters and their pupils, from Rembrandt to Abramović

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Indrukken van de tweede Studio-R talkshow in het Rembrandthuis met Zeus Hoenderop, Gabriël Lester, Tatjana Macić en Huib Haye van der Werf.

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TALKSHOW - DE MEESTER IS DOOD, LANG LEVE DE MEESTER

zondag 17 mei 2015 van 14:00 tot 17:00 uur

KNAW, Het Trippenhuis, Kloveniersburgwal 29, 1011 JV Amsterdam

Trippenhuis

De Akademie van Kunsten en Museum het Rembrandthuis organiseren een bijeenkomst over de actuele betekenis van meester-leerlingrelaties in de kunsten. Met bijdragen van Barbara Visser (Voorzitter Akademie van Kunsten) en Michael Huijser (Directeur Museum Het Rembrandthuis) Colin Benders (Kyteman), Jeroen Boomgaard, Hans van Houwelingen, Conny Janssen en Willem de Rooij.

Wie in de zeventiende eeuw ambities als kunstenaar had, ging vaak al op jonge leeftijd in de leer bij een leermeester. Zo gaf Rembrandt zijn hele leven lang les aan kleine groepjes pupillen. Tegenwoordig starten de meeste kunstenaars hun loopbaan aan een kunstacademie, maar zijn er ook vele andere mogelijkheden om jezelf te ontwikkelen: van lezingen en tutorials op het web, tot het volgen van workshops, summer schools en residencies wereldwijd. De hiërarchie lijkt verdwenen, de meester is dood. Of toch niet?

De Akademie van Kunsten en Museum het Rembrandthuis willen tijdens deze bijeenkomst de relatie leerling-meester, en met name de actualiteitswaarde ervan, kritisch beschouwen en met een brede groep van theoretici, kunstenaars en mensen uit het kunstonderwijs bespreken.

Met bijdragen van:

Barbara Visser, voorzitter Akademie van Kunsten

Michael Huijser, directeur Museum Het Rembrandthuis

Jeroen Boomgaard, lector Kunst en Publieke Ruimte aan de Gerrit Rietveld Academie

Willem de Rooij, kunstenaar en docent aan Städelschule in Frankfurt

Conny Janssen, artistiek leider Conny Janssen Danst en lid van de Akademie van Kunsten

Hans van Houwelingen, beeldend kunstenaar en lid van de Akademie van Kunsten

Colin Benders (Kyteman), trompettist en orkestleider en lid van de Akademie van Kunsten

Organisatie

Akademie van Kunsten en Museum het Rembrandthuis i.s.m. Non-fiction

Dit programma is onderdeel van Studio-R en vindt gelijktijdig plaats met de finissage van de tentoonstelling Rembrandts Late Leerlingen in Museum het Rembrandthuis.

Voor vragen of reserveringen: Annelies ten Have: [email protected] en 020 551 0746

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Impression of the conversation about the role of the ‘master’ in contemporary art, which took place March 22, 2015 at the Rembrandt House Museum. How much influence do artists have on their students , and where do the boundaries lie? Are artists today still dependent on a master teacher or are there other ways to develop yourself ? And how was that during the era of Rembrandt?

With: Artun Alaski Arasli, Maria Guggenbichler, Berend Strik and Jaap van der Veen

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New opportunity for old masters?

The educational practice of the old masters and present day artists have, at first glance, little in common. In Rembrandt’s era many sculptors and painters mostly followed the traditional and predominant fashions and students copied their masters.

Today, however, artists attempt to distinguish themselves from each other and challenge conventions. The art world is incredibly democratised and the idea of the master barely still plays a role. In the Dutch art academies students encounter many (guest) teachers who do indeed impart specific knowledge and skills, but who are not seen as masters or superiors.

Artists today are equal to each other—what counts is determination and power of imagination. Yet the ‘master’, as the ideal image of a teacher and as a person of flesh and blood, has not entirely vanished. In Germany, for example, art students still continue to study with a ‘meister’. In the Netherlands the Mondriaan Fund offers a Master-Apprentice Scheme in order to “accommodate the swelling demand from beginning artists for the mentorship of experienced peers in their field”.

Ten large art academies throughout Europe have initiated an Apprentice/Master project to couple students with renowned artists. Even large brands such as Rolex and Red Bull are supporting young talent by bringing them in contact with experienced renowned artists. Is Rembrandt then a role model for education in today’s art world? What can we learn from the manner in which he dealt with his students? Is it good or bad that the master/apprentice model is being rediscovered and embraced by funds and corporations? And what alternative (future) models exist? These and other questions are central in Studio-R.

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This portrait of Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat is one of documentary photographer Michael Halsband’s most notable images. Photographed in preparation for an exhibition that would present collaborative works by Warhol and Basquiat, this image has come to represent posthumously the friendship, collaboration and competition between these two widely acclaimed artists.

Warhol was born this day in 1928.

For a full listing of the Warhols within the SCADMOA collection check out our website here.

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Andy Warhol had a re-emergence of critical and financial success in the 1980s, partially due to his affiliation and friendships with a number of prolific younger artists, who were dominating the "bull market" of 1980s New York art: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel, David Salle and other so-called Neo-Expressionists, as well as members of the Transavantgarde movement in Europe, including Francesco Clemente and Enzo Cucchi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol#1980s

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Teachers: stop preparing artists for the real world; help them to make a better one.

https://twitter.com/naylandblake/status/572787571316658176

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The 2013 summer exhibition at De Pont was dedicated to the Pupil/Master project, initiated in 2008 by Zeus Hoenderop, founder and director of Kunstpodium T in Tilburg. In this project, young artists in their last year of art school are linked to each other and to a well-known contemporary artist in order to create a joint exhibition at Kunstpodium T. 

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Drawing from life in Rembrandt’s Studio, c. 1650 Pen and brush in brown, black chalk, heightened with white, 18 x 26.6 cm Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt

Rembrandt as a teacher

Rembrandt’s studio in Amsterdam was one of the biggest and busiest art enterprises of the 17th century, attracting dozens of pupils and charging serious tuition fees. Rembrandt’s career had its ups and downs, but through it all he kept teaching. 

Young and aspiring artists went to Rembrandt to hone their skills before setting up as independent artists. For these young painters it was not only about Rembrandt’s virtuoso brushwork; they were also attracted by his unrivalled mastery of a wide range of subjects and techniques.

Rembrandt distinguished himself from other master painters of his time in several ways. In addition to a more formal training, with an emphasis on imitating existing works and especially their teacher’s style and technique, students were stimulated to develop their personal style. They would be challenged to create their own variations on biblical themes and the pupils’ studio space was divided into compartments, allowing for individual work.

Rembrandt’s workshop seems to have functioned more like an informal private academy, which sought to set itself apart from the rigid apprentice system of Holland’s predominant painting guilds. It was possibly modeled on the famous Carracci Academy in Bologna, established a few decades prior to Rembrandt’s studio, where conversations and debates about art were commonplace. Aspects of Rembrandt’s practice are still present in today’s art schools and artist studios.

Read more here

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Hört auf zu malen, Jörg Immendorff, 1966 (Collection Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven)

Stop met schilderen!

Joseph Beuys zei ooit: “Ik begrijp sowieso niet waarom iemand nog wil schilderen. Hoe kun je nu een vrije kunstenaar zijn in deze sociale wereld en dan, al vanaf het begin, de begrenzing van de lijst accepteren?”

In 1966 zat de jonge Jörg Immendorff nog als trouwe leerling in de Beuys-klas op de academie van Düsseldorf. Naar aanleiding van wat daar besproken was had hij toch een schilderij gemaakt met daarop, ruw gepenseeld, om een of andere reden een ledikant waarboven de beroemde hoed van Beuys zweeft. Daar overheen een ferm kruis en de tekst: Hört auf zu malen (“Hou op met schilderen”) - een onzeker, ironisch manifest. Toen Beuys het zag, bij de rondgang door de klas, zei de meester: Scheisse! Weitermachen!

Uit: Rechtsboven moet zwart!, Rudi Fuchs, De Groene Amsterdammer

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“If any one general statement can be made about the art world of today it is that the best artists learn, but are not taught. The ancient hierarchy of master and apprentice, senior and junior, has quite gone. In its place came a free-floating system of equals.”

John Russell (Source: New York Times)

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Josef Albers teaching at Yale by John Cohen, c. 1955

In this film—the only film of Josef Albers teaching in the classroom—Albers is seen introducing students to the basics of drawing ellipses and foreshortened circles. His lively classroom manner is particularly evident as he gets the entire class on its feet and moving around to experience ellipses from all angles.

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Andrea del Verrocchio and Leonardo da Vinco, The Baptism of Christ by St. John, 1470-75, Uffizi Gallery Florence

Better than the master

Giorgio Vasari writes of the pupil Leonardo assisting his master Verrocchio in his Baptism of Christ by St. John: "In this work he was assisted by Leonardo da Vinci, his disciple, then quite young, who painted therein an angel with his own hand, which was much better than the others parts of the work; and for that reason Andrea resolved never again to touch a brush, since Leonardo, young as he was, had acquitted himself in that art much better than he had done."

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Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.

Leonardo da Vinci

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Academia d'pitori, Pietro Francesco Alberti, ca. 1600 (Source: British Museum)

Masters and their pupils - from workshop to residency

Ever since the Middle Ages, the relationship between masters and their pupils hadbeen fundamental to art. All artists spenttheir youth as humble apprentices, learningtheir craft in their master’s workshop. Ifthey learned well, an artist might attempta masterpiece. If it was recognised as such by their guild, they would officially become a master artist. Then they could open their own workshop. 

The master-pupil relationship worked in that way from the last quarter of the 12th century all the way through the Renaissance and beyond. 

From the 17th and 18th centuries onward the art school - starting with the École des Beaux-Arts in France - began to eat away at the structure of personal tutelage. And by the 19th century there was yet another evolution, and one that persists to this day. The avant-garde artists of the day began to band together in what was in effect an autonomous and self-referring way, breaking away from the rigid master-pupil hierarchy. 

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The studio of Jeff Koons (Photo: Annie Leibovitz for Vogue)

Masters of the 21st century

People who want to become an artist today can attend art school or a college or universityoffering a fine art program, but a strongpersonality and self-taught skills and knowledge are equally important. Students and (young) artists can get their education and inspiration from whoever and wherever they want, from residency programmes to online tutorials and TEDtalks. 

However, the classic workshop model and the passing on of knowledge and experience from one generation of artists to the next are still relevant. Professors in art schools are often expected to be practicing artists, and students sometimes still choose a study program based on their desire to study with a certain professor. And ‘contemporary masters’, such as Jeff Koons and Olafur Eliasson, still operate large studios employing dozens of assistants and interns in almost the same way as Rembrandt did.

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Let us not forget that in the majority of art schools, male faculty members still outnumber their female counterparts even as female students frequently outnumber males.

Robert Storr, Art School: (Propositions for the 21st Century), p. 56

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The Artist is Present, Marina Abramović, 2010, Performance at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (image courtesy Marina Abramović and Sean Kelly Gallery, NY)

God

"And then one thing that’s really interesting to address is the relation between the master, meaning the professor, and the student. It’s just unbelievable. For me, the most striking example is Japan. I was teaching a lot in Japan, and the relation is really like a God. First, they don’t look you in the eye. They’re in a submissive kind of attitude of the body, always looking down and always saying, “Yes, yes.” You have the power to say, “Open the window and jump.” They, without questioning, open the window and jump (claps)—and that’s re- ally something that I hate. It’s very important to have a democratic kind of rela- tionship based on equality, and showing that anything you’re asking them, you can also do it. Like if I say, “We don’t eat for five days,” I’m doing the same."

Quote taken from: Art School: (Propositions for the 21st Century), p. 184

⬅ ➡ CONTRACT