School of design

“ But the real educating after influences; the inspiring and refining sources of artistic invention in design must be found in the splendid array of examples of ancient art of all kinds in our museums and galleries—which are mines of artistic wealth to the student and the designer.
Yet the most ordinary art-school training cannot be without its effect, even if only negative. The mere practice of cultivating the observation and uniting it with a certain power of depicting form is an education in itself, and gives people fresh eyes for nature and life. ”

“ I may here observe, that the School of Design, and the training of young workmen, will mainly tend to assist those who may be inclined to give up the ornamenting their saloons and halls with cheap printed papers, by producing persons who will be able, at a moderate cost, to execute the original designs of eminent artists, or to copy the great works of antiquity. ”

“ The greatest value of design in public school education is expressed well by Professor Sargent when he says, “For one who will produce a design, a thousand must know how to select it.”
Pupils possessed of exceptional originality and ability will find ample opportunity for expression in the group system without hindrance upon the part of the slower neighbors and without requiring all the instructor’s time at a sacrifice of the time which the slower pupils have a right to. ”

“ The whole subject of design as it relates to the manual training shop is one that has demanded thought on the part of the author. It is one of those places where teaching theory failed to bring efficiency either in the results obtained in design or in the reaction upon the boy. He has been forced to the opinion, from his own experience and from his observation of the efforts of others to teach design to grammar school pupils, that the cause for dissatisfaction and discouragement is due to our insistence upon one and only one method of presentation—the inductive or synthetic. ”

“ This theoretic kind of training, though still in force, and though it enabled the department to turn out certificated teachers for the schools of the country of a certain standard, and to give to students a general theoretic idea of art, has been found wanting, since, in practice, when the student in design leaves his school and desires to take up practical work as a designer or craftsman, he requires special knowledge, and specialized skill in design for his work to be of use ”

“ Thus, then, you will find—and the more profound and accurate your knowledge of the history of art the more assuredly you will find—that the living power in all the real schools, be they great or small, is love of nature. But do not mistake me by supposing that I mean this law to be all that is necessary to form a school. There needs to be much superadded to it, though there never must be anything superseding it. The main thing which needs to be superadded is the gift of design. ”

“ They have had more scope for the display of their ingenuity and more inducement to exercise their powers of invention. A vigorous and influential school of design developed which promised to evolve work of originality and excellence. British designers gained a hearing abroad, and earned emphatic approval in countries where a sound decorative tradition had been maintained for centuries. ”

“ A Model School of Industrial Art.
We cannot, at this time, speak of its provisions by which drawing, modeling, designing, etc., are taught; but we desire to call particular attention to the facilities that are offered for a practical instruction in weaving and textile design. Special courses are provided for teaching designing for all varieties of textile fabrics, and its practical application to loom work. As a complete course in its theoretical and practical utility we do not hesitate to say it is without an equal in America. ”

“ He is not far wrong if we demand of him original designs before we have given him anything tangible upon which to work. We say tangible as distinguished from academic principles [46] or rules of design. If nothing tangible is given the pupil he must get it outside of his school experience. ”

“ It does not concern itself with the amateur or with theoretic drawing. The main difference in principle adopted in this school in the teaching of design is the absence of teaching design apart from handicraft. It is considered that a craftsman thoroughly acquainted with the natural capacities of his material and strictly understanding the conditions of his work, would be able, if he had any feeling or invention, to design appropriately in that material, and no designing can be good apart from a knowledge of the material in which it is intended to be carried out. ”

“ This large class of designers and craftsmen, to whom a thorough knowledge of the history of design is a necessity, follows and develops traditional lines. The new art school, on the contrary, breaks wholly with tradition, unless unconsciously influenced by the Japanese, and awards the highest place to originality in design. It is not to be expected that an art-revival following on, and in possession of, all the results of a period of unprecedented activity in scientific research should proceed with the same restraint as heretofore ”

“ Whatever the method of teaching design in the regular classroom, lack of time demands the most direct treatment of shop design. A grammar school boy is not inclined to listen very patiently to anything that smacks of the academic. ”

“ In high school the design is to be taught by special drawing teachers who have informed themselves of the limitations of the shop methods when it comes to applying these designs. It is for the shop instructor to specify the kind of joint or joints that are to be used and the material, also the limitations as to decoration. ”

“ Woodworking when taught so as to meet the efficiency test that is applied to academic teaching also makes use of this method mostly. Our design, however, has always been taught by the inductive or synthetic method, no one seeming to have the temerity to make use of any other. As a result we find the views of design in the grammar school as stated above. ”

“ If designing could be taught, all the world would learn: as all the world reads—or calculates. But designing is not to be spelled, nor summed. My men continually come to me, in my drawing class in London, thinking I am to teach them what is instantly to enable them to gain their bread. "Please, sir, show us how to design." "Make designers of us." And you, I doubt not, partly expect me to tell you to-night how to make designers of your Bradford youths. Alas! I could as soon tell you how to make or manufacture an ear of wheat, as to make a good artist of any kind. ”

“ Such questions ought not to be overlaid with archæological inquiries, or with the information which only profits the designer; though of course it is best that the knowledge of design should be part of the education of the craft. ”

“ Arts and Crafts schools, so that a student may really acquire a practical working knowledge of the peculiar requirements of design to be reproduced in any process of manufacture, instead of being launched on the world with vague general ideas of drawing and painting, but ignorant of how to apply them. ”

“ But the real training in design arises from manual work—the playthings, toys and utensils the boy makes for use. They need not be beautiful nor is there excuse for clumsiness in construction. One cannot expect even the mature child to take much interest in design in the abstract, but when he meets the subject on a common-sense basis, as a part of some personal problem, design—even taste in color and form—acquires definite standing in his esteem. ”

“ Let the members of the Academy open their doors wide enough to admit all classes of artisans who desire to study the principles of design—the basis upon which the beauty and the saleability of their works mainly depends. There might then, in addition to the sections of Painting and Sculpture, be added those of Architecture, Ornamental Marble and Stone Workers, Carvers in Wood and Metal, Gold and Silver Smiths, Cabinet Makers, and indeed, as many other occupations as chose to unite themselves, in separate sections, for the purposes of mutual instruction in the Art of Design. ”

“ The power of drawing from a given form accurately would not be enough to prove this: the additional power of design, with that of eye for color, which could be tested in the class concerned with manufacture, would justify the master in advising and encouraging the youth to undertake special pursuit of art as an object of life. ”

“ Here, in morning, afternoon, and evening classes, under the best instructors, a three years' course in art may be taken, in drawing, painting, and clay-modelling; also courses in architectural and mechanical drawing, where in the adjacent shops the properties of materials and their power to bear strain can be learned. Many students take a course in design, and are thus enabled to win good positions as designers of book-covers, tiles, wall-papers, carpets, etc. ”

“ In these faculties we have the causes of Art. Inducing the causes, Art will follow as a matter of course. In exercising and developing the faculties which I have named, which naturally and inevitably produce Art, we are doing all that can be done by teaching. There is no better training for the visual and æsthetic faculties than is found in the practice of Pure Design, inducing, as it does, discrimination in tones, measures, and shapes, and the appreciation of [Pg 194] what is orderly and beautiful. ”

“ Connected with it there might be schools of design for improvement in ornamental manufacture, the development of architecture, and whatever aids to refine and give beauty to social life, including a simple academic system for the elementary branches of drawing and coloring, upon a scientific basis of accumulated knowledge and experience, providing models and other advantages not readily accessible to private resources, but leaving individual genius free to follow its own promptings upon a well-laid technical foundation. ”

“ Where the faculty for art was special, it ought to be carried forward to the study of design, first in practical application to manufacture, then in higher branches of composition. The general principles of the application of art to manufacture should be explained in all cases, whether of special or limited faculty. ”

“ In furthering the work of the first group, the topics so familiar to the art teacher of our modern schools are treated—landscape, plants, life, and still life. In the second group are presented the principles of perspective, of industrial drawing, of color harmony, and most important of all, the principles of pure design. In the third group are placed creative exercises in composition, in decorative design, and in many forms of manual training. ”

“ Why should not design, like mechanical drawing and woodwork and other subjects be developed upon a substructure consisting of information and appreciation secured by allowing or even insisting that the boy handle good design until he becomes saturated with a feeling for good line and good form? Of course, if any pupil comes to a beginning class with this information and feeling, due allowance should and can readily be made. It is highly probable that there would be less inclination on the part of our pupils to insist that designers are born not made were more use made of the deductive method. ”

“ The sense of order, which we all have, in a measure, needs to be exercised and developed. The spontaneity of undeveloped faculty does not count for much. It carries us only a little way. Let no one believe that without study and practice in Design he can recognize and appreciate what is best in Design. ”

“ Its mission is to create the desire for fine surroundings, to suggest ways and means for studying design, especially those phases of decoration associated with the crafts, and above all such a book invites and helps to maintain a receptive attitude of mind toward artistic matters. In the effort to produce work of merit, one becomes critical, and seeks reasons and precedents for judgment. This is the beginning of design study: and the fact that one has real interest in taste is indicative of the desire of the cultured mind for ideals. ”

“ One word as to the name 'National Academy of the Arts of Design.' Any less name than 'National' would be taking one below the American Academy, and therefore is not desirable. If we were simply the 'Associated Artists,' their name would swallow us up; therefore 'National' seems a proper one as to the arts of design. These are painting, sculpture, architecture, and engraving, while the fine arts include poetry, music, landscape gardening, and the histrionic arts. Our name, therefore, expresses the entire character of our institution and that only. ”

“ The second objection lies in the fact that the problem in design has to pass thru too many hands before it reaches the boy. If design is to be taught to the best advantage, it must have the [43] interest of the teacher and she must have an intelligent understanding not only of the subject of design but of the particular problem that is to be presented. The difficulties in the way are not insurmountable where the drawing supervisor herself presents the problem to the pupils. ”

“ COMPOSITION
XVII.—IN DESIGN AND PAINTING
The test of any system of art-study lies in what you can do with it. Harmony-building has been the theme of the foregoing pages, with progressive exercises in structural line, dark-and-light and color. The product should be power,—power to appreciate, power to do something worth while. Practice in simple harmonies gives control of the more complex relations, and enables one to create with freedom in any field of art. Such training is the best foundation for work in design, architecture, the crafts, painting, sculpture and teaching. ”

“ How much better our carriages would be if we worked from drawings as carefully planned out and executed as these. Many of our artisans could, with a little instruction, draw quite as well, and by degrees would learn to draw with as much artistic taste and sense of the beautiful. Some artisans are now being instructed in the art of design, and I trust the day is not far distant when every workman will see that his son learns drawing as part of his education, and as the essential preliminary to any technical education which is to follow. ”