Exhibition: Teaching America To Draw
Wednesday July 19, 2006
The Grolier Club of New York currently has on show a collection entitled "Teaching America to Draw: Instructional Manuals & Ephemera, 1794 to 1925". The exhibition offers a fascinating insight into a time when sketching was not only a practical skill - prior to the ubiquitous snapshot camera - but a valued one. As the New York Times reviewer Michael Kimmelman writes, "Drawing was a civilized thing to do, like reading and writing. It was taught in elementary schools. It was democratic. It was a boon to happiness." In his review, Kimmelman expresses if not nostalgia for these long-gone days, at least a certain regret at their passing. He seems to share the view, as I do, that the arts in contemporary times are largely "spectator sports", and that we are the poorer for it. I regret that I'll be unable to visit the Grolier exhibition myself - I think it would make interesting viewing. For those in the New York area able to attend, its on until July 29, 2006, at The Grolier Club, 47 East 60th St.
Comments
Very interesting, Helen,learning the hard way!
Some of these drawings were complicated!
Makes you wonder how people ever learned to draw, doesn’t it. But I suspect it also ties in with writing - in those days, people learned to carefully copy letter-forms exactly, and concentrated on that before they started being ‘creative’ (which makes sense to me, since a little brain can only process so much at a time - our kids are trying to write sentences before they properly know their letters). They probably had longer attention spans too, without multimedia bombardment. Or perhaps I’m romanticizing the past again…..