Let's Teach Art With Originals

Abstract

O ur media, prepackaged, Ethan-Allen-reproduction society renders all too many of our art experiences vicarious. Technology makes it possible to simulate and produce countless products the virtues of which the mass ad boys bombard us with in slick TV commercials and magazine advertisements. It is possible to read the literary classics in Reader's Digest condensations, study the monuments of philosophy in Cliff Notes, and get a thimbleful of Beethoven or Tchaikovsky on the potpourri of pops recordings purchased by dialing some 800 number that flashes at you on a TV screen. From the elementary grades through college level art history courses, the reproduction reigns supreme. Most instruction in art appreciation and art history is delivered in darkened rooms or by looking at printed reproductions. Although there are obvious advantages in gathering images of art works from a wide range of museums and private collections, reliance on such reproductions is all too often total. Admittedly, comparing images of artists' works sideby-side on the same screen is valuable in the study of their subject matter and major stylistic characteristics. However, the distortions in scale and color, to say nothing of the loss of detail and texture, diminish the effectiveness of instruction and reduce it to a lecture on the subject matter of the work, biographical tidbits, and stylistic analyses that all too often must be taken by the student on faith since the reproduction does not visually make the case. It is difficult to adequately discuss Impressionist brush work, to explore the subtle value differences in Barbizon paintings, or to appreciate the space and volume of a Houdon sculpture from even the best reproduction. In the case of a painting by De Hooch or one by Vermeer, the intimacy of scale so important to an appreciation of their works, is lost when projected six times their size on a wall. Another problem in relying upon reproductions is that unless one is able to visit a museum reproduction in hand and compare it to the original work, one must take on faith that the color and other qualities of the reproduction are true. Margaret Mead recognized yet a greater danger in the aesthetically numbing affect of our reproduction-filled society when she wrote:

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