Act 1, Scene 6
The narrative began with Act 1,
scene 1 on April 10, 2013.
To access all scenes, scroll to blog archive at the bottom of the page.
Agnes Martin
Most of us here today seem to be painters; and so far I have
not seen many young artists, although maybe they simply haven’t arrived yet. (turning to Whiten) Colette, you aren’t a
painter – at least that isn’t an area of focus for you. And you teach at an art
college or university in Toronto, is that right?
Whiten
Well, no actually. I've retired from teaching, but I was at the Ontario College of Art and Design. It's been a degree-granting university for a number
of years now, thanks largely to Ron Shuebrook, by the way. The school's moniker since that began is OCAD University.
Colette Whiten
Martin
Did you see any evidence among your students, of an interest
in this Juicetrain idea? Not this
manifestation in particular of course, but in the idea of a legacy, a lineage,
some linking between generations of artists? I made a choice to drop out of sight, get away from "the scene" in New York; but that's quite a different proposition. I don't think I could ever claim not to have been influenced by anyone. What do kids who are starting out think, I wonder.
Whiten
Well, you have to remember how young the students are.
When they enter an art program after high school they can be as young as seventeen or eighteen, and with
some exceptions, most have not had much grounding in the history of art – often
they’re largely unaware of the interests and achievements of other artists,
from any period, including their own. People like to point fingers at the
education system, and at teachers, but considering the issues that high schools
have to deal with, I think that it’s a bit too easy to think that we can blithely
assign blame for what we think is missing from a kid’s education. And they
don’t stay eighteen. That's just where they begin to sort themselves out. There is a huge dropout rate each year. I think a lot of kids believe that the can be artists simply because they like to draw and because art was their strongest subject in high school. At the end of four years, a few are left, and of those, fewer still really know how to engage with the art world, or what it will take for them to succeed. And from the many, a few amazingly talented artists emerge.
It’s a winnowing process, as you know. It staggers the mind when you think of
the number of students enrolled in fine arts courses in Canada alone … and then
there’s the rest of the world. Only a
few stick with this career, and fewer still achieve anything substantial. It’s
a tough life.
Brice Marden
Marden
It’s your Shary Boyle we should be asking about this. I
don’t know Shary personally, but just to look at her work here at the Biennale, you have to think that she’s a subscriber to this idea of links with the past. How far do
you have to go to find a Della Robbia porcelain? She’s doing something quite
different, obviously, but isn’t that exactly what we’ve been talking about … exciting
new achievement connected with the past?
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Historically accurate anecdotes are especially welcome.