Publisher's Letter- February Issue 2006

Master DNA

B. Eric Rhoads

For more than 700 years, art knowledge has been passed down like DNA from master artists to students, thereby preserving their trusted ideas, philosophies, formulas, and techniques. The system continued unchanged, right up until the 20th century.

Many of the early Modern masters — Picasso, de Kooning, Pollock, and so forth — were academically trained in the classics. Their depth of knowledge enabled them to depart from these traditions in extraordinary ways. As the century wore on, however, successive generations of artists erroneously assumed they no longer needed any initial training in drawing, anatomy, composition, or color theory. In fact, many came to believe that the old ways hindered artistic freedom of expression. In many art schools and universities around the globe, the classics were abandoned and then forgotten over the decades, gradually dying out with the older artists. In the new academic circles, Realism was declared dead.

Not true! In Russia and China, as well as scattered pockets elsewhere in the world, art academies preserved the classical methods of Realist art and art education in its original form. On a recent visit to Moscow, I discovered firsthand how the country created and preserved its academic legacy, and how artists and patrons are keeping it alive today (see story on page 70).

During the past few decades, at least here in America, the pendulum has begun to swing back toward Realism, and parts of the art world have answered the call. Young artists who love the classical traditions have sought training with those few artists, ateliers, and art schools still practicing them. Dealers have imported more and more beautiful, classic works from Russia, China, and anywhere else they could find them. And arts patrons, who always play a role in shaping art’s future, have recognized the inherent value in these works.