When I went to the
Academy we didn’t have a Thesis Show. No,
for some reason, we had something called a Diploma Project Exhibition;
although, that’s not what my CV says. The first such show I saw was in 2003, at
the end of my first year. The last show I saw there was in 2008, the spring
before I left the city.
The place, by just about any reasonable metric, is an
anomaly in the context of the 21
st century American graduate art
program. I used to have a spiel I would give if somebody happened to ask me
about the school. It doesn’t really happen as often as it once did, so I’m out
of practice. I’ll let
Peter Drake, the school’s dean
do it for me:
The conventional model for how an
art school should be structured is so common now as to be virtually academic:
offer a bit of this and a bit of that; don’t take a position because the art
world is in a constant state of flux; whatever you do, don’t specialize. This
has resulted in a jack-of-all-trades condition that makes most art programs
indistinguishable from each other. If you travel from coast to coast, from one
MFA program to another, you can enter their doors and become convinced that you
haven’t moved at all. On the surface this seems like a good idea; the art world
has been in a pluralist stalemate for over thirty years and shows no signs of
ever changing. Why should an MFA program take a position?
The simple answer is that all art
making takes a position. The very act of picking up a brush is a declaration.
Choosing to make objects in a digital age is taking a stand. Believing in
anything is potentially progressive. The relativity of pluralism has created a
critical crisis where all things seem equal, but does anyone really believe
that? The real joy of art is not found in watching someone make an acceptable
version of a patented school, but rather it is in the iconoclastic, the
anomalous, and the unexpected. In effect, it is doing precisely what you
shouldn’t be doing.
The New York Academy of Art enters
this critical crisis with a firm belief that when young artists are given the
most extensive set of visual tools available and a complete awareness of
contemporary culture, they will make important contributions to visual culture
by doing what many people believe is no longer possible, making great art. It
has been suggested that there are no more great movements to be had from art
making, that the great contributions of the last century have been exhausted.
This has an “end of history” ring to it that is both dispiriting and contrary
to cultural evolution. Great art is being made and will always be made by
artists who refuse to adapt to the accepted norms of their era and instead
forge ahead with work that is masterful, critically aware, and deeply contrary.
We present the graduating class of
2012 as a prime example of what can happen when talent, intelligence and
willful determination meet as a counterpoint to cultural relativity.
Peter wasn't the dean when I was there. He was a member of the adjunct faculty. I never had a class with him, which I've regretted probably since the day I graduated. Hiring him as the dean is probably the best decision that school ever made.
The NYAA 2012 MFA Thesis Exhibition opens at 111 Franklin St. in Tribeca, next Tuesday, May 15. The reception will run from 6-8pm. The show will remain up until May 26.
