RE: Michallet paper

[Judy Seigel <jseigel@panix.com>]

On Thu, 14 May 2009, Vedos wrote:

> Naturally common practice in any art school (in Europe anyway) - how 
> else would you learn anatomy & life drawing... -jalo
>
>
> When I was in art school in the 60s (by god) at Syracuse (a Methodist
> institution originally) we had some great models who were none to
> successful NYC dancers. They would come upstate for a week or so at a
  stc, etc. etc.

Guys, I'm talking about long, looong before the '60s...  I daresay loong 
before you were born.... At the Art Students League Saturday children's 
class I was probably 9 years old, just old enough to come into the city by 
myself and take the trolley from the train along 42nd Street to the bus up 
Broadway. The fare was 10, later 15 cents. (Of course they tore the 
trolley out, and of course now they talk about putting it back.)

We learned anatomy by copying from plaster casts -- we began with "Block 
Head" (facial planes strongly modelled); then "Muscle Man" (muscles 
articulated), and "Discus Thrower" (a small "Greek sculpture"), then 
praying hands, a female cast or two, & on to the life models. (After all 
this, if I may say so, a penis would have been a no-brainer.)

Years later, I transferred from college to the Art Institute of Chicago 
art school, which turned out to be 19th-century Bible Belt academic. 
Some good practice (9-hour poses drawn with hard charcoal -- training I 
made money from a decade later), but STILL no penises....They never heard 
of modern art, either, so I transferred to Cooper Union, no penises there 
either, & just one semester of photography: some photograms, then rest of 
the semester spent lighting one wine bottle & one drape. Then the teacher 
(an import from Europe !) came around with ancient camera on ancient 
tripod and, he claimed, photographed our set-ups, but "none of them were 
good enough to print."

As soon as I left, BTW, the Art Institute of Chicago became excellent... 
Still, we'd gone to our classes each day through the Museum, passing, for 
instance, the best Corot in the entire universe (among other treasures)... 
The History of Art course was also terrific. (Wish I remembered it all 
now.)

Judy