Traditional artistic values ( drawing/skill based training) is what attracts many people to NAS, The National Art School, Sydney. Unfortunately, this yearning for "the good old days" when art was "proper" reflects deeply conservative tendencies. The majority of the students are otherwise open minded and liberal in their other political views, but there is a vocal minority ( like the moral majority in the US). What is it about reactionaries? Why do they get so nasty and aggressive about everything? The complete rejection of contemporary art because its not like the good old days is one example of the closed mindedness of some NAS staff and students. The irony is that contemporary art has always been attacked by reactionaries at the time it was produced. The impressionists were roundly attacked by other artists of the day still creating work from the previous century. The reactionaries at NAS now say that its this era of early modernism of last century that is what "real" art is! How ironic...
The scary part is when the attitudes towards traditional values in art start expanding further to the right: traditional family values: why can't we go back to the 'good old days': Zig Heil!!!!! I'm not joking though. Look at Hitlers policy towards the contemporary art of his time...there are many correlations with some right wing NAS attitudes (the vocal minority) and these streams of thought. Scary!
Let me say that most of the teachers/staff are not so narrow minded about art, its mainly the yet to educated undergraduates that are so vocal. A good example was the WASP (white anglo saxon protestestant ) north shore woman who was interviewed on ABC Radio National's social history program ‘Hindsight’ documentary on Darlinghurst Gaol and the National Art School called ‘Penned in Sandstone’...
Ollis: " An art school is only as good as its teachers" ( about the National Art School NAS )
This often repeated quote from the head of NAS: hasn't he got it the wrong way around? A famous artist who was a former NAS student said " A school is only as good as its students": you would think that this is what the head of an educational institution would believe. This sycophantic attitude says a lot about the managements beliefs about students as second class and second rate in the school. It also says a lot about what the management and staff are really fighting for: to protect their little island of privilege. Management at NAS needs to be replaced to stop nepatism and possible misappropriation of taxpayer funds: anyone seen the staff and management-only compound within the school?
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