How do we benefit from studying art history? Does art history have a place in a fine arts curriculum?
Watching Bob Ross on PBS inspired me to paint. At the age of fourteen, I imitated his landscapes to the best of my ability. I learned fundamental color mixing, how to blend paint, and how perspective works within a landscape. I took my first art history class—a survey of early modern to modern art—in college together with studios in painting and sculpture. And when we started a new studio art project, we looked back to history: we studied similar subjects executed by the artists we adored, found inspiration while looking through exhibition catalogues, or even meticulously copied the Old Masters. Now, having studied art history, I observe art-historical allusions everywhere, including the similarities between the work of Bob Ross and that of Claude Lorrain.
One day, we made an excursion to the outdoors to paint from life. A novel idea to me, I continued to incorporate plein-air painting into my practice. I felt that I found a niche in combining my love of landscapes and the exciting, fast-paced process of working from life. Still, I found that my history classes expanded my knowledge of design, materials, and technique. I felt compelled me to be like the painters I admired, scrutinizing each brushstroke and focusing on their practices of making.
The Art and Art History program blends these two worlds together, allowing me to be enriched in art history, while continuing to create artwork, enamored with the colorwork of Mary Cassatt or intrigued with Hokusai’s brilliant prints or astounded by Nan Goldin’s compositional strategies. Each discipline benefits from learning from each other. Art history cultivates essential skills—concise writing, critical analysis, and problem-solving, which are equally crucial to the work required of studio artists. Art historians are problem-solvers, creatives, and researchers. Studying the past aids us in learning the meaning of identity, culture, and influence. Art history shows us the how – how an artist performed a certain technique, how an architect chose to design a structure, how technology influenced artists, and how we, as artists today, got to the here and now. As artists, we must study the past so we can better navigate the present.