Artist-Teacher: A Philosophy for Creating and Teaching

by G. James Daichendt

Is an artist-teacher a mere professional who balances a career—or does the duality of making and teaching art merit a more profound investigation? Rejecting a conventional understanding of the artist-teacher, this book sets out to present a robust history from the classical era to the twenty-first century. Particular pedagogical portraits—featuring George Wallis, Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten, Victor Pashmore, Richard Hamilton, Arthur Wesley Dow, and Hans Hofmann—illustrate the artist-teacher in various contexts. This book offers a revelation of the complex thinking processes artists utilize when teaching, and a reconciliation of the artistic and educational enterprises as complimentary partners.

Genres: Teaching

154 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2010

Reviews

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This provided a great background for the history of the field of art education and the context for how current art education models evolved. I particularly found it helpful to understand how various artists, educators and schools formed the foundation of my own educational background and the pedagogical structures of many high schools and colleges even today. The name of the book gave me the impression that the book would be more of a practical guide to current theories and philosophies of teaching as an artist and this is my only critique of the book is that I wish there was more focus on current philosophies and approaches. Since we are in a postmodern moment where a focus on individual pedagogy rather than unilateral approaches, I know this would be challenging, but I think deprogramming art educators from our education-first educational backgrounds requires more discussion of alternative models.

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book focuses on visual arts, but has great application for artist-teachers in all art fields.

[Alexandria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible....this book has provided me with a great deal of insight into my approach to teaching art, and provided me with a great deal of information to ponder in the classroom.