Shifting teaching practices of nonrepresentational painters in British higher education 1975 – 2005

Abstract

This thesis is an examination of the shifting educational practices of a loose network of non-representational painters who worked in fine art higher education (HE) between 1975 and 2005. While writers and researchers have explored these painters' painting practices, their activities within education, and its connection to the development of their practice as painters, had largely been ignored. This research used interviews and archival research to develop case studies that consider the educational practices of the network in the period after the abolishment of the Diploma in Art and Design (1975). The case studies create new knowledge and consideration of the initial strategies adopted by painters towards teaching students on new Degree awarding courses and how their teaching practices changed in response to the evolving landscape of fine art HE. This research reveals the complexity surrounding the relationship between the utilisation of the artist teachers' experience and the establishment of the students' practice within the degree course environment. The network studied were predominately educated in British art schools in the 1960s, which was a decade that witnessed educational reforms that led to the creation of many liberal and eclectic programmes of study that were influential but often short-lived. The Coldstream Report (1960) acted as a catalyst for a shift towards a focus on discursive formats (tutorials, seminars, group critiques), which placed a higher value on the students’ creative, conceptual, and original capacity. Arts education prior to these developments had been dominated by observational life room training, which emphasised the reproduction of existing craft knowledge and was derived from the need to train workers to have a high level of expertise. In the early 1970s, when this network began to teach, government reports removed the requirement for students to be provided with a mediumspecific education, and instead, the conceptual became paramount. The case studies for this project reveal how elements within this network used their educational practices to rebalance the relationship between theory and practice. Their strategies aimed to create more transparency about the complexities of the relationship between art history, theory, and studio practice for a practitioner. This research builds on recent scholarship, which focused on the changing nature of art education and the shift away from artists being predominantly defined as makers, preoccupied with visual concerns, to thinkers who engage in a discursive practice concerning creating physical artworks. This research complements existing scholarship that has mainly focused on the developments in fine art education that took place during the 1960s and early 1970s. In-depth consideration of the 1980s has been notably absent, resulting in a gap in knowledge and understanding of that decade. Furthermore, the case studies for this research focus on institutions in the Midlands and Northern England, whilst recent scholarship has mainly focused on developments in relation to London based institutions. The case studies examine the utilisation of project-led education during the 1970s and 1980s (at Hull Regional College of Arts and Manchester School of Art), and the adoption of modularity within visual arts courses during the 1990s (at De Montfort University and University College Salford). The artists' magazine Artscribe and the Triangle Artists’ Workshops are used as case studies to articulate how those studied supported their practices outside of education by adapting structures they initially encountered within education.

Date of Award	5 Jun 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Coventry University
Supervisor	Graham Chorlton (Supervisor) & Jill Journeaux (Supervisor)