This fall the Institute has launched a major new educational initiative called the Grand Central Academy of Art (GCAA). As most of you know, ICA&CA maintains as part of our core philosophy that architecture, urbanism, and the fine arts form an indissoluble unity. We have always had superior painters--like Leonard Porter and John Woodrow Kelley--among our Fellows. Now, with a grant from the Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund, GCAA furthers our mission with a school for the training of classical realist painters, under the guidance of ICA&CA trustee and painter Jacob Collins.
The GCAA operates in a 2,700-square-foot suite of studios on the skylit sixth floor of ICA&CA's national headquarters in the landmark General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen Building in midtown Manhattan. The Academy shares with other ICA&CA courses the use of the amazing collection of plaster casts we received from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in one of the all-time great acts of educational synergy among New York's cultural institutions--one of the things cities exist to foster. The new teaching space provides room for some of the casts--including the Diadoumenos, the Diskobolos, and Crouching Aphrodite--that we have had to keep in storage until now.
The GCAA faculty comprises professional, exhibiting artists offering classical training for students who intend to make their careers in the fine arts. The curriculum is designed around a three-year, full-time intensive Core Program. Students learn the fundamental and advanced concepts and skills of drawing and painting both from the antique and from direct observation. During the three-year Core Program, students will work systematically in an organized environment with hands-on guidance from the Academy's instructors. The studies will ensure an objective understanding of visual phenomena and the classical principles of form, design, practice, and discipline.
Evening and weekend classes will also be offered for artists of varying skills and backgrounds. The Academy will also sponsor public symposia and lectures on topics relating to its mission.
ICA&CA has long held that architecture and fine art were unnecessarily and unnaturally severed in the 20th century, and this new initiative provides us with another way to draw from cultural memory as we seek to reconstitute the convergence of art and architecture.
Jacob Collins said:
There are many practitioners across the country and in Europe who have been attempting this revival of classical training. Mostly, they start out with an artist taking on a few students. Sometimes these efforts evolve into actual small schools. However, the major American institutions of art have not participated in this change. In fact, there is no existing art institution of any real scale that offers a program in classical art or that supports the classical or traditional art movement.
In addition, more and more commercial art galleries are devoted to the careers of classical realists. Many of their clients live in New York. There is also a large community of painters and sculptors here who are contributing to this evolving art world. Yet there has not been an institutional center for these artists. An art school devoted to aesthetic refinement, patience, skills developed to the very highest level, beauty, porportion, and a classical humanist optimism will fill this pedagogical void. The time has come for artists to come together to develop a real aesthetic philosophy for this revival of the classical tradition in painting. It could motivate a dormant passion in many artists and patrons across America. More importantly, it is a chance to train artists.
"The board, staff, and growing national constituency of the Institute wholeheartedly and gratefully acknowledge the Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund for making possible this auspicious new cornerstone of the Institute's academic program," said Victor Deupi, the Arthur Ross Director of Education at ICA&CA.
The Academy would not have been possible without the example made by our Honorary Chairman, Arthur Ross, in leading the way to create our national headquarters and building organizational capacity. We are pleased to welcome the first class and urge Institute members and friends to stop by for a personal inspection as that best reveals its purpose and potential.
More information about the Academy and its Core Program, including admissions information, can be found here. And as always we are at your call to answer questions and tell you more.
The Academy has already made its presence felt in a very big way. I was thrilled to read my friend James Panero's essay on Jacob Collins and the Academy in the September issue of the New Criterion, which issue happens also to be the 25th anniversary issue of what is unquestionably the most important intellectual periodical in the English-speaking world. And don't miss James's wonderful interview with Jacob Collins that appears on the New Criterion's Armavirumque blog.
(This post was written by ICA&CA President Paul Gunther and Francis Morrone.)
My discovery of The Grand Central Academy came from seeing an ad in an artist's magazine. I was so struck by the drawing of the girl by Michael Grimaldi. I studied art back in the 1970's in New York in a very painful, haphazzard way. I went to several schools and had many teachers all of whom were unable to teach me what I needed to learn, and quite often the information was contradictory. The climate in the '70's was incredibly hostile toward realism. The kindest remark was that my desire to paint realistically was described as an adoloscent stage that I would go through as an artist and come out an abstract expressionist in the end. People would freely say, "Why don't you just take a photograph." "That's already been done." It's not a creative expression, it's just copying. I have a long list of insults that I won't go into, but the attitude was also reflected in architecture when classicly styled buildings were torn down, blown up and '70's modern infested the cities. I remember walking down the street in New York and seeing rubble from a renovated building. The rubble had a beautifully carved wooden mantle, stained glass windows and mosaic tile work. I found this all quietly painful for I didn't dare speak of it. I found one representationalist, as he called himself, at the Art Student's League, that believed that art could be taught, that there were actual steps that could be followed, that he knew and could impart. I learned everything I could from him, but even he was defensive about associating himself with Classical Realism and wanted to put a 70's spin on his work to distinguish it from classical realism. He was opposed to copying classical paintings, or separating values from color, and wanted the work to look painterly. Drawing from casts, being an apprentice, doing an underpainting then glazing was frowned upon. I didn't realize until I saw Michael Grimaldi's drawing that I had sold out on my deepest love and had been trying to avoid a style that I always loved and wanted in my work, but "wasn't allowed" to do. Recently when preparing for a museum exhibition and preparing an artist's statement, I asked myself the question, "Who am I as an artist?" The question went in very deeply and I felt confused and blocked for weeks trying to write a statement. The ad brought me back to the young woman who's passion for drawing the figure in a classical style was never fulfilled, along with a lot of tears. Interestingly, my family and friends thinks I'm crazy to go back to art school at my age and level of accomplishment, that people admire my work so much that they think I'm just being overly critical and perfectionistic. When I walked into The Grand Central Academy of Art, I thought I died and went to heaven. The lighting is perfect, the color of the walls absorbs light so there isn't so much reflected light in the shadows. The models are fabulous and actually get back into the same position and pose longer than I've ever experienced. I've learned so far that I rush the steps and am trying to slow myself down. I need to spend more time observing carefully and less time making marks. I don't know if I can change my ingrained habits as an artist but I'm going to try. I have to drive 5 hours a night to get to the class but its worth it. There is much more to this story, but I tried to give you the condensed version. I want you to know how deeply grateful I am for this school and the possibility of finally achieving artistic fulfillment. I've already had a profound emotional healing. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Kathi
Posted by: Kathi Coyle (DeAngelis) | October 14, 2006 at 07:47 AM
I would like more info on what this is.
Posted by: Paul Grass | August 02, 2007 at 07:53 PM