ICA&CA Winterim Intensive Report 2010

In late January, students, faculty, and staff gathered for the 2010 Winterim Intensive at the ICA&CA. The week-long program consisted of classes on drawing the orders, observational drawing from plaster casts, proportion, drawing perspective, ink wash rendering, and classical texts.  Students produced drawings of architectural elements, designs for tetrastyle temples, and ink wash renderings.  A final critique of work was held Saturday, February 6, marking the conclusion of the course. 

Below is a report from Greg Shue, 2010 Winterim participant,  to the TradArch listserv on his experience:

Dear TradArch,  

Just emailing to let you know a little about the ICA&CA Winterim Intensive that just wrapped up with a critique Saturday morning.  I was a student this time around (I have been a guest critic in the past) and we worked our tails off!  The Intensive started with an introduction to the faculty two Friday nights ago; classes started in earnest the next morning.  We usually had two or three classes each day, ranging in content from constructing the canonical orders to observational drawing from casts to proportions to drawing perspective to classical texts to watercolor (ink) rendering.  We had  a sketch problem where we designed a tetrastyle temple using geometry to organize our composition.  The class consisted of students doing all kinds of things for a living; a 4th year architecture student at Hampton University, a fine artist from CA, a kitchen designer, an interior designer.  I was the only 'architect' in the group, which I thought was great!  As with most groups in a challenging situation, the students developed a camaraderie that has fostered new friendships.  I think every student produced work that they are proud of and that also impressed the other students and faculty. 

The program accommodates a wide range of abilities and knowledge.  I would say the minimum requirements are a desire to know more about classical architecture and a willingness to spend long hours learning about it. 

I am grateful for the instruction that I received, which will serve me well for the rest of my career.  I'll see if I can post some images in the near future.    

Regards,

Greg Shue

Thanks for your report Greg! Look for information on upcoming intensives on our website: www.classicist.org 

2010 Winterim class participants

D. Jeffrey Mims ~ 2009 Alma Schapiro Prize Report from Rome Part I

D. Jeffrey Mims, painter and muralist of Southern Pines, North Carolina, has just returned from a three-month affiliated fellowship at the American Academy in Rome, as recipient of the Alma Shapiro Prize awarded by the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America. His contributions as artistic leader and teacher have been central to the revival of the Classical , supported by Mims Studios, a modern atelier devoted to traditional mural painting. The three slideshows that follow narrate his unique story.

This Fall I have been given the opportunity to live and work in one of the great cultural landmarks of a city so full of hidden treasures. Sponsored by the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America, I will spend the next three months at the American Academy in Rome.

Situated high on the Janiculum Hill, the Academy has been an island of peace and privilege for artists and scholars for over one hundred years, making it one of the younger institutions in this city, which has a way of changing American perceptions of time.

During this time, I will be making studies from Roman collections of sculpture and fresco painting - with a particular focus on how these works were designed for the spaces that they decorate. It is the strength of these designs with the subtlety of their ornamentation that have united the different cultures of Pagan and Christian alike into one glorious artistic tradition that, centuries ago, established Rome as the Art Capital of the world. There are still lessons to be learned.

~ D. Jeffrey Mims

D. Jeffrey Mims ~ 2009 Alma Schapiro Prize Report from Rome Part II

What artist can visit Rome and not be impressed, if not overwhelmed, by the monumentality and magnificence of the eternal city? When Goethe made his Italian journey in the late 1700s, the artists of antiquity moved him to write that “before them, all that is arbitrary and imaginary collapses.”

It was on this stage of Antiquity that the Renaissance matured and defined itself, demonstrating the fertility of the classical tradition and setting the model for centuries of elaborations. It was faith in this continuum that, many years later, shaped so much of the architectural heritage in the United States and eventually brought about the creation of an American Academy in Rome.

The driving force behind the formation of an Academy in Rome was Charles Follen McKim, of the legendary architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White. The goals were lofty. McKim wrote to the sculptor Saint-Gaudens about the importance of developing a program of study based only on “the greatest examples” lest the Academy degenerate into a kind of club for “tourists in architecture”. Patterened after the prestigious French Academy in Rome, which had been founded in the 1600s, a collaborative atmosphere was encouraged between architect, sculptor and painter with access to classical scholars who would be working under the same roof. The purpose of the institution was to study from original Roman masterworks, to elevate taste and influence projects back in America.

We should remember, however, that the choice of Rome as the definitive international environment for so many academies and cultural institutions was never based on any single masterwork. The choice was a reaction to that “magnificence” of overall design uniting the frescoes, sculptures, buildings and urban spaces of Rome into what remains a living encyclopedia of inspiration.

~ D. Jeffrey Mims

D. Jeffrey Mims ~ 2009 Alma Schapiro Prize Report from Rome Part III

For those of us who are involved through support or practice in the revival of the western classical heritage, the importance of Rome cannot be overstated.  As a model for collaborations between architecture, image and ornament, no other location holds such variety and quality.  Recipients of the Alma Schapiro Prize have a unique opportunity to participate in the tradition of adapting these ancient lessons to contemporary solutions, and as director of an atelier devoted to mural painting, I am especially grateful to the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America for the experience.   

The real surprise of my visit came as a direct result of an illustrated history of the American Academy in Rome delivered by its President, Adele Chatfield-Taylor,  whose inspiring narrative led to my own research into the original purpose and subsequent development of the institution. Fundamental to establishing an American Academy in Rome was the concept of artist and architect working together on a special Collaborative Problem considered to be the most important creative element to a three year fellowship.  Both the Collaborative Problem and the three year fellowship were discontinued after the Second World War, amid larger cultural changes that were occurring at the time. 

However, the more recent arrangement with the ICA & CA indicates a positive response to the growing number of artists and scholars interested in the preservation and practice of our classical heritage.  In establishing these Affiliated Fellowships, it is my hope that the Academy will help evolve American realism into the more complex and universal traditions of classical design.  The potential of what can still happen here, like so much else in the history of this city, is colossal. 

~ D. Jeffrey Mims