THE IMPORTANCE OF ART HISTORY

As I approach the last weeks of my three-year course at UPEI Seniors College, I wanted to express my feelings as to why my own efforts will be directed elsewhere. For one thing, I don’t agree with dropping art history from the program, as if it is a program of no importance. It is not as if there are other alternatives. No similar courses are taught elsewhere in the province. “The cheese stands alone” as we used to sing at St.Agnes.
Visual arts encompass much more than painting and drawing. Though I concentrated my studies and teaching to the visual arts, I’m not uninformed or in any way unappreciative of the other arts around us. A culture is the most important contribution of human existence. It defines us as human beings rather than hair-less apes eating, sleeping and making a mess in our environment. So art-history is about being a human being. Humanity should strive towards knowledge and enlightenment.
I taught “A Glimpse at Art History” for the past three years because I was aware that art history has not entered the general education of PEI citizens of any age. Even though it is likely the most important element of history. We are not defined by kings and presidents, nor are we ever able to look at the wars and conquests and see any positive effects continuous to the advancement of human-kind. It was in fact, emplacing the “his” in “history”. Art records the soul of the human race. We can see that from the first known images painted on the walls of caves to the art produced in the 21st century. Exposure to art history on PEI has been very limited. Only one high school in the province teaches the subject. The University of PEI hasn’t shown great leadership in this regard. It does not even have a public art gallery. The role of the provincial art gallery to educate the public doesn’t come into play because no such gallery or museum exists. For its part, the Confederation Centre has really not filled that gap as a national institution although it houses some very valuable works of art.
“Women and Art” was very much a ground-breaking course taught by Suzanne O’Callaghan at UPEI Seniors College for the past few years. It was highly attended by a large number of students of both sexes. It should well have received awards of recognition for the innovation of tackling issues very relevant to the 21st Century. The presentation and oratory skills of the courses’ inventor was highly deserving of praise. This course looked at art from the point of view of woman throughout their evolution towards freedom of speech and expression. In my life-time, which is not so long ago in the turning of the universe, major textbooks in colleges and universities almost completely excluded women and the role they played in the advancement of art.
The unique and revolutionary course O’Callaghan taught was to present the point of view of her half of the worlds’ population. We learned about the particular challenges of being a woman in a “man’s World” in a profession that is a challenge under the best of conditions.
“Women in Art” is particularly relevant in light of the new documentary film “Who Does She Think She Is?” directed by Pamela Tanner Boll. Professor of gender studies at Hunter College in New York, CE Martin offers insights to the role of women in art. One quote from the film is by Maye Torres, “Art is the soul of being human.”
Suzanne shows us quite clearly that women were in the front-lines of art for over 500 years, “Women In Art” lifted the curtain on that aspect of our civilization.
Without a past we have a dim future. Art history is the story of our cultural development as human beings. It should be included in every high school, college and university curriculum. It would be the civilized thing to do.

Learning is a life-long activity. It does not belong only to the young. When one of the world’s greatest artists, Hokusai (1760 – 1849) demonstrated his talent by painting a sparrow on a grain of rice, the artist (who continued work until he died at age 89) was asked by the Emperor, “How long did it take you to learn this?” The artist answered, “Eighty-one years!”
When Francisco Goya (1746-1828) was near the end of his life while in exile in Bordeaux, he wrote on a drawing of himself as an old man, “I’m still learning!”
Georgia O’Keef (b.1877), who also lived well into her nineties, objected to being called “…one of the greatest American woman painters”, She insisted that she was one of the “…greatest American painters”. O’Keef continued to prove this by living long and continuing to paint well into old age.
Learning is a life-long activity. I do hope this is something that can be learned at UPEI Seniors College.