Artist as Teacher: Introduction

Joseph Albers and Eva Hesse at Yale University.

The sculptor Eva Hesse was a prodigy in her student years, making her one of Joseph Albers favourite students. However, as can often be the case, the student / teacher relationship was not always harmonious, especially when new developments in a media begin to take hold. Hesse wrote in her diary on Albers: "He is terribly limited but really maintains one point of view throughout. This is a paradoxically strong and weak attribute and shortcoming." Albers was not unaware Hesse's opinion of him, but still respected the young talented artist. Upon her death he sent a photograph of himself with Hesse (image above) to the Fischbach Gallery asking if her heirs might want to have the picture, saying: "showing her with me as her painting teacher … despite my being in it."

Introduction

At NCAD we are surrounded by teachers who are artists and artists who are teachers! From the apprenticeships of Renaissance painters to the radical pedagogy of Black Mountain College, artists have always thought about methods of sharing their knowledge.

Only a brief glance at art history shows the continuous educational interactions between reknowned artists. 

This guide aims to share library material, both in print and online, on this subject!

Assessment of work from Albers’s Preliminary Course, 1928–9