The Times Newspaper (Wednesday December the 14th, 2011) shows a photo of Tracy Emin on its front page, looking foxy and erudite along with the caption: ‘Meet the new professor of drawing at the Royal Academy’. On page four (not three) there is further discussion of the why’s and wherefore’s as to the rightness of this appointment.
When I was a student at the Royal Academy Schools – Norman Blamey RA was professor of drawing and there was a cohort of figurative artists teaching such as Anthony Eyton, Olwyn Bowey, Ben Levene et al. When Sarah Armstrong-Jones began to study at the Schools, the leader of the undergraduate course, Mike Upton, was suddenly given ’professor’ status. He didn’t change much, and I didn’t notice any palpable difference in his teaching style or ability. I guess he needed to be a ‘professor’ to add kudos to his Royal duties.
Today I personally know one professor – of medicine. It is usual for him to work twelve hours a day, seven days a week. He does this at a major London teaching and research hospital; his entire life since graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine degree, has been like this. For me, this is true professorship. Not the plastic professorship conferred on Tracy Emin as the Royal Academy adopts girl power in its latest bid to embrace the UK’s celebrity culture and profit from it.
Why is it a plastic professorship? Because Ben Hoyle, Rachel Campbell-Johnston and Peter Brookes of the Times, fall into the same trap of ‘bigging up’ the celebrity factor about Tracy Emin’s suitability for the role without balancing that with critical analysis, which is typical of the media these days. A miniscule reproduction of a sketch by Ms Emin of Kate Moss is posited as evidence of her ‘superlative drawing skills’ which she is no doubt, obviously capable of passing on to the students at the Royal Academy - because of her ‘proven teaching ability and qualifications’. What makes the whole business truly farcical is the fact that students at the Royal Academy Schools no longer practice drawing to any extent. Life drawing there was abandoned as anachronistic and unfashionable in the 1990′s. To quote Hilary Oliver (retired, technician from the Schools) ‘the students can’t draw for toffee, as for an easel, they wouldn’t know what one was if they saw one’. So, if there is little or no drawing being done at the Royal Academy, what exactly is Tracy Emin professor of? Perhaps she will sprinkle some celebrity dust on her charges and it will assist them in becoming better at drawing.
Given that any true draughtsman or woman knows the processes of drawing aren’t limited to pencil and paper and that Ms Emin has recently branched into the business of making artworks with her own pubic hairs, what will she have students do in order to teach them? The mind boggles. What will students require for their studies? Tweezers, glue and a bottle of hair tonic. And definitely NO BRAZILIANS!
The sketch by Tracy Emin of Kate Moss in the Times is also an example of how uncritical and dumbed down our ‘quality newspapers’ have become in their desire to embrace the bandwaggon of tinsel that culture has become in this country. Likening it to the work of Picasso is really trite. The Tate Gallery once put on an exhibition titled ‘Art of the Fascist Epoch’ in which early Picasso drawings could be seen alongside works by known Fascist sympathisers. Subtle differences could be seen, especially if you had knowledge and experience of drawing. In my opinion ‘the ‘masterpiece’ offered up by the Times has very few comparable qualities to Picasso’s works of draughtsmanship.
It is laughable that these journalists are telling us that Tracy Emin has always been a ‘draughtswoman’. Didn’t she produce an event which was all about her ‘last ever painting’? Drawing and painting are inextricably linked, both processes inform each other. To announce that you are dispensing with one means you are also dispensing with the other. And if that is true, Tracy Emin hasn’t really drawn since then. In fact, the Brit Art brat-pack have never shown any interest in drawing – its probably not cool enough for them. Certainly, the reproduction of a painting of a cat by Damien Hirst in the Sun (a few years ago now), was testimony to his lack of traditional skills - sub ‘A’ level.
Ms. Emin’s drawing is discussed as if it is somehow different from anyone else’s because she ‘draws at the speed of thought’. Why is this good? Technically speaking, everyone draws at the speed of thought and thinking doesn’t have to be fast. Some people produce high quality thought in a very slow and ponderous way. To make such a statement implies Ms Emin’s brain and muscles function separately. Her hand/eye co-ordination being something apart from the synapses which link them. The educational concept of psychomotor skills seems to have been overlooked. In fact, this tacky obsession with speed is an indicator of poor judgement when considering drawing. The Times journalists discuss Tracy Emin’s drawing only in terms of its line quality. All people who work at drawing for any length of time will gain a certain quality of line: look at Suzanne Valadon, or more recently Trevor Willoughby RP. These artists are better than Tracy Emin, in this respect. The fleeting appraisal of Ms. Emin’s drawing in the Times stops here, the journalists in their shallowness seem unable to find anything else to say about it. There is no evidence of her being able to work protractedly at one study or produce a statement about tonal mass, or produce telling portraiture.
And what of her teaching methods? Norman Blamey would come and sit with each student in turn. He would talk to them about where he thought they’d lost a sense of objectivity and then demonstrate how he’d do it differently by drawing on a corner of the paper, explaining as he did so. Norman wasn’t glamorous. His paintings fetch about £4000 – £6000, posthumously. But he was able to draw and paint better than many people can. I doubt if any of the teaching staff at the Royal Academy Schools had formal teaching qualifications at the time (or now). It was vaguely hoped that students would imbibe some of the success of their mentors. The same strategy has been adopted by drafting in Tracy Emin. How the success of this is measured remains to be seen. One thing is certain though, not everyone can be a celebrity and being a celebrity doesn’t mean that you will necessarily make good Art. I showed the Times article to another ex-student of the Schools and he remarked: ‘well I guess that’s the state of culture in this country now’. Cool Britannia.
