Date: Fri 10-Apr-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Aldrich-docents-Gober-Hannah

Full Text:

In An Age Of Hype, NHS Students Find A Voice In Contemporary Art

(with cuts)

BY SHANNON HICKS

RIDGEFIELD -- Throw away conventional wisdom. Disregard what the media has

told you about art. Form your own opinions, following your own instinct. Then

put your thoughts -- your voice -- into written words. This was the challenge

issued by Carol Diehl to a group of students from Newtown High School.

On April 6, 35 students spent the day at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary

Art and learned about art from a highly respected artist and critic, and also

from each other. Some of the students were drawing and painting art students

under Joyce Hannah, and the others were sophomore honors English students of

Linda Buonagurio.

Before responding to Ms Diehl's challenge, the students were introduced to the

two current exhibitions at the Ridgefield museum. On view are "Large Scale

Drawings from the Collection of Wynn Kramarsky" and "Robert Gober: The 1996

Larry Aldrich Foundation Award Exhibition."

Eight Newtown students have undergone training to be docents -- trained museum

tour guides -- at the Aldrich, under the tutelage of Nina Carlson, the

museum's curator of education. On their own time, the students participated in

the museum's Art Advocates Program. For four weeks, the docents-in-training

visited the museum for two hours at a time, learning about the art and

exhibitions.

Newtown has participated in the Student Docent program in the past, but this

was the first group that took part in the Art Advocates. The difference is

that at the end of the training, the docents returned to the library to not

only lead a group of their peers through the museum, but also participated in

a writing program after listening to a lecture by a professional artist.

Monday morning, the Newtown docents took small groups of their colleagues

through the two exhibits. The groups had about an hour to explore the two

shows, which take up two floors of the museum.

"They were marvelous," enthused Joyce Hannah. The art teacher stayed in the

background, she said, just watching how the docents took their groups around

the shows. She did not offer any of her own interpretations, even when they

were different from what the docents were offering.

"I listened to how each group was led. Each was very unique," she said. "Even

though they were all trained together, their conversations were pegged to

their specific groups.

"That takes a lot of dedication. The docents put up so much of their time."

"We've always gotten a great group of kids from Newtown," Miss Carlson said

this week. "They're very articulate, and they're very enthusiastic. It's great

to see them so interested and involved in the work. They can sit down in front

of one sculpture and talk about it for 20 minutes. That's great to see."

Like Mrs Hannah, Miss Carlson also remained more in the background on Monday

during the docents' tours, watching her students.

"They have the same language as their peers," said Miss Carlson. "It's great

to watch them, because they're going to talk about things I may not have

thought about bringing up. They have the same thought process."

A Delicate Balance

After taking in the two exhibits and then breaking for lunch, the entire group

reassembled in Gallery 2 to hear a program by the artist Carol Diehl.

Ms Diehl is a nationally-known artist, art critic and poet. She is a regular

contributor to the respected magazine ARTnews , and also writes for Art &

Antiques, Art & Auction, Arts, Review and others. Last year she had her second

show at Hirschl & Adler Modern, which presented a survey of her work from 1991

to 1996. Her work has been seen previously at the Aldrich.

With the massive gouache on paper called "Wavy Brushstrokes," by the artist

Sol LeWitt, as her backdrop, Ms Diehl gave the students some insight into the

art world. She offered advice on the writing process she follows, and also

some things to avoid.

"Art writers love to use metaphors, to show how smart they are," she said.

"When they do that, they're writing about themselves." Look at a piece of art,

she told the group. Let it speak to you, and then listen to it, she

encouraged.

Art may be intimidating, the students were told, but they should not let it

scare them. Many adults fall into the same trap: Museums are seen as shrines,

artwork is too difficult to understand. As a result, many people avoid even

attempting to enjoy the creations of others.

Instead of shying away from art, try to compare it to something else, Ms Diehl

encouraged. "I bet a lot of you like films, or music, and you could go on and

on telling me why you like one film over another, or one song better than

another.

"You have an equal opportunity to take that voice and apply it in the same

way," she said.

The biggest problem facing people with any form of art is the problem of too

much education versus unlearned opinions. On the one hand, the more knowledge

someone has about a subject, the more interested they become in the subject.

On the other hand, too much knowledge about something could lead to preformed

opinions.

Ms Diehl described an example of a friend of hers, who did specific works of

art. She understood his art without having to hear his explanations of new

pieces because she was so familiar with past works. One day someone who did

not know this friend's work came along and asked a question about a piece Ms

Diehl had never even considered. And Ms Diehl didn't have the answer. She was

too educated on a different aspect of the work.

"It's a mix. You have to look for that balance," she told the students.

"People without `an art background' can have their own take on art. I think

that's where you are right now. You have a certain knowledge and you're not

jaded. Take a chance!"

The final segment of the museum visit was to select a piece of artwork and

write a critique of that piece.

Responding To The Challenge

Ms Diehl had encouraged the students to critique art that "spoke to them," not

just a piece they thought was "neat."

The students were challenged not only with the assignment they had been given

from their teachers, but also with the shows they had to work with. The Gober

exhibit in particular is a very difficult installation to comprehend. Because

it is so non-representational, most visitors to the show have no idea what the

artist is trying to say with each piece individually or with the show as a

whole.

Mr Gober was awarded a solo exhibition by the museum after being named the

1996 Larry Aldrich Foundation Award winner. His works are extremely abstract

and conceptual, which leads many viewers to quickly dismiss his pieces as

"fluff."

The show presents an extraordinary piece entitled "Untitled (1995-97)," a

multi-media work that includes a subterranean tidal pool. Installation of the

piece meant cutting a hole in the floor of the museum. The Gober show also

includes two new sculptures, a selection of earlier works, and a section of

photographs and artifacts documenting the construction of "Untitled

(1995-97)."

What was interesting was how few students actually chose to work on

"Untitled." Nina Carlson noticed the same thing. The piece attracts a lot of

interest from museum visitors of all ages, but only three students chose to

write about the piece.

"I was very surprised to see 15 people sitting in the room with the chair,"

Miss Carlson said. She was referring to another work Mr Gober did not name,

which shows a box of tissues resting on a white plastic children's chair,

called "Untitled (1997)."

"Carol talking to them and telling them to go to something that spoke to them

really made a difference," she felt.

The teachers at NHS are going to use the resulting essays in different ways.

The English class will be reading them communally, which will make a

difference in the way they write their reviews. The art students, who are

already a little more used to the idea of critique, says Joyce Hannah, are

also used to the idea of having their work shared.

In an age where so many teenagers are growing up in a world filled with hype,

the Newtown students were told to ignore all this for a few hours. Everything

they hear on the radio, on television, in newspapers and books, from friends

and family is all going to affect them.

The idea on Monday was for them to listen to themselves. Joyce Hannah said she

and Mrs Buonagurio had planned the cross-curriculum outing in an attempt for

students to not only understand non-representational contemporary art by a

living artist, but also for the students to develop their own voices.