The junior seminar art students of Rob Knight go to The Drawing Center in New York to see an exhibit by the artist Xiyadie.
The junior seminar art students of Rob Knight go to The Drawing Center in New York to see an exhibit by the artist Xiyadie. Photo: Last week, art concentrators Rob Knight, Dani Bernstein, and Eliza Pendergast, both 24 years old, went to artist studios in New York City. Peruse their impressions of the excursion.
Ten individuals from Hamilton's Lesser Course workmanship class visited New York City last week with Teacher Loot Knight. Junior Seminar is an important milestone for art concentrators because it allows them to begin developing their artistic practices on their own in a group setting. Our three-day New York City experience presented us to the genuine workmanship world. We went to a few galleries, talked to artists in their studios, and even went to a group show of art that had a piece by Charlie Guterman '22.
We were greeted by five professional artists as we entered their studios to discuss their processes. We visited a unimaginably different gathering of specialists, from an arising stone worker with a confined and ineffectively ventilated home studio space to a painter with eight studio collaborators selling compositions for countless dollars. We were introduced to their process in a variety of ways by the artists who ran their studios. While others were still developing their engagement with the art world, some were self-assured and steadfast in their practices.
The artists discussed their studies. As far as some might be concerned, the examination of the idea, material, and verifiable setting prior to making is most of their inventive approach. Compared to other research processes, some were more structured and well-informed. We learned from this variety of methods that there are as many ways to practice art as there are ways to be an artist. Every studio had a library of books and other reference materials. Beginning to observe both the processes we want to include in our current and future practices and those we don't was extremely helpful.
There are countless ways to create, pres
ent, and receive art. After the studio visits, I understood that craftsmanship in plain view in exhibitions and historical centers is exceedingly difficult to completely see the value in beyond the setting in which it was made. Derek Fordjour is a mixed-media painter. In his studio, we saw his work and heard music. We also saw printed reference photos and his assistants pasting hundreds of paper circles. He talked about what inspired him, and I saw and understood his paintings in a new way. It was additionally cool to see that there are various ways of showing and experience fine art. The high-art space, gallery, or museum is still around, but it's not the only option. In contemporary practice, art seems to be pushing the boundaries of museum and canvas.
It was inspiring to see the variety of studios. William Lamson, a sculptor and performance artist, uses huge rock slabs in his Brooklyn garage as a woodshop. Fordjour has a lounge area worthy of Architectural Digest and a miniature factory set up to support his business. Hannah Whitaker is a photographer who works from a workspace with high ceilings. There are shelves of props, boxes of backgrounds, and a ton of printed material, and prayers from the nearby mosque can be heard coming in through the windows.
Each artist had their own personality traits: Whitaker had a duplicate of Karl Marx's Capital in the lobby washroom, Fordjour welcomed us shoeless, and stone worker Dena Paige Fischer had a case marked "skulls and bones" on a first rate. Additionally, Fischer disclosed that she included the dog's ashes in his memorial piece.
Where else can you discuss personal finances, discuss AI fears, and debate the best glue? After the weekend, we were drained to the bone, but we also felt renewed inspiration and were prepared to return to the studio and carry on creating art. One of our favorite things we learned over the weekend was how to strengthen our relationships with one another while figuring out how to set up a support system outside of the classroom and studio.
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