Whistler's Ten O'Clock Lecture

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Whistler's Ten O'Clock Lecture

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Published on before 2005


There is no doubt in my mind that any student who went to art school at a university or college has some experience along the same lines. It's so strange that it is like this almost everywhere. One of the other students actually took a sledge hammer to one of his sculptures after the prof had criticised it. When coming into class the next day the prof saw the destroyed piece and exclaimed that it was amazing! The student handed it in as his second project and received an A. The prof had no idea that it was his first project but just demolished. Whatever sort of theoretical or conceptual intonations the piece held for the prof were obviously in no way the student's intention.

Another problem I had with my school was with the student mural competition. They held the competition every year and the winner that was selected by the jury of professors would receive $1400 for their work to be displayed in the school. I had submitted a proposal for a huge 10 foot mural in front of the visual arts gallery. Unlike other years the submissions this time were largely figurative and, for once, really quite good in my opinion. The organizer of the mural competition decided that none of the student entries were good enough for the space so instead he hung up a huge black canvas that one of his friends had made. The beastly thing was textured and looked like slimy tar, but yes... it was nothing but huge and completely black. The prof's buddy got the money instead of a student. This prof who ran the mural competition also did something similar another year. Again, they received 50 proposals from students but instead the prof decides to forego the mural competition after he had called it, and instead of putting student work in the space he put his own! A large digital print on canvas. Being a novice at Photoshop, it was terrible. It included photographs of him under water in a speedo and his wife looking like a Buddha with swimming goggles. In no way was this better than the student submissions. Being in this prof's class I found out that this banner was a missprint. An expensive mistake as it takes $750 per banner. So he just took over the student space for his own profit so that the school would reimburse him for his loss and he would make a profit on his mistake. Not only are some of these art teachers incapable of teaching, but some of these art teachers are also SLIMEY!