Academic Art | Art Movement
Academic Art is closely associated with Neoclassical art, academic art flourished in Europe from the 17th to the 19th century. It is characterized by a highly sophisticated style, frequent use of mythological and historical subject matter, and a general moralistic tone. Though it is said to be the style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of various European academies, it refers particularly to the artists influenced by the French Academie des beaux-arts.
Founded in 1648 in an effort to distinguish true artists from craftsmen, the Academie des beaux-arts placed a strong emphasis on the intellectual qualities of art-making and closely followed the styles of Neoclassicism and Romanticism in an effort to integrate both styles.
It was extremely difficult to be a student of the Academie. Only students who passed an exam and carried a letter of reference from a noted art professor were accepted into the academy's school, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Spending years in painstaking art training, students were required to copy prints of classical paintings and sculptures to become familiar with the principles of contour, light and shade. This procedure was believed to be crucial to the academic education as it would help students to assimilate the methods of the masters into their own art making. To advance to the next step, students presented drawings for evaluation. If approved, they would then draw from plaster casts of famous classical sculptures or human anatomy. Only after obtaining these skills were artists allowed to attend classes in which a live model posed.
Although painting was not actually taught at the École des Beaux-Arts until after 1863, to learn to paint with a brush, the student first had to demonstrate great skill in drawing, as this was considered to be the foundation of academic painting. Only then could the pupil join the studio of an academician and learn how to paint.
Throughout the entire process, many competitions were held which served to measure each student's progress. Perhaps the most famous art competition for students was the Prix de Rome. A gruelling process, this competition involved ten students who were impounded in studios for 72 days to paint their final historical masterpieces. The winner of this competition was offered the opportunity to study at the Academie francaise's school at the Villa Medici in Rome and was assured a successful career as an artist. To compete for the Prix de Rome, however, a student had to be of French nationality, male, under 30-years-old, single and have the support of a renowned art teacher.
A successful showing at the Salon was a seal of approval for an aspiring artist. It would give them the right to be regarded as an academician.
When the Paris Salons were successfully held in the Louvre, they became influential in moulding public taste and strengthening the Academie's domination over the production of fine art.
Australia's most prestigious art academy is Sydney's Julian Ashton Art School. Established in 1896 it has long been regarded as the centre of activity for many aspiring young artists. With such prominent artists as William Dobell, John Passmore, John Olsen and Brett Whiteley among those who attended, the art school became famous to several generations of students.
In many ways Academic Art instigated a trend towards the achievement of idealism in art in which figures were made simpler and more abstract to allow an artwork to act as an allegorical or figurative vehicle. During academic art's reign, the sensational paintings of the Rococo era were revived to popularity, and Rococo's common themes such as Eros and Psyche were made fashionable again. Raphael also came to be a dominant influence in the academic art world for the idealism of his work.
Also called academism, academicism, art pompier and eclecticism, artists such as William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Jean-leon Gerome epitomize the academic style. It is reflected also in the paintings of Thomas Couture, Paul Delaroche, and the grand-scale historical dramas of Hans Makart.
Though it achieved great success as a leading art form, academic art was denigrated with the arrival of avant-garde movement. Compared to the innovative minimalist modern art, the academic style was soon considered to be sentimental, clichéd, conservative, bourgeois and lacking in style.
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