Events

• Franz Cizek holds an exhibition of paintings and woodcuts by his students in Great Britain to raise money for his Juvenile Art Class. Franz Cziek was an internationally known Viennese art teacher and artist in the 1st quarter twentieth century. His juvenile art classes began in 1897 and he exhibited works of art by his students regularly in Britain between 1920 and 1935. Americans first saw the work of his students at the London Congress in 1908 and by 1923 his students' work was shown at the Metropoliton Museum of Art. Such exhibitions of child art, along with the child art movement promoted the idea of the 'child as artist' and supported the free 'natural' artmaking of children opposed to the traditional regimented school art of the time. [Leah Dyckman, Spring 2002]

• In 1912, Alfred Stieglitz opened an exhibition in his New York 291 gallery displaying artwork from children ages 2 to 13. This exhibit wasn't set out to prove the prevailing belief that any child could paint like modern artists but that children's artwork displays 'universal humanity' through its genuine, expressive and free qualities that he felt were killed by art education at the time. This exhibit questioned the accepted standard art practices in American schools.[Susan Tremblay, Spring 2002]

• Children, as artists, began to be taken much more seriously in the spring of 1912 when Alfred Stieglitz displayed the first serious exhibition of their artwork at his prestigious art gallery at 291 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York. [Michele Warhurst, Spring 2002]

• The technique of collage is introduced to the world. Collage is a process of cutting and pasting a variety media together to form a composition. This art form is not only a good technique for art educators to use but it also provides a good history into art-making. [Rhonda Montgomery, Spring 2002]

• The Armory Show was held in New York City. This show was an International Exhibition of Modern Art organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors to introduce and create enthusiasm for the "moderns" of Post-impressionism, Fauvism, Futurism, and Cubism. [Leslie M. Slowikowski, Spring 2002]

• Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Morgan Russell begin their own art movement called Synchromism after scientifically studying color theory. Sychromism is the idea that through color you can create three-dimensioanl imagaes. This is important to history because it was one of the many movements that proved that art could be combined with other studies. [Teresa Maria Anasagasti, Spring 2002]

• Arthur Wesley Dow published his book Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers. This widely read art manual changed the ways in which art was taught. Composition stressed the integration of media and supported the the American Arts and Crafts Movement.[Brandon Barber,2002]

• In 1914, Alfred Stieglitz began to exhibit more experimental art, such as work of Constantine Brancusi. Later in the year he exhibited the first known African Sculpture shown as fine art instead of ethnography. The work came from Central and West Africa and was inspired by its spiritual and expressive qualities. [Shannon Fulmer, Spring 2002]

• Heinrich Wolfflin publishes his book The Principles of Art History. Wolfflin's book categorizes art and its fundamentals. He writes about differences in periods that occur throughout art history. This book is still a valuable tool for students and instructors in the art field. [Rhonda Montgomery, Spring 2002]

• Speedball pens were first sold in 1915. Ross F. George patented the pen to the C. Howard Hunt Pen Company. At first, the pens were only available in six different sizes, but today a large variety of pens as well as other arts supplies are made by Speedball. Their products are common in the classroom, in homes, and in the artist's studio. [Jamie O'Neill, Spring 2002]

• Teachers are struggling for their voices to be heard over powerful administrators. In an effort to become a stronger force, The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is established. The AFT is quickly accepted into the American Federation of Labor (AFL) as a new union. The main focus of the AFT is for teachers to join together as a union in order to increase teacher wages and better their working conditions. They are up against administrators who are concerned with gaining more power and keeping educational costs at a minimum, including the wages of teachers. [Kristen Brady, Spring 2002]

• Duchamp's Fountain was rejected from an exhibition that was to be open to all works of art sponsored by the Society for Independent Artists in New York. The porcelain urinal became one of the most important and notorious of the "ready-mades." It revolutionized the possibilities for artmaking through the direct use of manufactured products. Before submitting the piece to the exhibition as sculpture, Duchamp rotated the urinal from its normal position and signed the inscription "R. Mutt 1917". By taking this common object and removing it from its usual context it was re-employed as the artist's "work", with the purpose of profaning and ridiculing the concept of art. This piece makes one ask what it is that determines something as art. [Mandy Hummer, Spring 2002]

• The Smith-Hughes Act is approved. This act made vocational and agricultural education a federal program. Because of this act, industrial arts, which can be defined as an elementary or secondary school subject focused on developing manual skills and familiarity with tools and machines, and other vocational education programs received funding from the federal government. This act also laid foundations for vocational education as it is today. [Jeanette Civils, Fall 2002]

• The Progressive Education Association is established to promote the ideas of John Dewey and other educational reformers. Dewey's interest in helping educators provide for the uniqueness of the child and the significance of experience in his life grew into a movement which eventually considered self-expression and noninterference by the teacher an important tenet of its program. Art education shifted from a concern with correct drawing, picture study, and hand-eye coordination to an emphasis upon unlocking the creative capacities of children.[Emily Chiang, Spring 2002]

• The Bauhaus School opened in 1919, as a German school for architecture. It attracted many leading two- and three-dimensional experimental artists. The Bauhaus School was Germany's most important and most avant-garde art and design school. Many of its teachers eventually came to the United States, when the Nazis forced the school to close in 1933. [Mandy Hummer, Spring 2002]