July 11, 2008

Fresh Artistic Controversy Hits Yale U.

Yale University’s School of Art is in the news again, this time for expelling a student who says she plans to sue the university for age discrimination and seek reinstatement.

The student, Annabel Osberg, was admitted to the school’s M.F.A. program in painting last year as an 18-year-old after being home-schooled through high school and enrolling as an undergraduate in California at 14. In interviews with the IvyGate blog and a local TV station in New Haven, Conn., she acknowledged that professors at Yale had criticized her work and even had given her a midterm warning. Ms. Osberg said she had then changed her style.

But recently, Yale officials told her she was too immature to continue in the program — even though, she said, they knew she was several years younger than most M.F.A. students when they admitted her.

“It cost a lot of money,” Ms. Osberg told WTNH-TV in an interview. She said Yale’s decision had caused “a lot of heartache and hopes that were shattered.”

Now she wants a court to force Yale to readmit her and is poised to file a lawsuit. Yale officials declined to comment, citing the privacy of student records.

Ms. Osberg’s drama follows another controversy surrounding an art student at Yale last spring. The university refused to display a controversial project by an undergraduate art major, Aliza Shvarts, who said she had induced her own abortions and wanted to put images of them on display as part of her senior art project. The project caused a media uproar, and Yale declined to display the work because, it said, Ms. Shvarts had refused to acknowledge that the abortions were faked. —Robin Wilson

Comments

1. Absolutely nothing about this story makes any sense whatsoever. I’m told a strange disease is festering back east called the Kafka Virus. It looks like it’s hit Yale. Run for your lives!!!!!!

   — P. Cosco    Jul 11, 01:02 PM    #

2. I’d be interested to know what the critiques were of her work. MFA programs are noted for art style de jour. And for using artists, as dog and pony shows. Once the infatuation wears off casting off the subject of that passing fad is very easy for them.
   Perhaps in Osberg they’ve found someone who can play their own game agaisnt them…

   — Atana    Jul 11, 02:30 PM    #

3. Look at her artwork at http://art.yale.edu/AnnabelOsberg. I say good for Yale for standing up to their standards. Too many MFA students assume that once they are in the programs, they will get the degree, no matter how they perform. If their performance is not satisfactory happens, grad reviews result in warnings, but generally the students are eventually passed through the system. We know what a huge system it has become as the MFA programs have multiplied exponentially.

   — jd    Jul 11, 03:35 PM    #

4. My own MFA experience was similar – I was admitted at age 19. But I hadn’t been home schooled, which I suspect is the critical factor here. Too many liberals don’t respect home schooling, even in a subject as family-oriented as art.

   — Neal Jung    Jul 11, 03:49 PM    #

5. Piffle. Under what law is she threatening to sue? I’m not aware of 18-year-olds being a protected class.

   — James Kline    Jul 11, 03:57 PM    #

6. I looked at this woman’s paintings on the website listed in the previous post. I fail to see what is “wrong” with them compared to the other students’ work. She is the only one of the first year printmaking/painting students who actually posted paintings. Most of the students have YouTube videos or nothing on their sites. Could someone please help those of us who know nothing about what makes good the art of the 21st century? I should admit that I am a scientist, not an art critic (however my art historian husband educates me frequently on the Dutch masters and Florentine art—I get that stuff). What I don’t understand is why this person’s painting is considered sub-par for Yale. I suspect any judge in a law suit would have the same problem, unless he or she was an art critic in a former life. Forgive my ignorance. To my untrained eye, a lot of 21st century art looks like chimps made it.

   — aml    Jul 11, 04:00 PM    #

7. I second #6’s request for a critique. I have my tastes in art, but that is all I know.

   — wm    Jul 11, 04:09 PM    #

8. James (post 5): Not a protected class? Nor are people, say, with unattractive faces or features, but if they’d kicked her out for that reason, I bet she’d have a case of some kind. If the procedure of warnings and grades really was followed, then they were perfectly justified in flunking her out … but I see no reason to insult her, too, by calling her “immature.” Lots of students (and others) are immature; that has little to do with one’s academic or artistic ability.

   — swish    Jul 11, 04:12 PM    #

9. One of my sons, at the age of 6, lamented while looking at a painting in an art museum, “I could do that but they wouldn’t pay me for it.” I agree – so much of what passes for “art” is just a total mystery to me.

   — deborah    Jul 11, 04:29 PM    #

10. I agree with posters 6, 7, and 10 — I just don’t “get” a great deal of what passes for “art” these days. As someone once said, “if they have to explain it, then it’s not really art.”

    — Doug    Jul 11, 04:36 PM    #

11. The Yale law school faculty directory is almost as big as the LA telephone book. Why can’t an institution with Yale’s resources figure out how to handle this kind of a decision smoothly? Only the most ignorant of administrators would make such a decision and not expect such a result.

    — LEF    Jul 11, 04:39 PM    #

12. The work shows neither talent nor skill (two very different things, it’s important to remember). If this was the sort of work she used to gain admission, then the faculty at Yale got what they deserved!

    — pablo    Jul 11, 05:01 PM    #

13. Pablo, can you elaborate?

    — wm    Jul 11, 05:07 PM    #

14. Count me in with those who don’t understand Yale’s critique of Ms Osberg’s art. I looked at the other students’ pages on the web, too, and I’m as bewildered as is “aml” (#6). Moreover, How much advancement and maturity should one expect of a first year art student anyway? What was her art like when she first entered the school? She is at least willing to put her art out there in public, whereas here more “mature” classmates seem interested in only presenting banalities. People like pablo (#12) are free to critique Osberg’s talent and skill, but I know I’ve seen art like her’s hanging on museum walls.

    — Tracy G.    Jul 11, 05:09 PM    #

15. Poor use of color, and demonstrates some definite problems in anatomical drawing. The abstraction is poorly done, likely due to the aforementioned problem.
    But on the whole, about average for a University art student. The best of the lot, the aerial scene.
    Yale or otherwise, her work does resemble much of the work of that collegiate arts contingent.
    But perhaps that just might be part of the problem. MFA’s have a end placement rate in the field of less than 15%. In part because the assessment standards are so ambiguous as are the expectations. I’m in the field and have long doubted the credibility of MFA programs here in the US because of those issues.

    — Atana    Jul 11, 05:50 PM    #

16. It’s very hard to see a court intervening in this one. Miss Osberg may have been hard done by (or not; on the facts given it’s impossible to tell): but the legal system properly defers very broadly indeed to universities’ authority to determine adequate student performance. A pity it has come to this, but not every injustice—if injustice was done here—has or ought to have a legal remedy.

    — Gustave    Jul 11, 06:02 PM    #

17. The point is not whether or not we think it’s good art, but whether the faculty, in their professional judgment, think it meets the standards they set. When you pay tuition, you are paying for the expertise of the faculty (not a certain number of hours in a room, and not a degree, but the opportunity to earn a degree conferred by the institution at the recommendation of the faculty.) Faculty judgement is the standard, whether the area is art, biochemistry, business, or creative writing. Yes, that’s a lot of power in the faculty, but that’s why it’s hard to get one of those jobs and get tenure.

    That’s why prospective students, especially prospective graduate students, should evaluate a prospective institution on its faculty (not the pretty grounds, the customer service orientation or amenities, the reputation, or the ranking in USNWR.)

    The faculty have a vested interest in not admitting, or later, not graduating, students who do not meet their standards, because that is one way a faculty/university is judged – by its graduates.

    If my memory of HIED law holds, whether or not she makes any headway in court will depend on why she was dismissed. If it was because the faculty judged her WORK to be immature or otherwise sub par, the courts usually respect the expertise of the faculty and leave those cases alone. However, if she was dismissed for behavioral reasons (perhaps her behavior was immature and she broke some sort of policies or rules) then the courts will likely make sure that Yale followed whatever rules it has in the handbook for adjudicating student conduct. If she can somehow prove that they truly dismissed her merely for the characteristic of youth, then she might be able to make a case that they knew that when she applied and have somehow violated an agreement. I’m with #5… I don’t think 18-year-olds are a protected class in the “rights” sense, like race or gender or any characteristic on the list in Yale’s non-discrimation clause. But I’d defer to someone with more higher ed law expertise on that one.

    — HIED doc    Jul 11, 06:09 PM    #

18. Yale was foolish and rude to label her as “immature”. I hope she becomes a famous artist someday, so that she can rub it in their faces.

    — Noreen    Jul 11, 06:17 PM    #

19. Ms. Osberg’s argument that Yale knew how old she was when it admitted her is a non-sequitur. What the school overestimated was her maturity, not her age.

    I’m not saying Yale is right. I’m just saying that particular argument is not relevant.

    — CU Alum    Jul 11, 06:33 PM    #

20. The standards of insight on this blog are pretty low. As an artist I can make certain ethical judgments about current scientific practice, but I would be ill advised to judge the science itself, perhaps just as a chemist might be cautious about offering an opinion about the findings of an astronomer. The technical calculations make most cautious about expressing much of an opinion about the outcome of a research project, and most research projects that become public are the work of credentialed, tested and degreed professionals- perhaps in every area but non-Darwinian biology and that work is almost always labeled “pseudo-” and left by the side of the road to rot in the open air. Art is a low coherency field and many with standing in the art world routinely disagree about the most basic of things; even things like the importance of creation itself.
    Oddly Art is expected to be both instantaneously accessible and philosophically robust; there seems to be an understanding that everyone is equally qualified to render an opinion about the prime object in art. As if you could make a judgment about a work of Greek literature without having to bother with learning Greek, or even engaging the work of a translator or historian. The claim is made by many that the evidence of art is right there for all to see, and that observation of course it is both true and false. Young artists struggle with the first layers of meaning; more experienced artists struggle with both what to express and what to refrain from presenting. Neither task is easy if what you are working with is worth making.
    I don’t much care for the academic study of chemistry, but I don’t dismiss the study or the field as being without value. I have great admiration for, and use everyday in my studio the key ideas in “The Calculus” but I have no need to practice its calculations. When you have an encounter with art that doesn’t yield insight that you find valuable, it is likely that the artist has not yet edited their expression to fit your eye; but it is also possible that your eye is not yet capable of recognizing the sophisticated level of organization that you expect and reward in your own field of inquiry. The fault might as easily lie in the eye of the beholder as in the manifestation of the artist.
    MFA programs, perhaps like other forms of graduate education committed to producing terminally degreed souls, vary widely in effectiveness and coherency. Comments from one’s own experience should always be broadened into categorical truths. It clearly must be noted that MFA programs are markedly faster at producing their under-prepared work products than either our Humanities or Sciences colleagues’ training systems. If you can’t be good, at least be brief. (Irony noted).
    Educating 18 year olds is not normally what MFA programs do, and it is puzzling why the most competitive visual arts MFA program in the world is taking on the challenge of teaching an individual how to both be and do. Perhaps the exoticness of an 18 year old’s insights was remarkable enough to take a chance on. Failure to complete Yale’s MFA program at 18 might not be such a bad thing, although the standard advice for responsible artists considering graduate school is that admission without promise of financial support means that you are not yet ready to go.
    An MFA is neither a map to the future nor a back pack full of supplies. At best it is a walking stick. The April 2007 Art in America had a long list of leaders of MFA programs address the MFA entitled: Art Schools: A Group Crit.

    — painteronair    Jul 11, 07:38 PM    #

21. Painter on air, #20 above, may be an expert on art, but he or she leaves much to be desired in writing clearly, coherently, concisely, and precisely.

    — Donald Ray Jenkins    Jul 12, 12:16 AM    #

22. Painteronair did make some clear points, albeit in a manner specific to his or her field.
    Essentially if Osberg’s work is evaluated within the context of John Dewey’s philosophical theories of ‘art as experience’…she’s already a success whether or not Yale choses to toss her out.
    And anyway, the whole concept of an institutional avant garde is inconsistent. Either profs need to evaluate as the old academies did, or be very, very quiet. ( And if Osberg’s work is the product of their instruction it is quite lacking from a technical perspective.) In art its been a major problem to have standards or the expertise of profs premised on institutional avant gardism, and each year it gets harder to expect it all to be taken seriously. As far as painters mode of writing, this is an informal discourse and so it should not be the core of the issue. And as noted earlier humanities people do tend to use a different writing idiom than other fields. And it does vex considerably to have every third post on chronicle complaining about someone’s supposed inadequacies in writing. Hey we’re supposed to represent the life of the mind, not the inner workings of a word processor.

    — Atana    Jul 12, 12:39 AM    #

23. “Either profs need to evaluate as the old academies did, or be very, very quiet”

    Please. There are plenty of ways of evaluating art that are not based on this false opposition between the “old academies” and the “institutional avant garde.”

    Painter (#20) takes more time and energy to respond to the utter inanities of what I presume to be the non-humanists here than I could ever muster. I frankly don’t see what all the fuss is about. They took her based on her painting. She gets there, and proves to be too immature to hack it in the program. They cut her loose. End of story. These kids have to take classes. They have to discuss their work and the ideas behind it. They have to play well with others. Maybe she can do all that, but it seems to be Yale’s decision that she can’t and I don’t see any particular reason to secondguess that.

    We have people in my MFA program that are borderline too immature to cut it, and we try to nurture them through. Often it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But studying at Yale’s MFA is a privilege, not a right. Just because they accepted her has no bearing on whether she’s living up to expectations and will successfully complete the program, age 18 or 64. Every admission is a gamble. They lost on her. She’s annoyed, and our culture insists that the individual is always right. She’s trying to get some mileage out of the “homeschooled” angle. Whoo-whoo. Not a particularly big deal either way.

    — art professor    Jul 12, 01:29 AM    #

24. Interesting… her art was decent, but it wasn’t great, and there was nothing particularly profound in her use of classical elements, nor her subject matter, nor even her technique. I would say make her get a BFA in painting and see if she improves… I agree with ‘art professor,’ though she may not have realized it, grad. school is a privilege, not a right. Grad. schools give people the boot all the time, and often not as politely as they did her!

    — Legend    Jul 12, 02:37 AM    #

25. Incidentally, to see the level of refinement AND talent some Yale MFA’s end up with, take a look at, say, Zak Smith’s art.

    — Legend    Jul 12, 02:42 AM    #

26. What happens at Yale stays at Yale. Not. Unfortunately.

    — David A. McCullough    Jul 12, 12:09 PM    #

27. The Young: Wordsworth got it right when he wrote “the child is father to the man.” Art deparments should keep this in mind.

    — Savage Detective    Jul 12, 03:05 PM    #

28. I was just part of a tenure grievance committee in which an art dept gave “one more year before tenure” to an internationally acclaimed artist who has had 15 one-person shows in the last 2 years. As far as we could tell, she was being punished for “being better.” This only to suggest that in art as in other fine arts, critiquing other artists work is at best an exercise in recognizing one’s own filters. As for immaturity—it was very hard 2 weeks ago not to laugh out loud when a 28 year old student told me he deserved an A because his butt was in his seat for at 2/3 of the semester.

    — Systemsview    Jul 12, 04:40 PM    #

29. Actually the reference to classicism/academic style in training is more pragmatic than just a statement about philosophical disputes. The unfortunate reality is that MFA programs are notorious for not preparing artists to function outside of the special little world of the university studios. The 3-10% placement rate more than supports that unfortunate concept.
    Classical/academic training has at least the merit of enabling the artist to make some money doing mundane things like portraits, murals or etc.
    MFA programs however tend not to emphasize these abilities, and what they do emphasize only has practical credibility within its own paradigm. And that is very limited, being mainly applicable for university/collegiate teaching. But so few MFA’s obtain those positions that the percentage is almost negligible. (It’s the same percentage as unsolved UFO sightings…which could just be more believable than many MFA programs)
    UFO’s MFA’s whatever would be fine, except so few who do obtain MFA’s are employed as academics that it could be said the main beneficiary could actually be the student loan companies.
    There aren’t too many other 30-50,000$ degrees with such a low potential for application.
    In that sense, Oseberg has beaten Yale (and by implication the MFA system) at its own game. By admitting her, but then stating her work lacked maturity… It seems a systemic weakness is made very evident. Isn’t it their job to see she gets that artistic maturity?
    The fact that she was admitted in the first place indicates the MFA standards at Yale are lacking. Since she was admitted, and having studied in the program for a year, her work still lacking ‘maturity’ is still a bad sign insofar as the training regimen’s would seem to be inadequate.
    And whether or not she wins her lawsuit, her statement that… “It cost a lot of money,” Ms. Osberg told WTNH-TV in an interview. She said Yale’s decision had caused “a lot of heartache and hopes that were shattered.”…just might provide some impetus to clean up the problems within the MFA programs. Bad publicity sometimes can have a very positive effect.

    — Atana    Jul 12, 10:23 PM    #

30. Atana – you keep harping on this 10% “placement rate” – what kind of “placement” are you talking about? We’re not training for Bear Stearns. We help students advance their craft and the ideas behind that craft. Some of them go on to be successful professional artists. Some of them become art critics or write for magazines or newspapers. I doubt many of them end up painting portraits for a few bucks at a mall studio, but I haven’t checked back on all of them. Some of them give up on art to chose another profession. The point is, graduate school is not only about placement. Lots of students get English Ph.Ds – how many of those get TT jobs at R1 schools? Do you want to cap enrollments then?

    “Isn’t it their job to see that she gets that artistic maturity?” In a word – NO. Gimme a break. When you admit someone or hire someone, you’re always taking a chance based on limited information. The person shows up and does things you didn’t expect they’d do. They underperform. They start fights with everyone. Whatever. They have to go. It’s not such a strange proposition. The idea that getting accepted to Yale’s MFA program = successful art career is a naive fantasy. Maybe Yale would like to promote that fantasy, but I doubt many students would even believe it for a second. Everyone knows how cutthroat the contemporary art world is – there are more artists than ever, more global competition than ever. Your chances of becoming the next “big thing” are next to nil. You either accept that and try your best, or you chance to another line of work.

    — art professor    Jul 13, 02:53 AM    #

31. The 3-10% is the percentage of those who attain college or university teaching positions. There is another 5% or so who manage to remain in the field via gallery work or etc.
    As far as helping students advance their craft, well… art student leagues, museums, artist guilds, and self study can also achieve that end. And that’s without charging tuitions which are life changing, sometimes for the worse.
    And students are not hired, they come to institutions to be taught. Therefore the obligation is not only on the student it is also borne by the institution. If the students who have met all the standards for these programs, do not usually get hired in the field it is indicative that something is very wrong. So it’s not just a matter of TT, R-1 and etc. Many do give up on art as you noted. But they do this not because they want to, but because their degrees are often functionally worthless.
    And as far as problems with student performance, it is a problem as most of us would be quite aware. It is to your programs credit that you do nurture those through who might have some promise. But systemically MFA programs are in a very poor position to be criticizing or defending on performance.
    And as far as the cutthroat nature of the art trade, yes we’re all aware of it.
    But if that cutthroat business is made more so by the systemic credibility problems within MFA programs…perhaps those of us in the field bear some blame for helping to hold the knife.
    These degrees cost almost as much as a law degree, MBA, or in some cases a MD. But the probability of these students success is much, much less.
    And under that condition, if the only defense we can give is that we advance their craft and ideas behind that craft…then collegiate MFA programs are in trouble, and are indefensible from any reasonable analysis of cost to potential. And given the consistent elevations of college tuitions and debts… there’s going to be a point where even the steadfast stargazers will have look at their realistic chances. And at that point, which cannot be too long away, VFA and MFA programs won’t survive if changes aren’t made in curriculum’s or systemic philosophies.
    Ms. Osberg may have done us all an unintended favor by her troubles. It just might bring some discourse about how to ensure collegiate VFA programs are more credible. The specter of lawsuits might scare some of the skeletons out of our respective closets.

    — Atana    Jul 13, 03:48 AM    #

32. Incidentally concerning the question about capping enrollments, yes if it meant these programs were more selective and perhaps more credible.
    The other alternative is that enrollments will be effectively and possibly terminally capped by economic pressures.

    — Atana    Jul 13, 04:32 AM    #

33. I agree with those who say, “What the hell was the graduate admissions committee thinking?” (Well, nobody actually said that, but still . . . .) Where did this student do her undergrad work? The story just says California. Something very suspicious about her admission in the first place. Notice how she talks about “expensive?” I think Yale MFA students typically are supported by scholarships and fellowships. Sounds like she got the booby prize: admission without support. So maybe she was a cash cow?

    Anyhow, having seen many products of the Yale MFA program in recent years, I have to say I’m surprised they have any standards at all.

    — Losemygrip    Jul 13, 01:33 PM    #

34. Trying to read the tea leaves, I have to assume that much of the criticism of the student’s work is based on craftsmanship, or lack thereof; what stuns me is how quick non fine arts people )and some conservative fine arts people) are in judging using a single criterion, completely without access to the student’s intent.

    Well, I have news for you: Jackson Pollock was an important artist, John Cage an important composer, and ts eliot an important poet; none of their works are based on “traditional” craftsmanship. In fact, that is even the point…!

    There are a lot of factors that determine an art work’s success, including originality of ideas and imagery or forms. Originality means it doesn’t look like what you’re used to. In addition to that, the performance of an MFA student is based on more than just the quality of the work; perhaps the student did not produce enough, or did not engage fully, or created dissension, or could not understand the readings and criticism that most certainly are graduate level.

    Yale has a track record of consistently producing quite a few of the most noted artists and professors in this country all the way back to the 1950s when Josef Albers helped get the program off the ground; they probably deserve a mulligan given the program’s tradition of success.

    — robert_smithson    Jul 13, 04:18 PM    #

35. I like her work… In a field where there is so much subjectivity, there will be much debate over what is valuable. Adding another layer of difficulty, the question arises — how should this debate take place? Should it be an intellectual argument? Again, in a field with so much subjectivity, it’s easy to question the authorities. And why not?

    — Jonathan    Jul 13, 11:03 PM    #

36. Well it’s obvious that Pollock’s work wasn’t based on traditional craftsmanship. But that was 50 years ago. So it’s old news. And from a general sense of cultural mnemonics its probably close to irrelevant. People’s perceptions and behavior are more influenced by residuals from say… Norman Rockwell’s propaganda art, Triumph of the Will, or Shrek than Pollock.
    Many of the post modern eclectic contingent do recycle traditional techniques. In part as the inevitable reaction against the orgasm and splatter of the abstract expressionist era.
    But virtually all the people who do get through MFA programs won’t get into the art history books. Therefore the few who do get collegiate postings should be able to do more than propagate the last generations splatters do matter paradigm. The majority who have to take other routes, might be better served with the technical abilities to do commissions. And in general most of those commissions will be provided by people who couldn’t care less about layers and layers of existentialist muck.
    In all Oseberg’s work is a little weak technically and conceptually its typical for someone of her age. But if that’s so objectionable why did the admit her in the first place?
    And since Yale is an elite school, if these are the standards it doesn’t bode well for lesser institutions.
    Perhaps there’s a reason that a underground acronym for an M.F.A. is…Massive Financial Abyss. Since that is so perhaps there’s a better approach. Like training MFA students to do desk calendars for Sallie Mae corporation.

    — Atana    Jul 14, 12:18 AM    #

37. Atana, it is very clear from her earlier postings —the island works—that she does have significant technical abilities. The trend in the art world has been toward heavy de-skilling in graduate school; an awkwardness not unlike modernism but not exactly the same, either.

    If you are suggesting that MFAs should produce people to paint commissions sans the personal, cultural, and philosophical investigation that has been its cornerstone, as your comments appear to be, well, then you are suggesting something that really leaves the intellect right out of it.

    Congratulations. You have successfully determined that the MFA is pointless because it is too intellectual for you (and everyone else, apparently). Thanks for the condescension.

    — robert_smithson    Jul 14, 09:26 AM    #

38. Thanks to those who provided commentary on the art. I remain uneducated in “new” art and unqualified to make any insightful comments on Ms. Osberg’s pieces, but my suspicion that students’ art is judged on a completely subjective basis was confirmed.

    I wonder, now that Ms. Osberg has made the news, will her art find a fan base? Does the lawsuit draw an audience to her art that was not there previously? If so, then I suppose Ms. Osberg has achieved something towards becoming an artist!

    — aml    Jul 14, 11:44 AM    #

39. Right. Art criticism is different from all the rest of the arts, and even the humanities.
    They never should have given John Cage that teaching position.

    — robert_smithson    Jul 14, 02:30 PM    #

40. I always find it a shame when a school recruits someone and then later decides that they weren’t appropriate for the program afterall. It happened to a good friend of mine in a different field.

    On the other hand, not everyone who gets in deserves the degree! You have to live up to the program’s standards. For art it’s very hard to tell whether she did live up to their standards. In math or science this is much easier to do.

    — Katherine    Jul 14, 03:38 PM    #

41. Yep, I’m completely ignorant…whatever…
    The sometimes pretentious intellectualism in MFA programs has a place, but the problem is that the pragmatic application is so limited as to be functionally useless. And at that point there has to be some moral concern for for the lost souls who do get these degrees.
    Those of us in the field can have our raptures over Collingwood, Dewey, or whatever theorist we really love and whatever aesthetic road wrecks our privileges allow us to produce. And yes it is our obligation to teach those aspects to students, but its not our only obligation.
    The unfortunate reality (and that takes some intellect to understand and some morality to admit) is that most MFA students will not get to play in our safe little world of theories and governmentally supported avant gardism.
    What I’m suggesting is that MFA programs need to be more balanced, and in doing so account for the real world situations graduates will face. Currently many in academic arts have tended to emphasize the ‘intellectual’ which is fine…but have done incredibly poorly in ensuring the these newly intellectual students can actually make a living. And artists may be stargazers but they are not inherently stupid and some can actually add…50,000$ for an MFA and ‘do you want fries with that’ won’t add up-especially in our declining economy.
    So it doesn’t take a lot of intellect to see our little aesthetic party might end if something isn’t done…
    And Ms. Osberg’s paintings are ok, but not all that technically or conceptually advanced. She might have made a greater move to her success by raising the fuss in the press than she would have by being quietly compliant to the situation at Yale. At this point she no longer needs Yale, so she used them quite successfully for her own ends.

    — Atana    Jul 14, 07:21 PM    #

42. Yep. If people really think that an art MFA is worthless, they will stop coming…but every metric you will find shows that graduated MFAs have continually increased since the 1980s, more and more schools offer it, and more of the artists showing in blue chip galleries and museums hold MFAs than ever before.

    Must be screwing up pretty bad.

    — robert_smithson    Jul 14, 11:58 PM    #

43. Well the graduated MFA rate may have increased, but gods know the overall percentage actually employed in the field is very, very low. And the comparative number of artists in blue chip galleries with MFA’s is fine-someone has to make it out from any conceptual massacre. But the vast preponderance of MFA’s get nowhere near that status. Or are even able to stay in the field for which they worked so hard and spent so much.
    And quite truthfully much of the retained interest in MFA’s is due to misinformation within academia. I recently heard a Dean tell a collection of stargazers that college teaching jobs were just waiting for them when they graduated. Now, a look at the Chronicle’s art employment listings makes that particular Deans lie very evident. Many MFA’s if they do get any academic teaching jobs will be adjuncts. And being adjuncts won’t help their situation or paying the debts that much. Since adjuncts (alas the poor adjuncts) are the exploited sharecroppers of academia, being one certainly won’t help them pay for these degrees.
    So yeah these programs are screwing up but so far the consequences have been laid onto many of their former students rather than upon those who should be paying the ethical tolls.
    And more and more schools offering MFA’s…hmmm…might that have something to do with revenue rather than the credibility of many of these programs? Perhaps Ms. Osberg herself illuminated why academia keeps pushing MFA programs despite their abysmal record. ““It cost a lot of money”.
    Go get ‘em Annabel!

    — Atana    Jul 15, 12:48 AM    #

44. We know that you think that an MFA is supposed to be vocational training. You’ve made that clear.

    Hopefully art students with like interests as yourself will just go study with a professional welder or mechanic, much like crafts instruction of the past, instead of pursuing an MFA.

    You raise some valid points, Atana, but no humanities master’s degree is “job training.” If job training is what a student wants, it’s out there, but an MFA does not serve that purpose. Sorry.

    — robert_smithson    Jul 15, 01:18 AM    #

45. Furthermore, if you are looking at the Chronicle for art faculty job ads in the middle of the summer, it would explain a lot of your difficulty.

    — robert_smithson    Jul 15, 01:21 AM    #

46. I have it on fairly good authority that the young lady in question did not really understand her critiques, treated her practice as a series of assignments (hence the immaturity) and technically wasn’t up to snuff, despite receiving extra attention from the faculty. She was given a chance and bounced for not being able to measure up to the program’s standards – as it states in the handbook.

    Her early work (the Islands) was what she came in with, the murky rip-offs of a very prominent recent graduate are what she left with. No matter if she were 18 or 64, her work couldn’t progress beyond what she was coached into doing, IMHO

    — The Ghost of Josef Albers    Jul 15, 02:47 PM    #

47. Esteemed Smithson, I am a professional artist and a full time professor. And so don’t need to be applying for postings. Nor are the slightly disguised insults necessary. Those of use who do believe artists need to know how to apply their training-are not implying that it is no more than a ‘vo-tech’. Although the denigration of those in the trades is a bit disturbing. A skilled welder or mechanic has a right to be respected for their abilities.
    And I have MFA’s and so am also quite aware of the standards and often the lack thereof in these programs. One of the inherent issues with these programs is the fact that these do deal (sometimes with technique) and theory. But because of the manner in which MFA’s here in the US are organized the credibility of either a Phd or a trades emphasis isn’t present. By contrast I’ve observed that undergrad students from Germany (for example) are often able to outcompete their US MFA compatriots in both technical education and theory. So something is wrong in the conceptual or curricular approach of these programs.
    And if MFA’s do not serve some purpose in assisting the students in making a professional success of themselves-exactly what purpose do they serve? Ensuring coddled faculty can make the payments on their Mercedes?
    And if these programs exist as soley as intellectual or aesthetic role playing, how can we
    justify what we do to the lives of the students who don’t get to play that game?
    We’re ultimately talking about immersing many students into an educational debt they may never be able to pay. For a unique situation regarding a terminal degree which often has little credibility, even within its own field. And if no defense can be given except that its all so very special and so aesthetic it’s beyond consideration of the adverse consequences…
    How can we claim to have any moral standing?
    The whole situation is much more than Oseberg’s problems. Although she just might become the symbol for the issue.

    — Atana    Jul 15, 04:25 PM    #

48. Judi R…Well when you have have your faculty exhibit let us know. When that’s over don’t
    lose the matchbooks.

    I could use the old matchbook sketches to decorate my Mercedes…

    — Atana    Jul 16, 01:11 AM    #

Previous: House Passes Bill to Preserve Executive Branch's Electronic Records
Next: Fresno State Settles Another Sex-Bias Complaint With a Female Coach