Educación para el arte en México a principios del siglo XXI

Abstract

The very old San Carlos Academy, which was founded in 1783 by the Emperor Carlos III, has shown a historical tendency ranging from conservatism to neo-conservatism. In the last fifty years, various efforts have been made to insert changes proposed by different artistic avant-garde movements of the twentieth century into this neo-classical academy. The result of these efforts has been the creation of quite conservative artists who have never been able to conquer national or international forums within the artistic avant-garde. The most important artists of the twentieth century have been profoundly traditionalist: muralists at the beginning of the century, abstractionists, informalists and geometrists in the sixties and seventies, with no international projection. Today’s Academy is divided into artists and designers, confined to a marginal space in the cultural life of the country. Graduates face a society where there is no market for art, no interchange, no critics; graduates in design, who should be able to find a work market, face unemployment or poor salaries. The teaching of art and the artists graduating from the Academy should create the innovation needed for changes that could be useful and remedial in this dramatic situation. Such changes should consider the consensus of opinion and this means all sides should be involved. The re-conceptualisation of creative and expressive activities cannot keep itself apart from contemporary society, which has set out on a new historical scene.