Art Education in the Twentieth
Century: A History of Ideas

The optimism of the 1920s faded with the stockmarket crash of 1929 and the deepening economic crisis that ensued. As depression spread, the dream that poverty had been banished from American life evaporated. Marxists declared the downfall of captialism, while new ideologies like communism, Nazism, and the America First movement gained willing adherents. Economic paralysis dramatically altered the mood and direction of progressive education, which also had lasting impact upon the teaching of art.

In Europe the war brought an end to long-established autocracies in Germany, Austria, and Russia. Though this sometimes cleared the way for democratic forms of government, it did not eliminate the national rivalries that had led to the war in the first place. A defeated Germany established a democratic constitution and the Weimar Republic. Its growth was blighted by economic chaos and conservatively nationalist forces that eventually led to the totalitarian rule of the Nazi Party. Yet during the chaotic times before Hitler came to power, Germany was the scene of the Bauhaus, one of the major developments in twentieth-century art education.

In this chapter we encounter three streams of influence acting up on art education. The first is the scientific movement in general education, which devised ways of testing academic ability and achievement and scientific [p. 187] means of curriculum development. The second I call the expressive stream, because it gave rise to creative self-expression as a method of education. The third, the reconstructionist stream, came to the fore during the Great Depression, when social reforms were necessitated by the country's economic stress. Each of these streams was connected with the progressive education movement, and the impact of all was felt in art education. [My idea of three streams was based in part on Cremin's [1964] treatment of progressivism.] [pp. 187-188]

Conclusion
After World War I American artists assimilated the style of modern art. Museums and galleries continued to look to Europe, but during the 1930s, WPA arts projects brought artists into the American mainstream for the first time.

Artistic freedom was the metaphor for the freeing of other social institutions from the weight of tradition, especially the school. The child-centered school was a place of creative self-expression where the child was perceived as an artist. Under the banner of Freudianism, the metaphor of freedom included the freedom from social inhibition and repression. Art education had come to mean creative self-expression and was closely identified with progressive education.

A number of individual artist-teachers originated the practices for which creative self-expression is noted. Though it is often described as a method that avoided the imposition of adult ideas on children, exemplary teachers stimulated children's imagination either by use of word pictures, by helping them recall experiences, or by exposing them to visual or tactile experiences.

From the 1930s to World War II progressive education moved away from an exclusive preoccupation with creative self-expression and began to restructure education around purposes tied to the community and its life. [p. 222]

The Owatonna art education project sponsored by the Carneige Corporation was the definitive art education experiment in this direction.

The integration of art into other subject matters was related to the attempt to restructure the curriculum around life-centered problems facing the school and the community.

As the storm clouds of the Second World War gathered, American art education was influenced by a great exodus of immigrants from the German-speaking world. Many Bauhaus masters settled in American universities and institutes of technology. Painters brought their modernist styles into American studios and classrooms, and art historians richly infused the intellectual scene.

Though the nation still felt the impact of the Great Depression, and stood on the brink of war, it was evident that art education was an integral part of the educational landscape. [pp. 222-223]