Richard Monahan <[log in to unmask]> escreveu:

> I am currently writing a dissertation regarding the amount of emphasis
given to the art of drawing in art colleges today, as opposed to years gone
by and would be grateful for any opinions or related information in the form
of books websites etc  up to date opinions and criticisms (positive and
negative) would be invaluable
>
Dear Richard.
I studied art, mainly painting, and besides my art work i dedicate myself to
teach art drawing in different kinds of institutions.
The past years, I’ve been teaching art drawing in the Faculty for
Architecture, and made a PhD in Visual Communication, Drawing, investigating
the mental process of drawing as the ideal communicating system for art
related disciplines, stressing the opposition between language, an organized
and codified system and drawing an open one.
I consider drawing fundamental for the self learning on how to learn and
master the own creativity of individuals, as well as to develop a kind of
mental and intelligent process that organises itself outside the logic
deductive discourse of other human fields.
There is often the tendency to consider drawing mainly as an artistic
activity, but what I find interesting is that it brings the artistic
creativity to many other disciplines without the need of words or other
abstract language concepts.
In architecture, there are drawings who where statements stronger then any
other theories, for example the well known drawing of a sky scraper made with
charcoal by Frank Lloyd Write...

Well, this situates my position if you have any interest in further contact.

In Portugal, to the present day, art drawing was always an important
discipline in the artistic curricula including architecture. Usually they are
disciplines from the first two years, which means six to nine hours a week
(depending from the institutions). For me it is one of the reasons Portuguese
architecture stands for itself and has a character of its own.
Unfortunately, the recent Bologna agreements tend to force an alteration of
this curricula, and many professors do not protect what is different in our
system.
But this is still to be seen.

Myself, when i teach drawing, i begin (or the student begins in the first
year) to teach the traditional process of life drawing, having in mind the
Renaissance visual paradigm, and then we follow to processes that emphasize a
freedom of action where drawing is everything you may do in a bidimensional
surface and with anything that leaves a graphic imprint, which includes
photographic, or digitalized processes.
My idea is to overtake any borders that define and close drawing in an ideal
place and time outside our present.

I hope this gives you some idea of what is happening here, the problem of
cultures that exist outside English speaking areas, is that they tend, for
obvious reasons, to became ignored.
I also have some feedback from Spain, specially Madrid where there is a lot
of interesting things going on around drawing.

Which you success to your work
Yours
Ana Leonor

(Professor for Drawing in the Faculty for Architecture, Technical University,
Lisbon)


--
Ana Leonor M. Madeira Rodrigues
Faculdade de Arquitectura - Universidade Técnica