EDUCATIONAL

Copying from the Masters

by Gerald King

        The Old Masters are no longer available to guide a student and demonstrate how they actually worked to achieved the perfection we see in their art. The tradition of copying the successful works of these Old Masters to learn their secretes is carried on today by those artists who wish to develop similar skills and sensitivities to form.

Since 1991, I have participated in the copyist program at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. I have learned more from copying master works over the past sixteen years than I had in all of my earlier 50 years of painting. I will continue this exercise and encourage my students to seek out and copy master works of art.

For a view of a copy I am presently working on at the National Gallery of Art- click here

          The following is an essay from a brochure I hand out while I copy in public. It explains why I copy the Masters.
It should be understood that I am not nor have I ever been employed by the National Gallery of Art, and my work is not sanctioned by or approved by The National Gallery of Art. I have special permission to copy works in the permanent collection as a member of the copyist program.

Hello,

Perhaps you are wondering why artists copy paintings in museums, as I am doing. The answer is to study, to learn, and to find inspiration from the great masters of the past. Copying directly from works of art gives the artists insight into the creative process- insights which cannot be learned from any other source.

Throughout history artists have studied the artistic accomplishments and creative genius of their predecessors. Their methods of study included copying from original art. Young artists would first copy the drawings of their teachers who had mastered this skill. Later they would travel to the large centers of art to copy from the great masters. This is the time-honored tradition that has enabled succeeding generations of artists to develop the incredible esthetic sensitivities needed to produce works that communicate with all mankind. It was this 'homage to the masters' and the serious study of their magnificent art, which assured artist that their work, which was based upon time tested principles, would be highly valued by humanity.

Today, artists have largely been separated from their predecessors and the traditions that would help their art to be universal and relevant to the future. Attitudes towards the art and artists of the past have changed, and few artists today 'pay homage' to the old masters. The occasional viewing of original art and the constant exposure to inaccurate photo reproductions of art cannot provide artists with the experience needed to truly understand and appreciate the great art of the past. The result of this is that what is recognized as today's art communicates only with a narrow group of art cognoscente whose standards of excellence have neither precedence nor universality. Much of the art of this century requires special knowledge and insights about what is called modern art and the artists who have been anointed by contemporary authorities as masters.

Artists today who wish to learn traditional methods and techniques and continue in the manner of the old masters face many problems. They are looked down upon by ranking art authorities, who view them as lacking commitment to a search for new art forms. They are criticized as being narrow, closed minded and old fashioned. To those immersed in modern art, artists working in traditional ways are suspected of being show-offs or overly commercial and merely catering to crass popular tastes. The many art museums currently being constructed throughout the world are not designed or meant for "Traditional Humanism" (This is the term favored by a growing number of us traditional artists and art appreciators to describe art which can be understood and appreciated by all of humanity.). These museums are being built as monuments to glorify modern art and further impugn popular taste and humiliate the non-believing masses.

Today, Traditional Humanists cannot look for support from the rich, entrenched, art establishment. Worse than this, they cannot find schools or teachers with traditional art backgrounds who can educate them as the great masters of previous centuries were educated. Most of these artists, even those of us with Master's degrees in art from prestigious universities, must learn traditional art on our own. We are largely self taught. Only recently have the schools using time-tested academic methods which teach traditional drawing and painting become more numerous.

For those of us growing up in the last half of this century, who have been separated from the great masters, there is really only one way to reconnect with the past and the great art which communicated with all mankind. That method is to study the great works of the masters using the time-tested exercise of copying. That is why I am here.

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