Lessons on Teaching from Robert Irwin
“During the early seventies, when Robert Irwin was on the road a lot, visiting art schools and chatting with students, he was proffered an honorary doctorate by the San Francisco Art Institute. The school’s graduation ceremony that year took place in an outdoor courtyard on a sunny, breezy afternoon, sparkling clear. Irwin approached the podium and began, ‘I wasn’t going to accept this degree, except it occurred to me that unless I did, I wasn’t going to be able to say that.’ He paused, waiting as the mild laughter eddied. ‘All I want to say,’ he continued, ‘is that the wonder is still there.’ Whereupon, he simply walked away.”
That anecdote about Robert Irwin is from Lawrence Weschler’s book, Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees. While Irwin only taught formally for a total of five years, many of his students went on to become successful and noteworthy artists.
Weschler describes Irwin’s teaching as, “blending the hard question and the light touch.” The hard questions have many answers, but instead of dictating his approach, Irwin’s light touch allowed his students to explore all possible solutions and arrive at conclusions based on their experiences. This is, of course, until they begins to ask the hard questions for themselves. At that point, Irwin says, “once you learn how to make your own assignments instead of relying on someone else, then you have learned the only thing you really need to get out of school, that is, you’ve learned how to learn.”
Before reaching that point, Irwin would immerse students in the historical context of their work. Beginning with works of realism, Irwin would then ask his students the kinds of question which shaped the artistic movements that abandoned realism in favor of pursuing other values. As a result, students would find themselves creating works in the style of cubism, minimalism, surrealism, etc.
As Irwin suggests throughout Seeing is Forgetting, the questions are more important than the answers and music schools could adopt a similar approach. Everything from the evolution of compositional style, to systems of intonation, to changes in instruments themselves makes more sense when we are allowed to grapple with the same questions as those who have come before us. By going into the weeds and attempting to find solutions to old problems students can continue to affirm known solutions as well as discover new possibilities.
The best thing we can do as teachers is to ask the hard questions and allow students to find the answers for themselves, providing only a light touch when needed. It may be the best way to ensure that the wonder is always there.