Art History courses at Bowdoin were formally introduced in 1912. During the fall semester, Professor Henry Johnson taught History of Art: Ancient and Medieval, and the second semester Renaissance and Modern Art—centering European culture as the hub of art and knowledge.
Instruction:
Below is the Bowdoin College Digital Catalog from 1912-1913 showing the first mentioning of Art being taught formally within the college curriculum. Please view on page 66.
The 1912-1913 Bowdoin College course description states “General survey of the development of the Fine Arts and their place in ancient and modern life. Study of significant objects of the arts of architecture, sculpture, and painting. Study of the original objects of art, from prehistoric to recent times, in the college collections, especially of the Greek and Roman antiquities, and of the original drawings by Old Masters.”[1]
Although course material briefly touches on prehistoric art, the bulk of the material covered centers on European art and culture and the Old Masters of painting, referring to white men.
World War I brought changes to the curriculum, and no art courses were offered between 1918-1920. From 1920-1938, the courses remained the same and were still taught by Professor Johnson.
The first studio art course appears in the Bowdoin College Catalog in 1938. Professor Phillip Beam taught Principles of Drawing Painting and Sculpture. In introductory studio art courses like painting and drawing, students learned to draw and paint from observation and used white plaster casts of ancient sculptures to aid in this technical practice. This practice was prominent in The Royal Academy, Britain’s first institution of art instruction founded in 1768.
Members of the Academy engaged in life and still life drawing. In this painting, the Academy is pictured as well as the visual environment, highlighting their values. Artists were trained to use white plaster casts as models for instruction. This adaptation of masterworks after Greek and Roman art for art instruction was common in academies in the west as seen in the Royal Academy. The plaster casts Bowdoin once owned served as a collection of masterworks after Greek and Roman art indicating to viewers that these casts were ideal and should be emulated. Art instructors used these casts for hands-on instruction and for teaching anatomy. These idealized masterworks taught an idea of “beauty” that was centered in whiteness.
Instruction:
An archival photograph from the College archive, reveals the continued importance of white plaster replicas of Greek and Roman statues on this side of the Atlantic. This image shows the plaster statues in the Bowdoin College Chapel, in the sculpture gallery. Please click the highlighted section of the photograph for more information.
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Bowdoin originally had a large collection of white plaster statues, most of them no longer remain, but the Venus de Milo pictured in the front right-hand corner is the only remaining in Edwards today. These plaster statues were directly viewed and examined by art students in both Art History and Visual Art courses. There are a few chairs placed in the room and an easel in the back right corner. I assume students were coming into this space, whether it was to draw, or just sit and examine the plaster statues. This image portrays the nature of how students within the Art Department were interacting with this work.
Here is another image of the plaster statues on display at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.
They are stacked and elevated on blocks, adding to their height, making them appear to be larger than life. Imagine walking into this room having these large white plaster statues towering over you. How might this make you feel?
“The slippage between visual position and social position becomes evident when Euro-American cultural norms are shown to be contingent. Critical Race Art History perceives images as a visual form of power” – Camara Dia Holloway, Race-Ing Art History[2]
When walking into a room filled with portraits of white men and women, there is an evident projection of power within the visual representation of hegemonic whiteness. This reveals itself in the elevated display where the statues are above eye level. This height difference creates a visual hierarchy between the object and the viewer as it also encourages Eurocentric ideals of beauty in subject matter and the foundation of instruction as well. These idealized replicas of Greek and Roman statues are representative of a social and political culture that promotes whiteness as the norm.
Those who feel comfortable in this room most likely accept these tropes of beauty themselves, they accept whiteness as the norm which differs from those who feel uncomfortable. The discomfort comes from the lack of representation in that space and not necessarily fitting the projected standards. Being fond of the James Bowdoin III collection that did not reflect Black people as subjects, artists, or their culture. Without various perspectives, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art is perpetuating the idea that Whiteness equates to the norm, and the spaces they provide for viewing visual objects reflect this as well.
Between 1938 and 1960 the courses within the Art Department relatively stayed the same excluding 1948. There was an increase in Art History course offerings that were rotated during this time. These included History of European and American Art from Ancient Times to Present Day, Art and Culture of the Renaissance, Art, and Culture of the 17th and 18thCentury, and Modern Art. In 1948, Professor Beam taught The Art and Culture of the Orient” (Near East, Far East, Persia, India, China, and Japan) for the first time which was rotated every few years after it was first taught.
Art in the environment at Bowdoin has been experienced through the architecture on campus before it was formally introduced to a classroom setting. In both the architecture and the starting curriculum, students were provided with a Eurocentric approach to learning that promoted whiteness as the norm. The production of knowledge occurred in both the campus environment and in the classroom, and this section has highlighted that space is indeed a conductor of knowledge and reveals what institutions value.
In the 1960s, there was a shift within the campus environment and the 1970s brought evident changes in the college curriculum. Click the link below to read about these changes in the next section, Influx in Black Presence in Art and the Environment.
[1] “Bowdoin College Catalogue (1912-1913).” Bowdoin Digital Commons. Accessed March 19, 2021. https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/course-catalogues/180/.
[2] Holloway, Camara D. “Race-Ing Art History,” 2013. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203614440.