Carnegie Survey of American Art

Abstract

A work of art is a social document, a tangible and informative record of man's aspiration and achievements; it is also a system of formal relationships evoking aesthetic as well as intellectual responses. All too often in the past these two areas of communication and understanding have been isolated one from the other, set apart by artists and educators alike, so that each would seem to exist quite independently of the other. Current educational trends, however, tend to see a work of art as a total experience, to valuate it as a reflection of all the stimuli which have brought it into being. The result has been a broadening interest in the arts throughout American educational circles. This is manifest at the undergraduate level by the introduction into art historical curricula of courses in design and techniques, and by integrated courses which cut across departmental lines and bring into common focus several phases of creative endeavor in a single culture. At the high school level it reveals itself in ex...