Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In this smart survival guide for students and teachers--the only book of its kind--James Elkins examines the "curious endeavor to teach the unteachable" that is generally known as college-level art instruction. This singular project is organized around a series of conflicting claims about art: "Art can be taught, but nobody knows quite how."
 
"Art can be taught, but it seems as if it can't be since so few students become outstanding artists."
 
"Art cannot be taught, but it can be fostered or helped along."
 
"Art cannot be taught or even nourished, but it is possible to teach right up to the beginnings of art so that students are ready to make art the moment they graduate."
 
"Great art cannot be taught, but more run-of-the-mill art can be."
 
Elkins traces the development (or invention) of the modern art school and considers how issues such as the question of core curriculum and  the intellectual isolation of art schools affect the teaching and learning of art. He also addresses the phenomenon of art critiques as a microcosm for teaching art as a whole and dissects real-life critiques, highlighting presuppositions and dynamics that make them confusing and suggesting ways to make them more helpful.
 
Elkins's no-nonsense approach clears away the assumptions about art instruction that are not borne out by classroom practice. For example, he notes that despite much talk about instilling visual acuity and teaching technique, in practice neither teachers nor students behave as if those were their principal goals. He addresses the absurdity of pretending that  sexual issues are absent from life-drawing classes and questions the practice of holding up great masters and masterpieces as models for students capable of producing only mediocre art. He also discusses types of art--including art that takes time to complete and art that isn't serious--that cannot be learned in studio art classes.
Why Art Cannot Be Taught is a response to Elkins's observation that "we know very little about what we do" in the art classroom. His incisive commentary illuminates the experience of learning art for those involved in it, while opening an intriguing window for those outside the discipline.
 

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

In Why Art Cannot Be Taught: A Handbook for Art Students, James Elkins (The Object Stares Back), professor of art history, theory and criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, paints a nasty picture of what goes on in art schools. Critiques of students' art are comparable to "psychodramas," with the usual result of the criticized artist breaking down into tears. The chapter "Teaching and Learning Mediocre Art" begins from a sour premise, that "most artists do not make interesting art." Art students and teachers might find a grim sort of gallows accuracy in this deadly portrait of their activities. ( June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Elkins's title throws the proverbial gauntlet at the feet of studio art teachers. He claims that "we know very little about what we do." To support his claim he first takes readers fairly rapidly through a history of studio classes from medieval times to post-Bauhaus today: readers are now "disconnected" (his emphasis) from this history. Going into studio classrooms, he then points out the academic structure of MFA programs. A chapter on theories leads only to confusion and into "the central theme of this book, art critiques." Here these are presented in specific detail in an array of approaches, "critique formats," including a suggestion to compare them with critiques in different fields of study. There is something substantive in listening to this variety of give-and-take. Although readers are left with the idea that "teaching art is irreparably irrational" and that therefore it is senseless to "propose programmatic changes," he is optimistic in his support of the ongoing mystery of art teaching. His ideas are provocative, effectively phrased, and are useful for testing one's unexamined prejudicial assumptions. General readers; undergraduates; faculty and researchers. K. Marantz emeritus, Ohio State University

Author notes provided by Syndetics

James Elkins, a professor of art history, theory, and criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, is the author of The Object Stares Back: On the Nature of Seeing, What Painting Is, and many other books.