Freedom through Art: Educational Policy and Practice at Michaelis School of Fine Art, 1971–1989

Abstract

This article considers educational theory and practice within Michaelis School of Fine Art in an era of extreme political turbulence within South Africa. It argues that the title of director Neville Dubow’s inaugural lecture, “Art and Freedom”, offers a key to the central philosophy of the school. Profoundly influenced by modernist ideals, Dubow and others regarded art as above all a sphere of freedom from workaday social responsibility and conformity: this position was reflected in the school’s educational practice, in its embrace of non-figuration, its scepticism about overtly politically-engaged art, and its primary focus on fine art rather than functional design training. Tertiary art education for black students pursued an alternative educational model, and there were increasing calls for a socially-engaged art to confront the country’s crises, but in the face of all this, Michaelis, under the directorship of Neville Dubow, maintained a marked commitment to an art education that prioritised individual and subjective visions of freedom and protest above notions of collective thought and overt social comment.

Keywords:

• art education
• modernism
• abstraction
• protest art
• freedom
• figuration
• fine art
• design
• craft