Old In Art School

Starred review from March 12, 2018
A history professor in her 60s takes a break from teaching at Princeton University to go to art school in this witty and perceptive memoir. After enrolling at Rutgers University in the fall of 2007, Painter (The History of White People), quickly immerses herself in her drawing and painting classes as she wryly observes her younger classmates “upholding art-school sartorial drama in bright yellow hair and piercings.” She notes that her fellow students, who know far less of the world than she does, are better painters, and she explores how her thinking as a historian hobbles her as an artist. Her “20th century eyes favored craft... narrative and meaning” while her 21st century classmates and teachers preferred the “DIY aesthetic” and appropriation from popular culture (e.g., cartoons, pornography). Painter goes on to attend graduate school at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she feels like a misfit as the oldest—and only black—student in her class, and is also unappreciated for her intellectual sophistication, though she ultimately develops her own aesthetic and confidence in her work. This is a courageous, intellectually stimulating, and wholly entertaining story of one woman reconciling two worlds and being open to the possibilities and changes life offers.

April 1, 2018
A noted historian tells about her daring career move to become an artist.At the age of 64, Painter (American History, Emerita, Princeton Univ.; The History of White People, 2010, etc.), president of the prestigious Organization of American Historians, former director of the Association of Black Women Historians, and author of seven books, enrolled as an undergraduate at Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers University. In a candid, captivating memoir, the author recounts her experiences at Rutgers and in a Master of Fine Arts Program at the Rhode Island School of Design, which raised for her salient questions about identity, creativity, ageism, and racism. Some teachers proclaimed that she would never become an Artist because she "lacked an essential component, some ineffable inner quality." Although as a professor she believed heartily that skills could be learned through seriousness, persistence, discipline, and hard work, she felt her teachers' condemnation "piercing my student's psyche," causing her to question her ability and the quality of her work. Often discouraged, still she defiantly pursued two goals: "to make work that engaged the eye" and to celebrate, in portraits, her "intellectual women friends." One teacher dismissed her second goal as mere "illustration." As to the first, she discovered throughout her art education the vagaries of criteria used to assess quality. During her first year at RISD, she felt reduced to a "pathetic, insecure little stump," unsure whether her teachers and classmates "were critiquing me, old-black-woman-totally-out-of-place, or critiquing my work, which was not good enough." Painter admits having felt like a misfit in art school, which leads her to reflect about ageism and racism (both rampant in the rarefied art world). Awarded studio residencies, including an artist-scholar residency at Yale, she proved her worth. The author offers perceptive insights about the meaning of art: the difference between thinking like a historian and an artist; the "contented concentration" she feels when making art; and the works of many black artists.A spirited chronicle of transformation and personal triumph.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2018
In her midsixties, Painter was a professor at Princeton and an acclaimed historian and writer. Yet, nearly finished with what became a best-seller, The History of White People (2010), she decided to end her prestigious academic career and enroll as an undergraduate art major at Rutgers. Culture shock ensued. Well versed in discrimination as a woman and an African American, Painter found herself confronting ageism. More confounding was the need to learn to think visually instead of narratively. She also had to care for her elderly parents. But Painter persevered, ultimately earning an MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design. Bracingly candid in her vividly analytical chronicling of her challenging adventure and its emotional, intellectual, and creative demands, she astutely critiques the way art is taught and charts her quest to figure out if her passion for history was detrimental or essential to her visual explorations. With her art displayed throughout this deeply inquisitive, involving memoir of transformation enriched by art history, Painter?funny, furious, brilliant, and mesmerizing?celebrates the hard work art requires and the profound freedom it engenders.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)