Reflections on teaching art history in art schools paper given, 4th January, 1966

Abstract

With the creation of the Dip. A. D., formal teaching of art history became mandated in the Uk’s art schools. In a talk to university heads of art history, who would be required to train the required art historians, Gombrich addressed the problem of what they should teach. Far from advocating the common university curriculum, he recommended drawing upon local traditions of art and craft practices. While suggesting that students should have a basic awareness of art history’s historical map, if they should become needed to teach the subject, ‘I should try to investigate with them what it was like to be an artist in the past, what tasks he had to perform and in what concrete contexts the works of art took shape which we still admire.’