The Ruskin School of Art, known as the Ruskin, is an
art school
An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. Art schools can offer elementary, secondary, post-second ...
at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, England.
It is part of Oxford's
Humanities Division.
History
The Ruskin grew out the Oxford School of Art, which was founded in 1865 and later became
Oxford Brookes University. It was headed by
Alexander Macdonald and housed in the University Galleries (subsequently the
Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology).
[ Bodleian Library]
Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art
In 1869
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...
was appointed
Slade Professor of Fine Art
The Slade Professorship of Fine Art is the oldest professorship of art and art history at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and University College, London.
History
The chairs were founded concurrently in 1869 by a bequest from the art collect ...
at Oxford. Critical of the teaching methods at the Oxford School of Art, he set out to found the Ruskin School of Drawing in 1871 in the same, but restructured, premises. Macdonald was also retained as its head and became, therefore, the first ''Ruskin Master'' until his death in 1921.
It was renamed to Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art in 1945, and to Ruskin School of Art in 2014. The Ruskin remained at the Ashmolean until 1975 when it moved to 74
High Street
High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...
. An annexe at 128 Bullingdon Road was redeveloped in 2015, and the Ruskin now operates across both sites.
[https://mycouncil.oxford.gov.uk/documents/s15797/128%20Bullingdon%20Road%2013%2002107%20FUL.pdf ] The
Slade School of Fine Art
The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...
relocated to the Ruskin for the duration of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
.
Education
The School was originally founded to encourage artisanship and technical skills. It now provides undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications in the production and study of visual art. The subject is taught as a living element of contemporary culture with a broad range of historical and theoretical references.
Ruskin Masters
The school was traditionally headed by an appointed ''Ruskin Master''. From 2002-2010,
Richard Wentworth was the last to hold this position which, since then, remained vacant.
Since 2017, the current Head of School is Professor Anthony Gardner.
Previous Ruskin Masters were:
*
Stephen Farthing
Stephen Farthing (born 16 September 1950) is an English painter and writer on art history.
Education
Stephen Farthing grew up in London and earned a bachelor's degree from Saint Martin's School of Art in 1973 and a master's degree in painti ...
1990–2000
*
David Tindle
David Tindle (born 29 April 1932) is a British painter who was made a Royal Academician in 1979. He is a Fellow of St Edmund Hall where several of his paintings are in the Senior Common Room. In the Old Dining Hall hangs his portrait of the ...
1985–1987
*
Philip Morsberger
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...
1971–1984
*
Richard Naish
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...
1964–1971
*
Percy Horton
Percy Frederick Horton MA, RBA, ARCA (8 March 1897 in Brighton, England – 1970) was an English painter and art teacher, and Ruskin Master of Drawing, University of Oxford from 1949 to 1964. During the First World War he was imprisoned as ...
1949–1964
*
Albert Rutherston
Albert Daniel Rutherston (5 December 1881 – 14 July 1953) was a British artist. He painted figures and landscape, illustrated books and designed posters and stage sets.
Personal life and education
Albert Daniel Rothenstein born 5 December 18 ...
1929–1949
*
Sydney Carline 1922–1929
*
Alexander Macdonald 1871–1922
Alumni
References
Further reading
* Robert Hewison, ''John Ruskin: the Argument of the Eye'',
Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large.
The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financia ...
1976, ''Chapter Seven: Action''
online versionat
Victorian Web
The Victorian Web is a hypertext project derived from hypermedia environments, Intermedia and Storyspace, that anticipated the World Wide Web. Initially created between 1988 and 1990 with 1,500 documents, it grew to 50,000 in the 21st century. In c ...
)
External links
Ruskin School of ArtUniversity of Oxford Admissions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art
Educational institutions established in 1871
1871 establishments in England
Departments of the University of Oxford
Art schools in England
John Ruskin