September 01, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

This passion for connection, a search for truth based on observation, a reverence for nature and a profound respect for his subject matter suffuse this new book by the author of "The Company of Wolves."

Drawing for life

by Susan Wexler

Peter Steinhart brings to life his experiences both as a scientist and an artist in his beautifully written, sensitive exploration of the art of drawing, "The Undressed Art." He explains why people draw and presents a perceptive description of the process.

On the way, we meet artists and models, visit drawing studios, review art history, consider aesthetic issues, and share his enthusiasms and personal experiences. Artists will recognize and delight in the observations of this writer/naturalist who has drawn intensively most of his life, and non-artists will gain enormous insights into the elusive nature of making art.

Because Steinhart lives and works in Palo Alto, Weekly readers will recognize many of the places and some of the individuals he writes about. Underlying his entire project is the idea that art can be a catalyst for connecting people.

Art and nature are brought together by Steinhart in a chapter that vividly emphasizes the relationship of the two disciplines. We observe Jenny Wardrip Keller as her drawings of peregrine falcons take shape. Describing her interaction with the birds as she works, she says, "I worry about how the creature I'm drawing feels." Steinhart comments, "To draw anything, you have to find a connection with it ... you have to let the object stir you to empathy or ennoblement or joy or compassion -- even to fear." He concludes, "Drawing is a way to know things."

The author sees visualization as a thinking tool and drawing as a learning process that can "reprogram the brain." He considers the research of artists and historians and explores the nature of brain function, describing numerous scientific studies on the subject. Blending this information into ideas easily grasped and enjoyable to read, he applies it to such thorny issues as realism versus abstraction, and concludes that learning to draw from the figure and nature is an important tool for all artists, whatever their style, because it gives them the freedom to express themselves in any way they choose.

Recognizing the significance of the fact that all children draw, the author includes a fascinating discussion of the development of drawing from early childhood to adulthood as it morphs from symbolic early icons, to narrative, to attempts at recording the outside world. A statement of a child in 1895 recorded by psychologist James Scully, "First I think, then I draw my think," is juxtaposed with one by 19th century critic John Ruskin, "One must draw what one sees and not what one knows." We are beginning to see a dichotomy emerge between knowing and seeing which the adult artist must keep in a delicate balance.

Characteristically, Steinhart's musings about art are always multi-layered, carrying meanings that are life-lessons. Balancing this duality of knowing and seeing, for example, is a way for people to approach each other and the world by relying on personal knowledge while, at the same time, being open to other ideas.

Steinhart's discussion of art history, similarly, is not simply a review of the evolution of style. While wandering from cave paintings to Asian art, from Egyptian portraiture to classical art, and through such topics as Cubism and the impact of the advent of photography on drawing, he leads us to an understanding of why artists draw the figure and why their art is important to us. In clear, concise language, he is able to convey how the art of a period emerges from its distinct, world view.

The reader soon sees how an era's views of human sexuality, its attitudes toward the body, and its religion, for example, subtly influence the manner in which the figure is depicted. It becomes interesting to think about how these insights relate to our own time, as we worry about such things as explicit sex in the media and the use of plastic surgery to achieve "the perfect body."

In addition to his astute treatment of such controversial issues and his discussions of the psychology of art, it is when Steinhart turns his attention to the life-drawing studios that the book reveals an immediacy and passion that makes it unique and memorable. The visits to these nearly magical places where we get to know the artists and acquire a new awareness of the role of the artist's model are described in passages full of the joy and fulfillment we recognize the author feels in the process of drawing, and we are left with an awareness of its power.

He delights in the diversity of the artists, students, lay people, retirees, immigrants and others who attend, and marvels that these "drawers," all holding decidedly differing opinions about aesthetics, never sort themselves into hierarchies of any kind. He writes warmly about the hard work of the models, including an appreciation of Florence Allen who posed for a whole generation of San Francisco artists, and he applauds her accomplishment in establishing a model's guild which continues to have a huge impact on the profession.

It is clear that Steinhart shares with his fellow artists in these groups, a "deep respect for differences," and no tolerance of dogma. He writes, "These artists have made their peace. We all agree that we look for subjects in nature and that we must learn to draw what is outside us before we can draw what is inside. That is reason enough to come to the studio."

He goes on to write, "Of course there are other reasons. We are summoned also by the purely human act: the act of seeing, the act of compassion, the thought, the patience, the exercise of self-control and the discovery of faith in oneself. All these things add to human competence and human nobility."

This rich, generous book enables the reader to see art, not as a trivial adjunct to "real life," not the province of the elite nor a commercial venture. Rather, Steinhart demonstrates that anyone who spends time drawing can find it an activity that enlightens, that permeates one's entire life, that teaches values, and through which one gains a better understanding of the world. Drawing helps us to know "what it means to be human."

Susan Wexler is the former chair of the Palo Alto Public Art Commission and is a painter.


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