From Pure Art to Art with a Shine of Science; Transformations in Art Educations and Art Practices in Light of Becker

In this paper I look at the transformations in art educations and art practices during the last 2-3 decades, when many art educations in the West were included in the university sector. One consequence of this, may be the appearance of Research based art. In her essay, Information overload from 2023, the art historian Claire Bishop says that the presence of Research based art is almost mandatory in any serious exhibition today: Postcards, faxes and e-mail printouts in a vitrine, rows of leaflets, graphs and charts, tables filled with documents and texts. She claims this development is inseparable from the rise of doctoral programs for artists in the West, specifically in Europe, from the 1990s. Still the relation between art and research is not clarified; whether it is within Research based Art or Art based Research. In their epilogue to the German artist Hans Haackes book; Framing and being framed from 1975; Becker and his colleague John Walton concludes that although several artists may work in similar ways as researchers, there are considerable differences between art and science. They both belong to separate spheres, that give meaning to each of them. Although Research based Art may resemble research, it often appears as selected steps in a research process, without drawing any conclusion about the problem it claims to examine. Instead, this art tends to appear as art only with a shine of science. In trying to reveal why, I have analyzed some recent curricula for higher art educations, where other disciplines seem to be prioritized on the cost of art subjects, which also may contribute to give art educations a shine of science. Finally, I also try to enlighten the divergence between Research based art, and Art based Research.