The Subject in Art.

No. II

Tupper's longest and most important book was a treatise on art education entitled Hiatus: The Void in Modern Education, Its Causes and Antidote, which was published under the pseudonym of "Outis," which means "no man." In this book, Tupper's chief argument for educating the eye is that such training makes an essential contribution to educating the whole person. Like Ruskin and Hunt, who advocated drawing in a realistic style as a means of encountering the truth of the visible world, Tupper emphasizes that "form, so far as it exists to us, comes in at the eye and goes out at the hand; and until it has travelled this round, however it may be talked about, read about, thought about, it is in no true sense apprehended" (42). According to Tupper,

"When this truth shall be recognized and possessed in its fulness as it was by the Greeks (whom we indeed copy, but in that literal manner which the Greeks would have despised), then, and only then, will a study of the imitation of visible nature hold its true position as singly the most powerful ally of all other studies whatever. For what art or science, with the exception of music or mathematics, and what polite or useful calling in life, is not aided by increased accuracy of eye?" (60)

Like Ruskin (whom he often seems to follow but never mentions in his published work), Tupper finds essential connections among art, education, and the conditions of life in society; so, like Ruskin, he begins by writing about art and proceeds to comment upon society.

Part I of "The Subject in Art" may be found here.