존 러스킨과 20세기 디자인 교육

This article describes the theory and practice of art education by John Ruskin, an art critic and art educator who was active in England in the 19th century, and their influence on design education in the 20th century. The findings of this historical research show how Ruskin’s art education was developed in the context of romanticism, and how his composition education served as a concrete theoretical basis for design education for Arthur Wesley Dow’s design elements and principles and Denman Ross’s pure design theory in the early 20th century. Both Dow and Ross were influenced by modernist ideology. Specifically, Dow’s design elements and principles based on Ruskin’s drawing elements and design laws were developed using the idea of the abstraction and formalism, and Ross’s pure design theory was transformed by the intensive environment of formalism and scientific ideology. Such differences between Ruskin’s theory and those of Dow and Ross of 20th century American art educators characterized design education of the 20th century. This suggests how Ruskin's theory should be transformed with the backdrop of postmodern thought in the 21st century characterized by a hybridity different from that of the 20th century, when abstract, formalism, and scientific ideologies of modernism were dominant. The fact that Ruskin’s composition theory utilized in the context of 20th century modernism and can be utilized in contemporary art education in the postmodern era demonstrates the power of Ruskin’s singularity in art education.