Academic Art and Architecture

Academic Art and Architecture, any painting, sculpture, or building created according to the tenets of an academy. Because, in the 17th and 18th centuries, European art academies were royal foundations, the art they advocated was of necessity geared to aristocratic tastes and adhered to the ideals and principles of the ruling class. Almost every artist esteemed today had some academic training. By the early 19th century, however, the artistic style taught by the academics and the work produced accordingly. In particular the Parisian École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts), which trained both artists and architects, was scorned by many 19th- and 20th-century artists, whose pioneering originality was due to their untutored pursuit of new styles of art. By 1930, the word “academic” had become a pejorative term for stilted, eclectic hack work. In the 1970s, however, as art historians revised this attitude, much academic work returned to favour.