To be within The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is to be within a spiritual place, an authentic place. An institution that is lovingly held in trust. A place that believes one of society’s prime social responsibilities is towards learning and education in the deepest sense. It’s a place that contributes to thought, free thought, thought that is exploratory thought, founded by Peter Cooper, a man with a vision that still sustains and maintains the spirit of place and cares for enlightenment.
I don’t think there are many things more important than being a teacher and being a student. That, to me, is the deepest social contract, to understand the idea that individual creativity within a willing community is a profound social act. The privilege of being teachers and students within this remarkable place—to be teachers in a place of spirit, to be teachers of spirit, and to be with spirited students.
All one can do is to celebrate one’s discipline.
—
John Hejduk.
Thanks, Casey Gollan!
Paul Thek 4DD test (Cooper Union)
The artist Paul Thek—who as an upcoming retrospective at the Whitney this year—gave this ‘test’ to his freshman 4 Dimensional Design class at The Cooper Union. He taught there in the 70’s.
(transcribed from a scan my 3DD professor sent to my class.)
Name, age birthdate, place of birth, position in family,
nationality, religion, education, hobbies, career plans,
parents’ education, parents’ birthplace, parents’ religion.
Where do you live now? With whom? For how long?
What income do you have? From what source? What
property do you own?
What are your requirements in a friend? Lover? Mate?
What kind of art do you like? Painting? Sculpture?
Music?
What do you read? How often?
Do you buy books? Records?
What is your favorite color?
What are your politics?
Have you ever been seriously ill? Serious accidents?
What do you do on a date?
What is the purpose of dating?
Do you believe in premarital sex?
What happens after death?
Tell us about other members of your family.
Tell us about a close friend.
Tell us about someone who inspires you.
Tell us about the most exciting thing you ever saw, did.
How many rooms are there in your home?
How many floors? What floor do you live on?
Do you have your own room? Do you share it? With
whom?
What does your room look like?
On what do you sleep? In what? In what position?
Do you take baths or showers? Do you use perfumes or
deodorants?
What style or look do you prefer?
Are you interested in sports? Which? How often?
Do you believe in abortion? Do your parents?
What is your worst physical feature? Your best?
What is the main source of difficulty between you and
your parents? Teachers? Friends?
What annoys you the most in others?
What kind of teacher do you prefer?
If you were a teacher, what would you propose?
How would you grade your students?
What is eternity? What is love? What is art? What is a
Symbol?
What is religion? What is psychology?
Who are your role models?
Who is the person closest to you at the moment?
Who is the person physically closest to you at the
moment?
How do you know you like someone?
How do you know that someone is interested in you?
How do you know that you are happy, sad, nervous,
bored?
What does this school need? This room? You? This city?
This country?
What is an abstraction?
What is a mystery religion?
What would it be like if you behaved with absolute
power?
Redesign a rainbow.
Make a French-curve rainbow.
Design a labyrinth dedicated to Freud, using his photo
and his writings.
Illustrate the Godhead.
Add a station to the cross.
Design an abstract monument to Uncle Tom.
What is a good temple? A bad temple?
Who is your favorite character in the Bible?
Who is your favorite character in Gone with the Wind?
What is an icon?
Why does an icon have to be human?
What is sacred? Profane?
What is the most beautiful thing in the world?
Make a paperdoll of yourself.
What is theology? What is secular?
Explain the Zen doctrine in your own words. What does
it mean?
What does it mean ‘In the beginning was the Word?’
Can you find a book on making sculptures of paper?
Make a spaceship out of a cereal box.
Make a paper chain out of a book.
Redesign the human genitals so that they might be more
equitable.
Design a feminist crucifixion scene.
Design something to sell on the street corner.
Design something to sell to the government.
Design something to put on an altar.
Design something to put over a child’s bed.
Design something to put over your bed when you make
love.
Make a monkey out of clay.
Design a flying saucer as if it were The Ark.
Make a large folded-paper airplane, paint on it a slogan
which you think will revolutionize your life.
Make an icon out of popcorn.
Paint a balloon gold, paint a balloon silver.
Make a necklace out of coal.
Paint a series of playing balls like planets, be accurate.
Design a black mass out of any materials you can find.
Design a work of art that fits in a match box, a shoe box.
Design a new clock face.
What is the difference between philosophy and
theology?
Who is Hans Küng?
What is liberation theology?
What is mysticism?
Who was Meister Eckhart?
What is the purpose of art?
What does ‘spiritual’ mean to you?
What is the most difficult thing in life for you?
Can art be useful in dealing with this difficulty? In what
way?
What is ‘service’?
What is the purpose of society? Of government?
What is the surest way to happiness?
Who is Savanarola? Augustine?
What is attractive in a woman. A man?
What is the qualities of physique most attractive?
What are the personality problems of being an artist?
What is it like to be an American in the 20th century?
What is our unique role?
Who is Roosevelt?
What is action painting? Pop art? The Louvre?
What languages to you speak? Spoken at home?
What religious articles do you have in your home? Your
family home?
Make a skyscraper out of inappropriate materials.
Make a prisoner’s pillbox hat.
Make a scatological object, or use scatological words.
Illustrate your strangeness, act out your most
frightening perversity.
Design a box within a box to illustrate selfishness.
Design a throne.
Why are you here?
What is a shaman? Make a piece of curative art.
Make a piece of psychological art.
What do you think has been the greatest hurt, mental
and physical, that you have suffered?
What do you think are the qualities of a life fully lived?
Can you suggest a project, for yourself or for a group, or
for any number, which might deepen your sensitivity to
time?
What is greed?
What is verbal knowledge?
What does tactile mean?
Can you show me an example of tactile sensitivity in
your personal life?
What do you do to make yourself more attractive
sexually?
Why do you do this?
Do your really like very beautiful people?
Do they have special privileges?
What is polygamy? Explain its function in the society.
Make a design of your favorite literary person. Event.
History. Project for Ellis Island.
How much time should you work on a class project?
How much time should you think about it? Discuss it?
What do you think of money? Make a structure
explaining to me your concept of money, or out of
money.
Should art be useful? Useless?
What is pablum?
What is capitalism? Communism? Socialism?
What is leisure?
Make a structure out of photos of primitive people.
Make a structure illustrating anything from the book of
proverbs.
Can you construct a functioning lamp that illustrates the
concept of freedom? Can you construct a functioning
ash tray that illustrates the passage of time?
What is waste? Who was Malthus?
How can we humanize the city?
How can we humanize Cooper? How can we redesign
the Cooper triangle?
What should the student lounge look like? Where?
Remember, I’m going to mark you, it’s my pleasure
to reward real effort, it’s my great pleasure to punish
stupidity, laziness and insincerity.
These marks won’t make much difference in your later
life, but my reaction to you will, but the reactions of your
classmates to what you do will.
Your classmates are your world, your future will be like
this now, as you relate to your present, you will relate to
your future, recognize your weakness and do something
about it.
FIRST MAJOR US RETROSPECTIVE OF THE WORK OF PAUL THEK TO OPEN AT THE WHITNEY October 21, 2010-January 9, 2011
NEW YORK, August 2010 – An artist who defies classification, Paul Thek (1933-1988), the sculptor, painter, and creator of radical installations who was hailed for his work in the 1960s and early 70s, then nearly eclipsed within his own short lifetime, is the subject of an upcoming retrospective co-organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art and Carnegie Museum of Art. Paul Thek: Diver, A Retrospective, the first major exhibition in the United States to explore the work of the legendary American artist, debuts in the Whitney’s fourth-floor Emily Fisher Landau Galleries, from October 21, 2010 to January 9, 2011; it travels to Carnegie Museum of Art, from February 5 to May 1, 2011, and then to the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, from May 22 to September 4, 2011.
Complete Press Release: whitney.org/file_columns/0001/9641/paul_thek_release_final.pdf
