An exhibit on the Famous Artists School, the popular art correspondence course of the 1950s, is now on display at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
“How often do you thumb through your favorite magazine and think ‘I wish I could paint like that?’" says the advertisement.
Well, illustrators Elwood Smith, of Great Barrington, and Howard Cruse, of North Adams, did, and they decided in the 1950’s to take the advertisement up on its offer: to join The Famous Artists School.
Smith says it was a popular art correspondence course, which counted Norman Rockwell as one of its guiding faculty.
“I grew up with the Saturday Evening Post and Norman Rockwell in the 40s,” Smith says. “I mean I was a huge fan – 40s and 50s.”
And Smith wanted to be an artist, too.
“They put down in words and pictures everything they know about art in an unusual collection of trade secrets which covers and makes crystal clear every aspect of drawing and painting,” says the advertisement.
The Norman Rockwell Museum’s newest exhibit: “Learning From The Masters: The Famous Artists School”, is made up of more than 11,000 rotating objects such as photographs, notes and even scribbles.
Many of the objects are from Cortina Learning International’s Magdalen Livesey. She’s one of the authors of “Drawing Lessons From The Famous Artists School.” It discusses the impact of the school’s programming, which she and her husband bought in 1981.
“The Famous Artists School was very… a household word in the early 1940s and 50s, and early 60s, for sure,” Livesey says.
“From these large, modern quarters in Westport, Connecticut, the instructors – practicing professional artists – correspond directly with their students. And members of the founding faculty, like Al Parker here, work with the instruction staff,” says the advertisement.
Cartoonist Randy Enos was an instructor there, too.
“They were the most dedicated guys you have ever saw in your life, and there was great comradery,” Enos says.
Enos taught there around the same time Smith and Cruse were in the program.
“’57, ’58: sometime around there,” Smith says.
“I was there. There were only 6 of us.” Enos says.
The school sought the best of the best.
“To discover men and women with talent worth developing, the Famous Artists have created this special 12-page art talent test,” the advertisement says. “People who reveal talent through this test are eligible for professional training by the school right in their own homes,” says the advertisement.
“Elwood, I must have done some of your lessons,” Enos says. “What years…”
“That’s that what we’re going to talk about…,” Smith says.
“Do you remember any of the lessons I did of yours?” Enos says.
“No, no and I don’t even remember that you were my instructor,” Smith says. “I don’t even remember that they gave names of instructors, did you give names?”
“Of course they did,” Enos says.
Enos says every student received several welcome packages with stacks of books containing tips and tricks to perfect the art.
“Yea I did,” Cruse says. “I know him from his name.”
After all of these years and of their own successes, they’ve never really met before.
“Why would we have met?” Enos says. “It was a correspondence arts course.”
The school has taught 60,000 people. The school stopped accepting new students a year and a half ago. It still has some programs available online.
Cruse is known for his underground comics related to the gay community, through comic strips like “Wendell," which appeared in the Advocate; and the award-winning graphic novel “Stuck Rubber Baby”, which looked at life in the South during the Civil Rights era.
“Someone said ‘Oh that’s Randel,’” Cruses says. “And I said ‘He was one of my teachers!”
Smith is a writer and illustrator of children’s books, such as “I’m Not a Pig in Underpants” and “How To Draw With Your Funny Bone”.
“It’s great, I met Randy Enos,” Smith says.
The exhibit is open until November 19th.
