Teaching Idols #1

Now that I am doing a Learning and Teaching course, I can’t stop myself from thinking about the teachers I have had in the past.

I remember the good ones more than the bad ones, more the ones with a hands-on approach than the detached masterful lecturers (apart from this one, that is). I was a very lucky student because my era, my financial support and my university allowed me to do a BA course in 3 different countries (Spain, Portugal and the UK).

Of all my teachers, Angel Bados sticks in my mind more than anyone else. Angel’s lessons were very charismatic. He delivered a 4 month course entitled Representation and techniques (sculpture, really) in two 6 hour block sessions per week. This concentrated type modules are very common in Spanish Fine Art education, but also very boring. Angel used to devise a ‘theoretical’ session from 8 to 10 in the morning. We used to discuss anything that came to mind, usually prompted by either a question written on the blackboard, a film, a slide (anything but sculpture) or a text. The rest of the session was a practical workshop where we would work while he walked around chatting to each of us about what we were doing.

Angel knew everyone’s name (circa 60) by the second day. He used to go against everything academic teaching in our University stood for. We never did any projects, assignments or exercises. We just did sculpture, each of us at our pace. He used to come around to tell us our work ‘didn’t work’ because it wasn’t free from ourselves. He would then throw it on the floor, break it or dismantle it. Then it ‘worked’. We were all with our mouths opened. All the time. But the most interesting think about his subversive teaching were his famous sayings. Here are some:

- Laura! You have to be more of a bitch!
- Take drugs! Shave your head! Do something! (I consequently died my black hair platinum blonde. He loved it!)
- This red… This red is like Easter in Seville!

Angel believed in the freedom and the intuition of the artist. What he promoted was the sculptor as a sculptor, not as a Fine Art student at University. His class was about transferring the skills of the artist rather than teaching pupils. However, he also believed in the master and the apprentice. He was charismatic and famous enough to do so. I can say that, with him I suffered (I often felt I wasn’t good enough) and enjoyed (when I got it right, my pieces were amazing. That’s why I am going back to them for my PhD). I can also say I learned. Or rather, what I learned stayed with me, years and years afterwards, even if I have often tried to deny and go against it.

Angel treated us all like Extended Abstract students even though the rest of the modules had rather multistructural learning outcomes. It was very puzzling to see someone break one of my sculptures in the spirit of learning. He hoped for me to see but I only saw a few years afterwards.

I am unsure if his teaching approach is a good model. I doubt it. Spanish Universities are very different from British ones: no widening participation, no final assessments, no specific learning outcomes… But I still think some of the qualities he had can be transposed to my own teaching:

- Democratic approach to all students
- Generosity with time
- Listen to what students have to say before venturing
- Hands-on showing how something is done
- Integration of high level theory with high levels practice
- Professional approach to teaching

My brother’s girlfriend is also studying sculpture with him. She came to visit me during Christmas and, of course, we spent the whole afternoon talking about Angel, the way he saw sculpture, his views on Lacan and, of course, his funny words. He is still baffling everyone.