John Hovannes, Visiting Artist Lecture 1960

John Hovannes gives a lecture at Skowhegan where he shares a series of slides featuring his sculptures. Hovannes works in a wide range of materials which include–but are not limited to–wood, stone, clay, and metal. Hovannes believes that anything produced with originality and quality can be art. Hovannes then tells the students to reflect on the importance of the tools they use for their sculptures, and not just the materials. Hovannes notes how there is a difference between primitive and modern artists. For Hovannes, primitive artists have something to say through their sculptures done in a simplistic manner, while modern artists have a conceptual idea they tend to express. Hovannes goes on to tell the students how artists always borrow from the past, but reminds them that they can borrow in a way where they contribute and pay forward the ideas they borrow. Going back to the materiality of sculpture, Hovannes believes that raw materials will always come from the past, because the past has an important role in one’s development as an artist; and artists must borrow from the past in order to learn from each other. Hovannes ends his lecture by telling the students to utilize tradition in modern art as found in theory and books, and apply this knowledge in their physical practice as artists.