Nessim began using computers in the 1980s. She couldn’t find
information about computers in art; and there were hardly any computers
in New York. She went to Siggraph, which few had heard of. When she
began reading computer magazines, she could only understand the ads. The
Council for the Arts at MIT was looking for artists to work with
computers, and invited her up, but she could not move to Boston.
Coincidently, TVIS (Time Video Information Service, a precursor of the
Internet) asked her to be an artist in residence in their computer
enclave on the 50th floor. They let her teach herself to use their
computers from 5 P.M. to 9 A.M., while they provided information—e-mail,
games, etc.—to 800 free set-top boxes in Florida. She went through
manuals page by page, reading something and trying it. She invited other
artists to work with her, but they were not interested in rocking their
boat. TVIS closed the service in 1983. Nessim took the story of what
she’d done to
Adweek, U&lc and Germany's
New York Times equivalent the
Frankfurter Allgemeine magazine; all wrote features [see
www.barbaranessim.com].
In
1992, Nessim was 52. She had an excellent reputation in illustration,
art, computer art and teaching when Parsons School of Design invited her
to chair the Illustration Department. She accepted confidently, the way
she does everything, although she had no full-time job experience, none
with institutional politics and had never run anything (except her
studio). Her stipulation: “Don’t hire me unless you buy computers; I
don’t want to work in a school that’s going to fail.” (Illustration
students were not allowed in the computer lab for graphic design
students.)
At a party in the second semester, Parsons’s
president asked her how things were going. “Not too well,” she answered. “We still don't have computers. You won’t have an art school if you
don’t get computers.” She showed him the
New York Times Sunday
Employment Section, with all jobs for artists and designers that
required computer skills marked in red, and in green for those that did
not. The result was a few specks of green in a sea of red. “If you have a
kid,” she continued, “would you pay $90,000 (tuition at the time) to an
art school with computers or an art school without them?” She thinks
her age helped convince him to make the decision to invest in computers
for the entire school.
When Parsons later decided to open a
digital design department, they moved her teachers into it, and the
students were furious. She believed in integrating departments and
sharing. Nessim left Parsons in 2004, “For time to do whatever I want,
whenever I want and to live one day at a time.” Currently she is
producing large-scale works of art for the interiors of buildings (one
piece is two stories high). She loves taking risks and trying new
things. Her experience provides her with the confidence to do any job
she is given. She was never one to predict, and says, “If you take care
of today, tomorrow will take care of itself.”
NANCY GROSSMANArtist
Nancy Grossman graduated in 1962 but came to the reunion to see her
friends, including Barbara and me. Grossman “studied like a dog,” to get
a New York State Regents Scholarship to come to Pratt “to make
pictures.” Pratt was highly rated and looked like a secure place to hide
out. She desperately wanted to get away from life in rural Oneonta, New
York.
Grossman had never heard of anyone being an artist. She
met her mentor and teacher Richard Lindner in her second year. He went
to her apartment because her paintings were too large for her to carry,
looked at the work and said, “Stop school right now and just paint.” That’s when she knew what she wanted to do, and has been irrepressible
since. (Anticipating her father’s negative reaction, she didn’t drop
out.)
Upon graduation, Grossman won the Ida C. Haskell Award for
Foreign Travel from Pratt, and three years later, a Guggenheim
Fellowship, “awarded to those who have already demonstrated exceptional
creative ability in the arts.”
Although unassuming, very funny
and smart, Grossman is an amazing, highly regarded artist working in
painting, assemblage (often cloth and leather) and sculpture in a
signature style. Her work is in many museums and collections. She draws
beautifully and once illustrated children’s books, but preferred
part-time jobs like painting apartments and cleaning because she was
deeply engaged in making art. For many years she lived in a storefront
on Elizabeth Street on the Lower East Side. According to art critic
Rober C. Morgan, Grossman is “obsessed enough with what she is obsessed
with,” and rarely stops working. How would a full-time artist survive
without obsession?
Grossman is keyed into her “true energy and
true sense of self, a well that interests and excites her.” Other people
may do what’s prescribed for obvious rewards, but her rewards are
internal. She says that after all these years, going into the studio is
still painful and a struggle, and strange and exciting.
Feeling
the excitement of learning more about these people I wondered, if, in 50
years, will students studying art and design now have similar passion
for their teachers and their work? Unlike today, getting a good first
job then was not a problem. Advertising agencies, graphic design firms,
publishing companies and all kinds of businesses used to hire one-to-two
new grads every year. Those were the days when a teacher could answer
your question with, “Don’t worry; you’ll learn that on the job.”
Today,
it is difficult to find a job without experience. In retrospect, is
what so many alums from 1960 accomplished without experience remarkable?
Was their motivation responsible; was it just dumb luck? Or something
else?
CANotes
1. “Ad agencies with the greatest clout (such as Della Femina, Travisano
and Partners) were the ‘Dream Teams.’ The ad agency was the message, the
medium was a mere transport mechanism and the content just a conduit
to the audience. Everyone bowed to the kings and queens of advertising.”
Video Age International, by Dom Seraphim, July 1, 2005.