Posted on: Tuesday, 8 July 2008, 06:00 CDT

By Mary E. O'Leary, New Haven Register, Conn.

Jul. 8--NEW HAVEN -- Rejection is not something Annabel Osberg has encountered in her 19 years.

A prodigy who graduated summa cum laude from California State University at San Bernadino at age 18 after less than three years of study, Osberg followed up that success by gaining admission last year to Yale University's top-ranked graduate program in art.

She said she was the youngest ever accepted into the school, one of 22 studying painting and printmaking out of 600 applicants, all of whom were chosen based on personal interviews and critiques of their work by several people.

But late this spring, Osberg, who was home-schooled until she began commuting to college at age 14, said she was dismissed from Yale by officials who, she says, told her she wasn't mature enough to benefit from the program.

"My parents were very proud about my acceptance at Yale," said Osberg in a quiet manner. "Now, everything is lost."

Osberg said she wasn't told in time to allow her to apply to another program next year and now she will lose a year of study. Since graduate programs are usually two years long, she didn't feel she could salvage credits from her time at Yale.

Yale spokesman Thomas Conroy said a student's academic record is confidential and he wasn't in a position to verify Osberg's account.

Osberg's attorney, John Williams, said he tried unsuccessfully to work out something informally with the administration and plans to file a lawsuit this week. "They have treated this young woman badly," he said.

Osberg said her teachers found her conscientious and hard-working, but were critical of her technique, although she said they also noted her improvement.

A written report on grades are issued for the year at the conclusion of the spring semester, but she said she has yet to receive them. Osberg said she was told orally that she passed her fall courses, which were all pass/fail. No one at the art school could be reached for comment.

"I'm not sure what they were looking for. That's the problem ... there was no real consensus on what I was doing wrong," the young painter said.

Not discouraged by the unexpected turn of events, Osberg hopes to make a living through art -- something her parents endorse.

Sant Kalsa, chairwoman of the art program at Cal State, said Osberg successfully completed all basic courses on such things as design, color and light and was tapped two years in a row to participate in the Robert V. Fullerton Museum's exhibition of student work, in which only 20 percent to 30 percent of entries are accepted.

In 2005, she won the Cal State president's award and her piece, "Clusters," a nightscape of Southern California in which she examines sprawl, a theme she regularly returned to, is part of his collection.

"I think she is a genuinely intelligent and talented young woman who is up to the challenge," Kalsa said of Osberg. "In many ways, she is a very mature young woman in that she stays focused on her goals."

Kalsa said Cal State every year sends students to top graduate schools in art, and others have gone on to Yale besides Osberg.

Last week, Osberg had already moved out smaller examples of her work from her studio, with only the largest pieces remaining, including several in a series on the interior of the Skull and Bones secret society at Yale, part of a work she was doing on hidden spaces.

Osberg feels the university was preparing to expel her as far back as October, one month after she arrived, when a top administrator said she should go back and get a bachelor's in fine arts in addition to her bachelor of arts degree.

"The school offered nothing in the way of tuition reimbursement to make amends for their mistake," Osberg said of the $52,000 total yearly cost.

"In my previous educational experience, the teachers (at Cal State) were very helpful and I expected it to be that way at Yale. In reality, their actions indicated that they are not concerned about their students, only about their own reputation," Osberg said.

She said two top Yale administrators, meeting with her in April, "indicated that they believed that I was too young to receive an MFA. Several times, they emphasized the fact that I would only be 20 when receiving my terminal degree and challenged me to think about what I would do with a terminal degree at such a young age.

"However, they had enthusiastically accepted me knowing that I would be only 20 when receiving my degree," Osberg said.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=833042&forum_id=1#9955656)

http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24828

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=833042&forum_id=1#9958652)

By News Channel 8's Erin Cox

Posted July 09, 2008

4:30 PM

New Haven (WTNH) _ An art prodigy is crying foul after being expelled from Yale University.

News Channel 8 met Osberg on a park bench to talk to the painting prodigy about her expulsion from Yale University.

She was expelled after a year of paintings and paying full tuition. "Cost a lot of money and a lot of heartache," Osberg said. "And, a lot of hopes that have been shattered."

Osberg was home-schooled before first going to college in California at age 14. Osberg was just 18 when she was accepted into Yale's graduate art program making her 10 years younger than other students.

"They welcomed me, and told me several times, they had never accepted someone of my age," Osberg said.

Painting for the ivy league art program was an adjustment and Osberg says professors were often critical of her works, even issuing a mid-term warning.

She changed her style, trying to create works that would be acceptable. "Criticism in art school is normal if they're trying to help you improve but, in my case, they weren't trying to help," Osberg said. "They would just be telling me all the things I was doing was wrong."

In the end, Osberg believes it isn't her art, but, her age that caused the problem. "That was one of the reasons they gave me for expelling me that they felt I was too immature," Osberg said.

Despite being dismissed, Osberg plans to file suit to be re-instated and once again paint at Yale. "I hope something can be worked out so I can finish my degree at Yale," Osberg said.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=833042&forum_id=1#9958987)

http://www.ivygateblog.com/2008/07/prodigygate-part-ii-osberg-speaks-out/

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=833042&forum_id=1#9965370)

1) Probably still has a young conscience for subject matter

2) Adjusting to Elite education

Demeanor won't help. Be nice, they don't care. Be tough, they take your sense of society.

ALSO - I looked at her work. She should question her instinct to copy others works. Finding her own voice is key. Recreations aren't good. Evoking meaning through sociological subject matter (Skull and Bones) is primitive and dangerous.

Also, teachers only tell you whats wrong, they don't tell you how to fix it. She can't expect others to do or say.

Last but not least.. her race. Can she do ethnicly appropriate art? Her stuff may not reflect cultural identity and modernity.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=833042&forum_id=1#9966601)

University art is all shit anyway.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=833042&forum_id=1#9969576)

Fresh Artistic Controversy Hits Yale U.

Yale University’s School of Art is in the news again, this time for expelling a student who says she plans to sue the university for age discrimination and seek reinstatement.

The student, Annabel Osberg, was admitted to the school’s M.F.A. program in painting last year as an 18-year-old after being home-schooled through high school and enrolling as an undergraduate in California at 14. In interviews with the IvyGate blog and a local TV station in New Haven, Conn., she acknowledged that professors at Yale had criticized her work and even had given her a midterm warning. Ms. Osberg said she had then changed her style.

But recently, Yale officials told her she was too immature to continue in the program — even though, she said, they knew she was several years younger than most M.F.A. students when they admitted her.

“It cost a lot of money,” Ms. Osberg told WTNH-TV in an interview. She said Yale’s decision had caused “a lot of heartache and hopes that were shattered.”

Now she wants a court to force Yale to readmit her and is poised to file a lawsuit. Yale officials declined to comment, citing the privacy of student records.

Ms. Osberg’s drama follows another controversy surrounding an art student at Yale last spring. The university refused to display a controversial project by an undergraduate art major, Aliza Shvarts, who said she had induced her own abortions and wanted to put images of them on display as part of her senior art project. The project caused a media uproar, and Yale declined to display the work because, it said, Ms. Shvarts had refused to acknowledge that the abortions were faked. —Robin Wilson

Posted on Friday July 11, 2008

Comments

1.

Absolutely nothing about this story makes any sense whatsoever. I’m told a strange disease is festering back east called the Kafka Virus. It looks like it’s hit Yale. Run for your lives!!!!!!

— P. Cosco Jul 11, 01:02 PM #

2.

I’d be interested to know what the critiques were of her work. MFA programs are noted for art style de jour. And for using artists, as dog and pony shows. Once the infatuation wears off casting off the subject of that passing fad is very easy for them.

Perhaps in Osberg they’ve found someone who can play their own game agaisnt them…

— Atana Jul 11, 02:30 PM #

3.

Look at her artwork at http://art.yale.edu/AnnabelOsberg. I say good for Yale for standing up to their standards. Too many MFA students assume that once they are in the programs, they will get the degree, no matter how they perform. If their performance is not satisfactory happens, grad reviews result in warnings, but generally the students are eventually passed through the system. We know what a huge system it has become as the MFA programs have multiplied exponentially.

— jd Jul 11, 03:35 PM #

4.

My own MFA experience was similar – I was admitted at age 19. But I hadn’t been home schooled, which I suspect is the critical factor here. Too many liberals don’t respect home schooling, even in a subject as family-oriented as art.

— Neal Jung Jul 11, 03:49 PM #

5.

Piffle. Under what law is she threatening to sue? I’m not aware of 18-year-olds being a protected class.

— James Kline Jul 11, 03:57 PM #

6.

I looked at this woman’s paintings on the website listed in the previous post. I fail to see what is “wrong” with them compared to the other students’ work. She is the only one of the first year printmaking/painting students who actually posted paintings. Most of the students have YouTube videos or nothing on their sites. Could someone please help those of us who know nothing about what makes good the art of the 21st century? I should admit that I am a scientist, not an art critic (however my art historian husband educates me frequently on the Dutch masters and Florentine art—I get that stuff). What I don’t understand is why this person’s painting is considered sub-par for Yale. I suspect any judge in a law suit would have the same problem, unless he or she was an art critic in a former life. Forgive my ignorance. To my untrained eye, a lot of 21st century art looks like chimps made it.

— aml Jul 11, 04:00 PM #

7.

I second #6’s request for a critique. I have my tastes in art, but that is all I know.

— wm Jul 11, 04:09 PM #

8.

James (post 5): Not a protected class? Nor are people, say, with unattractive faces or features, but if they’d kicked her out for that reason, I bet she’d have a case of some kind. If the procedure of warnings and grades really was followed, then they were perfectly justified in flunking her out … but I see no reason to insult her, too, by calling her “immature.” Lots of students (and others) are immature; that has little to do with one’s academic or artistic ability.

— swish Jul 11, 04:12 PM #

9.

One of my sons, at the age of 6, lamented while looking at a painting in an art museum, “I could do that but they wouldn’t pay me for it.” I agree – so much of what passes for “art” is just a total mystery to me.

— deborah Jul 11, 04:29 PM #

10.

I agree with posters 6, 7, and 10 — I just don’t “get” a great deal of what passes for “art” these days. As someone once said, “if they have to explain it, then it’s not really art.”

— Doug Jul 11, 04:36 PM #

11.

The Yale law school faculty directory is almost as big as the LA telephone book. Why can’t an institution with Yale’s resources figure out how to handle this kind of a decision smoothly? Only the most ignorant of administrators would make such a decision and not expect such a result.

— LEF Jul 11, 04:39 PM #

12.

The work shows neither talent nor skill (two very different things, it’s important to remember). If this was the sort of work she used to gain admission, then the faculty at Yale got what they deserved!

— pablo Jul 11, 05:01 PM #

13.

Pablo, can you elaborate?

— wm Jul 11, 05:07 PM #

14.

Count me in with those who don’t understand Yale’s critique of Ms Osberg’s art. I looked at the other students’ pages on the web, too, and I’m as bewildered as is “aml” (#6). Moreover, How much advancement and maturity should one expect of a first year art student anyway? What was her art like when she first entered the school? She is at least willing to put her art out there in public, whereas here more “mature” classmates seem interested in only presenting banalities. People like pablo (#12) are free to critique Osberg’s talent and skill, but I know I’ve seen art like her’s hanging on museum walls.

— Tracy G. Jul 11, 05:09 PM #

15.

Poor use of color, and demonstrates some definite problems in anatomical drawing. The abstraction is poorly done, likely due to the aforementioned problem.

But on the whole, about average for a University art student. The best of the lot, the aerial scene.

Yale or otherwise, her work does resemble much of the work of that collegiate arts contingent.

But perhaps that just might be part of the problem. MFA’s have a end placement rate in the field of less than 15%. In part because the assessment standards are so ambiguous as are the expectations. I’m in the field and have long doubted the credibility of MFA programs here in the US because of those issues.

— Atana Jul 11, 05:50 PM #

16.

It’s very hard to see a court intervening in this one. Miss Osberg may have been hard done by (or not; on the facts given it’s impossible to tell): but the legal system properly defers very broadly indeed to universities’ authority to determine adequate student performance. A pity it has come to this, but not every injustice—if injustice was done here—has or ought to have a legal remedy.

— Gustave Jul 11, 06:02 PM #

17.

The point is not whether or not we think it’s good art, but whether the faculty, in their professional judgment, think it meets the standards they set. When you pay tuition, you are paying for the expertise of the faculty (not a certain number of hours in a room, and not a degree, but the opportunity to earn a degree conferred by the institution at the recommendation of the faculty.) Faculty judgement is the standard, whether the area is art, biochemistry, business, or creative writing. Yes, that’s a lot of power in the faculty, but that’s why it’s hard to get one of those jobs and get tenure.

That’s why prospective students, especially prospective graduate students, should evaluate a prospective institution on its faculty (not the pretty grounds, the customer service orientation or amenities, the reputation, or the ranking in USNWR.)

The faculty have a vested interest in not admitting, or later, not graduating, students who do not meet their standards, because that is one way a faculty/university is judged – by its graduates.

If my memory of HIED law holds, whether or not she makes any headway in court will depend on why she was dismissed. If it was because the faculty judged her WORK to be immature or otherwise sub par, the courts usually respect the expertise of the faculty and leave those cases alone. However, if she was dismissed for behavioral reasons (perhaps her behavior was immature and she broke some sort of policies or rules) then the courts will likely make sure that Yale followed whatever rules it has in the handbook for adjudicating student conduct. If she can somehow prove that they truly dismissed her merely for the characteristic of youth, then she might be able to make a case that they knew that when she applied and have somehow violated an agreement. I’m with #5… I don’t think 18-year-olds are a protected class in the “rights” sense, like race or gender or any characteristic on the list in Yale’s non-discrimation clause. But I’d defer to someone with more higher ed law expertise on that one.

— HIED doc Jul 11, 06:09 PM #

18.

Yale was foolish and rude to label her as “immature”. I hope she becomes a famous artist someday, so that she can rub it in their faces.

— Noreen Jul 11, 06:17 PM #

19.

Ms. Osberg’s argument that Yale knew how old she was when it admitted her is a non-sequitur. What the school overestimated was her maturity, not her age.

I’m not saying Yale is right. I’m just saying that particular argument is not relevant.

— CU Alum Jul 11, 06:33 PM #

20.

The standards of insight on this blog are pretty low. As an artist I can make certain ethical judgments about current scientific practice, but I would be ill advised to judge the science itself, perhaps just as a chemist might be cautious about offering an opinion about the findings of an astronomer. The technical calculations make most cautious about expressing much of an opinion about the outcome of a research project, and most research projects that become public are the work of credentialed, tested and degreed professionals- perhaps in every area but non-Darwinian biology and that work is almost always labeled “pseudo-” and left by the side of the road to rot in the open air. Art is a low coherency field and many with standing in the art world routinely disagree about the most basic of things; even things like the importance of creation itself.

Oddly Art is expected to be both instantaneously accessible and philosophically robust; there seems to be an understanding that everyone is equally qualified to render an opinion about the prime object in art. As if you could make a judgment about a work of Greek literature without having to bother with learning Greek, or even engaging the work of a translator or historian. The claim is made by many that the evidence of art is right there for all to see, and that observation of course it is both true and false. Young artists struggle with the first layers of meaning; more experienced artists struggle with both what to express and what to refrain from presenting. Neither task is easy if what you are working with is worth making.

I don’t much care for the academic study of chemistry, but I don’t dismiss the study or the field as being without value. I have great admiration for, and use everyday in my studio the key ideas in “The Calculus” but I have no need to practice its calculations. When you have an encounter with art that doesn’t yield insight that you find valuable, it is likely that the artist has not yet edited their expression to fit your eye; but it is also possible that your eye is not yet capable of recognizing the sophisticated level of organization that you expect and reward in your own field of inquiry. The fault might as easily lie in the eye of the beholder as in the manifestation of the artist.

MFA programs, perhaps like other forms of graduate education committed to producing terminally degreed souls, vary widely in effectiveness and coherency. Comments from one’s own experience should always be broadened into categorical truths. It clearly must be noted that MFA programs are markedly faster at producing their under-prepared work products than either our Humanities or Sciences colleagues’ training systems. If you can’t be good, at least be brief. (Irony noted).

Educating 18 year olds is not normally what MFA programs do, and it is puzzling why the most competitive visual arts MFA program in the world is taking on the challenge of teaching an individual how to both be and do. Perhaps the exoticness of an 18 year old’s insights was remarkable enough to take a chance on. Failure to complete Yale’s MFA program at 18 might not be such a bad thing, although the standard advice for responsible artists considering graduate school is that admission without promise of financial support means that you are not yet ready to go.

An MFA is neither a map to the future nor a back pack full of supplies. At best it is a walking stick. The April 2007 Art in America had a long list of leaders of MFA programs address the MFA entitled: Art Schools: A Group Crit.

— painteronair Jul 11, 07:38 PM #

21.

Painter on air, #20 above, may be an expert on art, but he or she leaves much to be desired in writing clearly, coherently, concisely, and precisely.

— Donald Ray Jenkins Jul 12, 12:16 AM #

22.

Painteronair did make some clear points, albeit in a manner specific to his or her field.

Essentially if Osberg’s work is evaluated within the context of John Dewey’s philosophical theories of ‘art as experience’…she’s already a success whether or not Yale choses to toss her out.

And anyway, the whole concept of an institutional avant garde is inconsistent. Either profs need to evaluate as the old academies did, or be very, very quiet. ( And if Osberg’s work is the product of their instruction it is quite lacking from a technical perspective.) In art its been a major problem to have standards or the expertise of profs premised on institutional avant gardism, and each year it gets harder to expect it all to be taken seriously. As far as painters mode of writing, this is an informal discourse and so it should not be the core of the issue. And as noted earlier humanities people do tend to use a different writing idiom than other fields. And it does vex considerably to have every third post on chronicle complaining about someone’s supposed inadequacies in writing. Hey we’re supposed to represent the life of the mind, not the inner workings of a word processor.

— Atana Jul 12, 12:39 AM #

23.

“Either profs need to evaluate as the old academies did, or be very, very quiet”

Please. There are plenty of ways of evaluating art that are not based on this false opposition between the “old academies” and the “institutional avant garde.”

Painter (#20) takes more time and energy to respond to the utter inanities of what I presume to be the non-humanists here than I could ever muster. I frankly don’t see what all the fuss is about. They took her based on her painting. She gets there, and proves to be too immature to hack it in the program. They cut her loose. End of story. These kids have to take classes. They have to discuss their work and the ideas behind it. They have to play well with others. Maybe she can do all that, but it seems to be Yale’s decision that she can’t and I don’t see any particular reason to secondguess that.

We have people in my MFA program that are borderline too immature to cut it, and we try to nurture them through. Often it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But studying at Yale’s MFA is a privilege, not a right. Just because they accepted her has no bearing on whether she’s living up to expectations and will successfully complete the program, age 18 or 64. Every admission is a gamble. They lost on her. She’s annoyed, and our culture insists that the individual is always right. She’s trying to get some mileage out of the “homeschooled” angle. Whoo-whoo. Not a particularly big deal either way.

— art professor Jul 12, 01:29 AM #

24.

Interesting… her art was decent, but it wasn’t great, and there was nothing particularly profound in her use of classical elements, nor her subject matter, nor even her technique. I would say make her get a BFA in painting and see if she improves… I agree with ‘art professor,’ though she may not have realized it, grad. school is a privilege, not a right. Grad. schools give people the boot all the time, and often not as politely as they did her!

— Legend Jul 12, 02:37 AM #

25.

Incidentally, to see the level of refinement AND talent some Yale MFA’s end up with, take a look at, say, Zak Smith’s art.

— Legend Jul 12, 02:42 AM #

26.

What happens at Yale stays at Yale. Not. Unfortunately.

— David A. McCullough Jul 12, 12:09 PM #

27.

The Young: Wordsworth got it right when he wrote “the child is father to the man.” Art deparments should keep this in mind.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=833042&forum_id=1#9967385)