'I had absolutely no talent': Christopher Wool on his early struggles getting into art school

""CalArts was just starting. I graduated high school in 1972 and they came over recruiting to my high school," Wool said. "I don't think anybody but me was interested, and they basically said, 'Look, we're new, so if you can get tuition together, you can come.' And I thought, 'Great, I will do that.' And then I got rejected.""

""I was rejected at every school I ever applied to, except the Studio," Wool said, referring to the New York Studio School, where he enrolled in 1973 and studied under the Abstract Expressionist artists Jack Tworkov and Harry Kramer."

""I can't say that having been at CalArts would have been better in any way," Wool says. "I got lucky, as I had been before, and fell into the New York art world.""

""had absolutely no talent""

Christopher Wool was an enthusiastic teenage art student who considered himself to lack natural talent. CalArts recruited at his high school in 1972, but his application was rejected. He experienced rejection from every school he applied to except the New York Studio School, where he enrolled in 1973. He studied under Abstract Expressionists Jack Tworkov and Harry Kramer at the New York Studio School. Missing admission to CalArts redirected his path toward the New York art world, a turn he described as lucky. He maintains ties to Marfa, Texas and New York, with ongoing exhibitions and prominent public commissions.

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