Visual Arts: Art Appreciation

Does art lend me wings to fly?

In and out, in a world of plight

Does art make my heart light?

Does it take me on a flight?

For a feast of senses that sets my imagination alight;

To  a world that swirls with colours,rainbows  and flowers bright.

Today’s class was on learning how to appreciate an artwork through  the four steps of Feldman’s Inquiry method, describing , analysing, interpreting and evaluating. We used it to study an artwork “Self portrait as a dreaming man by Douglas Prince”.

Self portrait as a dreaming man by Douglas Prince,1979

Describing-First we had to look at the photograph and list all the things we could explicitly see in the work. This tends to engage the observer’s attention to really look at all the elements of the image. We looked at the picture and listed the things we could see like a partially submerged naked man, rocks, water, house etc.

 

Questions that can be considered (Mulder-Slater,2011):

• Describe what you see.
• Describe the artist's use of colour. How many colours have been used?
• How has the artist applied the paint?
• Describe the texture.
• Describe the lines in the work

 

Analysing- Then each table group was given the task of describing each of these components. Our group had to describe the expression on the face of the man and we came up with words like” a pale young man with a tranquil expression “. This process involved collecting evidence to make a judgement on what we saw.

 

Questions that can be considered (Mulder-Slater,2011):

• Is your eye drawn to any particular area of the painting?
• Is there an element that stands out in the composition?
• Is the composition balanced?
• Does the work make you think of movement? How does the artist show movement?
• Does the painting look flat or does it give a feeling of depth or space?
• Where might the artist have stood while painting this picture?

Interpreting- This involved asking questions like “why is the man submerged in the water?”, “How did he get there?”, “Did he achieve this end on his own?” or “Was someone else responsible for his state”?  and putting together a story about the picture or discovering the meaning behind the work. We came up with scenarios like he was indulging in a religious baptism, doing water meditation, bomb victim etc. Questions that can be considered (Mulder-Slater,2011):

• What kind of mood or feeling do you get from the painting?
• If you could imagine yourself within the painting, how would you feel?
• What sounds would you hear?
• Why do you think the artist choose this particular subject to paint?

• What part of the landscape, building, person, animal etc. most interested the artist? Why do you think so?

Evaluating – In this last and final step we had to make a qualitative judgement. This involved each person asking questions, did I like it? What did I like about it? Is it giving a valuable message?

 

After this exercise, we looked at the above picture and compared it to the first one, based on various elements such as background, clothing, play on light, setting and so on to find contrasts and similarities.

Claes Oldenburg. Pastry Case, I. 1961¬62.
Enamel paint on nine plaster sculptures in glass showcase.
20 3/4 x 30 1/8 x 14 3/4". The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection. ©Claes Oldenburg
 

Next we had to analyse an artwork by Claes Oldenburg “ The Pastry case” (given above) using the following Art map compass (courtesy of the Ministry of Education, Victoria).

Feldman's Art Map Compass for artistic criticism

We had to write something about the art work answering the questions in the compass and arranging our answers based on the alphabet A..Z. Eg. A-assemblage, B-banana split, C-Claes Oldenburg, D-desert, E- everyday  objects, F- fake food etc.

 

This art appreciation workshop has given me a new perspective of looking at artworks and given me confidence to introduce the same in a classroom.

 

References

Art Map Compass. Art Map: Ministry of Education (Schools Division) Victoria

Mulder-Slater, A.(2011) How to look at art. Retrieved from http://www.kinderart.com/artspeak/artart3.shtml