When we learn about specific areas of art or the history of it, we should have questions, judgments, ideas of our own, and see connections. Usually when I see a new work of art, or more accurately, newly brought to my attention, I immediately start an internal criticism trying to fathom it out. This naturally leads to questions and discovering the history of the work, and then I am picking apart the aspects of it that I relate to or would like to try out myself in my works. Suddenly the ideas of DBAE don’t seem so far fetched or ingenious, it is more of a “duh” idea. This is not to say that it is not good, but rather, it makes sense. It is the concise expression of an ideal way of thinking and learning about art.
Every idea or principle presented in this chapter could be broken down into different aspects and some of those broken down even more. For example, DBAE breaks down into criticism, history, artmaking, and aesthetics. Criticism can further be pulled into description, analysis, interpretation, and judgment. Interpretation focuses on these following aspects:
- Artworks are always about something.
- Feelings are guides to interpretations.
- Interpretations are intended to persuade.
- Interpretation does not have to match the artist's intent.
- All art is in part about the world from which it emerged.
- An artwork can have more than one interpretation. Some interpretations are better than others.
- Interpretations are not right or wrong but convincing and informative.
- Good interpretations have coherence, correspondence, and inclusiveness.
- Good interpretations tell more about the artwork than they do about the interpreter.
- Artworks are meant to be interpreted metaphorically and not literally.
- Interpretations are about artworks, not artists.
Sometimes we have those lessons that leave your jaw down on the floor. They are just so well put together and inspired, that you question how can I ever top that or even make another that is on par with it. I think my favorite line in this chapter was, “Realistically, not every curriculum unit can be developed to this extent.” (pg 50) Thank you Marilyn G. Stewart and Sydney R. Walker! I feel that there are so many ideals to a unit/lesson plan and we can spend weeks trying to fit it all in and make it perfect, but not every one is going to end up as smooth or flowing as another. Sometimes time dictates what we can and can’t do, or even the politics of the school. Not every lesson can be so flawlessly presented, but I should always put forth the best I’ve got.
Some more basic notes/excerpts I liked and took from the chapter:
- Criticism-description, analysis, interpretation, and judgment; History-description, analysis, interpretation, evaluation; Artmaking-taught to further technical skill, design knowledge, and personal expression, a means for exploring the world, self, and others; and Aesthetics-philosophical questioning, philosophical dialogue, and aesthetic theory.
- Art is a purposeful human endeavor.
- Art attains value, purpose, and meaning from the personal, social, and cultural dimensions of life.
- Art raises philosophical issues and questions.
- Artworks are objects for interpretation.
- Change is fundamental to art.
- The art teacher in the twenty-first century should possess:
- a knowledge of a canon of important artworks that center art instruction. Canon refers not to a master list of works, but rather is loose and changing including masterworks as well as works of local significance, minor works, and contemporary and traditional works.
- a knowledge of the ideas in this canon of works and the ways they relate to the history of ideas.
- a knowledge of the conditions that surround the works in this canon.
- a knowledge of the ways in which art historians, sociologists of art, and art critics have interpreted the works in this canon.
- The art teacher in the twenty-first century should be able to:
- guide students of different ages and developmental levels to interpret the meanings of the works in this canon for them- selves through the act of criticism.
- guide students with reinterpreting the meanings of the works in this canon through the processes of artistic creation.
- guide students in studying the social, cultural, historical, and individual conditions that surround the creation of this canon of artworks.
- Philosophical questions often emerge from art criticism.
- Art history is about: time, chronology, classification, material objects that have been designated as artworks, aesthetics, style, intellectual ideas, interpretation, analysis, evaluation, iconography, social and cultural context, and change.
- Realistically, not every curriculum unit can be developed to this extent.
- Brice Marden has remarked, "1 think that painting, or the kind of painting I prefer to explore, is about unknowns or looking for questions more than for answers."
- Setting the conditions for artmaking is a commonplace and necessary practice for every artmaking experience, referring to decisions about media, subject matter, formal qualities, style, technique, scale, and context.
- Engage in play, but it is "purposeful play."
- Buildning a knowledge base, finding personal connections, problem finding and solving,setting conditions for artmaking, finding the visual form
- Manipulation and experimentation are purposeful activities to create new conceptual possibilities
- Philosopher and art critic Arthur Danto argues that "an object is an artwork at all only in relation to an interpretation."
- Studying philosophical questions and issues in the context of specific works is highly effective but, as earlier recognized, demands the ability to recognize such opportunities.
