Art AppreciationArt Criticism: How and (Why) to Critique Art

Art Criticism

Liberal Arts

In classical antiquity, the "liberal arts" denoted the education worthy of a free person (Latin: liber, "free").

The freemen, mostly concerned about their rights and obligations as citizens, received a non-specialized, non-vocational, liberal arts education that produced well-rounded citizens aware of their place in society.

Socrates and Aristotle emphasized the importance of individualism, impressing upon their students the duty of man to form his own opinions through reason rather than indoctrination.

A slave market in Ancient Greece--

Liberal Arts vs. Dogma and Authority

The American Association for the Advancement of Science describes a liberal education in this way: "Ideally, a liberal education produces persons who are open-minded and free from provincialism, dogma, preconception, and ideology; conscious of their opinions and judgments; reflective of their actions; and aware of their place in the social and natural worlds.”

Liberally educated people are skeptical of their own traditions; they are trained to think for themselves rather than defer to authority.

Criticality means becoming aware of one’s own blind-spots and cognitive biases:

What are you talking about, there’s no elephant in this room!?

We are well prepared and have foreseen all possibilities…..

Just Trust us, this is totally safe, nothing can go wrong…..

THINGS CAN, AND WILL, GO WRONG.

Well……..?

That’s why Critical Thinking matters…..in its broadest sense it can be described as purposeful reflective judgment concerning what to believe or what to do.

Fair and Unbiased ?

He seemed like a nice guy….

IF SOMETHING SEEMS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT PROBABLY IS

Who or what can I believe?

BACK TO ART

I don’t know anything about art, but I know what I like.

And I really don’t need a class to help me with this, dude…..

Taste

Taste

Taste as an aesthetic, sociological, economic and anthropological concept refers to cultural patterns of choice and preference regarding aesthetic judgments.

What determines aesthetic judgements?

What gives us certain tastes?

Is it really just a function of our “ingroup” bias?

And why should we even care about things we don’t like ?

Well, for one…..because art exists for more than one subgroup or

individual….

Art is part of our Public (shared) Experience

ART is reflective of the HUMAN EXPERIENCE…good and bad.

Edvard Munch, “The Scream”1893, National Gallery, Oslo Norway.

ART is not just for interior design and we are not just “CONSUMERS”!

We are CITIZENS!

NOT SLAVES….

Actual powerpoint slide from a Market Strategists’ Presentation

Actual powerpoint slide from a Market Strategists’ Presentation

…..and this is why Museums and Galleries are so important.

ITS GOOD TO GET OUT OF THE HOUSE and AWAY FROM THE MARKETERS!!!

AND REMEMBER

A “CONNOISSEUR” IS NOT CRITICAL

Wall Street Rich Dude

Child of Wall Street Rich Dude

A “CONNOISSEUR” EXPERIENCES AND DISCERNS BUT DOES NOT EXAMINE AND ANALYZE

• They in the business of creating notions of consumer “taste”. Their objective is to create social stratification- guideposts to determine the “tastes” of the cultivated elite versus the lumpen hordes of unsophisticated poor people.

• I’m being melodramatic, but its more or less true.

Lower-middle class, low class preference.

Easy to understand, does not tend to confuse or alienate.

Wide, broad appeal-like “pop” music. This taste demonstrates your membership in a lower social level.

Upper-middle class, upper class preference.

Challenging, sometimes confusing. Seems to reject “beauty” and traditionalism.

Smaller appeal, therefore perfect for the Elite.This taste demonstrates your sophistication and membership to a higher social level.

Lower-middle class, low class preference.

Easy to understand, does not tend to confuse or alienate.

Wide, broad appeal-like “pop” music. This taste demonstrates your membership in a lower social level.

Upper-middle class, upper class preference.

Challenging, sometimes confusing. Seems to reject “beauty” and traditionalism.

Smaller appeal, therefore perfect for the Elite.This taste demonstrates your sophistication and membership to a higher social level.

CONTEMPORARY ART CAN BE EMOTIONALLY FRUSTRATING

That’s why these guys look so disturbed.

What are our VALUES

• Personal Values• Political Values• Cultural Values• Sub-Cultural Values• Class Values• National Values• Religious Values• Spiritual Values

ART IS POWERFULThe reason art can please, is also because it can displease…..

ART IS POWERFUL…. it can alternately challenge or reinforce the value system of any given culture.

It is one of many place where a peoples discovers who they wish to be….

EGYPT Menkaure and Queen KamerernebtyOld Kingdom, Ancient Egypt4th Dynasty2548-2530 BCE

Egyptians Valued STABILITY…..

It’s civilization lasted roughly 2500-3000 years.

ART and BEAUTY

Art can be beautiful.But what is Beauty?Who gets to decide?

ART and BEAUTY

Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable!

It has MANY purposes.

Official North Korean Art

Socialist Realism……pretty as a picture???

NOT SO PRETTY

Soviet Union, Stalin's regime (1924-53): 20 million DEAD.

“As long as art is the beauty parlor of civilization, neither art nor civilization is secure.”-John Dewey

Alex Schaeferhttp://alexanderschaefer.blogspot.com/

This print was not really meant to “hang” over the couch….

ART CHANGES CULTURE

• Impressionism started as a rebellious art movement by four students, was mocked and ridiculed 20 years before being reluctantly accepted…and yet today it is considered one of the most important art movements in history.

Édouard Manet, Olympia, oil on canvas, 1863.

• Olympia stirred an enormous uproar when it was first exhibited at the 1865 Paris Salon. Conservatives condemned the work as "immoral" and "vulgar." One journalist later recalled, "If the canvas of the Olympia was not destroyed, it is only because of the precautions that were taken by the administration.”

• However, the work had proponents as well. Emile Zola quickly proclaimed it Manet's "masterpiece" and added, "When other artists correct nature by painting Venus they lie. Manet asked himself why he should lie. Why not tell the truth?"

• BAD • GOOD

“Degenerate Art”

• BAD • GOOD

The Nazi’s conflated Modernist art with mental and physical retardation.

“Quality”

• Is Relative• Is Subjective• Is hard to measure• Is related to personal taste….

• How does society seem to measure the quality of art if quality is so SUBJECTIVE?

MONEY

$$$$$$$$$

$ 728.40

$ 7,284.00

$72,840.00

$728,400.00

$7,284,000.00

Mark Rothko, "White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)" (1950)

$72.84 MILLION

ONE MORE TIME

That’s why Critical Thinking matters…..in its broadest sense it can be described as purposeful reflective judgment concerning what to believe or what to do.

3 Types of Art Criticism

• Formal Theories• Socio-cultural Theories• Expressive Theories

Formal Theories

• Form over Content.• Style and Innovation are valued.

Titian. Pietà, 1576.Oil on Canvas. 149”x136”.

Raphael. The Holy Family, 1518.

Titian. Pietà, 1576.Oil on Canvas. 149”x136”.

Socio-cultural Theories

• Political, Cultural, Social Values• Historical Context is emphasized.• Art embodies or resists dominant cultural

attitudes and themes.

Titian. Pietà, 1576.Oil on Canvas. 149”x136”.

The Church of the Frari, Venice.

Tintoretto. St Roch in the Hospital. 1549, Oil on canvas.

The plague was a constant danger in the harbour city of Venice, and the state sought to counter it by taking careful precautionary measures, for instance the building of the Lazzaretto Nuovo as a quarantine hospital around 1470. Tintoretto's painting could equally well show the plague hospital of the Lazzaretto Vecchio, also built on an island in the lagoon as early as 1423. The young women shown here entering from the sides of the picture to wash the sick, bind up their sores, and feed them, are probably unemployed prostitutes, who were pressed into service in the Lazzaretto Vecchio in times of plague.

Titian. Pietà, 1576.Oil on Canvas. 149”x136”.

Expressive Theories

• Artist’s Biography is Primary.• Psychology and Intent are emphasized.• Humanistic and Individualistic.

Titian. Pietà, 1576.Oil on Canvas. 149”x136”.

Titian. Self-Portrait, 1562.

The Feldman Method

• Description• Analysis• Interpretation• Evaluation

Description

Description

Visual Elements:• Line, Implied Line• Shape• Mass/Volume• Illusion of Space• Time/Motion• Color Scheme• Texture

Description

Question to ask:

• What is the subject of the work?

• What media is the work executed in?

• What is the size/scale ?

Analysis

Analysis

Design Principles:• Unity and Variety• Balance• Emphasis/

Subordination• Directional Forces• Contrast• Repetition and

Rhythm• Scale and Proportion

Analysis

Some questions to consider:

• How do the visual elements contribute to a mood?

• What is the internal relationship between the objects or subjects depicted?

• How does the form communicate the content?

Interpretation

Interpretation

• Formal• Sociocultural• Expressive

Interpretation

Some questions to consider:

• How does the work relate to the world it was made (historical context)?

• How does the work relate to today’s world?

• What does the piece remind you of, how does it make you feel?

• What is the MEANING of the piece?

ARTIST STATEMENT:Karla Walter

• As an artist, it is important to recognize a message and seize that moment. Crows are messengers, omens for change. Several personal encounters with crows have compelled me to express my personal creativity through this messenger. This body of work explores the similarities between the social interactions among crows and that of humans. To know the crow is to know ourselves. This is the journey I have taken with this body of work.

• The common crow maintains a unique place in our ecosystem thanks

to their intelligence and strong family values. They are social, opportunistic, vocal, visual, shrewd, and reliant on memory and individual recognition. Crows are tricksters and the wise guys of the bird world. We all know someone who has these traits. I believe that this is why we relate to them and maybe see ourselves in

Evaluation

EvaluationSome questions to consider:

• Why does this work have (or not have) “value”?

• What is it that makes the work worth considering among others? What is valuable to you in a work of art?

• Are there things that others may value that you do not?

• Does the piece communicate an idea or feeling well, or do you remain unmoved?

• If it fails or succeeds in your estimation, can you point to specific remarks you noticed earlier in our criticism to emphasize your evaluation?

The Feldman Method

The Feldman Method

• Description

The Feldman Method

• Description• Analysis

The Feldman Method

• Description• Analysis• Interpretation

The Feldman Method

• Description• Analysis• Interpretation• Evaluation