The BEST way to look at artworks
Do you go to galleries? Or look at art? Or do you largely avoid it, thinking that you don't know enough about art and art history to 'get it'?
As an art teacher I am also a teacher of visual literacy. A big part of our curriculum is interpreting artworks through visual analysis. Art elements and principles, colour theory, symbolism, cultural context, "analytical frameworks" - can you hear the groans!? I do! Although I try, I do struggle to make this engaging and interesting. I have spent a lot of time trying to find examples of artworks that are interesting for students but also appropriate for meeting all these curricular criteria.
I recently attended a professional development that completely changed my idea of artwork analysis. It's called Visual Thinking Strategies and it's a system for interpreting art that came out of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In the 1990's, they went looking for ways to make their education systems more effective. Research showed that people were enjoying the guided tours or school programs but the content didn't stick for long afterwards. After looking at the alternatives, they couldn't find a better one so they made up their own! Abigail Housen, a trained educator and psychologist, conducted research about how viewers think while looking at artworks. She identified five levels of thinking which correlates with the amount of exposure the viewer has had to art. The wonderful thing about VTS is that it caters for every viewer, irrespective of their level of thinking. It's completely inclusive.
This is how it works.
VTS is discussion-based, so in the classroom you want a group of about 10 or more to get variety into the discussion. The discussion format means that you're catering for the auditory learners and students with low writing ability. All the discussion comes from the viewers and not from the 'expert' or teacher. All comments and viewpoints are heard while the teacher points to parts of the artwork that are being discussed. As the teacher, I also paraphrase what the students have said, which offers three things. Firstly, the student hears their teacher repeat their comment back to them, which is affirming and confidence-building. Secondly, I can offer scaffolded art language to what the student has said, enhancing their exposure to art vocabulary. And lastly, I can make connections between what different students have said, pointing out the differences or similarities in their thinking while holding all viewpoints as valid. I do all of this with limited questioning.
Let's give it a go.
Spend a minute looking closely and quietly at this picture.
Then I ask, What is going on in this picture?
As the viewer you might say "It looks like a group of men having a dinner party" (or something else you've noticed of course!)
As the teacher, I paraphrase what you said. "You say this could be a dinner party." And then I might ask, "What can you see that makes you say they are having a dinner party?"
I am looking for you to justify your comment using visual evidence, so you make another comment, "I can see teacups and fruit and a wine glass, so it looks like a dinner." I point to these things.
Then the magical question: "What more can we find?" As a teacher, I cannot express how much I love this question. Seemingly simple, it is the most powerful question I now have in my teaching arsenal. It encourages students to keep looking, there is more to look at, don't give up, keep thinking! (A VTS session goes for around 10 minutes per image) Notice that the question is not "what else can we find?" - which implies I want you to look elsewhere because you haven't got to the bit I want you to get to yet. It's simply 'more', which can generate deep discussions about the one area or person in the picture. Some discussions are highly focussed on one area and neglect to discuss what I would see as a vital part of the painting. This is ok, it obviously doesn't matter to them.
The image above is typical of an image that would usually be hard to engage my students with. It's traditional, dull and lacks relevance to their lives. But with VTS I've had some great discussion on this image. They've made parallel's to other artworks such as The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci (the man on the far right was dubbed Judas!) and a lot of discussion as to whether one of the men was a woman. So far VTS has been hugely successful at engaging my students in art.
I encourage you to try this for yourself next time you look at art. It doesn't matter what the artist's intentions were, or if you understand the context of the work, or whether it's a good composition or a bad composition. Just ask yourself "what is going on in this picture?" and see what comes up for you.
Until next time,
Erin
As an art teacher I am also a teacher of visual literacy. A big part of our curriculum is interpreting artworks through visual analysis. Art elements and principles, colour theory, symbolism, cultural context, "analytical frameworks" - can you hear the groans!? I do! Although I try, I do struggle to make this engaging and interesting. I have spent a lot of time trying to find examples of artworks that are interesting for students but also appropriate for meeting all these curricular criteria.
I recently attended a professional development that completely changed my idea of artwork analysis. It's called Visual Thinking Strategies and it's a system for interpreting art that came out of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. In the 1990's, they went looking for ways to make their education systems more effective. Research showed that people were enjoying the guided tours or school programs but the content didn't stick for long afterwards. After looking at the alternatives, they couldn't find a better one so they made up their own! Abigail Housen, a trained educator and psychologist, conducted research about how viewers think while looking at artworks. She identified five levels of thinking which correlates with the amount of exposure the viewer has had to art. The wonderful thing about VTS is that it caters for every viewer, irrespective of their level of thinking. It's completely inclusive.
This is how it works.
VTS is discussion-based, so in the classroom you want a group of about 10 or more to get variety into the discussion. The discussion format means that you're catering for the auditory learners and students with low writing ability. All the discussion comes from the viewers and not from the 'expert' or teacher. All comments and viewpoints are heard while the teacher points to parts of the artwork that are being discussed. As the teacher, I also paraphrase what the students have said, which offers three things. Firstly, the student hears their teacher repeat their comment back to them, which is affirming and confidence-building. Secondly, I can offer scaffolded art language to what the student has said, enhancing their exposure to art vocabulary. And lastly, I can make connections between what different students have said, pointing out the differences or similarities in their thinking while holding all viewpoints as valid. I do all of this with limited questioning.
Let's give it a go.
Spend a minute looking closely and quietly at this picture.
Then I ask, What is going on in this picture?
As the viewer you might say "It looks like a group of men having a dinner party" (or something else you've noticed of course!)
As the teacher, I paraphrase what you said. "You say this could be a dinner party." And then I might ask, "What can you see that makes you say they are having a dinner party?"
I am looking for you to justify your comment using visual evidence, so you make another comment, "I can see teacups and fruit and a wine glass, so it looks like a dinner." I point to these things.
Then the magical question: "What more can we find?" As a teacher, I cannot express how much I love this question. Seemingly simple, it is the most powerful question I now have in my teaching arsenal. It encourages students to keep looking, there is more to look at, don't give up, keep thinking! (A VTS session goes for around 10 minutes per image) Notice that the question is not "what else can we find?" - which implies I want you to look elsewhere because you haven't got to the bit I want you to get to yet. It's simply 'more', which can generate deep discussions about the one area or person in the picture. Some discussions are highly focussed on one area and neglect to discuss what I would see as a vital part of the painting. This is ok, it obviously doesn't matter to them.
The image above is typical of an image that would usually be hard to engage my students with. It's traditional, dull and lacks relevance to their lives. But with VTS I've had some great discussion on this image. They've made parallel's to other artworks such as The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci (the man on the far right was dubbed Judas!) and a lot of discussion as to whether one of the men was a woman. So far VTS has been hugely successful at engaging my students in art.
I encourage you to try this for yourself next time you look at art. It doesn't matter what the artist's intentions were, or if you understand the context of the work, or whether it's a good composition or a bad composition. Just ask yourself "what is going on in this picture?" and see what comes up for you.
Until next time,
Erin
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