Understanding Art

From Art as Opinion to Understanding and Evaluating Art

Think of the process of understanding Art as an Iceberg (the bottom should be wider than the top)

The section above the water is the aspect of Art that is basically opinion (The naïve view of art)

Level One: Pure Opinion

Creation of Art Work

Reaction to Art Work

Below that is a “zone of exchange” where we discuss our reactions to a work of Art

Level Two: Sharing Subjective Views

Zone of Exchange

Expanding our perspectives on a work of art by interacting with others.

These First Two Levels are Subjective, but the “Zone of Exchange” begins the transformation of personal knowledge into shared knowledge

Once we begin to generate KQ’s from our discussion and consider context, we gain a more “objective” view of a work of Art

Level 3: Under- standing Art

(Shared Knowledge)

Perspectives give way to more objective views of art, backed by informed opinion

We develop a critical understanding of how a work of art fits into or conforms to the general characteristics of the social and historical context in which it developed and generate guidelines for judging art

Once a critical perspective is established we are in a position to evaluate a work of art

Level 4: Evaluating Works of Art

By applying critical standards we get a deeper appreciation of works of Art

To evaluate art, we applied the standards that we developed at the previous level to gain a better understanding of work of art and the meaning that it evokes—that is, we better grasp its significance

Notice the progress from purely subjective to the shared subjective (left arrow), and from a superficial to a deeper understanding (right arrow)

Purely Subjective

“Shared” Subjective

Superficial Understanding

Deeper Understanding

As we move lower the basis of knowledge grows larger, while our grasp of the subject matter also increases in pyramidal fashion