14 Visual Arts
Essential Questions for Visual Arts
- What conditions, attitudes, & behaviors support creativity & innovative thinking?
- What factors prevent or encourage people to take creative risks?
- How does collaboration expand the creative process?
- How does knowing the contexts, histories, & traditions of art forms help us create works of art & design?
- Why do artists follow or break from established traditions?
- How do artists determine what resources & criteria are needed to formulate artistic investigations?
- How do artists work?
- How do artists & designers determine whether a particular direction in their work is effective?
- How do artists & designers learn from trial & error?
- How do artists & designers care for & maintain materials, tools, & equipment?
- Why is it important for safety & health to understand the follow correct procedures in handling materials, tools, & equipment?
- What responsibilities come with the freedom to create?
- How do objects, places, & design shape lives & communities?
- How do artists & designers determine goals for designing or redesigning objects, places, or systems?
- How do artists & designers create works of art or design that effectively communicate?
- What role does persistence play in revising, refining, & developing work?
- How do artists grow & become accomplished in art forms?
- How does collaboratively reflecting on a work help us experience it more completely?
- How are artworks cared for & by whom?
- What criteria, methods, & processes are used to select work for preservation or presentation?
- Why do people value objects, artifacts, & artworks, & select them for presentation?
- What methods & processes are considered when preparing artwork for presentation or preservation?
- How does refining artwork affect its meaning to the viewer?
- What criteria are considered when selecting work for presentation, a portfolio, or a collection?
- What is an art museum?
- How does the presenting & sharing of objects, artifacts, & artworks influence & shape ideas, beliefs, & experiences?
- How do objects, artifacts, & artworks collected, preserved, or presented, cultivate appreciation & understanding?
- How do life experiences influence the way you relate to art?
- How does learning about art impact how we perceive the world?
- What can we learn from our responses to art?
- What is an image?
- Where & how do we encounter images in our world?
- How do images influence our views of the world?
- What is the value of engaging in the process of art criticism?
- How can the viewer “read” a work of art as text?
- How does knowing and using visual art vocabularies help us understand and interpret works of art?
- How does one determine criteria to evaluate a work of art?
- How and why might criteria vary?
- How is a personal preference different from an evaluation?
- How does engaging in creating art enrich people’s lives?
- How does making art attune people to their surroundings?
- How do people contribute to awareness and understanding of their lives and the lives of their communities through art-making?
- How does art help us understand the lives of people of different times, places, and cultures?
- How is art used to impact the views of a society?
- How does art preserve aspects of life?
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, textile arts also involve aspects of visual arts as well as arts of other types. Also included within the visual arts are the applied arts such as industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, interior design and decorative art.
Current usage of the term “visual arts” includes fine art as well as the applied or decorative arts and crafts, but this was not always the case. Before the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and elsewhere at the turn of the 20th century, the term ‘artist’ had for some centuries often been restricted to a person working in the fine arts (such as painting, sculpture, or printmaking) and not the decorative arts, craft, or applied Visual arts media. The distinction was emphasized by artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement, who valued vernacular art forms as much as high forms.[4] Art schools made a distinction between the fine arts and the crafts, maintaining that a craftsperson could not be considered a practitioner of the arts.
The increasing tendency to privilege painting, and to a lesser degree sculpture, above other arts has been a feature of Western art as well as East Asian art. In both regions painting has been seen as relying to the highest degree on the imagination of the artist, and the furthest removed from manual labour – in Chinese painting the most highly valued styles were those of “scholar-painting”, at least in theory practiced by gentleman amateurs. The Western hierarchy of genres reflected similar attitudes.
Study the world of visual arts in the beautiful course Lesson 24: Conv Lesson 24: Converging Histories – The Global Art World by Marie Porterfield Barry
Study the descriptions of each artist. Start on page 5. Make sure you listen to the video of each artist’s interview.
Consider these questions as you study the artists in Converging Histories – The Global Art World
- How are culture and art linked?
- What are the methods and techniques of each of the featured artists?
Titus Kaphar: Can art amend history?
Artist Titus Kaphar makes paintings and sculptures that wrestle with the struggles of the past while speaking to the diversity and advances of the present. In an unforgettable live workshop, Kaphar takes a brush full of white paint to a replica of a 17th-century Frans Hals painting, obscuring parts of the composition and bringing its hidden story into view. There’s a narrative coded in art like this, Kaphar says. What happens when we shift our focus and confront unspoken truths?
LaToya Ruby Frazier: A visual history of inequality in industrial America
For the last 12 years, LaToya Ruby Frazier has photographed friends, neighbors and family in Braddock, Pennsylvania. But though the steel town has lately been hailed as a posterchild of “rustbelt revitalization,” Frazier’s pictures tell a different story, of the real impact of inequality and environmental toxicity. In this short, powerful talk, the TED Fellow shares a deeply personal glimpse of an often-unseen world.
Sanford Biggers: An Artist’s unflinching look at racial violence
Conceptual artist and TED Fellow Sanford Biggers uses painting, sculpture, video and performance to spark challenging conversations about the history and trauma of black America. Join him as he details two compelling works and shares the motivation behind his art. “Only through more thoughtful dialogue about history and race can we evolve as individuals and society,” Biggers says.
Angelica Dass: The beauty of human skin in every color
Angélica Dass’s photography challenges how we think about skin color and ethnic identity. In this personal talk, hear about the inspiration behind her portrait project, Humanæ, and her pursuit to document humanity’s true colors rather than the untrue white, red, black and yellow associated with race.
eL Seed: A project of peace, painted across 50 buildings
eL Seed fuses Arabic calligraphy with graffiti to paint colorful, swirling messages of hope and peace on buildings from Tunisia to Paris. The artist and TED Fellow shares the story of his most ambitious project yet: a mural painted across 50 buildings in Manshiyat Naser, a district of Cairo, Egypt, that can only be fully seen from a nearby mountain.
Sethembile Msezane: Living sculptures that stand for history’s truths
In the century-old statues that occupy Cape Town, Sethembile Mzesane didn’t see anything that looked like her own reality. So she became a living sculpture herself, standing for hours on end in public spaces dressed in symbolic costumes, to reclaim the city and its public spaces for her community. In this powerful, tour-de-force talk, she shares the stories and motivation behind her mesmerizing performance art.
Dustin Yellin: A journey through the mind of an artist
Dustin Yellin makes mesmerizing artwork that tells complex, myth-inspired stories. How did he develop his style? In this disarming talk, he shares the journey of an artist — starting from age 8 — and his idiosyncratic way of thinking and seeing. Follow the path that leads him up to his latest major work (or two).
Kayla Briet: Why do I make art? To build time capsules for my heritage
Kayla Briët creates art that explores identity and self-discovery — and the fear that her culture may someday be forgotten. She shares how she found her creative voice and reclaimed the stories of her Dutch-Indonesian, Chinese and Native American heritage by infusing them into film and music time capsules.
Christoph Niemann: You are fluent in this language (and don’t even know it)
Without realizing it, we’re fluent in the language of pictures, says illustrator Christoph Niemann. In a charming talk packed with witty, whimsical drawings, Niemann takes us on a hilarious visual tour that shows how artists tap into our emotions and minds — all without words.
Wanuri Kahiu: Fun, Fierce and fantastical African art
We’re so used to narratives out of Africa being about war, poverty and devastation, says TED Fellow Wanuri Kahiu. Where’s the fun? Introducing “AfroBubbleGum” — African art that’s vibrant, lighthearted and without a political agenda. Rethink the value of all that is unserious as Kahiu explains why we need art that captures the full range of human experiences to tell the stories of Africa.
eL Seed: Street art with a message of hope and peace
What does this gorgeous street art say? It’s Arabic poetry, inspired by bold graffiti and placed where a message of hope and peace can do the most good. In this quietly passionate talk, artist and TED Fellow eL Seed describes his ambition: to create art so beautiful it needs no translation
Frida Kahlo: The woman behind the legend
Answer these questions as you listen:
Before she decided to pursue art, Frida Kahlo was planning to be:
A A writer
B A doctor
C A chemist
D A politician
Over time Frida Kahlo’s self portraits became:
A More symbolic and experimental
B More structured and traditional
Kahlo’s recurring imagery includes:
A Flowers and animals
B Death and pain
C Herself
D All of the above
Frida Kahlo has been associated with which artistic movements:
A Impressionism
B Abstract expressionism
C Surrealism
D Dadaism
Along with her husband Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo supported Mexican political and cultural nationalism.
A True
B False
What are some of the most common symbols that appear in Kahlo’s paintings?
How did Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera meet?
What is the role of disability as a theme and experience in Kahlo’s work?
Amit Sood: Every piece of art you’ve every wanted to see – up close and searchable
What does a cultural Big Bang look like? For Amit Sood, director of Google’s Cultural Institute and Art Project, it’s an online platform where anyone can explore the world’s greatest collections of art and artifacts in vivid, lifelike detail. Join Sood and Google artist in residence Cyril Diagne in a mind-bending demo of experiments from the Cultural Institute and glimpse the exciting future of accessibility to arts and culture.
Return to the Essential Questions we asked at the beginning of this unit. Can you begin to answer any of these questions now?
- What conditions, attitudes, & behaviors support creativity & innovative thinking?
- What factors prevent or encourage people to take creative risks?
- How does collaboration expand the creative process?
- How does knowing the contexts, histories, & traditions of art forms help us create works of art & design?
- Why do artists follow or break from established traditions?
- How do artists determine what resources & criteria are needed to formulate artistic investigations?
- How do artists work?
- How do artists & designers determine whether a particular direction in their work is effective?
- How do artists & designers learn from trial & error?
- How do artists & designers care for & maintain materials, tools, & equipment?
- Why is it important for safety & health to understand the follow correct procedures in handling materials, tools, & equipment?
- What responsibilities come with the freedom to create?
- How do objects, places, & design shape lives & communities?
- How do artists & designers determine goals for designing or redesigning objects, places, or systems?
- How do artists & designers create works of art or design that effectively communicate?
- What role does persistence play in revising, refining, & developing work?
- How do artists grow & become accomplished in art forms?
- How does collaboratively reflecting on a work help us experience it more completely?
- How are artworks cared for & by whom?
- What criteria, methods, & processes are used to select work for preservation or presentation?
- Why do people value objects, artifacts, & artworks, & select them for presentation?
- What methods & processes are considered when preparing artwork for presentation or preservation?
- How does refining artwork affect its meaning to the viewer?
- What criteria are considered when selecting work for presentation, a portfolio, or a collection?
- What is an art museum?
- How does the presenting & sharing of objects, artifacts, & artworks influence & shape ideas, beliefs, & experiences?
- How do objects, artifacts, & artworks collected, preserved, or presented, cultivate appreciation & understanding?
- How do life experiences influence the way you relate to art?
- How does learning about art impact how we perceive the world?
- What can we learn from our responses to art?
- What is an image?
- Where & how do we encounter images in our world?
- How do images influence our views of the world?
- What is the value of engaging in the process of art criticism?
- How can the viewer “read” a work of art as text?
- How does knowing and using visual art vocabularies help us understand and interpret works of art?
- How does one determine criteria to evaluate a work of art?
- How and why might criteria vary?
- How is a personal preference different from an evaluation?
- How does engaging in creating art enrich people’s lives?
- How does making art attune people to their surroundings?
- How do people contribute to awareness and understanding of their lives and the lives of their communities through art-making?
- How does art help us understand the lives of people of different times, places, and cultures?
- How is art used to impact the views of a society?
- How does art preserve aspects of life?
For Further Research
The following are the best resources I found so far on Visual Arts. There are a variety of resources from the Smithsonian. I’ve chosen just a few. I’ve also included links to several open resources on Art Appreciation. You might take a look at choose one or two to expand on the Visual Arts.
Smithsonian Educator Resources (so many open resources here, I’ve chosen just a few)
China’s Calligraphic Arts
https://asia.si.edu/learn/chinas-calligraphic-arts/
Discovering Babur’s Gardens
The Elizabeth Moynihan Collection in the Freer and Sackler Archives
Travel back to sixteenth-century Central Asia with architectural historian Elizabeth Moynihan. Follow in the footsteps of Babur, the first Mughal emperor, as he carves lush and fragrant gardens into the landscape of India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
https://asia.si.edu/learn/discovering-baburs-gardens/
How to Look at a Quran
https://asia.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/how-to-look-at-a-quran.pdf
How to Identify a Buddha
https://education.asianart.org/resources/how-to-identify-a-buddha/
An open resource for Art Appreciation.
https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&context=art-appreciation-oer
Another good art appreciation resource to pull from
https://www.oercommons.org/courses/art-appreciation-and-techniques-3/view
Ted Ed on Visual Art
https://ed.ted.com/search?qs=visual+art
Architecture
Explore this Chinese House: http://yinyutang.pem.org/index.html
