Formalism Paper

Joni Hough

September 9, 2009

ARTE 5121

Formalism in the Art Classroom

For the last several decades, formalism has played a central role in most K-12 art classrooms. According to Anderson and McRorie, “Any lesson or curriculum teachers institute comes from what they believe is important to be taught” (1997). Since the theories of Clive Bell and Roger Fry reached popularity, formalism has had “a profound influence on art instruction, in schools, as well as in college and university art departments. Indeed, many art teachers are formalist without being aware of the fact, a sure sign that formalist doctrines have been assimilated into our critical, aesthetic, and pedagogical cultures” (Feldman, 1992). Recently, formalism as the central theme in the art classroom has become controversial.

In his article, Formalism and Its Discontents, Feldman defines pedagogical formalism as, “the doctrine that the ultimate focus of aesthetic attention and critical meaning is, or ought to be, organization and presentation of the visual elements of works of art: line, shape, color, texture, mass, space, volume, and pattern” (1992). Feldman also claims that the visual elements are seductive to educators because they easily lend themselves to teaching. However, Feldman objects to a strictly formalist approach to art education. Feldman contends that “in the world’s major art traditions, motives for creating and looking at art are rarely formalist” (1992). Also, formalists tend to ignore nonart contexts, show a preference for nonobjective art, and formalism is ahistorical. Feldman further maintains that “formalist art instruction demeans working-class and/or populist values and aspirations” (1992). Feldman does not propose eliminating formalism from education, “Formalism is effective insofar as it encourages students to attend to ‘the facts’ of form, but formalism is counter-productive insofar as it persuades students that art is always and only a matter of finding the abstract geometrical order hidden in every image” (1992).

In Gude’s article, Postmodern Principles: 7 + 7?, she contends that the seven elements and seven principles of design that are the backbone of formalism are outdated and boring. She states that, “when visiting K-12 school art programs, I rarely see meaningful connections being made between these formal descriptors and understanding works of art or analyzing the quality of everyday design” (2004). Gude argues that when, “artworks are viewed and understood using the streamlined 7 + 7 Euro-American system of describing form…students often do not learn the aesthetic context of making and valuing inherent to the artists and communities who actually created the works” (2004). Gude proposes that instead of using the elements and principles of formalism, art educators should use eight postmodern principles to aid in understanding and making contemporary art: appropriation, juxtaposition, recontextualization, layering, interaction of text and image, hybridity, gazing, and representin’. Gude maintains that, “structuring art projects to introduce students to the relevant contemporary art and thus to postmodern principles…students will gain the skills to participate in and shape contemporary cultural conversations” (2004).

In contrast to Gude’s embracing of postmodernism, Lloyd clings to the formalism of modernist art. In his article, Souvenirs of Formalism: From Modernism to Postmodernism and Deconstruction, Lloyd asserts that formalism is the basis of good design and should be the foundation of any art curriculum. Lloyd states, “I strongly argue for foundation courses in the elements of art, the language of vision, and the grammar of design” (1997). To Lloyd, formalism is “the language of vision” and consists of a notion of order, clarity of form and space, and significant contrast (1997). Of postmodernist work, Lloyd declares, “Form had degenerated into grotesque assemblage. It fit the description of ‘funk’ as an art of systemized irrationality and bad taste” (1997). Lloyd further states, “I would like to admit that today’s postmodernism might be considered an intuitive rather than rational approach, but what I see is capriciousness and novelty celebrating itself as personal power masquerading as direct knowledge” (1997).

In their article, A Role for Aesthetics in Centering the K-12 Art Curriculum, Anderson and McRorie contend that there are, “two critical functions for aesthetics in art education: first, in directing student inquiry; and second …in framing curricula and programs” (1997). Anderson and McRorie then look at two approaches studying aesthetics: formalism and contextualism. They define formalism as, “emphasis upon (1) use of the elements and principles of design, (2) manipulation of materials with focus on mastery of particular media, and (3) originality, all leading to production of objects that have ‘significant form’ or that look good, look well crafted, aren’t copies of other work, that in short, look like art with a capital ‘A’” (1997). Contextualism is defined as the belief, “that the meaning and worth of art can only be determined in the context in which it’s made and used” (1997). Anderson and McRorie argue that formalism alone is not a comprehensive approach to art education. They state, “Women, African Americans, and other representatives of cultural minorities have been underrepresented in the artworld. They have felt left out of the so-called universal (formalist) agenda and have been the strongest advocates of the instrumental reconstructionists train of contextualism” (1997). Anderson and McRorie also state that, “What you won’t find in a pure contextualist curriculum, then, are technical and design solutions engaged in for their own sake. Pure aesthetic enjoyment is not a justified rationale for making art” (1997). They conclude that, “Neither a purely formalist aesthetic position, with its emphasis on elements and principles, media exploration, and originality, nor a purely contextualist one, with its emphasis on communication and socially relevant subject matter, is adequate to ground a comprehensive art program” (1997). Anderson and McRorie argue that a combination of formalism and contextualism, “allows for an almost infinite range of highly suitable art curricula that are locally specific, that includes themes that fire students’ individual imaginations as well as their collaborative social conscience, and that integrate art skills and techniques enabling them to effectively communicate their ideas in visual form” (1997).

In her article, Semiotics: Inscribing a Place between Formalism and Contextualism, Jeffers expands on Anderson and McRorie’s ideas. She states that, “Formalism/universalism is characterized by an essentialist view that sees form as paramount. Indeed, form is self-referential and universally communicates issues of pleasure and beauty to all who respond. The viewer’s (and student’s) task is to read and appropriate the meanings that reside within these aesthetic forms as to appreciate their intrinsic beauty” (2000). About contextualism, Jeffers asserts it, “sees context as paramount and holds that the meaning and worth of art can only be determined in the context in which the work was made and used. In this view, the meaning of a work of art does not reside within its form, but rather, is constructed in the context of its cultural, historical, social, or political functions. The viewer’s (and student’s) task, then, is to construct meanings about the work in these contexts-which themselves have constructed meanings” (2000). Jeffers maintains that, “semiotics not only allows for the exploration of this place (a place between formalist/universalist and contextualist theoretical position), it also calls into question the adequacy of either formalism/universalism or contextualism to explain art-making in the classroom” (2000).

In her article, Using Form+Theme+Context (FTC) for Rebalancing 21^st-Century Art Education, Sandall states, “In embracing today’s standards for teaching studio art and art history in the context of contemporary visual culture, we need to help learners more fully understand art images, objects, and events, present and past, building a sense of relevance and significance in their lives” (2009). Sandall proposes a three-pronged approach for doing this. She contends that a comprehensive art program focuses on form, theme, and context. Through, “form, or how the work ‘is,’ we scrutinize the artist’s many structural decisions embedded in the creative process that leads to a final product,” through, “theme, or what the work is about, we discern what the artist expresses through a selected overarching concept that addresses the Big or Enduring Idea (Walker, 2001; Stewart & Walker, 2005) along with relationships that reveal the artist’s expressive viewpoint connecting art to life,” and through, “context(s), or when, where, by/for whom and why the art was created (and valued), we comprehend the authentic nature of the artwork by probing the conditions for and under which the art was created and valued as well as by considering the work under conditions from our perspectives in contemporary, foreign, or older cultures” (Sandall, 2009). Sandall contends that, “rebalancing art and art education through the conceptual mapping approach to exploring art contained in the FTC Palette has the following characteristics: it is focused, dialectical, inclusive (comprehensive), connective, creative, and engaging” (2009).

Personally, I find Sandall’s method to be the most compelling. Her focus on form, theme, and context provides students with a comprehensive, balanced art program. This approach, “…combines the vital aspects of modernism, postmodernism, and visual culture while ensuring each of their important contributions and place in our contemporary understanding of art and visual culture” (Sandall, 2009). This method incorporates the best ideas from Feldman, Gude, Lloyd, and Anderson and McRorie. With this style, students not only learn strong techniques, but they also learn to appreciate the broader meaning of art, while still learning to relate to art in a personal manner.

References

Anderson, T and McRorie, S. (1997). A role for aesthetics in centering the K-12 art curriculum. Art Education. Retrieved September 4, 2009, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193692

Feldman, E. (1992). Formalism and its discontents. Studies in Art Education. Retrieved August 8, 2009, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1320360

Gude, O. (2004). Postmodern principles: 7 + 7?. Art Education. Retrieved August 31, 2009, from https://moodle.uncc.edu/mod/resource/view.php?id=43423

Jeffers, C. (2000). Semiotics: Inscribing a place between formalism and contextualism. Art Education. Retrieved September 4, 2009, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193882

Lloyd, B. (1997). Souvenirs of formalism: From modernism to postmodernism and deconstruction. Art Education. Retrieved August 8, 2009, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193693

Sandell, R. (2009). Using form+theme+context (FTC) for rebalancing 21st-century art education. Studies in Art Education. Retrieved September 6, 2009 from http://alumniconnections.com/olc/filelib/NAEA/cpages/9002/Library/UsingFTCStudies_Spring09_Sandell.pdf

Notes on Art Education in a Post-Modern Age

Art Education in a Post-Modern Age
Author(s): Michael E. Parks
Source: Art Education, Vol. 42, No. 2 (Mar., 1989), pp. 10-13
Published by: National Art Education Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193128
Accessed: 08/09/2009 14:10

Modernism Becomes the Establishment
“…formalism became the measure of quality; a work was judged not for its relevance to external concerns, but on the basis of aesthetic coherence within the work itself.”

Industrialization vs. Computerization
“…art becomes pluralistic and diverse, acknowledging the ambiguousness of the present and future, while reinterpreting contemporary life by reflecting on the look of "old" art. It rejects formalism as a standard of measure, relying instead on allegory, metaphor, narration, and the juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated images.”

Post-Modernism and Its Critics
“The most vocal critics, however, have targeted the art establishment as a primary source of concern, the proliferation of dealers who select work based on what is marketable rather than on what is good, fostering the idea that art is a commodity, and the museums with their corporately-financed extravaganzas, exhibiting work that is pleasing to the eye, but devoid of anything controversial or particularly thought-provoking.”

Implications for Art Education
Criticism
“The new work is richly endowed with appropriated styles and subject matter, visual metaphor, allegory, and narrative imagery.”

History
“Where Modem artists totally rejected the past, Post-Modem artists have seemingly embraced it.”

Aesthetics
“During the Modem era, the judgment of quality and truth rested on the formal principles of symmetry and closure.”

“Today, artists frequently ignore such concerns, and in some cases deliberately create "bad" art - works that deliberately break accepted rules of composition and taste.”

Conclusion
“The Discipline Based Art Education (DBAE) approach to teaching has parallels with current trends in art. It shifts the emphasis from art as a tool for nurturing self-expression, to art as a subject worthy of study.”

“To understand post-modem art, a viewer needs the kind of background that the DBAE approach provides.”

Notes on A Role for Aesthetics in Centering the K-12 Art Curriculum

Notes on A Role for Aesthetics in Centering the K-12 Art Curriculum


A Role for Aesthetics in Centering the K-12 Art Curriculum
Author(s): Tom Anderson and Sally McRorie
Source: Art Education, Vol. 50, No. 3, Framing the Art Curriculum (May, 1997), pp. 6-14
Published by: National Art Education Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193692
Accessed: 04/09/2009 13:23

“Two critical functions for aesthetics in art education: first, in directing student inquiry; and second, our focus here, in framing curricula and programs”

“Any lesson or curriculum teachers institute comes from what they believe is important to be taught, and the strategies they develop to teach that content.”

FORMALISM
“Formalist approaches to thinking about and making art have been the foundation for most United States college and university programs in the visual arts, including art teacher education, and most K-12 programs as well, at least since the end of World War II (Risatti, 1993). Formalist ideas include emphases upon (1) use of the elements and principles of design, (2) manipulation of materials with focus upon mastery of particular media, and ( 3) originality, all leading to production of objects that have" significant form," or that look good, look well crafted, aren't copies of other work, that in short, look like art with a capital ‘A.’”

"What is art?"
“…formalists emphasize form, how objects look, what materials are used, and what skills and techniques the artist has demonstrated”

“Form is a "universal language "according to formalists, not bound by social customs or ethnocentrism, and it is form to which we respond in a work from an entirely different culture or different time (Bell, 1914).”

"How and why do we value art?
“The best art communicates through appropriates election of elements and principles (color, balance, texture, and the like), and through the artist's technique (painterly surface, smooth patina, and so on) that it is art and not something else. The best art also shows originality.”

“…each good work of art is both a break from tradition (an avant-garde step) and a continuation of the progression of art.”

“Art is valued (and judged) for the qualities that set it apart from the rest of the world, the things that make it intrinsically important (Greenberg, 1986).”

“Formalist aestheticians often claim to have a democratic ideal of universal appreciation in mind in their emphasis on form and its related aspects, claiming these are qualities anyone can ostensibly see (Bell, 1914).”

"What is the function of art?”
“…formalists maintain that art does not have an instrumental function like arithmetic or cooking might, but exists for its own sake”

“…formalism manifested in school art curricula…leads to emphasis on the elements and principles of design”

“It also means emphasis on experimentation with media.”

“The formalist emphasis on originality results in mostly individual projects, where students work alone following the model of the solitary artist, with a well crafted, highly creative work of art as the goal in mind.”

CONTEXTUALISM
“Contextualists believe that the meaning and worth of art can only be determined in the context in which it's made and used.”

“Since art is communication that requires a shared code within a specific cultural matrix, they believe that there are no universal forms or meanings”

“The most extreme instrumentalists think this action should be reconstruction of existing social systems and that the value in art lies in its potential to change society (Lippard, 1990).”

“Nelson Goodman (1968)…argued that not only is there no predetermined meaning for visual and linguistic symbols, but that meanings for the same symbol can be different in different cultures and times because meanings are assigned.”

“George Dickie (1979/1974)…Dickie's socially centered argument held that art was not something that could be defined by looking at its formal or technical qualities, because there is no one set of qualities that can be found universally in all works of art”

“Dickie looked for a definition to the people who made, viewed, and used the work…in a specialized and hierarchical society, it is cultural institutions that speak for various specializations, Dickie claimed that it is the artworld (curators, painters, art historians, gallery owners, art teachers, and so on) that collectively defines art”

“Women, African Americans, and other representatives of cultural minorities have been under-represented in the artworld. They have felt left out of the so-called universal (formalist) agenda and have been the strongest advocates of the instrumental reconstructionists train of contextualism.”

“Many people have felt that the formalist agenda did not allow their stories to be told”

“Most people in most cultures have had very specific and clearly defined extrinsic purposes for art, from very basic function such as holding liquid, to reinforcement of collective beliefs, to propaganda.”

“A contextually oriented art curriculum, then, assumes that art has some purpose beyond being merely decorative or formally adept.”

“What you won't find in a pure contextualist curriculum, then, are technical and design solutions engaged in for their own sake. Pure aesthetic enjoyment is not a justified rationale for making art.”

“Particularly valuable are the development of analytic and interpretive skills which would help students analyze, interpret, and evaluate images.”

“In the contextualist curriculum, whether the activity is interpreting or making artworks, what is most valued is that the work tells us something of significance about the nature of human experience beyond the narrow boundaries of the artworld itself, and in many cases that it has the power to move us to some kind of action.”

“Fundamental human concerns (themes) are used as a framework to organize instruction as opposed to the common formalist practice of organizing curricula around elements and principles of design and/or media and techniques.”

“Ultimately, the final defining characteristic of the contextualist curriculum is that it in some way helps us to understand people through their art rather than art for its own sake.”

CONCLUSION
“By now it should be clear that neither a purely formalist aesthetic position, with its emphases on elements and principles, media exploration, and originality, nor a purely contextualist one, with its emphases on communication and socially relevant subject matter, is adequate to ground a comprehensive art program”

“Therefore, we advocate a pragmatic combination of contextualism and formalism to conceptually center the K-12 art curriculum.”

“Rather, their combination allows for an almost infinite range of highly suitable art curricula that are locally specific, that include themes that fire students' individual imaginations as well as their collaborative social consciences, and that integrate art skills and techniques enabling them to effectively communicate their ideas in visual form.”

“…consider what your centering concepts say to your students, parents, other teachers, principal, community members, and other stakeholders about what art is, what its functions are, and why it should be valued in the schools. In answering these questions, community concerns should be balanced by issues and skills that you, as the art expert, know your students need for a meaningful education in art.”

Notes on Semiotics: Inscribing a Place between Formalism and Contextualism

Notes on Semiotics: Inscribing a Place between Formalism and Contextualism

Drawing on Semiotics: Inscribing a Place between Formalism and Contextualism
Author(s): Carol S. Jeffers
Source: Art Education, Vol. 53, No. 6, Enlarging the Frame (Nov., 2000), pp. 40-45
Published by: National Art Education Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193882
Accessed: 04/09/2009 10:48


“The theories-formalism (universalism) and contextualism-invoke very different conceptions of art; for example, the former values art for art's sake, while the latter embraces the functional value of art”

“As Anderson and McRorie describe, a program skewed in a formalist direction emphasizes "individual creativity, skills development, and compositional excellence," while a contextualist program focuses on "collaborative experience and social issues" (p. 13).”

“More specifically, formalism/universalism is characterized by an essentialist view that sees form as paramount. Indeed, form is self-referential and universally communicates issues of pleasure and beauty to all who respond. The viewer's (and student's) task is to read and appropriate the meanings that reside within these aesthetic forms and to appreciate their intrinsic beauty.”

“Contextualism, as the name suggests, sees context as paramount and holds that the meaning and worth of art can only be determined in the context in which the work was made and used. In this view, the meaning of a work of art does not reside within its form, but rather, is constructed in the context of its cultural, historical, social, or political functions. The viewer's (and student's) task, then, is to construct meanings about the work in these contexts-which themselves have constructed meanings.”

“Anderson and McRorie (1997) go on to say that "neither a purely formalist aesthetic position, with its emphasis on elements and principles, media exploration, and originality, nor a purely contextualist one, with its emphasis on communication and socially-relevant subject matter, is adequate to ground a comprehensive art program" (p. 13). They advocate a combination of the two approaches”

“Semiotics, as a powerful and versatile tool, facilitates our explorations and the process of combining formalist and contextualist approaches.”

“Semiotics is an "approach to understanding the nature of meaning, cognition, culture, behavior, and life itself” (Smith- Shank, 1995, p. 23)”

“Semiotics also can be understood in a somewhat narrower sense as the "systematic study of signs," when signs are understood as "anything-a word, a gesture, an object, [a line]-that represents something or someone" (Danesi, 1994, p. 2). From this perspective, art forms such as drawing, painting, and sculpture are seen as signs and "texts constructed in the visual mode" (Danesi, 1994, p. 77)”


“Developing a Curriculum In-Between”
“Specifically, I introduce these students to (Barbara) Edwards's concept and practice of "analog drawing." Analog drawing involves the use of line only (and avoids the employment of graphic symbols altogether) to represent portraits, problems, or emotions such as anger, joy, love, and depression.”

“Such lines can be read as signs of these emotions.”

“I also asked my students to represent complex and otherwise abstract social issues in analog form”

“Exploring a Place Between”
“To study what actually happened, I submitted the resulting drawings to a group of graduate students who served as independent viewers and raters”

“The raters identified a number of recurring patterns in the representations of the various social issues.”

“Semiotics facilitates understandings of these drawings as signs of student experiences shaped by personal opinion and social values, by this hybridized approach to teaching, learning, and curriculum design, and by individual membership in contemporary American society.”

“Semiotics not only allows for the exploration of this place (a place between formalist/universalist and contextualist theoretical position), it also calls into question the adequacy of either formalism/universalism or contextualism to explain art-making in the classroom”

Notes on Postmodern Principles: 7 + 7?

Notes on Postmodern Principles: 7 + 7?

Postmodern Principles: 7 + 7?
By Olivia Gude
JANUARY 2004 / ART EDUCATION



“’According to a recent NAEA survey, teaching understanding of the elements and principles of design is the major curriculum goal [emphasis added] for art teachers at the beginning of the 21st century’ (SchoolArts, 2001).”


“When visiting K-12 school art programs, I rarely see meaningful connections being made between these formal descriptors and understanding works of art or analyzing the quality of everyday design”


“I wonder why what is still considered by many to be the appropriate organizing content for the foundations of 21st century art curriculum is but a shadow of what was modem, fresh, and inspirational 100 years ago.”


“These elements and principles are proffered as universal and foundational.”


“In a number of classic modernist texts about teaching art…There is no single, agreed-upon set of terms or constituent elements of the visual in these books. Instead, various structures of organization are proposed with different emphases, principles, and suggested areas for investigation.”


“Whether embodying the graceful dignity of an Arts and Crafts sensibility, idiosyncratic early modernism, or hip sixties chic, the student examples in these works differ greatly from the listless lines and uninteresting color schemes resulting from contemporary textbook art exercises. Many of these modernist texts also differ sharply from their deracinated contemporary cousins in that they contain culturally specific aesthetic references”


“The artworks are viewed and understood using the streamlined 7 + 7 Euro-American system of describing form, therefore students often do not learn the aesthetic context of making and valuing inherent to the artists and communities who actually created the works.”


“This ungrounded and highly problematic use of the art of "others" is almost inevitable in classrooms that use 7 + 7 concepts as a foundational curriculum structure because the modernist philosophy of elements and principles privileges formalist Western conceptions over other ways to value and understand art…this only succeeds in modeling for students that the art of other cultures can be ahistorically appropriated for current uses of Western, ostensibly neutral, educational and aesthetic systems.”


“Today discussions of the meaning of art, including modern and contemporary abstract art, are more likely to center on the context within which the art was made and seen and the cultural codes the artist chooses to reference and manipulate (Riemschneider & Grosenick, 1999).”


“We owe it to our field and our students to study the art of our times and to begin, as Dow did, with probing questions and, far reaching goals.”


Founding Principles of the Spiral Workshops (the University of Illinois at Chicago's Saturday art classes for teens)


“Students in a quality art education program gain the capacity to reflect on cultural issues related to self and society.”


“Spiral Workshop evolved three criteria for our curriculum:

* curriculum based on generative themes that relate to the lives of students and their communities;

* studio art projects based on diverse practices of contemporary artmaking and related traditional arts;

* art as investigation-understanding the art of others and seeing their own artmaking, not as exercises, but as research that produces new visual and conceptual insights.”


After reflecting on the work of the Spiral Workshops and Contemporary Community Curriculum Initiative (CCCI)


“A common vocabulary could be used to describe various visual and conceptual strategies in the students' artworks and in the contemporary professional artworks on which they were modeled. I also noticed that the traditional 7 + 7 elements and principles vocabulary could not adequately describe these artworks.”


“I identified 15 categories or principles that described the students' artwork…I have since edited and consolidated the list to highlight eight important postmodern artmaking practices”


“They (the postmodern artmaking practices) are hybrids of the visual and the conceptual.”


Appropriation

“The student artwork often used print materials as the stuff out of which their art was composed.”


“If one lives in a forest, wood will likely become one's medium for creative play. If one grows up in a world filled with cheap, disposable images, they easily become the stuff of one's own creative expression.”


Juxtaposition

“The term juxtaposition is useful in helping students discuss the familiar shocks of contemporary life in which images and objects from various realms and sensibilities come together as intentional clashes or random happenings.”


Recontextualization

“Often, positioning a familiar image in relationship to pictures, symbols, or texts with which it is not usually associated generates meaning in an artwork”


Layering

“As images become cheap and plentiful they are no longer treated as precious, but are often literally piled on top of each other.”


Interaction of Text & Image

“Students who make and value art in the 21st century must learn not to demand a literal match of verbal and visual signifiers, but rather to explore disjuncture between these modes as a source of meaning and pleasure.”


Hybridity

“Many contemporary artists incorporate various media into their pieces, using whatever is required to fully investigate the subject”


“The concept of hybridity also describes the cultural blending evident in many works”


Gazing

“By shifting the context within which a familiar advertising image is seen, students spontaneously question who creates and controls imagery and how this imagery affects our understandings of reality-an important activity of visual culture art education.”


“Gazing, associated with issues of knowledge and pleasure, is also a form of power and of controlling perceptions of what is ‘real’ and ‘natural.’”


Representin’

“U.S. urban street slang for proclaiming one's identity and affiliations, representin' describes the strategy of locating one's artistic voice within one's own history and culture of origin.”


“It is important that art classes provide students with opportunities for meaningful self-expression in which they become representin', self-creating beings. These opportunities should allow students to see examples of contemporary artists using artmaking to explore the potentials and problems inherent in their own cultural and political settings”


A Principled Position on the Future of Art Education

“The elements and principles of design were never the universal and timeless descriptors they were claimed to be. Indeed, they are not even sufficient to introduce students to most modem art”


“Much art education has been associated with what critic Clement Greenberg referred to as "cold modernism" (1971), focused on artists such as Manet, Seurat, Cezanne, Matisse, and Picasso. ”Hot modernism," characterized by artists such as Duchamp and the Dadaists, has not been adequately represented in K-12 art discourses despite the fact that such artists are far more likely to be cited as influential to today's art world.”


“Further curriculum research will no doubt identify other important postmodern concept and practices that ought to be considered for inclusion in contemporary art education curricula.”


“I do not hope to see a generation of art education texts that merely add a few postmodern principles such as juxtaposition and appropriation to their lists of modernist elements and principles and then proceed to use them to structure and justify a curriculum.”


“Postmodern thought embraces the heterogeneous, the local, and the specific. It affirms the choice-making capacity of individuals”


“By structuring art projects to introduce students to relevant contemporary art and thus to postmodern principles-strategies for understanding and making art today-students will gain the skills to participate in and shape contemporary cultural conversations.”

Notes on "Souvenirs of Formalism: From Modernism to Postmodernism and Deconstruction"

Notes on "Souvenirs of Formalism: From Modernism to Postmodernism and Deconstruction"

Souvenirs of Formalism: From Modernism to Postmodernism and Deconstruction
Author(s): Bob Lloyd
Source: Art Education, Vol. 50, No. 3, Framing the Art Curriculum (May, 1997), pp. 15-22 Published by: National Art Education Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193693
Accessed: 08/08/2009 15:01

Modernist perspective-"after you have learned the grammar, you will at least know what rules you are breaking if you do so."

Professor John A. Michael (1983) of Miami University describes the Bauhaus approach to art education as the Art for Art's Sake Approach, concluding that a teacher using this approach would be concerned with a knowledge of art and the quality of art produced

(the Bauhaus approach—radically simplified forms, the rationality and functionality, and the idea that mass-production was reconcilable with the individual artistic spirit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus)

Mies van der Rohe (head of the Bauhaus School from 1930 until 1933): it is better to be good rather than original if you must choose a course or curriculum


The term modernism, as I am describing it, refers primarily to areas of applied design and problem solving, and is relevant to painting and furniture design

I would like to admit that today's postmodernism might be considered an intuitive rather than a rational approach, but what I see is capriciousness and novelty celebrating itself as personal power masquerading as direct knowledge.

“The Language of Vision”

A Notion of Order
Because chaos is repugnant and disturbing, the mind strives to discover meaningful relationships and to “see” things as a whole. Each shape and space should be a logical consequence of another, and all should be related to the intent of the particular design, according to the modernist conception of good design

Clarity of Form and Space
A unity or formal continuum should be maintained, as should a spatial continuum.

Significant Contrast
An expression of significant contrast would be the idea of unity and contrast, unity and variety, or variations of a theme. A designer attempts to intensify the visual experience by using contrast in such a manner.


Postmodernism has given us permission to do "our own thing." It has suggested that there is no wrong in art

University professors complain that a student will argue that his/her judgment is as valid as the professor's and, if that is problematic, then it's the professor’s problem

And what has rebellion against the "grammar of design" produced? Student artists' unbridled desires to be novel and noteworthy lack cognizance of established principles being violated

The Bauhaus, once arbiter of 20th century aesthetic morality (form follows function) and culmination of 19th century morality (beauty is truth, truth is beauty), seemed not only forgotten, but trampled underfoot.


One of the consequences of the emphasis on attention-getting devices was that less and less care was being given to aesthetic matters. It's not just a question of rejecting the Bauhaus school but of fine tuning

I would argue that students need to be given problems which are sufficiently challenging to sustain interest, but that copying should be discouraged

Postmodernism, unfortunately, does not consider originality a priority

Modernism gave us a language of vision and a grammar of design with an essential life of its own based upon things intelligible in themselves, that is, guiding principles without which we have very little sense of direction.

Postmodernism has rejected such principles in favor of doing one's own thing, which has produced small, localized, non-theoretical "narratives."

Thus, I strongly argue for foundation courses in the elements of art, the language of vision, and the grammar of design. And, for a teacher whose role is to guide, constructive criticism will play a very important role

Notes on Formalism and Its Discontents

Formalism and Its Discontents by Edmund Burke Feldman

Formalism and Its Discontents
Author(s): Edmund Burke Feldman
Source: Studies in Art Education, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Winter, 1992), pp. 122-126
Published by: National Art Education Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1320360
Accessed: 08/08/2009 14:32

Pedagogical formalism: the doctrine that the ultimate focus of aesthetic attention and critical meaning is, or ought to be, organization and presentation of the visual elements of works of art: line, shape, color, texture, mass, space, volume, and pattern

The Seductiveness of Formalism: Visual elements are teachable
-we begin instruction with the optically irreducible constituents of visual art
-we recognize art as an independent language, an autonomous mode of communication and expression that does not rely on the prior existence of words
-instruction moves from easy to difficult, simple to complex, and surface to depth
-academic respectability through instruction in visual grammar and syntax
-formalist doctrine has relevance both to making one's own art and seeing the art of others (flexibility)
-formalist doctrine gives even unsophisticated viewers access to the art of any time or place or people on the assumption that formal elements constitute a "lowest common denominator" of art regardless of material, technique, style, symbolism, social purpose, artistic intent, and cultural or historical context

Objections to Formalism
-From art historians:
-in the world's major art traditions, motives for creating and looking at art are rarely formalist
-formalists tend to ignore nonart contexts
-the preference of formalists for abstract and nonobjective art-art
-art historians have objections to formalism on the ground that it is almost wholly ahistorical, without a feeling for the influence of institutions and traditions in the creation and understanding of art.
-From aestheticians:
-separation of form from content is virtually impossible
-formalist art is nothing but art, it ignores the who, what, and why of our seeing
-evaluation of formal relationships in art cannot be carried out except on nonformalist grounds, that is, the social, moral, and ideological grounds that formalists disdain
-Social and political
-formalist art instruction demeans working-class and/or populist values and aspirations
-formalist art instruction teaches people that their spontaneous feelings and natural interests have little or no aesthetic validity
-aesthetic education has no future if it has to be built on a radical rejection of the experience of "most men."
- "impure" art (folk art, primitive art, commercial art, industrial art, and the so-called practical arts and crafts) support aesthetic values for reasons that are not confined to their formal qualities

Formalists prosper in education because they know a piece of the truth-that there is no art without form-but that piece of the truth, wrongly employed, turns into pedagogical abuse

Formalism is effective insofar as it encourages students to attend to "the facts" of form, but formalism is counter-productive insofar as it persuades students that art is always and only a matter of finding the abstract geometrical order hidden in every image

Prophylaxis
-in art there is no form without content and no content without form
-we cannot say of an artwork that its form is good while its meaning is bad
-formal elements should not be taught as abstract generalizations
-principles of formal organization or composition (unity, balance, rhythm) should be taught in connection with real works of art
-the role of visual context in determining meaning of any instance of form is important and should be learned early
-in criticism, one should move from visual context to social, religious, or economic contexts, not the other way around
-do not attempt social, religious, or political explanation of a work of art without prior formal analysis
-remember that formal relationships have nonformal significance
-think of formalist rhetoric as "dehydrated" talk about artistic images; a teacher's task is to add water that transmutes the dry rhetoric of formal-ism into fluent talk about life
-implementation of a multicultural art curriculum necessitates formalist instruction at the outset
-formal perception should be the beginning of a process of inquiry