Art Issues Paper

Joni Hough

February 19, 2010

ARTE 5122

Art Issue Paper

In art, traditional is non-Western and modern is Western. It is as simple as that! Or is it? Like most things, it is not that simple. Western and non-Western cultures have greatly influenced each other. Also, there are serious implications for art education when non-Western art is assumed to be traditional and Western art is assumed to be modern.

To begin this discussion, the terms “Western,” “non-Western,” “traditional,” and “modern” must be defined. Metcalfe (2010) points out that defining “Western” can be complicated, with the “exact scope of the Western World is somewhat subjective in nature, depending on whether cultural, economic or political criteria are used.” Although usually the countries of Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are included even though they are not all part of the Western Hemisphere (Metcalfe 2010). In Art History’s History, Minor (2001) states, “The term Western identifies enormous numbers of people of diverse concerns, ideologies, economic backgrounds, historical origins, classes and ethnicities” (p. 206). But Minor later points out that culturally “Western” refers to “European, Anglo, and American white men and women, educated beyond the secondary level by the study of great books, great works of art, great scientific theories, great philosophical systems, great forms of government, great religions, and great social institutions” (p. 206-207). By this definition, many people who are geographically Western are not culturally Western.

Defining “non-Western” is just as complicated. The term “non-Western” is biased by its very nature, because it refers to a large part of the world by what it is not, rather than what is. Synonyms used for non-Western, including, “preindustrial societies” (Congdon 1989, p. 180), “the Third World” (Minor 2001, p. 207), “the East” (Minor 2001, p. 207) and “traditional societies” (Strother 1995), are no less problematic. These terms are largely prejudicial and/or inaccurate in their descriptions. The regions generally associated with the non-West include Asia, Africa, India, Latin America, and the Middle East (Osborn 2009). Not only are these vastly different regions with their own cultures, but as with the countries in the West, they are not all even in the Eastern Hemisphere. These terms are insufficient, and educators need to use more precise language when referring to any part of the world.

Tradition, as defined by Delahunt (n.d.), “is the passing along of a culture from generation to generation, especially orally.” This method of socialization is not exclusive to either the West or the non-West. Some of the synonyms used to describe traditional art include primitive art, folk art, ethnic art, and indigenous art (Delahunt n.d.). These terms carry with them a connotation that traditional art is lesser than nontraditional art. According to Blocker (2001), traditional art is that which is produced by people who are not European or American. By this definition, non-Western art (and some Western art) is automatically traditional, simply by means of who made the art. This definition does not take into account the type of art, its purpose, or its context.

Gablik (1984) describes modernism as, “the term that has been used to describe the art and culture of the past hundred years” (p. 11). In Gablik’s definition there is no distinction made as to whether the art or culture of the past hundred years is Western or non-Western. This lack of distinction could be because Gablik believes that modernism is universal or it could be ethnocentrism, were Gablik is simply omitting then art and culture of the non-West. Blocker (2001) on the other hand, refers to modernism as the period, “in Europe roughly from the end of the seventeenth century through the early decades of the twentieth century” (p. 8). By this account, modernism is exclusively a Western phenomenon. According to Gablik (1984), Blocker (2001), and Minor (2001), the key idea of modernism is art for art’s sake. Blocker (2001) further states that the “ideas of ‘aesthetic enjoyment’ and ‘fine art’ and ‘artist’ were socially constructed and culturally inculcated in what we call the ‘modern’ period” (p. 8).

The idea that traditional art is non-Western and modern art is Western is not at all simple or accurate. This statement ignores the many artists in the West that do not prescribe to modernist notion of “art for art’s sake.” For example, African American artists, such as Jacob Lawrence and Faith Ringgold, whose works have highlighted social issues. Lawrence created a series of work that focused on the occupations available to African Americans in 1940’s Harlem. Ringgold’s triptych, Street Story Quilt, also set in Harlem, is a story of survival and redemption.

There are also examples of non-Western artists who have created modern art. For example, Indian artist, Natvar Bhavsar, whose formalist work deals with the color, yellow. Chilean artist, Matta’s (Roberto Matta Echaurren) Being With (Être Avec), is a massive surrealistic painting, which is a subgenre of modernism. Another non-Western modern artist is Israeli sculpture, Yaacov Agam. His 1966 piece, Relief Rhythm, is abstract geometric forms created from painted wood.

The statement, traditional art is non-Western and modern art is Western, also does not take into account the hybridization of the West and the non-West that has come from globalization. Artist Yinka Shonibare MBE, for instance, was born in England to Nigerian parents.   He grew up traveling between Lagos, Nigeria and London, England and his work deals with cultural identity (Art: 21 n.d.). African American artist, Elizabeth Catlett is another multicultural artist. Catlett began her career in the United States, but in 1946 she moved to Mexico, where she continues to live. She joined the Taller de Gráfica Popular, a printmaking workshop in Mexico City. Her work combines the printmaking she studied in Mexico with archetypal African American women, such as in her lithograph, Mother and Child (Metropolitan Museum of Art n.d.). Biracial artist, John Feodorov is of Navajo and European American decent. He grew up in the Suburbs of Los Angeles and on a Navajo reservation. Feodorov’s work comically confronts Native American stereotypes, as in his mixed-media sculpture, Animal Spirit Channeling Device for the Contemporary Shaman (Art: 21 n.d.).

Modern art can not exist without the influence of traditional arts. As modern artists try to produce something more unique and unusual, they find that, “to be modern now is to be traditional.”  Additionally, “Artists are finding that the only way to make something new is to borrow from the past.” (Gablik 1984, p. 117). This is true with many fiber artists, who utilize art techniques and media that often derives from the traditions of women’s domestic arts or folk art. For instance, Miriam Schapiro’s The Poet #2, uses fabric and quilt blocks (University Art Museum, University at Albany SUNY n.d.).

Pablo Picasso was influenced by the traditional Africa masks and Paul Gauguin drew inspiration from traditional Tahitian sculpture (Museum of Modern Art n.d.). This can be seen in Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and in Gauguin’s Te Atua (The Gods) from Noa Noa (Fragrance.)

Traditional influences can also be seen in many forms of architecture. For example, Houseplans.com (n.d.) features house plan categories for Tudor, Victorian, Colonial, and Plantation styles. Additionally, many of the United States’ federal buildings, such as the White House and the Supreme Court building, are designed after Greek and Roman architectural styles.

Vestiges of the past can be seen modern art. According to Minor (2001) “The ‘West’ as an idea results from a pattern of history that originates in Greece and Rome, moves through the Christian Middle Ages, Renaissance, Enlightenment, and into the European-Anglo culture and economy of the present day” (p. 208). For example, images of the Christian crucifixion have been portrayed throughout art history. A Byzantine book cover from Constantinople, from over a thousand years ago, has a crucifixion carved in it. There is also a 17th century brass crucifixion made by the Kongo peoples from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Romare Bearden’s Golgotha, from 1945, portrays a crucifixion using watercolor, India ink, and pencil on paper (Metropolitan Museum of Art n,d.). In 1987, Andres Serrano created controversy with his crucifixion photograph, Piss Christ (Artnet.com n.d.).

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There are serious implications for teachers who believe that Western art is modern and non-Western art is traditional. Minor (2001) states, “In the view of multiculturalism, accepting the Western or white consciousness as representing a natural or real view of the world is distorting and potentially racist” (p. 208). Chalmers (1992) goes further by pointing out that “art curricula, and much art educational thinking, are, or have been, ethnocentric,” which “is an implicit part of racism,” and occurs when “a person unreflectively takes his own culture's values as objective reality and automatically uses them as the context within which he judges less familiar objects and events...it does not occur to such a person that there is more than one point of view” (p. 134). This attitude is counterintuitive to teaching students to be the creative, critical thinkers. An ethnocentric curriculum does not address the needs of the diverse students of the United States.

To counteract the Western centric education students have received, Chalmers (1992) states that art teachers should be, “knowledgeable about and sensitive to students' differing cultural backgrounds, values, and traditions,” “demonstrate respect for cultures and backgrounds different from their own and acknowledge that all groups can produce and define cultural artifacts that are ‘excellent’ and that in all cultures ‘art’ exists for rather similar reasons,” “provide a classroom atmosphere in which students' cultures are recognized, shared, and respected,” “develop culturally appropriate curricula materials to supplement those whose treatment of different cultural groups is limited or biased,” and “give students an opportunity to explore what they do not know or understand about the arts of other cultures” (p. 142).

References

Art: 21. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/art21.
Artnet.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.artnet.com/artwork/424288434/piss-christ.html.
Blocker, G. (2001). Non-Western aesthetics as a colonial invention. Journal of Aesthetic
Education 35(4) 3-13.
Brooklyn Museum of Art. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.brooklynmuseum.org.
Chalmers, F. G. (1992). The origins of racism in the public school art curriculum. Studies in Art
Education 33(3) 134-143.
Congdon, K. G. (1989). Multi-cultural approaches to art criticism. Studies in Art Education 30(3)
176-184.
Delahunt, M. (n.d.) Artlex art dictionary. Retrieved from http://www.artlex.com/.
Gablik, S. (1984). Has modernism failed? New York, NY: Thames and Hudson Inc.
Houseplans.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.houseplans.com.
Metcalfe, L. (2010). Nationmaster.com. Retrieved from
http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Western-world.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org.
Minor, V. H. (2001). Art history’s history. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Museum of Modern Art. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.moma.org.
Osborn, T. (2009). Teacher Oz's kingdom of history. Retrieved from
http://www.teacheroz.com/Non_Western.htm.
Strother, Z. S. (1995). Invention and reinvention in the traditional arts. African Arts 2(2) 24-
33+90.
Supremecourtus.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.supremecourtus.gov.
University Art Museum, University at Albany SUNY. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.albany.edu/museum/.
Whitehouse.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov.

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 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