Learning to Look/Looking to Learn: A Proposed Approach to Art Appreciation at the Secondary School Level

National Art Education Association

Learning to Look/Looking to Learn: A Proposed Approach to Art Appreciation at theSecondary School LevelAuthor(s): Gene A. MittlerSource: Art Education, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Mar., 1980), pp. 17-21Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3192459 .

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L e a n i g t Lo k /o o i n T o L e a r n : A P r o p o s e d A pr oc

T o A t Ap r e i a t i n a t h

Secondary School Level Gene A. Mittler

Today few high school art teachers seriously question the

importance of some kind of art appreciation experience for their students. Indeed, most teachers readily accept two equally important goals for art instruction: encouraging students to engage in the production of art work, and guiding them to respond to the art works produced by others.' The current, wide-spread acceptance of the second, response goal can be traced in part to increasing doubts about the value of art programs based solely on the production goal.

Not long ago it was common for teachers to claim they were actually attending to both the production and the response goal when they im- plemented studio art programs. It was fashionable to claim that students learn to appreciate works of art as a consequence of producing their own art forms. Ultimately, this view was challenged in the literature. Chapman2 pointed to a substantial amount of evidence to show that typical studio- oriented programs of instruction provide meager factual information about the subject of art and have little influ- ence on student attitudes toward it. More recently, Eisner concluded that "the ability to see the world aestheti- cally does not automatically flow from the ability to create artistic visual forms."3

It is probable that Eisner's conclusion rests on the results of tests he administered to hundreds of high school and college students across the country several years before.4 These tests provided evidence that student attitudes toward art exhibit little appreciation of the role of the arts in society or an understanding of the ways critical judgments about art were made. Further, students did least well in those portions of the test dealing

"Few Observers Would Deny That Art Teachers Genuinely Want To Involve Greater Numbers of Their Students in the Appreciative Aspects of Art. It is a Tragedy That Many Simply Do Not Know How to Go About It."

with information about artists and art history. Eisner's findings have con- tributed significantly to the doubts teachers now express with regard to the value of traditional studio programs. Many openly challenge the long-standing assumption that understanding is a natural outcome of an art program which places major emphasis upon developing the creative capabilities of students.

Eisner5 followed up his important work in assessing student attitudes and knowledge in art by asserting that the art curriculum be built along three major lines of focus: the productive, the critical, and the historical. Unfor- tunately, teachers and curriculum planners seeking to comply with recommendations to expand course content in art have not been conspicuous for their success. According to Munro,6 a significant number of so- called appreciation programs fail to progress beyond the level of shallow, chronological surveys of art history. Few observers would deny that art teachers genuinely want to involve greater numbers of their students in the appreciative aspects of art. It is a tragedy that many simply do not know how to go about it. Moreover, their efforts to find help are generally futile.

Chapman7 states that among the barriers to the successful realization of appreciation goals are inadequate teacher preparation and the lack of curriculum guides and teaching materials to assist teachers. Surprisingly, despite years of published research and recommendations by art education leaders and evidence of increasing numbers of art teachers pressing for change, the approach to art teacher preparation continues to con- centrate on developing knowledge and skills in studio performance. This rigid studio emphasis is relaxed only slightly to allow a limited exposure to art history. Taylor pointed out that this deficiency in their training is the reason why "the teacher of art . . . is as likely to be as baffled as the aver- age layman by current tendencies in art. He is not, moreover, embarrassed to admit that he knows little of art outside the work of his students and their age group."8

The lack of curriculum guides and teaching materials in art is well known. Fifteen years ago Conant9 observed that only 25 percent of the high schools in the country could claim to have a curriculum guide in art, and most of these were outdated. Added to this is the fact that few provide adequate guidance in planning and presenting art appreciation experiences to students. There is little evidence to support the notion that this situation has improved in recent years.

The problem resulting from inadequate teacher preparation and the scarcity of curriculum materials are compounded by the lack of art appreciation advice offered by the textbooks art teachers most often turn to for assistance. A recent analysis of ten influential textbooks prepared ex- pressly for secondary art teachers re-

Art Education March 1980 17



vealed that each stressed the importance of art appreciation, but then concentrated attention on practical teaching suggestions for studio ac- tivities. 10

Faced with little assistance from curriculum guides and art education textbooks, it is not surprising that many art teachers have turned to their limited experience in college art history classes for help in planning art appreciation experiences. However, they have discovered that an approach modelled largely after their own college art history classes often fails to generate student interest and involvement. High school students exhibit little enthusiasm for art programs that place emphasis on the development of recognition skills and the accumulation of facts about art. And, because they usually lack an art history background, they tend to remain passive, a condition that terminates in boredom. These students often resent the fact that the program rarely provides them with opportunities to express their own ideas, interpretations, and judgments about art. Instead, they are exposed to a range of art works accompanied by teacher comments about the identity of the artists, countries of origin, historical periods, artistic styles, and the more obvious features of the subject matter. Sometimes, in an attempt to stimulate what is preceived correctly as dwindling student interest, teachers refer to the more dramatic aspects of an artist's life. Evidence of such practice can be found in the large numbers of students whose only recollections of Van Gogh are restricted to his in- sanity and suicide. This practice of "spicing up" a shallow narrative constitutes a disservice to the student and to the discipline of art history. It is especially disheartening when one ponders the wealth of information about art and artists that history has to offer students.

Programs that eschew an art history approach in favor of examining art works from an "art criticism" point of view frequently appear to be more stimulating to students, but are subject to suspicion by some educators. This suspicion is based upon the con- tention that while students are indeed given more opportunities to express personal preferences for art, they rarely are asked to express judgments and to present reasons in support of those judgments. An appreciation for

art, the unmistakable goal for any high school appreciation program, requires that students learn not only how to make intelligent decisions about art but also how to support those decisions with valid reasons. Without learning of this kind, students accom- plish little more than expressing their likes and dislikes about art. Further- more, the likes and dislikes students express when they complete the program are remarkably similar to those they had when they began. Expres- sing and comparing preferences for art may provide an enjoyable pasttime, but it is not criticism, and it is improb- able that students will in this way gain the knowledge from and about art that is essential for understanding.

Teaching students to experience, understand, and appreciate art requires a great deal more than exposing them to historical facts and providing them with class time in which to express likes and dislikes. If the appreciation program is to have meaning for students, it must involve them im- mediately as active participants with ample opportunity to think and to ask their own questions about art. The value of a work of art is not learned by having someone else describe, analyze, and judge it-it can only be learned by students describing, analyzing, and judging it for themselves. An authentic art criticism approach which requires students tojudge and defendjudgments about art can suc- ceed in enlisting and maintaining this vital student involvement. Further, this involvement may well lead students to a point where they are eager to turn to art history to gain additional knowledge about art.

During art criticism, students tem- porarily disregard historical data in order to focus complete attention on works of art. Following exhaustive critical examinations, individual judgments are made and defended. Each judgment is important here because it constitutes a commitment to a work of art, and this commitment acts as an incentive for students to turn to sources outside the work of art for additional information. Thus students come to recognize the value of historical information and willingly conduct the search for this information. In this way art criticism not only enables students to gain information from works of art, but it also acts as a readiness for ensuing art history examinations which aid them in acquiring informa-

tion about works of art. The art criticism/art history ap-

proach to appreciation can be regarded as a method of teaching students how to teach themselves through and about art. This does not minimize the importance of the art teachers, however. Teachers must demonstrate the approach at the out- set and act as models for students' be- havior in a sequence of critical and historical operations. Limited back- grounds in criticism or history, if they do exist, should be no more of a hand- icap to teachers than to their students who are expected to have no previous experience in history or criticism.

High School Art Appreciation Program Incorporating a Sequence of Art Criticism and Art History Operations I have long felt that the realization of the response goal at the secondary level requires a structure which links art criticism and art history. In an earlier paper,1' I suggested that an art appreciation program might be effec- tively structured as a sequence of art criticism and art history operations modelled after Bruner's stages of discriminate perceptual decision- making. 12 Bruner identifies four stages through which an individual progresses when making and confirm- ing discriminate decisions. With some modifications, these stages consist of:

1) Premature Decision-Making: A crude scanning operation which often terminates in premature decision-making based upon an in- complete analysis of available cues in a perceived object.

2) Searching for Internal Cues: Here there is an active search of internal cues leading to more discriminate decision-making.

3) Searching for External Cues: Searching continues but is now di- rected to identifying external cues used to check out and confirm decisions.

4) Final Decision-Making: Cue search terminates and decisions are finalized. Final decisions take into account both internal and external cues.

Using these four stages as a guide, it is possible to identify and sequence the criticism and history operations felt to be essential to an art appreciation program which holds as its pri-




mary objective the preparation of secondary students to make and defend personal, discriminate decisions with regard to a wide range of visual art forms.

STAGE 1: PREMATURE DECISION-MAKING

It is obvious that the successful appreciation program must invite students to move beyond this first premature decision-making stage and into subsequent stages. It is during the three remaining stages that students become active participants in the search for internal and external cues leading to discriminate decision- making about works of art. For this reason it is advisable to focus our attention on Stages 2 and 3.

STAGE 2: SEARCHING FOR INTERNAL CUES-ART CRITICISM OPERATIONS

The opportunity to examine and freely discuss art works which appeal to secondary students should draw such students away from the premature decision-making that charac- terizes the preceding stage and into an active search for internal cues which takes place during Stage 2. It is during this second stage that art criticism operations are learned. These operations consist of description, analysis, interpretation, and judgment; and together they act as a search strategy enabling students to identify the cues or, to be more precise, the "aesthetic qualities" found within works of art. In other words, students are taught how to look at works in order to gain as much information as possible from those works.

However, it is not enough that students know how to look at art objects; they must also become knowledgeable about the various aesthetic qualities they should be searching for; that is, they must know what to look for. In this regard, the advice of Weitz13 is acknowledged, and several broadly conceived theories on the nature of art are examined to identify the specific aesthetic qualities each of these theories emphasizes. The theories of art thus serve as guides to various aesthetic qualities found in works of art.

Figure 1 presents the three theories of art, accompanied by the aesthetic qualities stressed by each.

Figure 2 illustrates how description, analysis, and interpretation can be

used to focus student attention on aesthetic qualities and prepare them to make more intelligent judgments about works of art. Adhering to such an approach would insure that students consider all three theories and the aesthetic qualities they favor during each critical examination of a work of art. In this manner, students will learn how to look and what to look for in works of art, and they should be better prepared to critically examine any work on their own.

Before moving to Stage 3 and art history operations, it should be em- phasized that active student partici-

generated by each of the criticism operations and to express their own personal decisions concerning interpretation and judgment. However, they should also recognize that these interpretations and judgments must be supported by good reasons.

If students are denied the opportunity to express and substantiate decisions about works of art, it is improb- able that these works will become meaningful to them, and the art criticism activity will be regarded as just "another school exercise." Further- more, without personal commitment during the art criticism portion of the

Figure 1 THEORIES OF ART

AEST'HETIC QUALITIES

Imitationalism Literal Qualities: Qualities referred to emphasize the accurate description of subject matter. The most important aspect about the work of art is its ver- isimilitude: the appearance of being true or real.

Formalism Formal Qualities: Qualities referred to emphasize the organization of the work of art through the use of the elements and principles of art.

Emotionalism Expressive Qualities: Qualities referred to emphasize the ideas, moods, and feelings conveyed to the viewer by the work of art.

pation in the critical operations is es- program, there is little likelihood that

sential to the success of the apprecia- students will be sufficiently motivated tion program. Students should be en- to turn to art history to find out how couraged to engage in discussions others have responded to the same

works of art.

Figure 2 ART CRITICISM OPERATIONS

AESTHETIC QUALITIES

Description Literal Qualities and/or Formal Qualities (Elements of Art): Students take an inventory of the subject matter and/or the elements of art found in the work of art.

Analysis Formal Qualities (Principles of Art): Students determine how the work of art is organized or put together; concern centers on how the principles of art have beeri used to organize the elements of art.

Interpretation Expressive Qualities: Students determine the possible feelings, moods, or ideas communicated by the work of art.

Judgment Students make personal decisions about the degree of artistic merit in the work of art. This decision takes into account all they have learned about the work during the previous art criticism operations.




ART HISTORY OPERATIONS

EXTERNAL CUES

Description Students determine when, where, and by whom the work was completed.

Analysis Students identify the features in the work of art and compare these to features found in other works to determine its artistic style.

Interpretation Students investigate the influences of time and place upon the artist.

Judgment Students make a decision about the work's importance in the historical development.

I II I .. ....

STAGE 3: SEARCHING FOR EX- TERNAL CUES-ART HISTORY OPERATIONS

The search for aesthetic qualities conducted during art criticism acts as a necessary readiness for subsequent historical operations which direct student attention to external cues. Dur- ing art criticism, students examined works of art and arrived at tentative personal decisions regarding meaning and artistic merit. Once they have achieved this, they are "psychologi- cally set" for a historical examination during which they determine how others have interpreted and judged the same works. Having made a commitment by forming and expressing decisions about works of art, they are now eager to learn more about the works and the artists who created them. The art teacher should be prepared to assist students by directing them to books, periodicals, and other materials and providing them with ample time to conduct their inquiries and re- port their findings to the class. Infor- mation from a variety of courses per- taining to the artists, periods, countries, and artistic styles are used by students to confirm, modify, or reject their earlier interpretations of art works. The judgments of historians are sought during efforts to assess the historical significance of these works. Information of this kind would play an important role during formal decision-making.

It is postulated that the transition from art criticism to art history will be achieved with relative ease if the operations remain the same for both methods of inquiry even though the focus of these operations will change. Consequently, the operations of description, analysis, interpretation, and judgment described during art criticism will also be applied to historical

examinations, although the emphasis would shift from internal cues to external cues.

Figure 3 illustrates how description, analysis, and interpretation can be used to focus student attention on dif- ferent external cues and to prepare

Stage 3: Final Decision-Making Once the art history operations

have been concluded, students should be prepared to make and substantiate final decisions about works of art. Of

Figure 3

course, the "final decisions" referred to here are not to be regarded as per- manent by either the teacher or the students. As students become more; knowledgeable and more sensitive to various forms of visual expression, their judgments will undoubtedly change. But they should recognize that to appreciate a work of art means being able to make an intelligent decision about it and, further, being able to back up that decision with reasons derived from both internal and external sources.

Finally, students must be reminded that the decisions they make about works of art are their own personal decisions. If they are not afforded an opportunity for personal decision- making, it is unlikely that their involvement with works of art in the appreciation classroom will constitute a rewarding and enduring experience, an experience that will prepare them for continued experiences with art beyond the appreciation classroom.

A Sample Unit in the Art Appreciation Program: A Brief Description

It is suggested that the sequence of

Art of the Pharaohs

I. Art Criticism Operations A. General Objective: Students will use art criticism operations to learn

as much as possible from works of art produced during this period. B. Sample Study Prints:

1. Pyramid of Khufu, Giza 2. Sculpture of Khafre 3. Wooden Panel of Hesire 4. Head of Nefertiti

C. Discussion: A critical in-depth examination of one or more examples of Egyptian art is conducted. The criticism operations of description, analysis, and interpretation are used to direct student attention to literal qualities, formal qualities, and expressive qualities found in the work(s). Following this examination, students are provided with opportunities to formulate and express their own personal decisions concerning the artistic merits of the work(s).

D. Art Criticism Inquiry: Students are encouraged to critically examine and judge additional examples of Egyptian art on their own. Works examined in this manner would be selected from a range of examples provided. These critical examinations would culminate in personal decision-making concerning the artistic merit of each work.

II. Art History Operations A. General Objective: Students will use art history operations to learn as

much as possible about works of art produced during this period. B. Sample Study Prints:

1. Pyramid of Khufu, Giza 2. Sculpture of Khafre 3. Portrait head of Prince Sneferuseneb 4. Head of Nefertiti

Art Education March 1980

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20



5. Wooden Panel of Hesire 6. Chapel, Tomb of Nakht 7. King Tutankhamon and His Queen

C. Discussion: An overview of Egyptian art history is conducted with emphasis placed upon objective facts and the sequence of major periods. The factors contributing to the development of a unique Egyp- tian artistic style would be examined closely. The historical operations of description, analysis, and interpretation are used to direct student attention to facts and information about various works of art. Follow- ing this examination, students are provided with opportunities to formulate their own personal decisions concerning the historical importance of the works discussed.

D. Art History Inquiry: Students are encouraged to apply their knowledge of Egyptian history when reconsidering the works of art examined and judged earlier during the art criticism inquiry. Historical examinations would culminate in personal decision-making concerning the historical importance of each work.

III. Final Decision-Making General Objective: Students will combine information gleanedfrom works of art during art criticism operations with information about the same works gained during art history operations to form and substantiate final judgments.

art~~~~~ ......ad r hsoy prain art criticism and art history operations described might be best incorporated into an appreciation program consist- ing of a series of chronologically ar- ranged units of instruction. By divid- ing the long history of art into man- ageable units, selecting representative examples of art for each unit, and ap- plying critical and historical operations to these works, students will be more likely to acquire the knowledge and understanding essential to appreciation. A brief outline for such a unit follows.

Conclusion

Ralph A. Smith14 has stated that works of art are phenomena that prompt countless complex questions. For this reason, he deplores the fact that teachers and students frequently fail to structure intelligently their efforts to perceive and understand these phenomena.

With Smith's remarks in mind, I have attempted to outline an approach to art appreciation at the secondary level which employs a structure link- ing art criticism and art history applied to chronologically sequenced units of instruction. Within each of these units, students first critically examine works of art in terms of aesthetic qualities, then proceed to historical considerations centering on facts and information about art, and finally form personal decisions. In this way, final decision-making takes into

account the artistic merit and the historical importance of works of art.

Gene A. Mittler is associate professor of art education, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

REFERENCES 'Stanley Wold and W. Reid Hastie,

"From Research and Theory to Teaching Practice," The Sixty-Fourth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, W. Reid Has- tie, ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965.

2Laura Chapman, "Recent Trends and Problems in Art Education," En- cyclopedia of Education, New York: Macmillan Co., 1969.

3Elliot W. Eisner, "The Promise of Teacher Education," Art Education, Vol. 25, No. 3, March 1972, p. 12.

4Elliot W. Eisner, "Curriculum Ideas in a Time of Crisis," Art Educa- tion, Vol. 16, No. 7, February 1965.

5lbid. 6Thomas Munro, Art Education: Its

Philosophy and Psychology, New York: Bobbs-Merrill Co., Inc., 1956.

7Chapman, op. cit. 8Joshua Taylor, 'To Do and Not to

See: The Teacher of Art," Readings in Art Education, Elliot Eisner and David Ecker, eds., Waltham, Mass.: Ginn-Blaisdell, 1966, p. 242.

9Howard Conant, Seminar on Elementary and Secondary School

Education in the Visual Arts, New York: New Your University Press, 1965.

"?Sheila A. Clark, "Modem Theoretical Foundations of Apprecia- tion and Creation in Art Education Textbooks 1960-1970," Studies in Art Education, Vol. 16, No. 3, 1975.

1Gene Mittler, "Perceptual Thor- oughness as a Prelude to Discriminate Decision-Making in Art," Viewpoints, Bulletin of the School of Education, Indiana University, Vol. 52, No. 3, May 1976.

'2Jerome S. Bruner, "On Percep- tual Readiness," Readings in Percep- tion, David C. Beardslee and Michael Wortheimer, eds., Princeton, New Jersey: D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., 1958.

'3Morris Weitz, "The Nature of Art," Readings in Art Education, El- liot Eisner and David Ecker, eds., Waltham, Mass.: Ginn-Blaisdell, 1966.

14Ralph A. Smith, ed., Aesthetics and Criticism in Art Education, Chicago: Rand McNally and Co., 1966, p. x.

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Learning to Look/Looking to Learn: A Proposed Approach to Art Appreciation at the Secondary School Level