MTEL Visual Arts - Interpretation, Analysis, and Evaluation / Partial Visual Art and Other Disciplines

Architects

*These* are responsible for designing residential and commercial buildings that are safe, aesthetically pleasing, and within a budget. They will need an understanding of building materials and architectural styles, as well as creativity and good communication skills. They will need a five-year bachelor's degree or master's degree, as well as a three-year internship before taking the required state licensing exam.

Symbols

*These* are used to add meaning in ways that are not immediately clear, and they are usually not the focal point of an artwork. Rather, the artist relies on the viewer to see and decipher them.

Beliefs

*These* can affect our perception of an artwork by bringing preconceived notions to our observations of the artwork and affecting our judgment of the artwork.

Fashion designers

*These* design clothing and apparel for a variety of needs, and they are responsible for the creative process of designing garments. They are also involved in producing and marketing the clothing. There are associate's, bachelor's, and master's degrees available in this field. They should be creative and have a solid understanding of technical skills, materials, and proportions when designing clothing.

Techniques

*These* for artwork include the ways in which an artist uses their technical skills to create artwork. This includes specialized methods for different media.

Meaning

*This* can be created in artwork in many different ways. Sometimes it is immediately obvious and uncontested, and other times it's more complex and subject to various interpretations. Understanding the culture and context in which the artwork is created as well as the art movement it fits into can provide clues.

Subject matter

*This* can be used to convey meaning in a more obvious manner. The artist's choice of subject and how it is portrayed can show meaning and intent.

Context

*This* describes the related conditions or circumstances around which something occurs. This can include the artist's environment, the historical events and traditions that were happening, their cultural values, the social movements at the time, and even the artist's personal values and commitments.

Continuing

*This* education opportunities can be found at museums, colleges, and art organizations. This can help an art professional keep up with emerging trends in art, learn new techniques, strengthen their knowledge of art history and processes, and network with other artists.

Expressive

*This* features in artwork include how the artists use the elements and principles to communicate mood and feeling. An artist can communicate through the composition of the artwork, imagery, text, color, or a juxtaposition of opposing elements, among other things. These are the characteristics of an artwork that stir emotion within the viewer.

Aesthetics

*This* is a philosophy in art that seeks to create non-subjective criteria for the judgment of beauty. It asks questions such as "What is art?", "What is beauty?", and "What makes art beautiful?" It also questions what makes a painting good and whether a realistic painting is "better" than an abstract one.

Juxtaposition

*This* is the placement of contrasting elements next to each other to create an effect. Artists will contrast elements in their artwork to draw the viewer's eye, emphasizing the similarities and differences of the contrasting elements.

Media

*This* is the plural of medium, and it refers to the physical materials used by an artist to create artwork. Examples include paint, oil, clay, ink, metal, or any other material used to create artwork.

Self-critique

*This* of artwork is useful for analyzing artistic processes and outcomes in order to improve the process and the final product. It involves thinking about what is successful in your artwork as well as what could be improved.

Hierarchical

*This* proportion is a technique used by artists to emphasize parts of a sculpture or other artwork. The artist would use unnatural or unusual proportions to depict his or her subjects, bringing the viewer's attention to the more important figures depicted in the art. The artist might show a person of higher status as being larger than someone who is over lower status or who is subservient.

Appropriation

*This* refers to the borrowing of preexisting objects or images in artwork with little to no transformation. Marcel Duchamp's "readymades" are an example of this.

Transformation

*This* refers to the changing of an image or object to present it in a new way. Artists might start with a preexisting idea or object but change it and use their own style and technique to make it their own artwork.

High school

*This* students are beginning to distance themselves from their parents and teachers as sources of information and instead turn to their friends and peers. They are interested in fairness and justice as well as current events. They value their friends and social standing and are beginning to think about how they will fit into the adult world. To connect their lives to artwork, these students could create an autobiographical painting, sculpture, or collage of what is important to them, which could include their friends, their room, their car, or their home. They could also portray issues that are important to them, such as environmental or political concerns. Their motor skills are refined enough that they can express themselves successfully through many different media.

Elementary

*This* students are interested in their friends, family, pets, as well as themselves. They enjoy talking about and expressing their favorite things. They are just beginning to explore who they are and excel in experimenting with materials; they might be more interested in the process than the final product. To connect ideas between art and their lives, these students could create artwork about themselves, such as a self-portrait, or about their pets, family, and friends.

Middle school

*This* students can still be egocentric and focused on themselves. At the same time, they are developing their own interests and hobbies, as well as figuring out what they are skilled at doing. They value their friends' input, while becoming more self-aware and individualistic. They are beginning to take more pride in their finished work. They are less apt to experiment and are more likely to be critical of their work. To connect their lives to artwork, these students can create autobiographical artwork including themselves and their new interests. Their increased coordination and attention to detail can lead to longer and more involved projects.

Fine artist

A *this* is an artist who creates artwork in their chosen media and style to communicate to their viewers through their artwork. It can include photography and illustration, but in general these artists will be self-employed and either create artwork of their choosing or artwork that is commissioned by a client. Although an artist can get formal training, a degree is not necessary.

Photographer

A *this* is responsible for capturing and editing images with a digital camera and editing software. A bachelor's degree in photography will give the most in-depth training for this career. One can work in many fields, including photojournalism, fine arts, commercial photography, and travel photography; they can also work in family and special occasion photography. They need to be proficient in photo equipment and editing software.

Curator

A *this* is responsible for preserving items in a museum, as well as acquiring collections and loans from other museums or institutions. They will organize artifacts or artwork for display and for storage and manage a staff to care for, display, and catalog items. They can also be involved in advertising for the institution, as well as giving tours and holding workshops. They can help with fundraising and public relations and work on authenticating the origin and age of pieces obtained by the museum. They will generally need a master's degree in history, art, archaeology, or museum studies.

Game developer

A *this* is responsible for the design and creation process for video games. This includes games on video game platforms, computer games, and even games played on phones and tablets. They might be involved in the design of the game, as well as the coding, creation of prototypes, storyline development, and other parts of the development process. They will generally have a bachelor's degree in software engineering or computer science. They will often have certification in programming languages such as Visual Basic, C++, or Java.

Graphic designer

A *this* is responsible for the visual design of print and digital items such as billboards, brochures, signs, corporate communications, logos, website graphics, and more. They will need to be able to communicate with clients, create graphics that will meet their clients' needs, and use a variety of tools to create the graphics. It is helpful to have a degree in art or graphic design and a portfolio of relevant work. It's important to have a working knowledge of programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash.

Sculpture

A *this* should be viewed from as many angles as possible.

Painting

A large *this* should be viewed both up close to see the details and at a distance to get a sense of the whole artwork.

Prior knowledge

A person's *this* can affect how they perceive things visually. It carries expectations and biases based on what a person knows and has experienced.

Art educator

An *this* is responsible for teaching art processes and art history to students of all ages. To teach in a formal setting, an art degree is needed. For K-12 teaching, one must obtain teaching certification in their state, as well as a bachelor's degree in education. For higher education, the educator will generally have one degree higher than what they plan to teach, for example, a master's degree to teach undergraduate courses. Strong communication skills and a passion for art are useful for this field.

Animator

An *this* is responsible for using a computer or traditional art materials to create animations. Computer *these* (same word) design 2D and 3D animations for a variety of needs, including television shows, mobile apps, and websites. A bachelor's degree in computer animation is usually required, as well as a portfolio showing a variety of animation skills. They will need to be able to work with a variety of programs and platforms.

Illustrator

An *this* produces artwork that is used in books and publications. The artwork can be created with traditional art materials or digitally. They will need to know how to create illustrations in many different styles to suit the needs of different clients. They will need to be proficient with different artistic media when illustrating by hand, or they should be proficient with computer illustration software when illustrating digitally. There are many different type of illustration, including medical, botanical, and book illustration, as well as illustration for advertising. While a degree in art is helpful, experience, skill, and creativity are valued more than education in this field.

Conservation

Art *this* includes controlling the environment in which art is exhibited, transported, or stored, including the light, temperature, and humidity. They prepare for disaster, control pests, and protect artwork from damage.

Brainstorming

Artistic problems can be solved through creativity and innovation by *this* to come up with multiple solutions.

Meaning

Artists can use elements and principles to create *this* in their artwork. Colors can signify feelings and moods. Size, placement, emphasis, and repetition can all convey strong ideas or the dominance of one idea over another.

Problems

Artists solve many problems such as what media and venue to use to express themselves and convey their message, what subject to portray, what style to use, and even how to explain their artistic process to others.

Viewpoints

Artwork can appear differently to different people depending on their *these*. Artwork viewed from a historical or personal perspective, or from a subjective or objective perspective.

Sources

Experience, observation, memory, and imagination are all sources that artists use for their artwork.

Nonrepresentational

Formalism is useful for analyzing *this* and abstract art, looking at the artist's use of elements, principles, composition, and media rather than trying to find meaning in the subject matter.

Balance

Gustav Klimt's The Kiss from 1907-1908 is a painting with gold leaf added. It shows a couple embraced and entwined in a kiss. He used asymmetrical *this*, although the figures are centrally located. The patch of meadow underneath them is mainly on the left of the painting, and the darker squares in the clothing are also on the left. This is balanced by the focal point of the woman's face. There is contrast with circles, rectangles, and solid areas of color. There is also the contrast of the dark background and figures, causing them to stand out. The clothing of both figures as well as the flowers in the meadow show different patterns. The repeated yellows and golds give a unity to the piece.

Sound

If an artwork were to incorporate *this*, the types and directions they are coming from can aid in directing the viewer's eye throughout the artwork and even create a focal point.

Dismiss

If people believe that artwork is strictly painting, drawing, and sculpture, they would *this* performance art or many of the new modern art genres as not actually being forms of art. Their beliefs about what constitutes authentic artwork would cause them to fail to examine these forms further, and they could not appreciate these artworks as they were intended.

Exploration

In Hans Holbein the Younger's The Ambassadors (1533), the globe and maps signify the age of *this*. The gloves and dagger held by the men symbolize authority and luxury at the same time. The elongated shape on the floor is a stretched-out skull, which would look more correct when viewed from the bottom left of the painting. The skull generally symbolizes death. There are also symbols throughout the painting referring to the division between the Catholics and Protestants at the time: a mostly hidden crucifix in the top left and the hymnal juxtaposed with a lute with a broken string.

Impasto

In Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night (1889), he used the *this* technique and visible brushstrokes to create movement throughout the artwork. The swirls in the sky lead the eye around the painting, and the circles of brushstrokes around the stars and moon accentuate their presence in the sky. The dashes of color repeated throughout create a repetition of pattern, as well as a visual texture, in addition to the actual texture of the thick paint. This night scene is a vibrant, expressive work.

Principles

In Wassily Kandinsky's Romantic Landscape from 1911, he successfully used the *these* of design to organize the elements of art. Though the work contains mainly darker and muted tones of color, such as darker blues and reds, as well as browns, grays, and greens, he used one area of brighter orange in the top left. This small area of brighter color contrasts with the darker, more muted values, and it serves to balance the painting, while providing emphasis as a focal point to draw the eye. The lines and implied lines show movement in a triangle shape, leading the eye around the painting, from the upward sloping brown shape in the bottom left, leading up to a blue and whitish line at the top, then back down with a dark-grey line. He uses some dots of dark gray in different places to create rhythm, and the repeated colors throughout the painting provide unity to the artwork.

Portfolios

In addition to using *these* for assessment and college entrance purposes, they are also used for interviewing for art-related careers. This can be in digital form or hard copy.

Distracting

In some instances, sound can be *this* when viewing an artwork. It will be easier to concentrate on the details of a painting in a quiet room, rather than in a noisy, crowded room.

Jarring

It is *this* to the eye to see two edges in a painting touch, but not overlap.

Formalism

James Abbott McNeill Whistler's Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket (1875) captures the excitement of fireworks in the night sky. From a *this* perspective, he successfully used composition, as well as the elements and principles of art, in this work. For the composition, he used the rule of thirds and placed the horizon line at roughly one-third from the bottom of the painting. The emphasis, or focal point, is the brightest yellow in the lower left. He used strong contrast to help the bright lights and fireworks stand out from the dark background. The repetition of colors create a unity throughout the work and lead the eye from each colored area. The brighter and lighter colors in the lower third are balanced by the darker hues, and splatters of color higher in the painting.

Confirmation bias

One way that beliefs can affect visual perception is *this*, which is when someone sees only evidence and information that will confirm their beliefs. Even if the visual information contradicts what someone already believes, *this* (same phrase) can cause them to interpret visual information based on their biases and come to erroneous conclusions based on these biases.

Understand

Prior knowledge about an artist and their process or an art movement can help someone *this* or appreciate an artwork more than someone who has no knowledge of these concepts.

Critical thinking

Problem solving using creativity and *this* can occur in many ways, including creating thumbnail sketches, keeping a notebook of ideas to draw from for artwork, and experimenting with materials.

Juxtaposes

Rene Magritte's Memory of a Journey from 1955 *this* a giant feather against the Leaning Tower of Pisa, using scale to grab the viewer's attention.

Site-specific

Richard Serra's *this* sculpture from 1981, titled Tilted Arc, was installed in Manhattan in Foley Federal Plaza. It consisted of a 120-foot-long, 12-foot-high leaning plate of steel. This seemingly nondescript work was described as ugly and an eyesore by critics. It was deemed significant for its placement because it transformed the location; by placing the sculpture in this plaza, Serra disrupted many people's daily routines as they walked through the area, causing them to change paths and walk around the sculpture.

Understanding

Snap the Whip by Winslow Homer (1862) shows children playing a game outside in a grassy field. The game is called snap the whip; the children hold hands and the main player tries to run and spin to throw the children off at the end of the chain. If a viewer has experienced this game, they will have a greater *this* of the fun and excitement conveyed by the artist.

Negative

Someone with racist or sexist attitudes could automatically view images of different cultures, or races, or images of women, in a *this* way, without delving deeper into what they are seeing.

Obvious

Symbols can have *this* meanings or rely on background or historical knowledge to understand their significance.

Context

Symbols incorporated into artwork are interpreted by the viewer based on their knowledge of these clues and the *this* they are placed within.

Expression

The *this* aesthetic theory focuses on art as the artist's expression of emotions. It sees art as a process of expressing emotion, and the artist does not necessarily know what emotions they will be expressing before creation. To analyze artwork in this manner, the viewer must imagine the artist's process and attempt to experience the emotion that is being conveyed. The artist figures out their own emotions while in the process of expressing them.

Cultural perspective

The *this* aesthetic theory looks at an artwork with consideration to the cultural and social norms that are associated with it or the artist. This theory analyzes how an artwork expresses or fits into the cultural or social viewpoint.

Formalist

The *this* criticism theory deals with analyzing the visual aspects of an artwork, including the elements and principles used. This theory attaches meaning in the artist's use of materials, focusing on how the artwork is made and how it looks, not the narrative it is attempting to convey or any social or historical context.

Golden mean

The *this*, also known as the golden ratio, golden number, or Fibonacci number, is a geometric proportion regarded as a way to add beauty, harmony, and balance to a composition. The proportion is 1 to 1.618, and this is used throughout art and architecture as a basis for design. Sometimes this is used as a single rectangle and a single square in these proportions, but this can be divided again and again to further subdivide the composition.

Beauty

The aesthetics movement of the late 19th century favored the *this* of art over practical or moral narratives.

Perception

The angle, distance, and length of time that one observes a work of art can drastically change the viewer's *this* of the artwork.

Deconstruction

The criticism theory of *this* focuses on examining the many potential meanings in an artwork, including ones that are possible even conflicting with each other. It was first used in the 1970's by French philosopher Jacques Derrida. It involves finding and recognizing the underlying meaning and implied messages in an artwork. This aesthetic theory seeks what is hidden, omitted, or repressed to show how the initial impression is not the only interpretation nor is it necessarily the generally accepted meaning.

Parthenon

The golden mean was used by the ancient Greeks when designing the *this* and by Michelangelo in many of his works.

Preventative

The process of *this* conservation, to minimize or prevent any further damage to artwork, relies on multidisciplinary fields such as science, chemistry, biology, and engineering, as well as art.

Art conservation

The profession of *this* is devoted to the preservation of artwork for the future. These people protect artwork from future deterioration and damage and restore damaged artwork to as closely to the original form as possible while preserving its integrity.

Perceive

The way in which we observe visual stimuli can affect how we *this* them. When viewing an object from only one angle, the viewer can miss information that could be gained by looking at it from all sides.

Symbolic

This artwork, The Ambassadors, by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1533, seems to be a portrait of two men, likely ambassadors based on the title, dressed in fine clothing and posing in front of a small set of shelves. The shelves contain seemingly random items but they were chosen and placed for their *this* significance within the context of the painting.

Experience

Using *this* to analyze an artwork can help the viewer relate to and understand the artwork by relating to the context surrounding it. It can help the viewer feel what the artist is trying to convey.

Emotions

Wassily Kandinsky's Yellow-Red-Blue (1925) is an abstract painting filled with shapes and colors. To analyze it using the expression aesthetic theory, one must imagine the artist's process and think about what *these* are being expressed. Kandinsky used a combination of bright primary colors, abstract and geometric shapes, and a variety of lines. The eye is led throughout the piece with these lines, and the bright colors catch the eye too. Primary colors give a sense of simplicity and straightforwardness and the lines go back and forth from order to chaos. The brighter yellow is balanced by the large, darker hues of red and blue, and emotionally the more geometric and brighter left side contrasts with the organic shapes and squiggles on the right, suggesting a contrasting inner turmoil.

Assumptions

We combine what we see with what we already know, and we use this information to make *these* when viewing new stimuli. We use our knowledge and experience to interpret familiar scenes and to provide a basis for unfamiliar scenes.

Subjective

When analyzing Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette from 1876 from a *this* perspective, a person might prefer that paintings are rendered more realistically or that a subject is more posed instead of the artist capturing a casual scene.

Historical

When analyzing Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette from 1876 from a *this* perspective, it is important to consider the significance of the artwork in the impressionist style, capturing a fleeting moment on a Sunday afternoon in Paris and the dappled light through the trees.

Personal

When analyzing Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette from 1876 from a *this* perspective, someone might react favorably to the warm and inviting scene or unfavorably if they do not like crowds.

Objective

When analyzing Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette from 1876 from an *this* perspective, one can consider the elements of art and principles of design, as well as the skill used to execute the rendering.

Ceremonies

When analyzing an African mask from the cultural perspective of aesthetic theory, it is important to know that African masks were used in *these* for religious and social events. The combination of human and animal elements, in this case a human face with animal horns, symbolizes the closeness of humans with the natural environment. In some cases, the person wearing the mask is thought to either communicate with or become the figure that the mask represents. They can represent totem animals, or even the deceased.

Elements

Young Girls by Mary Cassatt from 1867 shows effective use of the *these* of art. An impressionist painter, she used visible brushstrokes and soft edges to capture moments in time. The warm colors advance, whereas the cooler colored background recedes and helps the subjects stand out. The rougher brushstrokes of the dresses, hair, and background show an implied texture. The implied lines surrounding the subjects in the foreground are softened and blurred, giving a softer feel to the subject. The wide range of light and dark values give depth to this work. The darker background serves as negative space, where the subjects are positive space.