Category: 1100 Class-Unit 1 Summary

Unit 1 Summary

Unit 1 Summary–Tell me what you learned as we worked through Unit 1 (formal analysis and critical pedagogy). The ideal summary will put two or three concepts, ideas, or quotes from the reading in dialogue with each other. This is your opportunity to show me that you have learned something, and to tell me what that is and why it matters to you.

In Unit 1 we learned about the critical pedagogy through Pablo Freire’s Banking model and we learned how to utilize formal analysis when encountering art pieces. Pablo Freire’s banking model is a criticism of the current way of teaching.  He compares the information given by the teacher to student as a deposit from an individual to the bank. He also adds that the student is asked to retain the information for the sole purpose to spit it back up and not to analyze and study it. Friere’s banking model makes it clear that he advocates for a more interactive form of teaching in which teachers aren’t restricted to a criteria and forced to repeat the same lesson over and over again and for students to be actually voluntarily invested in what they’re learning for the sake of their education and not for some test.

Formal analysis is a perfect technique satisfying Freire’s ideal teaching method when it comes to Art pieces because it allows for an individual to analyze every single element that makes up the piece and to fully interpret the meaning behind it which Anne D’alleva describes it best as she states it is  not “simply describing what you see in an artwork” but  tackling “what the artist wants to convey visually” (27). Formal analysis looks at four different characteristics within the art piece: color, line, space and mass, and scale, but contextual analysis (looking at a pieces cultural and historical context) may also contribute to an art piece interpretation as Anne D’alleva adds that “it’s hard to separate them out completely. Often, art-historical analysis requires us to do both at the same time” making contextual analysis an unofficial but important characteristic for students to look out for when approaching an artwork (26).

Friere’s banking model is something that I very much believe in and have dealt with my entire school life; In elementary school, I was trained for state exams; In middle school, I was trained for finals and mid-terms; and in High school, I was trained for regents and SATs. Now looking back I vaguely remember what I was taught or the last time I  applied what I had learned to my present day-life but with the introduction of formal analysis, I’ve been able to enrich my knowledge of different art pieces I’ve always admired. I from a very young age have always loved to visit museums, especially art museums and I look forward to going to the Met and enriching my self by taking my time to analyze why a canvas is as big as it is; why an artist chooses a certain palette; or why he chooses to use oil painting rather than watercolor. Discovering formal analysis has forever changed the way I view art and it has allowed me to transition from a casual viewer to an academic art student.

Michael DeGennaro Unit 1 Summary

Michael DeGennaro Unit 1 Summary

In this unit, we really were able to  explore with the idea that art is a vehicle for expression that comes in limitless forms such as music, dance, doodling, drawing, painting and much more.  It has a different connection with everyone.

Something that especially resonated with me was learning about Freire’s banking model of education.   It is  a concept in which the teacher is the active being and the students are passive “objects” in the classroom.  The students are essentially sitting down and listening to a teacher making “deposits” of education into their head, which they memorize information, and repeat this process daily.  Frier explains that this type of education allows for no intellectual growth in students, as they are simply intaking information that means nothing to them. It was interesting to conceptualize this experience, as in sophomore year of high school, my geometry teacher perfectly emblemized this model.  We as the students sat down for an entire hour, No speaking, no questions, no interactions, listened to him talk about factoring polynomials , pack up, leave, and repeat this for an entire school year. We were overwhelmingly being fed geometric concepts. We didn’t make connections with the material being “collected.”

“Art is one’s own world of creativity”. From this basis, we were able to dive into the meaning of formal analysis, questioning and seeking answers to these visual and physical elements of a piece of artwork and determining the message that the artist is trying to convey.  We were able to explore the different elements to look for in a formal analysis. Line including emphasis and contour, color including identifying different hues, space/mass including dimension, form (weight and volume), and scale in terms of relative size of objects are all elements that we as the viewers take into consideration. We got to explore these concepts by looking at ancient artwork in class, ranging from Mesopotamia to Egypt.  

Shortly after learning about formal analysis, my family and I took a trip to the Brooklyn Museum, and I was able to practice my own formal analysis on Johnson, A Ride for Liberty — The Fugitive Slaves.  The painting depicts a family of slaves on a horse, crossing battlefields from the Confederate South to the Union North in order to escape the treacherous conditions of life.  The main focus of the painting is the horse, as it is placed in the middle of the work, and it is the largest piece in the work.  The artist placed emphasis on it with his use of contrasting colors: dark colors in the horse against a light background. The artists light brush strokes on the horses tale, and its placement slightly above the ground, with legs in a galloping motion, indicates that it is running.  The sheets on the horse are very silky and airy and the horse is very majestic and beautiful. This concept to me was interesting because it symbolizes something beautiful bringing peace and aid to a treacherous situation.

 

SN: Unit 1 Summary

Formal analysis and critical pedagogy are vital because they help analyze and understand artwork. Contextual analysis has us go outside of the artwork to find answers and to understand how the art shapes ideas and values of the one who made it. Formal analysis helps us find answers to questions about artwork without referring to outside sources. By this we can explore visual facts of artwork and the meaning of what the artist includes in their art. There is no pure formal analysis because everyone has a different interpretation of ideas. The main factors of formal analysis are color, line, space and mass and scale. For color, we would look at the characteristics being used and what it represents. The lines help us identify from two dimensional artwork from three dimensional and the display of lights and darks. Lines can be strong or broken up. Space and mass can make the artwork seem as if it has weight or volume and scale is the relative size within the work and viewer. Composition is important because it shows all the elements put together in artwork. 

Paolo Friere was famous for his concept Critical Pedagogy. The Banking Model describes that teachers have the higher power in the classroom and the student is responsible for taking in what they are taught. The students are the recieving objects and this model controls their thinking, restricting any creative ways of learning that they have. Friere, with this concept, wanted to create a better world than just a better environment to learn in. It is supposed to encourage individuals to affect change thats more balanced where teachers are equal to students. Students are able to state what they need too and improve their ways of learning. 

These concepts matter to me because they tie into my learning, especially as a student. Formal analysis helped me learn how to analyze artwork and I definitley see that I have improved through learning its concepts. Critical Pedagogy is important to me because as a student, I like to create my own learning environment and I learn best through readings and teaching myself. The fact that teachers and students can be equal in the classroom makes classes less intimidating and students will be able to participate without feeling belittled or incompetent . 

-Sn

Unit 1: Art History Summary

 

Throughout this past month in Art History, the class focus has been strictly direct to the topics of Formal Analysis and Critical Pedagogy. This two concepts are necessary if we want to understand what we see when we look at art and the way we are able to analyze, critique, judge and interpret a work of art. Formal Analysis is describing a work of art and looking for every detail in a work of art; this is to help us analyze the choices an artist has made to create art. When looking at a work of art we must focus our attention every element that is made out of. These elements consist of color, line, scale, composition, space, texture, material and historical context. The last characteristic has more to do with Contextual Analysis which is the outside research about a work of art and although the concept is important we mainly focused on Formal Analysis. This technique helps us, the viewer, to come up with a decent interpretation about a work of art and why it was made the way it was by the artist.

In class we also discussed Critical Pedagogy which is a concept created by Paolo Friere, a Brazilian educational theorist. Friere criticized the education system and the way students and teacher interacted. Friere was against the Banking Model which mainly represents the way that students learn; students brains are empty containers that are filled by the wise and knowledgeable teacher. In this kind of classroom the teacher is in charge and the student is to only sit in class not having opinions about that they are being taught. This prevent the students form making critical thinking about literature. In order to end that system, Friere came up with Critical Pedagogy which is the idea that students and teachers are equal when it comes to learning. The interaction of both teacher to student and student to teacher makes the classroom more balanced. In this way of teaching where the students have an opinion, the goal is to make the students do critical thinking about what they are being taught. In the greater good, critical pedagogy is to help students be more human and not machines when it comes to learning.

In class both of this concepts came together when we would have an opinion about a work of art that the professor put before our eyes. For example we were asked to pay attention to the elements the artist chose in The Standard of Ur. During this activity we discussed how the work of art was hallow, made out of different materials from around the world, and mainly had registers that created a story. In my cases I was able to think critically because my opinions about the work of art were backed up by physical evidence that I gathered using Formal Analysis. From now on I am more aware about what to look for when looking at art. Furthermore I am more conscious about formal analysis when I look at advertisements on the subway.