Category: 9:30 AM Class

Unit 1 Summary

Throughout the entirety of Unit 1 in our Art History class, we had gone over a variety of topics. The material looked over many subjects, ranging from Formal Analysis to Pedagogy and everything in between. We were able to learn how art was viewed by many different civilizations, as well as how to fully understand and delve deeper into the pieces created for ourselves. It was made clear that art is an open expression, and what it may mean to someone varies depending on their views. Art can be put out in music, films, and many other different ways according to what the creator may see it as.

Formal Analysis being the first topic of discussion in our Art History class, opens us up to a new technique of achieving more insight on a plethora of art pieces. It’s essentially the process of analyzing a painting, sculpture, etc. through a variety of different questions to answer, furthering our insight on the piece at hand. It helps us bring out the smaller details in a work of art, and begin to analyze them all together, which eventually leads us into the understanding of the piece as a whole. After bringing to light even the most minuscule points of interest, we are able to begin to piece together the story/situation being presented. It’s very clearly an effective way to go about understanding a painting’s meaning, and honestly can be used in figuring out the meaning in any form of art, whether it be a film or a song. The questions may vary, but the outcome of the method will always remain the same.

Pedagogy, on the other hand, is most commonly known for the role it played in Paolo Freire’s ideologies as well as in his book on the critical pedagogy, named Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The main idea followed throughout his teachings and ideologies center what both students and teachers are able to gain from each other. He believes that if students can deepen their understanding of the world around them, by learning the meaning of the worldly expression of people’s ideas, values, and feelings throughout a timeframe in history, the teachers (himself included) would be able to gain insight on their students perspective. Giving them a deeper understanding of how they process, and retain information. He sees them as vessels that input and output knowledge, teaching not only themselves but the people around them as well.

In conclusion, Unit 1 of our Art History class has been a very informative look into the start in the history of art and has gotten us ready to delve deeper into the curriculum to come.

Unit 1 Summary

 

What I learned in unit one was formal analysis and banking model. These are things that have open my mind in the way I see art or how I see certain things in the world, like the education system.  Education or teaching can be viewed as a banking model. The banking model was used by Paulo Freire to describe a system in which students are the depositories and the teachers is the depositor. An example is a teacher tells a student how to do spell, depositing their knowledge onto the student, while the student receives, memorize or deposit the information. It’s similar to the banking of the depositing your money into an atm machine. Paulo Freire argued that this model reinforces a lack of critical thinking and knowledge  of ownership in students, which can turn into oppression.

With Formal analysis I look at art differently. When I look at an art piece I look at the color, lines, scale, model, and the historical context so I can have an understanding of the visual description. Looking at the Titian, Venus of Urbino of 1538 I see a naked woman laying on the bed with a dog that is asleep. In the background that it appears to be a woman on both her knees cleaning while a lady above her, who looks to have some to be giving out demands to the lady cleaning. The color that I see is red, and white which seem to be the main colors. The stroke and lines seem to calm and smooth while the model of the naked woman also seems to be calm and relax. From my understanding this art piece is a wedding gift to a young couple or a gift for a person that was of high class. These are things that I take from this piece using formal analysis.

Unit 1 Summary

In class, one of the first things we learned was pedagogy and the banking model. Paolo Fiere was an advocate of pedagogy and created the Bank Model of Education. Pedagogy is the practice of teaching in a theoretical way instead of a practical way. It also focuses on the effects that it can have on students. Out of this, Friere created the Banking Model of Education that critiques the traditional way most teacher. Just like pedagogy, the banking model also pays attention at how the traditional way can effect students. In this case, it effects students negatively. The traditional way treats students as if they are something robotic, just filling them with information without any context. Teaching should mold kids into being critical thinkers and be divergent thinkers. We shouldn‘t just process things the way they are told to us. We should be taught to question everything. I personally was really intrigued with this topic. I loved reading and learning about. Teaching is something I take very seriously because it is something I am planning to major in. I believe that teachers have a duty and this huge responsibility in their hands because they are the ones that are teaching the future. It isn’t a job to be taken lightly and creating robots out of students is such a waste because teachers have the ability to create students who are independent and critical thinkers. Enforcing habits like questioning everything, in class discussions, and including them in lessons can shape them into these amazing adults who succeed in the adult world. It was very admirable learning about pedagogy and the Banking Model because it shows that I am not the only one who thinks that there is something seriously wrong in the education system, and the students are not the one to blame. 

Formal Analysis is a visual description of art. In class we had an in-depth class discussion about formally analyzing a piece of art. We said that analyzing art can provoke us to ask question and when we analyze artwork we usually look for the meaning of the piece, we evaluate it, and look at the central focus, Afterwards, we looked at a video of how to correctly analyze art, When looking at something like a painting, we describe it, look at the formal properties, at the subject matter and the historical context. Formal properties include, scale, medium, composition, illusion of depth, chiaroscuro, foreshortening, line color and material. Something that I really took away from learning about formal analysis was when we were shown the video of Goya 1808 being formally analyzed. I think this video was memorable because I was impressed with how much content was taken out of a single painting. I have always loved art and have always loved admiring it. However, for me admiring art would just be a five minute look at the work, reading the description and moving on to the next artwork. Watching that video made me realize that is an in-depth way of looking at art and by doing so, you can benefit so much more. The two voices that were speaking, would point out things that I would have never even noticed or even thought of when looking at the painting. It was insightful because it taught me how to appreciate art in a profound way.

Learning about the art in the ancient world was not my favorite but it was still interesting. The only reason why it wasn’t my favorite was because my love has always been in paintings, particularly in the renaissance period and seeing so much stonework was definitely new for me. Nonetheless, I still found it interesting because history has always been one of my favorite subjects and this topic definitely felt like a history lesson because it showed how advanced people were even in ancient times. Something else that I did on my own was compared and contrasted the art in the ancient world and the art that I love so much. Ancient world art was very into making the presence of the one who is charge known. We see these messages come out in artworks like “Stele of Naramsi” and “The Palette of Narmar” where the figure who is most significant is larger than the rest in the art. The differences can also be seen in what they wear on their heads and their posture. Another thing that I learned was that artwork of the ancient world was in tune with naturalism. Naturalism being the depiction of realistic things in their natural setting, which I thought to be very beautiful. The artworks that showed that were “Panel with Striding Lion,” “Dying Lioness,” “Deer Hunt, Catal Huyuk,” and “Lamassu.” “Lamassu” was definitely a terrifying figure for me, but knowing that people worshipped a figure like this was very intriguing. Something else that struck me where the buildings and homes that these people created. Artwork like “Pyramid of Khafre,” “Pyramid of khufu,” “Temple of Amun-re,” “Ziggurat of Ur,”and “Ishtar gate” just shows that these people had everything that they needed. Their knowledge exceeded what people expected it to be during the paleolithic and neolithic age. The two pieces of art that are most intriguing to me were the “Ziggurat of Ur” and the “Ishtar Gate.” “The Ziggurat of Ur” stuck out because it was a place where jobs, religious rituals, and administrative buisness were held. Seeing a building like that built and seeing the use of it, reminds me once again just how advanced they were. “Ishtar Gate, for me, was such an architectural beauty that blew me away because I never would have imagined a house to look so decorative and colorful at an ancient time like that. To also find out that a figure like the Lamasu and lions would be put outside houses like that for protection was also really cool. 

Unit One Art Summary

In unit one, we dived deep into the concept of formal analysis of pieces of work and critical pedagogies. This was a great way to start an art history course because formal analysis provides the necessary tools to correctly examine a piece of artwork. The most important concepts I have learned during this unit is the practicality of formal analysis and how helpful it us to distinguish minute details in any piece of work, regardless of the genre. This taught me that there is a unifying theme behind formal analysis and it has a wide scope of practical uses when describing historical events, color, quality, social status, politics, etc. It’s an amazing tool to debunk all types of works into their minute details.

Another important theme we discussed in unit 1 was Paulo Freire’s, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.” In this work, Freire discusses the banking model and how it is a common theme throughout education. Also, he discusses the relationship between student and teacher and student and society. Through his “Banking Model Proposal,” he criticizes the education system by stating that students are essentially sponges who soak in information into their minds through rote memorization and through other impractical ways. Freire discusses how knowledge is a gift that is granted upon students and that students should be taught efficient ways on how to analyze and digest information rather than memorizing random facts. Also, Freire explains how bad it is for students to depend on their teachers to spoon-feed them valuable information. This will end up hindering their adult-skills in the future. In overall, I enjoyed reading his paper because it relates to a lot of students throughout the world. Paulo Freire is an advocate for critical thinking and the art of analysis. This best relates to the concept of formal analysis that we also discussed in unit 1. Formal analysis is used to analyze and comprehend small and big details that are found in pieces of work. There is correlation between Freire’s banking model and formal analysis in that he supports critical thinking and comprehension through analysis which is what formal analysis is meant to do.

Now that I mentioned formal analysis, I will talk about its practicality/versatility. Formal analysis is a step-by-step assessment/procedure that art historians (or almost anyone, this can be translated into the scientific method for scientists actually) use to understand the significance behind a piece of work. It is essentially putting yourself in the shoes/mind of the artist to have a better understanding of why certain things were used and not used. These can be the physical dimensions of the artwork, the type of canvas used, the quality of the paint, the colors used, the historical significance/context, the social political scheme, the types of lines, etc. There’s a plethora of analyses one can make when analyzing a piece of work. For example, when we were analyzing the formal properties of, Venus of Urbino, we discussed the overall theme of the painting, such as infidelity. We also discussed the motive of the painting. I believe we said it was a gift for a newly-wed couple. Then we discussed the basic formal properties such as colors used, size of the canvas, type of brush used, etc. In overall, I learned to efficiently analyze a piece of work. If I was not introduced to formal analysis, I would have had just said random strings of information without understanding the overall theme of the work, just like Freire was discussing.

 

Unit 1 Summary

We began divulging into this unit with our second blog post where we were each able to see and discuss how art has different meanings to each individual. At this point we learned that, essentially, there is no singular definition for the word art and what we consider art. I enjoyed that experiencing this in the beginning of the unit because I never knew if what I thought of as art could actually be considered a form of art. I grew up with an artist for a brother, so I always assumed that in reality the only works of art that existed were paintings, sculptures, etc.; and now I am aware that it can be the opposite in most cases. After learning formal analysis and how to use it, I have found myself appreciating things that I consider art even more. For example, when looking at the plating of many foods that you online and in-person, you can use the formal analysis technique in many ways. When looking at dishes I find myself paying more attention to the colors used, especially for garnishing and whether they are meant to enhance or diminish the food. Or I have found myself observing the size of food and plates, and how the two work with each other. Some use a larger plate for small portions to showcase the real-life size, while others use plates to fit the food for scale and to display actual or an enhanced size.

Furthermore, I have also began to find a new appreciate to actual paintings and sculptures when I see them. There are different paintings around my house and I have found myself observing them with more detail. For example, I’m always intrigued by the shapes and kind of lines that are used. The painting in my house of a field of flowers, I can now see that it is done with light lines and strokes with minimal shading to show that they are blowing in the wind.

In this unit we also learned about the banking model by Paulo Friere. The banking model suggests that teachers and educators are there to fill “empty vessels” i.e. students with knowledge, in which the students then just regurgitate the knowledge and there is no critical thinking component. He also mentions that this is the traditional education system which I can agree with. Even to this day I have a professor here and there that just wants us to regurgitate the information/knowledge that they shared and does not wish to go further with the material and make the students use the information. While reading many of the blog posts during this unit, I found that many of my classmates experienced the same thing, even with higher education.

Lastly, we began exploring the ancient world. This was one of my favorite topics thus far because I have always had an interest in ancient worlds. It was interesting to learn more about their art works in depth and the reason that some of them were made. For example, we learned that in Ancient Mesopotamia there are many small figurines and sculptures that are all made to look very similar; long hair, wide eyes, and hands always cupped together. These figurines were made small so that they could be kept with a person at all times and to “replace” times where they are unable to pray to the gods. The figurines were meant to show the gods that the person did care and that they were still worshipping them even when they were working or sleeping. The people were scared to be in a situation where they are not seen praying to the gods or giving thanks to the gods because they saw them as the power to make things really good or very bad.

What I Have Learned Thus Far…

Unit One of Art 1010 consisted of learning about the famous philosopher, Paulo Freire, and his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Specifically focusing on the concept of the baking model, which is a metaphorical take on our education system. In this unit, we also familiarized ourselves with the concept of formal analysis. We learned to look beyond the artwork and try to understand what the artist wanted to convey visually by analyzing certain characteristics of the piece and decisions made by the artist.

Both of these concepts go hand in hand when learning about art history or art in general. The banking model stresses that students should be able to have the freedom to think creatively, and in an art class, it’s essential for a student to use all of their creative energy to better understand a piece of artwork. Freire explains the issue regarding our current education system by saying that teachers act as narrators and deposit information into students, while students act as depositories, memorizing the information that is given to them. Through this teaching method there is very little room for any student to think outside of the box and if they do their thoughts and ideas are considered wrong. Freire goes on to explain that, “knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing” (Freire 72). In a classroom, there should be mutual respect between a teacher and the student in the sense of the knowledge they both bring about the subject. I think what is special in an art classroom specifically is that students’ have complete freedom when creating their own interpretations, and it won’t be considered “wrong.”

Following the banking model, we moved into the territory of formal analysis. During this topic, we learned to look beyond the artwork and a simple description and focus on what the artist wanted to convey visually by analyzing specific characteristics. Elements such as scale, color, line, light, composition, and texture help the viewer’s eye move through the artwork giving them an engaging visual experience. In Titian, Venus of Urbino 1538, one of the paintings we analyzed during class, we talked about how the lines move our eyes from one end of the painting to the other. We start on the nude body of the woman, which is meant to be the center of attention and make our way to the floor or the middle-ground. The diagonal lines of the floor lead us to the background or the window. Another important element in the painting is its colors and the way the artist uses them to portray what is most significant in the painting. The value of the colors in the foreground are brighter than the rest of the painting to show that the woman lying on the bed is the main subject. The texture in the painting helps give a visual sense of how an object depicted would feel in real life and in the case of the Titian, Venus of Urbino 1538 the artist uses the texture of the green velvet fabric to separate the foreground from the background. By using formal analysis, we have the opportunity to look closely at the artwork and try to understand the meaning behind it.

Unit One Summary

When coming into Art 1010 I didn’t know what to expect exactly.  It’s officially been a month now, and just recently we finished unit one of the course. Unit one basically served to me as the introduction potion of what the course entailed for the remainder of the semester.

The first item we learned about was the banking model. The banking model is a theory about hie a classroom should be conducted created by Paulo fiere. In his theory he states that in a classroom the flow of information only goes in one direction. that direction being from the teacher to the students. The teacher stand and the front of the classroom allegedly with all the wisdom and power , while all students quietly listen and accept everything as truth.  I believe that Although the banking model is generally what is standard in most forms education across the world, it doesn’t allow room for other occurrences that happen while learning takes place. Often times a teacher can be wrong when teaching a subject. Just because they are the ones operating the class, doesn’t mean they have learned everything there is to know about the subject. Secondly, I strongly believe that informations shouldn’t and doesn’t flow one way in a classroom while learning is taking place. I feel, when a teacher stops to receive feedback from the students, they can properly analyze the amount of learning that has taken place and what to teach next. However if Information is only going one way, the teacher is left blind to the actual effectiveness of his or her lesson.

The second thing we learned about in unit one was Formal Analysis. When initially hearing of the concept , I believed formal Analysis to be an impossible skill to grasp. However, After learning more about what it entails I found doing formal analysis much more achievable. You see formal analysis is about describing a piece of art work to the best of your ability. it requires your observational skills to be the best that they can possibly be. When you look at a piece of work you observe the color, lines, shadows… etc, to understand the composition of the work. The most interesting part of formal analysis though is when you uses the details drawn for the composite of the work to guess the message of the creator. Each piece of art work has a message, or even a purpose. The process of formal analysis helps us decipher what that message is and therefore gives us a greater appreciation for the work.

 

Unit 1 Summary

Unit 1 was an introduction to the main concepts and components of art which involve methods of learning, ways to characterize and analyze art, and our takes on those works of art. We began the semester by discussing what art meant to us, and how it is part of our lives. I believe art is used to define the creative world around us. For something to be considered “art”, it doesn’t have to be in a museum, nor does it have to be a painting. To me, art can be anything from a film, to a photograph, to graffiti on the walls of New York. If people are able to attach meaning and relate to a creative piece, then it is considered art. Art is also a large part of my life because I love to do photography. I began photography when I was 16 and used a small point and shoot camera. It wasn’t until I began getting more interested in photography that I bought myself an actual DSLR, and began to teach myself how to use it and how to edit. Though I am a little busier now with school, work, and other activities, I still try to go shooting with friends at least twice a week.

We also studied Paulo Friere’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In this, Friere discusses how the “banking model” is a form of teaching in which the teacher or educator is only there to feed knowledge to the students, and the students are only there to receive knowledge. It is a one way relationship that empowers the teacher, disempowers the student, and prevents critical and creative thinking. Friere argues that there needs to a balance between the teacher teaching the students, and the students interacting with the teacher. Friere’s “banking model” was also applied to our personal lives with teachers that we’ve had in the past, and how their use of the banking model ended up causing harm to our learning.

Additionally, we discussed formal analysis and how it is used to identify and examine works of art. Through formal analysis, the observer tries to understand the underlying meaning that the artist may have intended for the work of art to have. Some components include color, size and scale, lines, and symbolism. When looking at color, you must pay attention to the types of color schemes and the range used. You must identify whether they are light or dark colors, and whether the colors contrast with one other. When looking at size and scale, you must observe where any subjects or objects in the work are positioned. You also need to note the size of the objects. For example, noting whether the main subject is the largest thing in the work, or if there are things larger than the subject. Lines are a way of identifying the techniques an artist used in a painting. Some parts of a painting may have been painted using stronger strokes or different types of strokes than other parts of a painting. Symbolism is a strong component of formal analysis because it moves away from the physical aspects, and allows the observer to understand what the artist intended on saying, without actually saying it. By inserting specific colors, shapes, or objects, the artist can convey a certain emotion, reaction, or thought without having to write or say anything.

Unit 1 Summary

From the moment I stepped into the classroom, I thought that Art1010 would just be about simple old paintings. However, during the first week or so, we started to talk about what art really means to us. Art can mean a handful of things to us and is completely subjective to the human eye. Each individual interprets and comprehends things differently. Even though art is subjective, some of the components are incorporated into each masterpiece. Some of these components are uniqueness, imagination, expressiveness, affluential, and complex. These all create the foundation for beautiful artwork. With every piece of art, that artist always includes something that makes it their own. Where no one can make the piece like them.

Other concepts in which I have learned are the Banking Model of Paulo Freire and the use of formal analysis. The banking model is a concept of education where the students only know how to retrieve, file, and store away certain information given to them. Students only know how to memorize the information given to them, but don’t actually take the time to understand the material that is distributed. In the article, when Freire says “banking,” he means to take and put away, just like you would do at a bank with your own money. This concept is still practiced in modern day education and is believed to be the worst way to teach. When teaching something, everyone’s voice should be heard on the topic being discussed. Also, the teachers should make sure that the students actually understand what’s being taught and not just memorizing the material for the sake of it.

The other concept that I have learned in Unit 1 is the use of formal analysis. I believe that this is the most important component of any artwork because by using formal analysis, we can pick apart the artwork piece by piece and truly understand its origin. Formal analysis is the meaning and evaluation of art. It focuses on the central idea and how the story is being told. For example, when looking at a piece of art, to use formal analysis you would look at the contrast of light, the scale of the painting, the color, line, depth, and historical context. By picking the artwork apart, it is much easier to get an understanding of what the artist was thinking about at the time of creation. It’s an inside look of his/her intentions. Historical context is one of the most important components of formal analysis. In my opinion, without historical context, we would be perplexed by what the artist is trying to portray. Artwork created now has a completely different agenda than what art back then portrayed. A portrait in the 1800’s would look substantially different than a portrait in 2018. It’s a must to know what’s going on at the time the art was created to truly understand its production process.

From Unit 1, I have gained a greater understanding of the foundations of artwork, what art can mean to different people, and why the education system should be changed. These are some things that I thought I would never know until I entered the classroom. From the understanding of formal analysis, I look at art much differently and in a more superficial way. Now that I know all the key factors that go into creating these masterpieces, I feel more cultured and like I have an upper hand on the rest of the world. 

Blog Post #5: Unit Summary

Unit one explored the ancient world by using art to understand the importance and significance of a civilization. Before entering the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras, we first scrutinized art and its meaning. Art is many things, but it can be defined as a form of human expression that often is a visual cue and aesthetically composed to create an emotional, social, political, and religious statement. As we discovered in the early classes, to understand an artwork we must understand formal analysis. Formal analysis is best described as using the elements of art to read and understand the story or meaning an artist places onto a canvas. This technique uses, line, color, shape, value (chiaroscuro), texture and space and form, to create empirical questions that help to understand the artwork’s statement.

In the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) era we spoke mainly about the cave paintings and the Venus of Willendorf (fertility figure). The cave paintings mainly introduced us to not only the first artwork discovered but the idea of sympathetic magic. This can, in fact, be thought of as a religious ritual, which is one of the main themes of this unit. The figurine also is a form of art used to appeal to the fertility deities. This theme is extended into the Neolithic era. In the Neolithic age, society becomes highly stratified into what is commonly known as an agrarian society. The placement of government and administration creates divisions that we commonly know as social classes. This is especially seen in The Standard of Ur, which divides social class into three sections. The 3 sections are placed much like a hierarchy, the king and the priest on top, middle class (rams rather than donkeys) in the middle and slaves/labors on the bottom. The King is the largest figure in work, which is a commonly used technique to symbolism power or importance.

In the Cylinder Seal of Adda (Sumerian society), the continuity of religion is seen because the figures in the cylinder are often seen on deities. The main reason they are seen as deities is due to the crown and difference in size between them and a small man in the middle of the work. In this specific artwork, the deity of water is visible because water is increasingly important for agrarian societies (irrigation=increased agriculture). Another religiously affiliated art pieces are the miniature statues of people praying. They were used as stand-ins, with supplicating hands and large eyes.

There are many more artworks we spoke of but most were commonly associated with war, power, and religion, which easily is related to politics. The use of art created visual cues to express the history of Mesopotamia, Sumeria, Babylonia, and Neo-Sumeria in the primary perceptive of the people. The common technique used during this time were large proportions to emphasis power  (which in itself has a political agenda that during this time is often intertwined with religion), special symbols (crowns, clothing, powerful animals) to symbolize social status and importance and many other techniques. In shorter words art using formal analysis and contextual analysis are primary sources of history, that give us a clarified understanding of eras.