Tag: Art History Unit 1 Summary

Art 1010 Unit 1 Summary

In Unit 1, we were first exposed to Freire’s “banking model”. The banking model is a concept of education and the systematic oppression that the education system delivered onto students for many years. Freire describes this concept as a teacher teaching students a certain way, the right way, on how to think and answer certain problems. Students are essentially empty brains retaining all information that teachers teach. Freire poses solutions to this problem by suggesting a problem posing concept where there would be enhanced dialogue between the student and teacher. This way, students would work together with their teacher to come up with solutions rather than acting as robots and regurgitating answers provided. This method allows students to think freely and independently on whatever it may be. Pedagogy and power has taught me to think freely as our society is in need of character and individuality. I plan on using this lesson to encourage my children in the future to think for themselves as our education system is not changing any time soon.

In succession to pedagogy and power, we were introduced to Formal Analysis. Formal Analysis is visually analyzing a piece of work and trying to identify the subject matter that the artist is trying to convey. Many people, including myself, are accustomed to scanning pictures and moving on. D’Alleva describes this as the habit of “lazy looking”. In today’s society, we are exposed to technology and media at almost every moment of our lives. Our attention spans are becoming shorter, therefore, we can’t help but “lazy look”. In formal analysis, I learned how to analyze a work of art and dissect the meaning and subject matter to fully understand why an artist drew or made a specific piece of art. I learned to use key components such as color and scale in Titian’s Venus of Urbino to see the intentional use of warm colors of red and brown to maybe indicate the style and culture of the Renaissance period. I learned to use space and mass in Goya’s The Third of May 1808 to see how Goya uses mimesis and intentionally creates illusory characteristics that seem very realistic to the audience. Formal analysis can also be used on The Standard of Ur to see how the sizing of kings were larger to emphasize class divisions.

Throughout Unit 1, I learned about thinking freely through pedagogy and power and how to use formal analysis while looking at art. These were very important topics that will impact me in the near future.

Unit 1 Summary

 

 

 

Image result for artWhat I took away from this unit was what formal analysis was and its significance to art, what art is, Ancient art and what it tells us about the word and how education is making oppressed people less likely to face their oppressors.

 

Image result for people looking at artFrom what I’ve learned, in my opinion, Formal analysis is analyzing the elements that make up a piece of art and explaining their significance to the art. For example, when we analyzed paintings like the Manet Olympia, we get a grasp of what the artist was trying to show us. The brightest objects/things would be the most important and the focus of the painting, while the darkening and everything around the bright object/thing would be darker to help guide our eyes unto the the the important piece. Just like how bright the woman was in Manet Olympia. Whiter colors always tend to be more visible out of a darker background.

 

Image result for egyptian artFormal analysis goes into what we learned about ancient “art”. For example; during the Egyptian and Mesopotamian times, the king was usually made to look bigger than everyone. People who were usually smaller and some who are cowering help get our eyes on the King/Ruler. One of the most important analysis on ancient art would be the attention to detail to something important. Usually the most important person or object would be the one who have been detailed enough to almost look 3D out of the 2D artwork. What the detailing and size tell about the ancient world was that their was a hierarchy. Going down an Art piece like the Egyptian make up holder showed that the King was always on top of all humans, but most importantly the Gods were always on top of the kings watching down. What we consider as Art now was likely considered just a piece of work back then, but reading and trying to understand Ancient art, we can understand their world a little better.

Image result for paulo freire imagesIt was my second time reading Paolo Friere’s, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” because I did read it in High school, but I was able to go more in depth to what he was talking about. The most interesting lesson from him was the banking model. This is where he compares students to being banks and just take in information to just spit out information on a test. The students don’t find it interesting and it eventually loses it’s efficiency. Meaning students will stop caring to actually learn and just try to remember information for a test or work. The sad part is that this model is the basic model for public schools in America and most of the world.

Unit 1 Summary

Unit 1 was about the pedagogy and power, banking model, and formal analysis. The Banking Model is described as teachers simply passing on an idea to the students. The teachers talk and lecture while the students are quiet and receive the information. I have experienced this type of model many times in high school. Some teachers I had would not care to listen to anything the students had to say. They would think everything that they said was correct. I think this model has more negative aspects rather than positive. You might be able to learn something but it’s not the most effective and long-term method of teaching. I think its very important for teachers to engage and encourage their students to speak up in class. This helps a lot of students learn better. The pedagogical approach to any subject must be important when you want someone to learn. For example, if you’re teaching drawing you shouldn’t just put a fruits basket in front of the students and expect them to know how to draw. You would have to teach them the basics first.

Another thing we learned is formal analysis. Formal analysis is not only describing the art but also showing and understanding what the artist is trying to convey, visually. Everybody has different ways of looking at things so our own interpretation of art will have a play in what we think it means. When focusing on formal analysis, there are some characteristics we use: color, line, space and mass, scale. We also look at the composition of the art. Composition means how the artist combines all these factors in their work of art. We also use the historical context of an artwork. It relates to the things that happen during the time the art was made. It serves to give us a better understanding of the art and show why the artist decided to make this artwork.

It’s very interesting that you can learn so much about an artwork from its historical background. I never knew how to analyze an artwork before but after learning some basics on formal analysis it has become easier. When looking at the Titian Venus of Urbino, I noticed that a lot of warmer colors were used as opposed to cool or neutral colors. Colors like pink and red were used a lot. Another technique that was cool was looking at the way the artist catches your eye from the direction of lines. They guide your eyes intentionally from left to right. I personally thought that was interesting and cool how an artist can make you do that. Also, learning of the historical background of the painting really put it into a perspective of why the art was made.

Blog Post 5: Unit 1 Summary

         In unit one, I learned about formal analysis and about critical pedagogy. I found this topics to be interesting, but I wished we could have discussed critical pedagogy more thoroughly. I learned that the banking model was the idea that teachers know everything and spill their knowledge to the students, whose job is simply to soak it in and remember what was said. This education model takes power from the students and gives it all to the teachers. Paulo Friere, author of Pedagogy and Power, critiques this model by saying that equating it to a form of dehumanization. He even stands for critical pedagogy by saying that “this […] is the great humanistic and historical task of the oppressed [the students]: to liberate themselves and their oppressors [the teachers] as well” (Friere 44). I found this to be a very interesting and motivating idea that will forever have an impact on me.

         When we learned about formal analysis, I had expected it to be about analyzing quotes or books. I did not expect it to be more about how to ‘read’ artwork, nor did I expect that formal analysis is more about looking at a work of art than it is about writing about it. Formal analysis is the act of examining the details of a work of art to interpret its message. One thing I often remember about formal analysis is what you analyze (or, in other words, the elements of formal analysis). The elements include, but are not limited to: line, color, illusion of space, contrast, scale, and medium. The most important part of formal analysis is the goal: “to try to understand what the artist wants to convey visually” (Reinhardt 26). In other words, it is important to figure out what they are trying to show you and why they are doing this.

         Therefore, this is what I learn in unit one of Art History. I learned how to analyze of work of art to determine its message and I learned about oppression in the education system (and how to combat it). This opened my eyes to a new mindset and a new skill I did not have before, so I am interested to see how this will impact both throughout the class and later on in life.

Unit 1 Summary

When deciding to take the course of Art History & it’s Meaning, I wasn’t sure where one would even begin in learning about a subject that seemed so broad and substantial. In looking at the syllabus and taking in what would be discussed in Unit 1, I was still lost. What is Formal Analysis? What is Critical Pedagogy? How do both of these fit into art history and it’s meaning? Despite being unsure, I was open to learning about both. All it could do for me is unlock the door to a subject that always intrigued me and further help me understand what it is I’ll be learning this semester.

It turns out that formal analysis is where one must start before delving further into art history and it’s meaning. Without learning about formal analysis, we wouldn’t be able to analyze or depict the artwork we’d evidently be exposed to further along in the semester. All formal analysis is asking us, as viewers, to do is simply take note of what the artist has done visually in his or her work. In formal analysis it is important to hone in on visuals such as color, line, space, mass/scale, material, contrast, position, composition, and illusionism. Taking note of each of these components works to conceptualize the artwork at hand and form an idea of what it is the artist is trying to express. An artist’s use of a certain range of color, their emphasis of line and linear contours and the space they create within their work are integral to the message the artist is trying to convey. Other vital components to pay attention to when using formal analysis is subject matter and historical context. While subject matter is more blatantly obvious to analyze in artwork, it still aids us in understanding the artwork at hand, what or rather who’s important. Historical context, however, requires some outside research. Once this outside research is conducted, we can understand the artists choices much better and it becomes clearer why certain elements were incorporated.

I enjoyed learning about critical pedagogy because my own beliefs were finally being firmly relayed before my eyes. My opinions in relation to the education system that we subject our children to have never been formed in an honorary degree. I have always believed it to be corrupt and degrading, and Paulo Friere’s Pedagogy and Power reaffirmed this for me. In his famous novel, Friere ridicules the education system by constructing the banking model of education. In doing so, he argues that the relationship between teacher and students is an oppressive one. The teacher is assigned all of the power and knowledge and all of the student’s previous knowledge before entering the school system is completely dismissed. Instead students become “empty vessels” in which the teachers simply deposit knowledge in them. In this kind of relationship, not only is knowledge limited but creativity is stunted. The teacher’s intelligence and authority can never be questioned, even if it should be, and the student can never pass along any information or intelligence of their own, because it’d be deemed unworthy and illogical. The students simply receive and memorize the knowledge bestowed upon them and spit it back out when taking standardized testing.

In learning about formal analysis, art history and it’s meaning is prescribed a meaning. Without taking formal analysis into consideration, without using it, we’d be looking at art but we wouldn’t be seeing it. Formal analysis is integral to art history, without it one can argue that the study of art history and it’s meaning would be rendered useless. In also learning about Paulo Friere’s critical pedagogy, I’m even more aware of the faultiness of our education system. It helps me  appreciate the open and creative environment that I’m privileged with in attending college, where students thoughts and opinions are heard and valued. I believe unit one will prepare me immensely for the units that lie ahead and I’m interested in seeing how they aid me in my further understanding of art history.

Unit 1 Summary

In this unit, we focused on Pablo Freire, the banking model and how to do formal analysis of piece of art. Formal analysis and critical pedagogy are essential because they help the audience analyze and understand the work more in depth. From this unit I have also learned that art is a form of communication. It’s meaning is whatever the artist intends it to be as well as how it’s audience perceives it. Art is influenced by the materials, techniques, and forms it makes use of, as well as the ideas and feelings it can create in its viewers. 

Works of art are always crafted, never natural or choice free. Formal analysis is an attempt to describe physical entity such as a piece of art. For formal analysis, our vision is our primary source thus making formal analysis subjective. We look at a piece of art’s formal properties, subject matter, and historical context for a formal analysis. Formal properties refers to looking at the line, color, composition, size, scale, modeling, and etc. Subject matter would be what the artist has chosen to paint, draw or sculpt. If something is analyzed “in historical context,” it means the historical circumstances in which it was produced affected the work and it’s meaning or message. Without an understanding of the era, a full understanding of the piece will be impossible. Historical context can play into artists’ influences, intentions and state of mind. 

Freire calls traditional pedagogy the “banking model of education” because it treats the student as an empty vessel to be filled with knowledge. However, he argues the learner should be treated as a co-creator of knowledge. Freire rejects the banking approach, claiming it results in the dehumanization of both the students and the teachers. He also argues that the banking approach stimulates oppressive attitudes and practices in society. Instead, Freire advocates for a more world-mediated, mutual approach to education that encourages the co-creation of knowledge. According to Freire, this “authentic” approach to education must allow people to be aware of their incompleteness and strive to be more fully human. I agree with Freire, I think that the only way to be successful in current academic settings is simply memorization and not actually learning. That’s we we forget everything when classes end. 

Unit 1 Summary

 

Paolo Freire, writer of the “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” believes there is a fundamental flaw in the current education system. The flaw lying predominantly in the relationship between the student and the teacher, and how the student is conveyed the information from the teacher. Freire writes, “Education is suffering from narration sickness…” What Freire is trying to express is this idea that students are stuck listening to a “narration” by the instructor, and because of this bland re-telling of facts or ideas, the students have a complicated relationship with the idea of learning. Freire believes this is style of education is not conducive to learning, instead, all it “accomplishes” is a strained relationship between instructor and student. Because of this style of education, Freire believes that students are less inclined to learn new material, and instead, are forced  to cram their memory for the upcoming test, and once the test is finished, students tend to forget most, if not all of what they had just studied. Freire writes, “education is reduced to an act of depositing, students are depositories and teachers and depositors, this is the banking model.”

 

“The Banking Model” according to Freire, forces students into memorizing mechanically without ever really understanding what they are learning. He also writes that the banking model takes away a student’s individuality and autonomy.  Freire offers loose advice on possible solutions to fix this deeply engraved problem he sees with the education system. He believes we must transform the structure of education so that students can become, “beings for themselves.” As a student stuck in the education system, I cannot help but agree with Freire and his ideas. Throughout high school and for most of college I feel like most of the classes I have taken follow this rigid structure of forced memorization to meet a deadline and once the deadline passes I find myself forgetting most of what I had just studied. Like Freire, I believe there needs to be a fundamental change to the entire current system of education.

 

When viewing any piece of visual art, it is important to remember formal analysis. Formal analysis, according to Anne D’Alleva, are the “methods and questions that mostly concern the visual and physical aspects of a work of art.” This includes the line, shape, color, scale, and composition of a piece of art. Formal analysis concerns itself with how all these elements come together and work with one another for a piece of art. How did the artist make the lines, are they loose and soft, adding a blended element or are they rigid and unforgiving, making your eye separate the lines from the rest of the work? It is questions like these that help give the viewer a better understanding of what they are looking at, and it could potentially help the viewer understand why the artist made what they did.

 

D’Alleva suggests a three-part process when trying to understand formal analysis. Those three steps are “interpret, decipher, evaluate.” These steps will help structure a more complete analysis for the viewer, even if they are entirely unfamiliar with art. As someone who greatly appreciates art but often has difficulty understanding the entire scope of the artist’s work, formal analysis is a great tool to utilize. Sometimes when looking at a new piece of art, whether it be a painting or a sculpture, I tend to become overwhelmed with everything I am taking in, which at times, leaves me hesitant to explore the work beyond a surface layer. Formal analysis offers me a pattern and certain steps to follow so I can have a greater appreciation for a work of art, which will only come with a better understanding of the work.

Unit 1 Summary

Unit 1 was about the pedagogy and power, banking model, and formal analysis. The Banking Model is described as teachers simply passing on an idea to the students. The teachers talk and lecture while the students are quiet and receive the information. I have experienced this type of model many times in high school. Some teachers I had would not care to listen to anything the students had to say. They would think everything that they said was correct. I think this model has more negative aspects rather than positive. You might be able to learn something but it’s not the most effective and long-term method of teaching. I think its very important for teachers to engage and encourage their students to speak up in class. This helps a lot of students learn better. The pedagogical approach to any subject must be important when you want someone to learn. For example, if you’re teaching drawing you shouldn’t just put a fruits basket in front of the students and expect them to know how to draw. You would have to teach them the basics first.

Another thing we learned is formal analysis. Formal analysis is not only describing the art but also showing and understanding what the artist is trying to convey, visually. Everybody has different ways of looking at things so our own interpretation of art will have a play in what we think it means. When focusing on formal analysis, there are some characteristics we use: color, line, space and mass, scale. We also look at the composition of the art. Composition means how the artist combines all these factors in their work of art. We also use the historical context of an artwork. It relates to the things that happen during the time the art was made. It serves to give us a better understanding of the art and show why the artist decided to make this artwork.

It’s very interesting that you can learn so much about an artwork from its historical background. I never knew how to analyze an artwork before but after learning some basics on formal analysis it has become easier. When looking at the Titian Venus of Urbino, I noticed that a lot of warmer colors were used as opposed to cool or neutral colors. Colors like pink and red were used a lot. Another technique that was cool was looking at the way the artist catches your eye from the direction of lines. They guide your eyes intentionally from left to right. I personally thought that was interesting and cool how an artist can make you do that. Also, learning of the historical background of the painting really put it into a perspective of why the art was made.

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.

Unit 1: Art History Summary

      Throughout this unit we learned about what is the meaning of art, formal analysis, banking model, power and pedagogy. Why art is important? What is our ideas and opinion when we are talking about art? How did art influence in society? In my perspective, I think art is a way for people to express their emotional feelings. You may feel a connection with, being creative and having great imagination. Now, a formal analysis is when you look and describe a piece of an artwork. Trying to look into every detail that would help us analyze of a work of art. Therefore, we use the elements to describe the artwork. The color, line, space, mass, and scale are all made up the elements called the composition. The color is the first step where people take to look and identify the most because this is where it stands out. For example: if a painting that has all the ugly color it would definitely not going to look nice. We can also determine as a primary and secondary colors. Now, if it was all the bright pretty color, it obviously would look nice.

   The banking model is when we connected the ideas to pedagogy and power. The banking models help us establish about how the students limits the rights of being collaboratively and working together. Paulo Freire, who was a famous Brazilian educator who supports the idea of Pedagogy. He explained the wrong method of how the students are leaning. The banking model is describing as a negative way student being educated every day and has received many criticisms. Future more, he also talks about when the teachers directly fill the minds of the students with information and the students accept it without any questioning.

     Therefore, the students have no freedom in learning and do not gain any knowledge. Students usually memorize the information before taking an exam, but have not fully understood the concept of learning it. This is what we called a critical pedagogy which is idea that students and teachers are able to balance between the works among themselves. I do agree with this idea because it’s not fair to the students not able to socialize and without asking questions. This is not a way for the students to fully learn and understand the concept.