The appreciation of art appreciation…
An essay…
As you might have guessed by the title, classes started this past week. With the beginning of a new semester, there is the excitement to meet new students and the warmth of seeing my old students around. Many of them offer a hug— a very warm and kind gesture that always brings a lot of fuzzy feelings. And of course, there is always a drama or two about a class or a tool or something. All of which is per the course of what we do. There is also greeting coworkers and catching up with our respective summer activities. The first week is kind of intense. By the end of it, I was ready to sleep for days. Alas, life does not allow me to sleep that much and neither does my bladder.
This semester I have the pleasure of teaching Art Appreciation to an honors class. I met them and they are lively and chatty, which I love. I gave them an introductory assignment with 10 questions about how do they define art, the relevance of art in other subjects, and what artworks do they find beautiful and ugly. Grading this assignment was a joy. I learned so much about them and what matters to them. Surprisingly, and I say this because my experience last semester was the opposite, this group is not that big on the use of AI. In fact, based on what I read, they find AI to be a tool of plagiarism and cheating artists of their work. I was impressed. I also found out that some of them find the humans to be one of the greatest works of art. And another described how the way her mother practiced motherhood was the most beautiful thing she’s witnessed. I almost cried when I read that one. In short, I was so moved by their answers. I hope that things stay this good and we develop a good rapport.
It is no secret that I love art history and perhaps I am closeted art historian. So if teaching Art Appreciation is as close as I will ever be to teach Art History, oh, I will take it! I have a fascination with the history or background of each painting. The concepts and ideals portrayed and how these are embodied and symbolized in a work of art. To me, art history is a witness to our humanity and its ups and downs. It preserves our past while teaching for the future by telling stories. However; not all art has to have a narrative. Sometimes the shapes, textures, and colors themselves tell a story or speaks not to our intellect but triggers emotions and memories that sometimes we did not know were there.
Years ago, at one of the galleries at the Memorial Union at Iowa State University, there was an abstract painting in blue and cream colors. The composition and the color arrangements brought me back to my days at the beach when I was growing up. In my mind, I could feel the spraying of salt water and the smell of the ocean. I contemplated that painting for a bit. There was no beach being represented in it. It was just the colors but it evoked my days in the ocean. I wish now I had written down then name of the artist and the title.
Art pieces, ugly or not, have power. Though art is not the only area that achieves that visceral reaction. I showed my Graphic Design students a series of bad logos. The shapes themselves, their proximity, arrangement, and placement communicated so strongly some of them were embarrassed to express what they saw. Compositionally and aesthetically they were bad logos, but did they touch a nerve? Absolutely. And were they successful on that, you bet. The visual language developed both in art and design communicates not only cognitively but also emotionally. We react. We feel something about it and sometimes it is so strong that we go to social media to vent our anger. Case in point, the recent redesign of Cracker Barrel. People have reacted and they lost millions in stock value. Yet, parents are always concerned that their kids will not find a job as an artist or as a designer. No such thing. Not now anyway. Even with AI lurking there. Someone has to tell AI what to make still.
Art matters. Design matters. And it impacts our being. We do not take neutral positions when it comes to the visual arts. Yes, it might not be the first place some think of as a leisure activity but when faced with it, we always have a a reaction, sometimes a very strong one.
One of the questions in the survey I gave the honors class was to identify an artwork that they found beautiful and an artwork they found ugly. The answers were varied and interesting to say the least. So much so that on Tuesday I will present a slideshow with the images of the artworks listed to discuss and help them articulate their reasons both addressing formal art aspects and their emotional reactions. I thought it would be a good idea to share what do 18 years olds consider beautiful and ugly. Let’s start with the beautiful:
Carolina Crown Performance E=EM2
Judith Slaying Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi (I saw this in person last year in Italy. No picture does it justice. The size of this painting and the detail even in the blood splatter is magnificent).
Human beings
Motherhood. This one I will exemplify with a photo I took of one of my nieces last year with her baby below.
Now for the things they found ugly:
Comedian (banana stuck on the wall with duct tape) by Maurizio Cattelan
AI art (for this one I provided the search results).
And last but not least, Mona Lisa by Leonardo daVinci
As you can see the list is varied. Still, there is little mention on non western art. Something I plan to address throughout the semester as we move along. The fact that they provided me with such a rich list encouraged me to think we will have lively conversations about what constitute art and their reactions to it. Stay tuned.
Love,
Alma