Visit any art gallery in your area. Select a piece of work on display and use terms and concepts from the Art lesson to interpret the piece:
- Step one: Provide general information about the work: the artist, subject matter, date, location, technique or medium.
- Step two: Describe the technical aspects of the work. Use the elements of art and the principles of design to describe the techniques the artists used to create the piece.
- Step three: Conceptual Perspective in Context: Interpret concepts, messages and meanings communicated by the piece. What type of symbols are used? Does the artists draw from or build on previous people, places, or events? Use what you know about the social and historical life of the artist to consider how they are visually communicating abstract concepts (thoughts, feelings, emotions, ideas, experiences, etc.) visually. Sometimes a piece of art is accompanied by an ‘artist’s statement’ that provides background, moods, motivation, etc. for the work that can be useful here. Otherwise, just give it your best guess. If the artist is anonymous, such as a cave painting, then consider what you know about the time and place the artist was living in and go from there.
- Step four: Viewer Context: Describe how you interpret the piece through your own lens. In what ways does the piece connect to broader shared human experiences (thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc.) that transcend time and space.
- Step five: Pull it all together to formulate YOUR conclusion or impression of the work. This is your statement about the piece.
For discussion: Submit a minimum 100-word report accompanied with a picture of yourself and the work of art as evidence that you participated.