Chapter 22

While I read the section "How to Start Discussions of Aesthetics" I found myself laughing at some of the questions provided to introduce aesthetic topics.
"Is art better when figures depict muscles rather than sausage-looking arms?" YES! Well, at least I prefer looking in the mirror and seeing muscles instead of sausage looking arms. jeje
"Can monkeys make art?" YES! I make art with my nephews and sometimes they make sounds like monkeys... and act like monkeys, thus making them art-making monkeys.
"Are certain things ugly and shouldn't be allowed, like having too many old cars around your house or leaving your garbage container out at the curb too many days?" YES!
In Palmer where I grew up if you left your garbage can out on the curb for too long, the wind took it away... and that is an UGLY thing.
This chapter was a great little reminder of a few approaches to art criticism. I wonder why on the first page the book say that art criticism in schools is only for engaging students in learning how visual culture reflects the larger culture. But, it says that art criticism in schools should not be used to improve the student's artwork. I disagree. I think middle and high school level students can handle reviewing their own work and assessing how successfully the work met the learning objectives for that particular project. In fact, I think it is possible for students to begin using art criticism to improve their performance even in elementary levels. The art specialists in Fairbanks are beginning to adopt an assessment format that allows the students to decide to show a "thumbs-up" or a "thumbs-down" about their own final product and knowledge while a list of criteria are read aloud. It is a highly informal mode of art criticism, but the students are viewing their work critically.
In reference to the Formalist vs. Contextualist section, I thought back to last weeks assignment when I noticed that more of the guiding questions for primary levels in the How to Talk to Children About Art book were fact-based contextual while the upper grade levels had more contextualist questions that relied on suppositions about the artist's intent and use of formalist principles.
Good chapter.