The fundamental idea behind the workshop is primarily to develop and nurture an understanding of art.
Examples of artworks from certain periods will be used to illustrate the following aspects in order to demonstrate art and society are closely linked to each other.
The emphasis is to be placed on looking at the works, rather than a ‘dry’ learning process about artists. It is to be about looking, comparing, contrasting, reasoning, feelings, whilst viewing works and discussing them.
Artists to look at:
• Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse (Impressionism – the beginning of modern art)
• Picasso (his radical development of art and his political stance)
• Pollock (from drip paintings to deconstruction of painting)
• Current artists (e.g. Damien Hirst, Peter Doig, Chris Ofilli, Ah Wei Wei etc) including those in China and Hong Kong (art without boundary)
Aspects to examine:
• What artists were doing and how did they create the work
• Why they were doing it
• What was influencing them
• What was their influence and their legacy to succeeding artists
Methods of learning and appreciating art
(1) Literal description
By choosing some works of art, showing images of those artworks, the teachers / students review what they ‘see’ in order to strength their ability to make focus observation. For example:
• Describe the image that they see
• What is the artwork about?
• What is the subject matter?
• What is the timeframe of the artwork?
This should be followed by discussion with other teachers / students to see if they share the same view.
Since everyone is an individual and has different personal experiences and knowledge, their views on art may therefore vary. However, they should be encouraged to express their feelings when viewing artworks in order to promote mutual exchanges and debates. For example:
• What effect does the artwork have on you?
• Does it make you feel calm or uneasy?
• Is the work noisy, quite, comfortable, upsetting, pleasant, sad, relaxing, shocking or disgusting?
• What is the focal point of the work?
• Do you like it? Should you ‘like’ it, or just gain an appreciation of what the artist is / was trying to do.
• Why do you like it, or why don’t you like it?
(2) Formal analysis
This approach is directly based on literal description of the artwork, and the teachers / students will learn the following aspects:
• View how the visual elements such as composition are arranged in the artwork
• Identify the materials, techniques and process used for creating the work (such as Seurat’s pointillism; Albert’s interaction of colour; and Pollock’s drip paintings)
• Is the artwork abstract or figurative?
• What are the main strategies of the work?
• How is the work produced?
• Did the artist use sketch, photography, collage, or found objects?
• Was the work done spontaneously or slowly?
• What colour scheme is used (contrast, neutral or complimentary)?
• What skills does the artist need to create the work?
Various fine art disciplines including painting, installation, sculpture, photography and video art will be discussed. I think it is important that this is not presented in a standard and dull way, but done mainly by looking at key artworks, and briefly at the lives of the artists that created those works, as well as discussing what was happening at the time and what the artist was trying to achieve. It is interesting to look at say, an early Picasso, then a mid period and late period, where his style changed radically. What and why he did what he did?
(3) Interpretation of meaning
Followed by the above two approaches - literal description and formal analysis, the teachers / students can now explore the deeper implications of the artwork.
• What happened in the country at the time the artwork was created? (e.g. Picasso’s Guernica)
• Does / did the work serve any functional or religious purpose? (again Picasso’s Guernica, other earlier paintings, etc)
• What does / did the work reflect the society at the time?
• What influence did the work have on society at the time? (e.g. Mondrian’s influences on fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, his 1965 Mondrian collection; and the L’Oreal cosmetic group, still seen today)
• Is / was the work just a personal expression of feelings or is / was metaphorical? How do you know?
• What is good / bad art?
After participating in the above appreciation activities, the teachers / students will now have a much better understanding of art and can apply what they have learnt to view and interpret contemporary art.
Painting / sculpture / installation workshops
Art practice workshops will be organised to explore various themes. For example:
• Painting with colour (Albers’s colour studies for example)
o Look at how colour influence each other
o Play with colour combinations
o Create a work based on the colour studies
• Learning how to produce a work in styles of particular artists, to get inside what it is like to create something and what are the various things to be resolved.
o Chose a few pieces of artwork (the length of this workshop can be flexible) and learn the techniques behind the chosen work.
o ‘Copy’ as faithfully as possible in order to learn the process, techniques, and the colour schemes of the artwork.
This workshop can further be extended to producing artworks, based on the
student’s choice, using certain techniques learnt from previous workshops.
• Painting on the floor (using the whole body movement to create large scale of artwork – abstract expressionist - Pollock)
• Making collage / sculpture with found objects (e.g. items that you find on pavements, small items that you don’t use any more)
• Making an installation work (collaboration work by the students and the artist)
The duration and theme for each art practice workshop can be flexible, depending on the current art curriculums.
Conclusion
At the end of the workshops, the teachers / students will have learnt how to look at, understand, and try to appreciate art with an open-minded attitude and a willingness to take on board new and sometimes difficult ideas.
These workshops will enrich their experience and broaden their minds when viewing art, and lay a solid foundation for art appreciation generally.
