Responding to Art: Art Criticism

Learning Resource Type

Classroom Resource

Subject Area

Arts Education

Grade(s)

5

Overview

Students will practice art criticism by describing, analyzing, and interpreting artwork.  The description will include colors, textures, shapes, and lines.  The analysis describes the artist's choices.  The interpretation includes the student's interpretation and support of their ideas and feelings.  Assessment rubric, letter to parents, examples of artwork, and lesson plan included in PDF.   

Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 5 - Visual Arts

AE17.VA.5.12

Interpret art by analyzing visual qualities and structure, contextual information, subject matter, visual elements, and use of media to identify ideas and mood conveyed.

UP:AE17.VA.5.12

Vocabulary

  • Cultural context
  • Formal & conceptual vocabulary
  • Genre
  • Linear perspective
  • Preserve
  • Principles of design
    • Movement
    • Emphasis
  • Relief
  • Vanishing point

Essential Questions

EU: People gain insights into meanings of artworks by engaging in the process of art criticism.
EQ: What is the value of engaging in the process of art criticism? How can the viewer "read" a work of art as text? How does knowing and using visual arts vocabularies help us understand and interpret works of art?

Skills Examples

  • Compare and contrast artworks in terms of content, stylistic characteristics, and techniques.
  • Collaboratively observe, analyze, and interpret a body of artworks about places, focusing on content, style, and technique.
  • Identify and analyze the terracotta Army and its relationship to Chinese Culture.
  • Describe the relationship between works of art from different cultures being respectful and mindful of cultural sensitive themes.
  • Discuss differences in art of familiar and unfamiliar cultures.
  • Discuss the reasons and value of documenting and preserving works of art and objects for a culture.
  • Recognize what was learned and the challenges that remain when assessing a work of art.
  • Use criteria to assess works of art individually and collaboratively.
  • Use contextual cues to discuss notions of beauty and aesthetic value.
  • Compare and contrast different media and techniques.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.

CR Resource Type

Lesson/Unit Plan

Resource Provider

Other

License Type

CUSTOM

Resource Provider other

ArtsEd Washington
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