ART APPRECIATION 1

Homework for Sept. 19th. Review the vocabulary Sheet. I’ve marked on it where the new words are for this week. This week examine this copy of the Mona LIsa (or if you have her in a book you might find more detail) and write a paragraph about her using the new vocabulary and what we learned last week. Notice the value of the color, what is in the foreground, the background. If you ddin’t take notes, or don’t know the meanings of all of the words google them on the internet, although not always reliable, for this kind of basic information Wikipedia can be helpful and brief.

Homework for Sept. 12th. Review the vocabulary sheet.

Using the new terms you have learned write a paragraph about this painting. Tell me about the lines, texture, color etc. using the new information you have.

You should have written down definitions during class, if not you can look them up on Wikipedia which will also give you some pictures to illustrate.

ART APPRECIATION I

This class has actually been causing me a lot of angst. During the summers I do a lot of reading/research about the classes we will be doing next year. As I’ve been reading several Art History books I was finding myself frustrated at all I needed to skip in order to cover the highlights in 32-35 lessons. I’ve decided to break the Art Appreciation course into 2 years.

This year we will be covering Art from Pre-history (this means before writing was used) to the beginning of the Renaissance. In the past we have had to limit our focus to the Art of the Western World and Europe. This presents many difficulties, particularly in art after 1900. Many artist of the 20^th century were heavily influenced by the art of Asia, Africa, India, China, and the America’s. An understanding of these cultures art would greatly aid us in our understanding of Modern Art. So, we will be covering Art from every continent to about the 1400’s.

This approach had the unexpected advantage of tying in well to our study of Ancient History. As the art of any culture reflects it’s values, religions, and history, developing a greater understanding of that art provides added depth to our history study.

There is no textbook required for this class, although students will need to have access to the internet. I haven’t found a reasonably priced (or sized) textbook for what I want, so I am going to be making use of the internet. Students will be able to view the art we are studying in class on my blog.