For centuries societies have understood the importance of art in relationship to other disciplines. Many great artists were also writers and poets. Many artists were well educated in classical literature from which they drew inspiration for paintings and sculptures. The document argues that the obvious meeting place for the two disciplines of art…

In order to understand the place of Herbert Read both in 20th century aesthetics and art education, one needs to carefully consider the entire field of English art and aesthetics from 1900 to the beginning of the Second World War. This time frame was dominated by the thoughts of Roger Fry and Clive Bell, and works both literary and visual, of the…

"The Ring Toss," a gum-print six-by-eight-inch photograph produced in 1899 and first published in 1903, has become one of photographer Clarence White's most noted images. It is an example of soft focus, or fuzzy pictorialism, a type of American art photography most practiced around the turn of the century. This analysis of the photograph…

This paper discusses the ideas of Conrad Fiedler, a 19th century German philosopher of art, concerning art criticism, or the judging of works of visual art. In addition to a brief biography of Conrad Fiedler, the paper's main subject is Fiedler's ideas on art criticism as expressed in his book "On Judging Works of Visual Art" (1876,…

This paper describes postmodern theory as a paradigm composed of concepts and ideas. It does not describe postmodern theory as if it were developed logically from a simple premise, because it was not, nor can the postmodern paradigm be described in neat, concise terms. The paper presents a review and explication of postmodernism's theoretical…

This paper reviews some of the recent research relative to the thoughts and writings of the English art critic, Clive Bell, one of the leaders in British art criticism for the first part of the 20th century. Bell's conception of "art as significant form" is considered with specific reference to the following educators: (1) Roger Fry and…

The four content areas of discipline based art education (aesthetics, art criticism, art history, and art production) should be addressed in every art education unit planned and taught to students. All four content areas are addressed in the process of formal art criticism therefore every unit/lesson that utilizes a formal art criticism also…

This paper explores the question of introducing a critical pedagogy of representation into the art classroom, what it means and how it works. A critical pedagogy of representation holds socially transformatoryugoals that work toward a critical democracy. The approach affords opportunity for oppositional readings of texts and images by opening up…

If visual art is to be taught as a substantive part of the public school curriculum, then it's content and structure need to be translated into a curriculum that provides continuous cognitive and psychological growth and development. While discipline based art education (DBAE) acknowledges the values of art production, the content of art should…

Many aspects of discipline-based art education (DBAE) can be used with mentally retarded students and the effects of this approach can be exciting and fulfilling for them. Art criticism activities improve mentally retarded students' visual awareness, verbal skills, and ability to think independently. They are able to progress through the steps of…

The author describes the structure and methodology of "educational criticism" and provides excerpts from a study done in a high school art history class. Educational criticism is based on lengthy classroom observations and describes, interprets, and evaluates classroom life. The educational critic must be knowledgeable about classrooms and the…

A literature course entitled "The Victorian Illustrated Book: A Marriage of Image and Word," offered at Skidmore College in New York, was designed to help students make connections between art and literature. Based on the premise that illustrations in Victorian books can be "decoded" much like a written text, students were…