1. Art is not created in a vacuum - R.B. Kitaj
Viewing Art
Art is not created in a vacuum
- R.B. Kitaj

2. Gathering information
There are two general approaches:
Art criticism
Art history
Both use a 4-step process:
Description
Analysis
Interpretation
Judgment

3. Art Criticism Description: What is in the work?
Analysis: How the work is organized?
Interpretation: feelings or ideas communicated
Judgment: Your opinion of worth.

4. Art History Description: When, where, whom?
Analysis: remarkable features
Interpretation: Influences of the life & times
Judgment: historical importance

5. What is art?
Take a moment and write a definition of the word ’art’.

6. How does this fit your definition?

7. How about this?

8. This?

9. Art is a matter of perspective

10. Origins of the term art Latin root for art means skill.
Greek means technique.
Greeks studies a branch of philosophy that dealt with beauty: aesthetics.
Aristotle defined beauty in terms of representation of reality.
Later artists specifically rejected this notion.

11. Who defines art?
If I make something, anything, and call it art, is it?
If someone creates something strictly as a tool, and I think it is beautiful, is it art?
If someone mass produces trite illustrations and dubs themselves, “the painter of light™”, is that art?

12. Walsh’s definition of art
Any observable expression of human emotion.
Such a liberal definition does not, however, negate the existence of BAD art.

13. What, then, do viewers of art do?
Examine and react.
Consider elements and principles of art.
Consider context, movement, intention, effect.
Be art historians and art critics.