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Understanding Art 2: Pathways into
Specialism

Written by:
Jacqueline Jeynes

Level HE5 - 60 CATS

© Open College of the Arts

 Open College of the Arts
Michael Young Arts Centre
Redbrook Business Park
Wilthorpe Road
Barnsley S75 1JN

Telephone: 0800 731 2116

E-mail: enquiries@oca-uk.com
www.oca-uk.com

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registered in England under number 2125674

Copyright OCA 2008

Document control number: pathways revised.doc

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopy,
recording or otherwise - without prior permission of the publisher
(Open College of the Arts)

© Open College of the Arts

About the author

Dr Jacqueline Jeynes has been a tutor with the Open College of Arts for 20
years, providing postal tuition for students on the Understanding Art courses
and Textile Design I and II. She was a member of the original Steering Group
in the early days of Understanding Western Art (now Understanding Art 1:
Western Art) was introduced.

© Open College of the Arts

Contents

Introduction
Course overview
Course outcomes
Study skills
Starting the course
Student profile
Keeping a Learning log
Collecting and visiting
Reading
Keeping sketchbooks
Annotations
On completing the course
Going further
Project and assignment plan

1: Looking
Introduction
Authenticity, recognition and comparisons
Project 1: The Woman from Willendorf
Project 2: Description of a sculpture
Assignment 1: Annotations/ Project 1 or 2/ Outline study plan

2: Reading
Introduction
Artistic intentions and critical accounts
Narratives, symbols and stories of art
Project 3: Critical reading of a text
Project 4: Narrative painting
Assignment 2: Annotations/ Project 3/ Study Part 1- work in progress

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3: Understanding materials
Introduction
The vernacular, hierarchies and transformations
Flat surfaces and craftsmanship
Project 5: Make a copy or a detailed analysis

4: Understanding methods
Introduction
Copies, variants and traditional methods
Planning, execution and analysis
Project 6: The sculptural process
Project 7: A creative variation of an Eastern work
Assignment 3: Annotations/ Project 5(copy or analysis)/ Project 6 or 7/
Study Part 2 – work in progress

5: Responding and Interpreting

Introduction
Personal and critical responses; Personal interpretations
Project 8: Describe your responses to different works
Project 9: Analyse the response of others
Assignment 4: Projects 8 and 9/ Study Part 3 – work in progress

6: Conclusions and critical review

Conclusions
The critical review; structure of final Report
Project 10: Carry out Critical Review of learning process
Assignment 5: Project 10/ Final Study Report (3500 words)

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Introduction

Course overview
Aims:
• to develop broader observation and analytic skills for works from
cultures other than the West
• to focus on a specific theme/ artist/ type of art form through carrying
out detailed analysis and evaluation
• to carry out research on specialist subject, identifying features for
closer analysis and presenting as an illustrated report
• to carry out a critical review of the learning process.

While the OCA Understanding Art 1: Western Art course gives a broad and
general introduction to the study of the history of western art aimed at those
who have some practical artistic skills, it only provides an introduction to
Western art. Understanding Art 2:Pathways into Specialism allows a deeper
study of art from a broader cultural base, leading you to consider areas of
specialism you wish to pursue further.

As with all OCA higher-level courses, the responsibility for devising a work
programme gradually moves from the course manual to you, so there are less
specific instructions about what you should do and more open-ended
invitations to you to pursue your own interests. This is inevitable when one
person's ultimate interest might be in pursuing impressionism, whilst
another's might be in African art. The course is built around Honour and
Fleming's 'A World History of Art'. This course manual is in part a guide to
intelligent and sustained reading and re-reading of Honour and Fleming's
book, and in part advice on how to build on your reading of the book through
careful and informed analysis of art from around the world.

Essay writing is only a small element of this course, but the annotation
procedure is an important learning tool.

© Open College of the Arts

Course outcomes
Upon completion of Understanding Art 2:Pathways into Specialism you will be
able to:
• move from the general to the particular by developing sound study
skills
• achieve an open-minded attitude to art of many periods and cultures
• carry out a self-directed analysis and evaluation in a specialist subject.

Starting the course

What to do first
Begin by reading the introduction and then look through the whole course.
Make a note of any questions you might have and consider a rough timetable
you can work from to complete the course.

Student profile
You will find amongst your assessment materials a single sheet called Student
Profile. Use this to tell your tutor a little about any past experience you have
and how confident you feel about learning some of the skills. This is an
important document. It is your first link with your tutor and gives you the
chance to introduce yourself. Give your tutor as much information as you can
about your previous experience, your reasons for exploring this subject and
what you expect to achieve from taking the course. OCA tuition is on a one-
to-one basis and so it is possible for our tutors to angle their advice to meet
individual needs, but only if these are defined in the Student Profile.

On receipt of your Student Profile, your tutor will write to you, introducing
him/herself and suggesting a date for the submission of your first assignment
in line with your timetable. Please note that this date is given as an indication
and that there is a degree of flexibility. If you feel you can complete the
section earlier, then by all means do. If you feel you need a little longer, that's
fine. If, however, there is going to be a considerable delay we would
appreciate your contacting the tutor and giving an anticipated date for the

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submission of your assignment. The most important thing is that you gain the
maximum pleasure and satisfaction from taking the course.

When you submit an assignment your tutor will comment and advise on your
work and answer any questions relating to the course.

Once you have looked through the course and sent off your student profile,
you can begin to start your first project.

Advanced study outline plan

You are required to write a study outline on a particular aspect of this subject
that wish to study (approx 750 words). The approved study outline will form
the basis of your critical review (approx 3,500 words) that you will also need
to complete later in the course.

An outline of yourself and your interests would help to further inform your
tutor about the topic of study that is most relevant to you - remember at this
level development is a joint negotiated plan that will attempt to develop your
professional role as well as you subject interest.

Topics you can consider:

Sample Issues etc

Landscape as an impression

Empirical figure studies

Order in Chaos - Systematic mark-making

The world after cubism

The influence of Picasso on 20th century art

From figurative to abstraction - reference Mondrian

Please submit your Study Plan to your tutor (which must in English).

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The study plan will be approved and or modified by your tutor to ensure that
it satisfies study requirements at this level. An academic member of staff at
OCA will also view the modified outline.

You are required to make reference to any research or source materials that
you will use, including museums, galleries, notes, books, research from the
web etc. and include any web links where necessary.

There should be at least five references to other authors in the theoretical

section (section one) of your case study, which back up your learning. You
may choose any texts to refer to, and may also refer to an online quote
providing you cite your source.

The following structure should be used in your outline for your Study Plan
that will also form the basis of your critical review. The indicated word
requirement for each section referred to below applies to your critical review
only.

© Open College of the Arts

Project and assignment plan
Time Taken
(hours)
1: Looking
Project 1: The Woman from Willendorf 10
Project 2: Description of a sculpture 10
Assignment 1: Annotations/ Project 1 or 2/ Outline Study Plan 20

2: Reading
Project 3: Critical reading of a text 20
Project 4: Narrative painting 10
Assignment 1: Annotations/ Project 3/ Study Part 1 – work in progress 70

3: Understanding materials
Project 5: Make a copy or a detailed analysis 30

4: Understanding methods
Project 6: The sculptural process 20
Project 7: A creative variation of an Eastern work 20
Assignment 3: Annotations/ Project 5 (copy or analysis)/ Project 6 or 7/
Study Part 2 – work in progress 70

5: Responding and interpreting

Project 8: Describe your responses to different works 20
Project 9: Analyse the response of others 20
Assignment 4: Projects 8 and 9/ Study Part 3 – work in progress 70

6: Conclusions and critical review

Project 10: Carry out critical review of the learning process 30
Assignment 5: Project 10/ Final Study Report (3500 words) 80
Reading time 100
TOTAL TIME 600

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1: Looking

Introduction
To read (in WHA): Introduction
1. Before History
Additional reading: see the bibliography in WHA, especially under
Pictorial Representation.

What do you see?

What do you see when you look at a work of art?

People have been looking at Stonehenge (pp 18-19: 48-9) [see earlier notes for
an explanation of page references to WHA] now for around four thousand
years. What you see today is a noble ruin, with only some of the features it
possessed when its construction was finished. Your perception of Stonehenge
may be restricted to simple facts: huge stones on an open landscape site, some
supporting lintels, some fallen, some apparently missing from what you may
deduce was originally a circle.

You cannot directly see its history, although you can inform yourself about it;
you may then look with renewed interest at the site, which your text states is
the largest prehistoric stone circle in the UK. The site has been memorably
recorded. John Constable, for example made a fine watercolour, now in the
Victoria and Albert Museum, and Henry Moore made a series of prints that
recorded something of the stones and their surfaces. In more banal ways,
Stonehenge has been drawn, painted and photographed, every record being
part of an encounter between an individual and the objects seen.

If you wrote a letter to a friend after a visit to Stonehenge, your description

would certainly be fuller than a comment on your mere perception. For
example, you would certainly add to an account of what you saw some

© Open College of the Arts

comment on how you felt about the experience. This may all seem quite
obvious, and having reached the stage of taking this course, you are likely to
be an experienced observer of western art. But, when you begin to look at the
art of less familiar cultures, you find it makes new demands, and it is these
that this course aims to help you to meet.

A new path to follow

Your text book, 'A World History of Art' explains the sequence of western art,
and considers in more detail the themes of still life, the figure, the portrait,
interiors, and landscape. It may throw new light on some topics, adding to
others, while providing a more consistent approach to art and its history.

In addition, the text book explores art from other cultures and parts of the
world, challenging to some of the things which are taken for granted in the
west. The most striking difference is that while western painting and
sculpture was for centuries preoccupied with representing the world in the
way that your text calls 'perceptually' (p xx: 19), this was not a universal
concern. In other cultures western conventions of the proportions of the
human figure, the modelling of forms in painting, or distance represented by
perspective are not always found, nor indeed are they throughout all periods
of western civilisation.

In African sculpture it is rare to find the common western proportion of one

to seven for the head as to the body. The development of what is considered
in the west as scientific perspective does not appear in, say, Chinese
landscapes. The interior of a Japanese temple is not planned in order to
inspire the worshipper through a sense of space like a European cathedral.
And so on. The familiar categories of western art are not universal, nor is the
same order of precedence placed on different categories of art as in the west.

The assumption of the authors of WHA is that they can help you to overcome
your western prejudices by employing formal analysis, a close and
purposeful looking at different works of art. Further, their enlightening
accounts of western art will enable you to make comparisons.

© Open College of the Arts

You may wonder how relevant your existing skills are for considering art
from other cultures and for reaching a more thorough understanding and
appreciation of the most diverse cultures, even though their detailed
particularities require deeper study. You may argue that you should acquire a
thorough understanding of another culture before evaluating its art, but here
we are making a start. Just as your first encounter with a stranger may
develop into a friendship, your wary uncertainties in front of perhaps
Japanese or Mexican art will pass. There are different points to notice, but
then there were always different points to consider about a western still life or
a western landscape.

A note on records . . .
Tourists are sometimes ridiculed for spending their time taking photographs
rather than looking at the scenes and places that they visit. The criticism is
justified if a tourist is unable to enjoy the atmosphere of a place, or sees works
of art only through a viewfinder. On the other hand, it is often pleasant to
have personal record of a visit, and OCA students have made good use of
cameras to record details, unusual views, or simply works of which no photos
are available. A photograph is a single view, and carries only a limited
amount of data. This record is not what you see, but a fraction of your
experience (there is no need to detail the limitations of lenses, films, and so
on). A drawing, analysis of some sort, or a copy is a different fraction, with
the advantage of the thought you have put into it, and the more accurate
observation it has needed.

Your thoughts can also find expression in words. An annotation is a jotting

down of notes, related directly to what you see in the reproduction in front of
you. Besides this, there are questions, notes and ideas which occur to you and
which are placed below the line on your sheet, going beyond what you can
see. The first observations can be extended further, and in themselves may
form a substantial part of a catalogue entry, as it were, for the work observed.
You will find that the pages 'In Context' in WHA are worth studying. For
example, the portrait of An Qi painted by three artists in 1715 (p 646: 695) tells
you one thing you deduce from a careful look, that the portrait is by one

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artist, the landscape by another. But you also need to learn the symbolism of
the crane, the bamboos, the flowers and the trees with golden fruit.

In these first two units your annotations are about very different sculptures,
the first is only as tall as the side of a postcard, the other is nearly eight feet
tall. About the first there are many unknowns, about the second the informed
viewer can draw on a rich social, historical, cultural and religious background
of knowledge. You are starting with what you can see, and you can then turn
to the relevant chapter of the text to find out rather more.

To collect: six images of works before 1000 BC (images can be postcards,

photographs, photocopies of book or catalogue entries, or down-loaded
images from the internet)
To annotate: The Woman from Willendorf (p 5: 35)

Project 1: The Woman from Willendorf

Imagine you are the archaeologist who has discovered the Woman from
Willendorf. No photographs are yet available, so you are writing to a friend to
describe and explain the find.

The annotation you have already made can be the basis for a formal
description of the figure, but you are also trying to explain the excitement you
feel about this very early relic of human figure making. Does it make sense to
you to call it art? You will find helpful discussion in 'Before History.'

Your letter should be about 500 words long.

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Authenticity, recognition and comparisons

To read: 6. Buddhism etc

Additional reading: I suggest you use the bibliography in WHA for some
topic that interests you, without feeling the need to study any subject in
depth. This course is about principles of study, and achieving an open-
minded attitude to art of many periods and cultures - specialism follows on
from this course.

The real thing

Is what you see the real thing? This is a different sort of question about what
you see; it is about the authenticity of objects. European viewers often expect
to be able to identify works of art as having been made by individual artists,
and for these artists to be named. But this does not always apply.

You have already annotated a figure identified by the place where it was
excavated – Willendorf. We do not know the names of artists in ancient
Egypt, medieval European objects are frequently identified by the name of the
donor, not the maker, African carvings are identifiable by ethnic group but
rarely by the name of a carver.

Do you know who the artist was? If so, you can make comparisons with other
works by the same person. European connoisseurs are adept at attributing or
denying works to the canon of distinguished artists. This connoisseurship is
based on careful examination of the works themselves, a master class in
annotation, one might say. Such connoisseurship also enables forgeries to be
identified, though as forgers are often as clever as they are unscrupulous, it is
a relief to art experts that methods of dating can now be borrowed from
scientific procedures in measurement. Essentially, though, connoisseurs are
expert scrutineers of works of art, bringing together powers of observation
with historical and cultural knowledge.

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Among the things a connoisseur may be able to deduce is what degree of
authenticity can be established for a given work - whether, for example, a
painting has been overpainted or restored, if the colours have deteriorated
over time, or if it has been altered in some other way since it left the artist's
studio. This may be beyond an ordinary observer. Of course, the extensive
documentation of European art and the assiduous study of European art over
the last hundred years cannot be matched for other cultures, and raises
unfulfillable expectations where documentation is thin or does not exist.
Again, in WHA you will see how incomplete our knowledge remains.

The unknown artist

Art that is by an unknown artist can be put into a sequence or a historical
context, very often through the same sort of examination of form which is
applied to better documented art. Here comparisons can be used, and from
the evidence a picture can be built up of a period and a climate of art. This is
how archaeologists work, and their investigations lead not only to more
knowledge about art but extend to understanding of history and cultures too.
You will already have noticed the speculations of archaeology at work in
'Before History'. Archaeology is heavily handicapped by the fragmentary
character of its evidence, most objects being incomplete and many only
known through the copies of later times.

Here again, different cultures set different problems for the student. In the
Chinese civilisation, exact reproduction of earlier art was respected and
admired. In some instances, we are unsure of the date of paintings or
ceramics, since there is a possibility that either they are original, or that they
are the perfectly executed copies of a later period. The most learned scholars
cannot agree. For example, the scroll entitled The Admonition of the Instructress
to the Court Ladies (p 236: 268) is either a copy of the 10th century or an
authentic work by Gu Kaizhi from the 4th century.

In African carvings of wood, few of which are older than the 19th century, the
prevalence of copies is a serious hazard for collectors. In Japanese
architecture, the exact replication of an older structure was an accepted

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practice, for example the shrine at Ise (p 253: 287) was regularly rebuilt. You
will be able to multiply instances as you read and refer to your text.

Comparisons
The plot thickens. The transmission of art from one generation, from one
century to another may depend on fragments, or on translations of work from
one medium into another. In Europe this is well-known, since prints were
frequently the means whereby compositions and themes in art became more
widely diffused. In the world as a whole today, photography performs this
role of communicating information about art, and other technologies are
speeding the process still further.

There are limits, however, to the effectiveness of this transmission. Think of

Europe in the 17th century when composition could be effectively transmitted
through engravings, but colour could not.

To collect: six images of oriental art

To annotate: Guanyin, Song dynasty sculpture (p 243: 275)

Project 2: Description of a sculpture

Choose a piece of sculpture, and decide how to make this work of interest and
use to an artist friend living abroad. For a three-dimensional object, a camera
to take views from different angles is a useful choice. Or perhaps you might
like to consider something more adventurous than a drawing or a photograph
and try a collage or a model?

When you have your image or model, write a description to your friend to
complement it, making up for its limitations. This need not be very long,
possibly 250 or up to 500 words, but it should help your friend to get a good
idea of the sculpture and its qualities.

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