Visual Arts Study Notes

PRACTICE

Practice in Artmaking, Art Criticism

and Art History

Artmaking practice is the ‘doing’ of things in the art

world. It is made up of Material Practice and
Conceptual practice.
 Material Practice refers to the techniques and processes used in order to
produce an artwork or artworks.

Conceptual Practice refers to the ideas and intentions explored through the
artwork or artworks.

Art Criticism investigates the ways in which different

meanings are represented in artworks. The aim of the critic is
to clarify and assess:
● The qualities of an artwork
● How an artist develops and produces art
● How the audies may view, understand and appreciate the
artwork
Criticism about art should:
● Involve more than personal judgements
● Clearly describe the effectiveness of an artwork
● Assess an artwork in relation to the world, not as an isolated
piece of work
● Demonstrate your specialized knowledge of the visual arts

Art Historians map out the significance of artworks and

artists in relation to their contexts: the periods of time and
places in which they worked

FRAMES
 The Frames

The FRAMES component of Visual Arts Study shows you

how to understand artworks and artists by looking at and
analysing them through particular structures.

These structures give you “keys” or approaches to open up the

meaning in artworks.
SUBJECTIVE - this looks at the feelings and emotional
responses we can get from artworks. It identifies the personal
responses of artists and audiences.

STRUCTURAL - this looks at the approach to form

and the treatment of the materials in the artwork. It examines
how the artwork is put together and what technology is used.

CULTURAL - this deals with the way the artist and/or

atwork develops a particular identity or characteristic that
reflects the attitudes of a particular time or place.

POSTMODERN - this looks at artworks using

contemporary knowledge and theories that challenge
traditional and modernist ideas. These include issues such as
appropriation, a voice to minority groups (eg indigenous
groups), use of new technologies, conceptual or idea driven
work

SUBJECTIVE FRAME

Personal and Psychological Experience

Through this frame, art may be thought to be about and represent deeply felt
and sensory experience, human consciousness, intuition, imagination,
originality, creative expression and aesthetic response.

Meaning is understood in relation to the intersubjective experiences afforded to

the marker and viewer
Since Visual Arts is an area in which personal and intimate qualities play
vital roles, the subjective frame focuses on the personal relationships that both
the artists and the audience have with an artwork and with writings about art. It
looks at the way in which the audience will attempt to understand the personal
ideas of the artist and the different ways people will respond to the artwork.

Using the Subjective Frame to look at an artwork involves asking:

● How are feelings and experiences conveyed throughout the work?
● What personal understanding of the subject is apparent and how is it
communicated?
● Do you, as the audience, feel and understand the work?
● What personal insights are offered by the artist/historian/critic?
● Does the title of the work give a deeper insight to the work?
● What emotional responses is the artist/historian/critic trying to get from
the audience?
● How is the personality of the artist/historian/critic conveyed?
● How crucial is imagination to the production of the artwork, and why?
● In what ways does the audience empathise with the artist/historian/critic?
● How are personal intentions conveyed through the artwork or writing?

STRUCTURAL FRAME

Communication and the systems of signs

Through this frame, art may be thought to be about and represent a visual
language as a symbolic system: a system of relationships between signs and
symbols that are read and understood by artists and audiences who are able to
decode texts. From this view, meaning is understood in terms of the
relationships of symbols that are used to refer to the world. Through this system
ideas are circulated and exchanged.
Interpreting an artwork from the viewpoint of the structural frame means
reading the work as a text. Structural theorists presume that the meaning of the
work resides in the work itself and is not altered by its context.

A structural analysis involves consideration of the following:

GENRE - recognized category regulated by conventions of form and content

● Representation of a particular subject matter
● Production in a particular medium
● Membership of a recognized traditional artmaking practice

VIRTUAL PROPERTIES - conceptual aspects

● Subject matter - people, other living things, places, objects, events, issues ad
theories represented
● Icon - a sign in which resembles the thing it stands for eg a silhouette of a
human figure, a photograph of a building
● Index - a sign which is physically or casually related to what it signifies eg
footprint
● Symbol - A sign in which does not resemble what is signifies; quite often used
to represent an abstract concept eg a dove (peace), red (passion), logo
(corporate identity)
● Theme - overarching message about the subject matter eg the beauty of
nature, the sacrifice of war, the endurance of love

AESTHETIC PROPERTIES - compositional aspects

● Visual elements: direction, colour, line, shape, size, texture, tone
● Principles of organization: scale, repetition, contrast
CULTURAL FRAME

Cultural and Social Meaning

Through this frame art may be thought to be about and represent the collective
interests of cultural groups, ideology, class, politics, gender, economic
conditions and the celebration of spiritual and secular beliefs, events and
objects. From this view, meaning is understood in relation to the social
perspective of the community from which it grows.
The cultural frame highlights the fact that no artist works in a social vacuum
and that all artworks reflect some aspect of the culture (beliefs, ideas, social
structures) in which they were produced.

The times and place will greatly influence both the cultural significance of the
artwork and the artist’s approach to artmaking.

The cultural frame alerts the audience to the artist’s philosophy and intention by
looking at the culture which surrounds the artwork.

Using the cultural frame to look at an artwork involves asking questions like:
● Are the signs and symbols used by the artist specific to a particular
culture? How might other cultures understand this?
● Does the artist attempt to reflect the attitudes of a time and place? How is
this done?
● Beliefs about race, gender, and social class can shape society. These
elements can be distilled in an artwork, giving an insight into the cultural
values of the artist’s world. How are these conveyed in the artwork?
● Is there a political significance in the artwork? What is it? Why is it
there? Are there obvious political issues in the writings of art critics and
historians?

POSTMODERN FRAME

Ideas which challenge mainstream values of histories and ideas.

Through this frame, art may be thought to be about and represent ‘texts’ that
reconfigure replicate and question previous texts and current narratives. These
are woven together through such things as irony, parody, quotation. From this
view, meaning is attained through critique that exposes the patterns of authority
and the assumptions of mainstream values in the visual arts to reveal
inconsistencies, uncertainties and ironies.
POSTMODERNISM means after modernism and represents a change in
attitudes, intentions and practices from the modern era.

The postmodern frame refers to the critical debates that are current in society
and the artworld. Postmodernism is a way of thinking which suggests that
everything can be explained and interpreted in a number of different ways due
to the changing nature of what is true and how we accept facts. This can be the
most difficult frame to understand as it tends to escape clear definition, yet it is
highly significant in the contemporary world.

In postmodernism:
● The idea of absolute rules, dominant styles and recognized
conventions is dismissed.
● Accepted conventions - such as taste, culture and style - are critically
brought into question and their validity is challenged.
● Representation is constructed by conditions between the artist, artwork
and audience that can change at any moment and cannot be governed by
universal laws
● Artist reacting against the elitism of Modernist art practices make art
referencing commercial art practices that are recognized and understood
by the masses.
● Artists frequently use text as a visual and communicative device
● There is a proposal that perhaps what is more important than the artwork
is the way we look at and understand the work, which even suggests that
the audience is more important than the artist. Thus the role of the
audience is crucial in interpreting the artwork
● Approaches to art making such as appropriation, irony,
recontextualisation and eclecticism are not necessarily new, but they do
challenge traditional modes of thinking.
● Postmodernism art also engages with the use of new technologies eg
digital. Artists frequently use non conventional materials and techniques
to produce their work.
● The postmodernism world offers a voice to marginalized groups. Women,
indigenous people, homosexuals, are all offered a voice which they
previously were denied. Postmodern art is often political in its content
with artists openly critical of aspects in society. During the Modernist era
the centre of the artworld was initially Paris and later New York, in the
 Postmodern era where worldwide communication is instantaneous, artists
from all parts of the world have the opportunity to present their work in
the public domain.
● Using the postmodern frame to look at an artwork involves asking
questions such as:
○ How do the artworks challenge the authority of history?
○ Are traditions in art disregarded by the artist? How?
○ What conventions are being critiqued by the artist?
○ How are signs and symbols being reinvented to create new
meanings?
○ Are conventions such as parody, appropriation, irony and wit used
in the work?
○ Does the artist recontextualise the source of the image to create a
different meaning?
○ Can there be multiple interpretations of the work?
○ Does the artwork seek to highlight the issues of marginalized
groups in society?
○ How does the artwork destabilize the audience’s expectations?
○ How do some artists show an anti-authoritarian approach in their
artmaking?

CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORK

The agencies in the Artworld

 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

AGENCIES IN THE ARTWORLD

The artworld is a diverse and difficult area to study and fully comprehend. To
make it easier to discuss and examine the HSC Visual Arts Syllabus has broken
down the artworld into four smaller components known as ‘agencies’ in the
artworld. They are;

● Artist
● Artwork
 ● World
● Audience
Each of the components helps to illuminate the ‘cause and effect’ nature of the
artworld. Art doesn’t exist within a social vacuum. The Conceptual Framework
demonstrates how reliant each agent is on the other in the artworld.

*In the HSC examination, you will be required to explain, examine or discuss
relationships between two or more agencies.*

Focus Artist

Yang Yongliang
★ Chinese artist born in Shanghai in 1980.
★ Has extensive training in traditional artforms
(calligraphy, traditional chinese painting)
★ Influenced by traditional Chinese Shan Shui works.
INFINITE LANDSCAPE
Material
- Created in 2011
- Is a time-based media (DVD)
- Around 7 minutes long
- Emulates (mirrors) ZHAO Zuo’s “Landscape” (created
during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
- Depicts a dark and gloomy landscape.
- Opens with chinese characters.
- BLIMP!
- At first glance, from a distance, you see the mountain ranges similar to those of
traditional Chinese works, but instead of the traditional ink, the composition is made
up of hundreds of layers of photoshop.
- As you look at the work longer and closer up, it becomes apparent that the gloomy
mountains, aren’t mountains, but towering, crowded buildings.
- The crowded buildings represent China’s current urbanised situation and
overpopulation.
- The video is slow-building, with minimal movement and sound at the beginning.
- As the video continues, the movement builds, with more and more cars joining the
busy roads, the sounds also builds, with more honking noises and the sound of cars
driving on the road.
- The work is comprised of buildings, electrical poles/lines, and other features of
urbanisation.
- Smokey tones - represents pollution. Contrasts from smokey tones in Shan Shui
where they add to the sublimity of the works.
- Reconceptualising traditional Shan Shui works
- Uses traditional Chinese techniques with contemporary ideas to appeal to
contemporary audiences.
- An abrupt explosion brings the video to an end
- Compositional arrangement and style of Shan Shui ink paintings.
- Scroll like format
- Its scroll like format, smokey tones and cascading mountains echo the traditional ink
paintings of the past, however with closer observations we notice that the landscape
changes dramatically.
- Mountain paths, and huts have been replaced with power plants and freeways.
- Imagery symbolising modern progress and development.
- Subtle grey tones once used in traditional Chinese paintings form the smog clouds
demonstrating the effect of rapid development environmentally.
- The serene, calm valley, once a place to escape one’s mind, a place of reflection
becomes a symbol of uncontrolled industrial and urban development.
- Landscape engulfed by infinite development.
Conceptual
- Works are heavily based on contemporary issues.
- Works in a post-modern way, with post-modern devices. Challenges tradition in the
sense that he wants to modify the traditional works to communicate contemporary
ideas.
- Explosion represents destruction of the land and new development. - China’s
urbanisation, loss of rural areas and rural life.
- Combines (fuses) traditional Chinese culture with contemporary digital techniques.
- The visual language employed clearly communicates the artist’s ideas of capturing the
conflict between nature and urbanity.
 - Length of video allows us to contemplate

PHANTOM LANDSCAPE
Material
- made in 2010
- blue-ray disk
- 3 minutes and 23 seconds
- time based work
- mountains composed of
densely packed concrete
buildings
- forest composed of
construction cranes and
electric towers
- misty streams flow from contaminated urban waste.
- atmospheric haze of pollution replaces natural mists and clouds
- in the form of hanging scrolls and fans
- similar composition style to traditional chinese
- chinese calligraphy and red stamps (carved seals) - similar to those of traditional
works
- red stamps is a culturally significant colour and contrasts against the more subdued
colours of the photographs
- similar to chinese scrolls which are read right to left, the video moves from right to
left.

Conceptual
- artist has a connection with the traditional formats of ink paintings
- similar stylistics choices to traditional works
- calligraphy establishes a link to the past.
- ethereal creations and ancient chinese works.
-
-
 Focus Artist

Emily Kame Kngwarreye

Born in 1910, died on the 3rd September 1996. Was an Australian Aboriginal Artist from the
Utopia Community - NT

★ Her paintings are a response to her birth land - Alhalkere

★ She holds a unique vision of the land, challenging the viewing of Aboriginal Art
★ Many different styles as her painting style grew
○ Firstly, her paintings featured many dots, sometimes
overlapping and stacking them on top of each other. They were
various sizes and colours. This is seen in “Wild Potato
Dreaming”.

Wild Potato Dreaming, 1990’s, synthetic polymer on linen

----------------

★ Within “Wild Potato dreaming”, Kngwarreye created a

multilayered image of her country through a veil of dots, which
further suggest lush desert flowers and vegetation covering a dry
desert landscape (shown by the brown surface). Ultimately, the
 hidden lines suggest the journeys of creation, ancestors and the wild potato’s complex
root system.
★ In 1982, Kngwarreye’s dots started to form lines with parallel, horizontal and vertical
stripes which represented rivers and the contours of the land in may forms of colour.
She utilised larger brushes and larger dots as well.
★ In 1993, she began painting patches of colour in combination with many large dots
which were like rings that were clear in the middle.
★ In 1994, Kngwarreye developed a more aesthetic and contemporary style and
representation of the land. She began painting stripes that crossed the canvas. They
were thick and represented yam tracks, as seen in “Bush Yam”, and their strange
growth patterns

Bush Yam, 1995, acrylic on canvas ----------------

★ Originally, her paintings started with specific subjects

that depicted designs from traditional body paintings and
dreaming maps demonstrating important sites.
★ There is a repetition of “Yam Tracks” within her work
★ Her artwork had lots of meaning to do with all aspects of
her community’s life, including the yam plants.
★ kngwarreye ‘s middle name is ‘Kame’. This is her
language’s name for yams.