Today our AP class enjoyed a lecture given by local art professor Christopher Willey. Chris talked to us about how to interpret art and gave us great examples
of looking at a piece of artwork using "internal evidence" (what is
literally happening in the piece) and then adding in "external evidence"
(an artist's biography or an artist's explanation of his or her
process, for example).Three pieces that we looked at are displayed below:
We looked at each piece first without knowing anything about the artist or the work itself and discussed what we were seeing and what we thought the piece might mean. Then we were introduced to the artist, the title of the work, the time period when it was created, and some other background information. We then returned to the piece with the external evidence and discussed our new interpretations. We talked about how when "reading" a work of art we use many of the same skills that we use when we analyze a poem. We have to first start with what is in front of us, the details of the piece, the mood that is evoked (and in the case of the AP test, the prompt), and then go from there.
The three pieces above are:
-Ladder for Booker T. Washington by Martin Puryear (1996)
-Lick and Lather by Janine Antoni (1993) {The busts on the left are made of chocolate; those on the right are made of soap...it's worth reading more about this installation and also looking for the artist's explanation of her work on "Art 21" on PBS.)
-a photograph by Gregory Crewdson
Also, if you are interested in seeing the artwork of Christopher Willey, you can visit his website at: www.christopherwilley.com.
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