Art Criticism Lesson Ideas for Assemblage Sculpture Project

Limit your critical conversation to approximately one half an hour. Children seem to do best with Art criticism, if the group questions are short, to the point, but interesting, as well.

You will want to cover four basic areas during your criticism conversation. These are: What do you see? (Description of art) How is what you see put together? (Formal analysis) What does the artist want you to know or feel after seeing this work? (Interpretation) What is your opinion of this work and why do you feel that way? (Informed judgment)

Broudy's scanning method works well, also. This is when you ask your students to first direct their attention toward the sensory properties of the artwork. Next, you direct their attention to the formal properties. Thirdly, you discuss the work's expressive qualities. Finally, the technical properties of the artwork are discussed.

The method that you choose to use with your students will depend upon your preferences, and those of your students. Either way works well. These are not the only two methods of art criticism that you can use in the classroom.

Students may be asked to choose a partner. Each partner will bring his/her assemblage project to the pairing. The two students will then each write a compare and contrast paper on the two art works. The paper should include description, formal analysis, interpretation, and an informed judgment. Here is a sample handout for such a paper:

Write a brief essay comparing and contrasting your assemblage sculpture with your partner's piece. Feel free to work together, but each of you must turn in an individual paper.

1. Be sure to describe each artwork separately. Discuss the shapes, colors, textures, and lines that you see in each artwork.

2. Tell how each artist used balance, repetition, unity, or dominance to shape his/her piece.

3. Discuss the expressive qualities of each artwork. What is each artist trying to say?

4. Tell which artwork you like better and why. Tell what you think of each piece and what you think could improve each piece. Tell what you think is the best feature of each piece.

5. Be certain to tell how the pieces are alike and how they are different.

For younger students, group discussions work best. However, to break things up there are several Art Criticism Games that you can play as a class that are fun and educational. One such game is called, "Name that Theme!" Have your students move about the class examining each others' works. Give all of your students enough slips of paper to write down the theme that they believe is displayed by each artwork. Have them write down the theme, sign their slip of paper, and place their slip of paper in a container in front of the appropriate artwork. After this is done, go through the artworks one at a time. Have the artist sort through the themes to see if anyone "named" his/her piece's theme. See who gets the most themes correct! Discuss whether or not an artwork can have more than one theme.

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