CRITIQUE Let's show off the fruits of our labor! This is your opportunity to exchange opinions about your Truisms and give each other feedback. Each student will write a 100 word response in this foru

CRITIQUE

Let's show off the fruits of our labor! This is your opportunity to exchange opinions about your Truisms and give each other feedback.

• Each student will write a 100 word response in this forum. Choose ONE art piece that you wish to critique. Here's How:

The following process was developed by choreographer Liz Lerman. It is intended to give the artist useful insights to a work in a supportive manner. CRP is fully discussed in Liz Lerman & John Borstel, Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process: A Method for Getting Useful Feedback on Anything You Make, from Dance to Dessert. Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, 2003.

First paragraph (50 words)

Statement of Meaning: You will state what was meaningful, evocative, interesting, exciting, striking in the work you have chosen to critique. Describe what you see.  For full points, you must apply appropriate terminologies of design fundamentals from our textbook chapters 1.1 through 1.10.  Example) form, volume, mass, shape, texture, line, color, scale, proportion, etc.

Second paragraph:

Neutral Questions: Ask neutral questions about the work.  Questions are neutral when they do not have an opinion hidden in them. For example, if you are discussing the color of an object, “Why is it so red?” is not a neutral question because it implies that the color is too red. “What ideas guided your choices about the color?” is. An especially helpful kind of question is one that seeks information about points of the image a responder does not understand.

Third paragraph (50 words):

Opinion Time: State your opinions about the piece.  The usual form is “I have an opinion about ______, " Discuss what you think regarding the usage of design fundamentals, integration of message and object, or other aspects that strike you as important.  

IMPORTANT: When grading critiques, we will be looking at a student's opinion on the artwork and the evidence the student supplies in terms of its formal qualities.

Example of a A student's critique:

I really enjoyed both artworks, and what caught my eye from the first image was the combination of actual lines and use of negative space to create the three figures.  Not to mention, the additional lines that were slightly faded to create a sense of rhythm and light in the artwork. Plus, the background was not left black, but had the use of a smoke/fog coming from the bottom left which works well with the theme of a firefighter. 

My question for this piece (1st image), what brought you upon the use of a firefighter to display strength does not derive from gender? Another question, what guided you to make the negative space take up more space than the positive space? 

Overall, the artwork is well made with the different elements used to strike the meaning of the truism. For example, the firefighter standing in the foreground while the male parent is in the background holding his child, creating a nice contrast between genders. 

Why is this a strong critique of the artwork? First, the student applies design fundamentals that we studied in this class including rhythm, negative space etc. Also the student refrains from excessive opinions about the social issue--in this case gender stereotypes. While this would be a worthwhile cause,  this assignment is a practice in art critique, so do be sure to stick more to the fundamentals of design. If you wish to address your opinion about the issue at hand, do so in a way that makes connections with the artwork.