1. Questions from the IB Visual Arts Guide
The Arts and Theory of Knowledge

2. “If you can describe a film in words it
probably isn’t one.”
Robert Altman
(1925 – 2006)
Film director
and screenwriter.
To what extent is artistic knowledge something which cannot be expressed in another
way?

3. The same Ways of Knowing but in
different combinations?
Are the Ways of Knowing employed in radically different ways in the Arts
than in other Areas of Knowledge?
The ToK Ways of
Knowing

4. Ways of Knowing such as memory
and emotion can be combined …
Norman Rockwell and The Saturday Evening Post, (1950s) USA.

5. … to recreate an idealised past.
“Coronation Street” – the longest running “soap” on British TV, created in 1960
and still running. It idealised a world of Northern, urban life which was already
disappearing.

6. The artist does not need to imagine
what happens next. He finds out.
Jackson Pollock (1912 – 1956)
Abstract Expressionist painter.
To what extent does imagination play a special role in the visual arts?

7. It’s not special to the Arts.

8. Good books – bad books?
“There is no such thing
as a moral book or an
immoral book. Books
are either well written
or badly written. That
is all.”
Oscar Wilde
(1854 – 1900),
Writer.
What moral responsibilities do artists have?

9. The moral boundaries of Art?
“Unless you tell me it’s been
withdrawn, I’m coming round to
the academy and I’m going to
stab the first person I see.”
Threat received by the Royal
Academy, London in 1997.
“Myra” (1995) by Marcus Harvey, U

10. What constitutes knowledge in the
Arts?
“Hambletonian”
By George Stubbs,
(1724 – 1806),UK.
Does it tell us about
Art or more about
racehorse
anatomy and 18th
century English
society?
How can the subjective viewpoint of an individual contribute to knowledge in the Arts?

11. Is an Artwork a piece of knowledge?
“White On White”
by Kazimir Malevich,
(1879 – 1935)
What else could it be?

12. A ToK approach to judging Art …
1) The intention of the artist.
Harriet Beecher Stowe wished
to draw public attention to
the condition of black slaves in
the southern states of the USA
in her 1852 novel.
“
What are the standards by which we judge artworks?

13. … is in four parts …
2) The artwork itself,
- in this case the
aesthetic value?
“David” by
Michelangelo.

14. … covering most artistic activities …
3) The reaction of the audience
- here reacting unfavourably
to a new fashion in the 1960s.

15. … but not all equally.
The novels of Dickens …
… or paintings of the period?
4) The ability of art to transport
us to another place, time or context.

16. Can we separate the process from
the product?
Why might we be concerned with process rather than production in the search for
knowledge?
The Philadelphia Orchestra

17. The act of creation is man-made
…
Wood-carving.

18. … from pole –vaulting to porcelain
making.

19. The Arts can serve any master.
Posters of World
War II.
Do the Arts have a social function?

20. One chair, one man, one number.
To what extent is truth different in the Arts, Mathematics and
Ethics?
315 people were executed by “Old Sparky”
in Sing Sing Prison, USA, between 1897 and 1