The document provides an overview of experiencing art, suggesting a two-step process: 1) Experiencing the effects - noticing your initial reactions and feelings toward a work without preconceptions; 2) Accounting for the effects - analyzing how formal elements of the work structure those experiences. It encourages personal responses but notes critical analysis can contextualize them. Examples guide experiencing two paintings - one provoking complex emotions, the other unease through its suspended forms. The document stresses finding enjoyment through open-minded exploration of art.

1. MODULE 5.1
EXPERIENCING ART
Art 100
Understanding Visual Culture

2. M 5.1 overview
 key things to remember in your initial
approach to art
 it is a personal process
 knowledge can assist, but cannot substitute for,
your connection with the work
 find your favorites and keep an open mind
 experiencing art: a suggested course of action
 experiencing effects
 accounting for those effects

3. Each of us has his or her own taste in visual art. We
find different things appealing, at different times in
our lives.

4. Brandywine River Museum
Chadds Ford, PA
This is a small regional museum where I spent a lot of time as a kid.

5. Interior
galleries
Part of the museum is located inside an old
mill building along the Brandywine River. Local
artists are featured, with a special emphasis on
the Wyeth family.

6. Andrew Wyeth
Maga’s Daughter
Tempera on panel
27 ½ x 31 inches
1966

7. This was a picture I adored as a kid. It really doesn’t matter where you
start in appreciating art. Start anywhere you like and go from there.

8. Finding out more about
artworks you like is a
great thing to do.
But no amount of
information will answer all
of your questions.

9. Andrew Wyeth,
Indian Summer
1970
tempera on panel
42 x 35 inches

10. Maga’s Daughter, 1966
Indian Summer, 1970

11. Andrew Wyeth's life
 For more information
 http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/
biography.aspx?artist=24079
 Scroll down to second biography, by
Frank E. Fowler
 His brother Nathaniel Wyeth was an
important 20th century figure too:
 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.
html?res=9C0CEEDE163EF934A35754C
0A966958260

12. There are as many flavors
of art as there are people
who make it.
New flavors are being
created all the time.
You get to pick your
favorites.

13. The point is to give it a try and see
which kinds you think are especially
great. Then experience to the fullest
and enjoy.
Hint: You might like them all.

14. Morris Louis, Tet, 1958, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 95 x 153 in, WMAA

15. OlafurEliasson, Your strange certainty still kept, 1996, water, strobelight, plexiglass, recirculating
pump, foil and wood

16. Bruce Nauman, Self-Portrait as Fountain, 1970, c-print, 20 x 24 inches

17. Nam June Paik, Magnet TV, 1965
17-inch black-and-white television set with magnet, 28 3/8 × 19 1/4 × 24 1/2 in.

18. Duane Hanson, Woman with Dog, 1977
cast polyvinyl polychromed in synthetic polymer, with cloth and hair
46 × 48 × 51 ½ in

19. Charles Ray
Puzzle Bottle
1995
painted wood, glass, cork
13 3/8 x 3 3/4 dia

20. Joseph Kosuth, Five Words in Green Neon, 1965,
neon tubing, 62 x 80 x 6 in

21. Jack Pierson, Desire/Despair
metal, glass, plexiglas and wood, 117 1/2 x 56 1/4

22. Willem de Kooning,
Door to the River, 1960 Oil on
canvas
80 × 70 inches

23. Brice Marden, Summer Table, 1972–73
Oil and wax on canvas in three parts, 60 × 105 5/16 in.

24. Doug Aitken, Untitled (Shopping Cart), 2000
C-print mounted on plexiglas, 48 5/8 × 56 5/8 in

25. Vik Muniz, Double Mona Lisa (After Warhol), 1991
Cibachrome print, 48 x 60 inches

26. Jean-Michel Basquiat,LNAPRK, 1982.
Synthetic polymer and oil stick on canvas, 73 1/2 × 72 1/4 in

27. Catherine Opie, Self-Portrait, 1993
chromogenic print, 39 5/8 × 29 15/16 in

28. quick review

29. You’re allowed to—
supposed to!—respond
personally to artwork.
The artist wants you to have an experience—an emotional,
physical, spiritual, intellectual, moral (some combination
of these or all of them) experience of the work.

30. If you like a work of art,
you’ll often want to find
out more about it.
That’s great, find out more, it will enrich your experience of the work, no
doubt about it. But there is no “final correct answer” to the meaning of a
given work. There are more and less satisfying interpretations, more and
less sensitive readings, but no single reading is ultimately correct.

31. Like your parents probably told
you, “How do you know you don’t
like it if you won’t even try it?
This class gives you a chance to try out different kinds of art.
There’s no obligation to like the things that I, or your classmates, like.
Pick your own likes and dislikes.
However, you can learn from—even come to appreciate—works you don’t
particularly care for.

32. With all this in mind., how do we…
EXPERIENCE ART TO THE
FULLEST?

33.  One way we try to experience art more fully is
by understanding how it creates the effects it
has on us.

34. Experience, with your eyes, mind, feelings,
memories, body. What does this piece do to
me?
 Examples: Does it make me happy?
Uncomfortable? Sad? Upset? Does it turn my
stomach? Does it make me shiver? Worry? Sweat?

35. EXPERIENCING THE EFFECTS
 1. Experience comes first. What do you SEE
and how does it make you FEEL in your
bones.

36. EXPERIENCING THE EFFECTS
 At this point, it doesn’t matter who made it,
when, or why. The point is to try to figure out,
as completely as possible, the effect the work
is having on you.

37. EXPERIENCING THE EFFECTS
 So let’s sum this up as “experiencing the
effects” of the work. This process can take a
while. It is not necessarily simple. In fact, one
definition of art could be work that takes the
viewer some time and trouble to experience.

38. Accounting for the Effects
 2. Now that you have a handle on what you’ve
experienced, you want to know how the piece
made you feel that way. Cf. driving a car to
looking under the hood.
 This is where formal analysis can be helpful.
 How did this piece make me feel (x, y, and z)
way? How is it structured to achieve those
specific effects?
 This is where purely personal, idiosyncratic
responses can be weeded out if you are writing
to share with an audience.

39. Accounting for the Effects
2. Now that you have a handle on what you’ve
experienced, you want to know how the piece
made you feel that way. Cf. driving a car to
looking under the hood.

40. Accounting for the Effects
This is where formal analysis can be helpful.
How did this piece make me feel this way?
How is it structured to achieve those specific
effects?
NOTE: This is where your purely personal,
idiosyncratic responses can be weeded out if you
are writing to share with an audience.

41. Let’s try out this process
with a few different
examples.

42. John Singer Sargent
The Daughters of
Edward
Darley Boit
1882
87 3/8 x 87 3/8 inches

43. First, take some time
to
observe the picture.
Don’t start
with preconceptions
or ideas about what
you are supposed to
see. There is no
“supposed to.” Just
look at what is front
of you.

44. I.
a. What does this picture
make you feel? (This can
be a single strong
feeling, or a cpmbination
of different feelings.)
b. Can you put your
finger on what in this
piece is producing this
emotion (or set of
emotions)?
c. Write a 1-sentence
description of the piece
that incorporates your
gut reaction.

45. Effects 1
Bruce Nauman
Hanging Heads #2, 1989, wax and wire
two heads, the first is 10 3/4 x 9 1/2 x 7 ¾, the second is slightly smaller, both
suspended approximately 6 feet above the floor

46. II.
a. What do you
Effects 1
feel when you
look at this?
What emotion/
set of emotions?
b. Can you
identify
what parts of the
piece,
specifically,
are making you
feel
this way?
c. Write a 1-
sentence
description
of the piece,
incorporating
if possible the
feeling(s)
it provokes.

47. Wayne Thiebaud, Cakes, 1963