Teach Somebody About An Artwork

   Last Wednesday, I went to the MoMA (Museum Of Modern Art) to see art works. At the same time, I also took some picture of art works, and wrote down some notes on my notebook for my assignment: Teach Somebody About An Artwork. When I start doing this activity, I realize it is hard. Whether I was doing my preparation of the teaching or I was teaching my friend.

   After visiting the MoMA, the first thing I did is making a plan for teaching. Before I make my own plan, I was trying to think back the day of last class which Prof. Dahlia Elsayed taught us about the art in the class. The steps of her teaching in the class:
      First: Styles of art
      Second: Forms of art/Mediums
      Last: Visual Elements
After recalling the last class, I decided to mock her steps on my teaching. Considering I will only teach one art work to my friend, so my teaching will roughly talk about different styles, forms, and type of art. Then I need to focus on one artwork and talk about the visual elements. Since I have the outline of my plan, then I need to do is choosing the pictures that I took from the MoMA, and write down vocabularies which I learn from the class.
My plan is:
      1. Styles of art
          Abstract: The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh
          Representational: The Menace Assassin by Rene Magritte
          Non-Representational: Proun 19D by El Lissitzky
      2. Forms of art
          Vocabulary explain
      3. Teaching an artwork and explain visual elements using  

   The day after I made my plan, I got a chance to talk about this assignment to my friend, and I start my teaching at the school library. The entire process of teaching is following my plan. At the beginning, I wrote down three words of styles of art, then pull out the photograph of the artworks and I explained them to my friend one by one. I explained The Starry Night is an abstract painting because the planting does not attempt to mimic reality, and it is an image or memory that author saw in the morning sky and town. The Menace Assassin by Rene Magritte is representational painting because the painting is describing about crime in our would during pre-WWI. The Proun 19D by El Lissitzky is Non-Representational artwork because it does not reference to “real” subject matter at all, and it only has Geometric shape and color. After the first part, I roughly talked about Forms of art and explain the Vocabulary, then I get into the last part, Visual Elements.

 
 When I began to teach the Proun 19D by El Lissitzky, I realize it is difficult for teaching. The form of this artwork is 2D, but the material that author used for this artwork are gesso, oil, varnish, crayon, colored papers, sandpaper, graph paper, cardboard, metallic paint, and metal foil on plywood. That makes me confused about what type art it is. Because of that misunderstand, I skipped the type of art, and started to teach my friend visual elements in this art. First, I explained the visual elements are line, shape/form, value, color, texture, pattern. Then I point out each Geometric shape in the artwork, such as circle, rectangle, arc. I also talked about the Primary, Secondary, and Complementary Color, and told my friend black is not a color and white is a color, because black is the absence of color and White is the blending of all colors.
   After the this activity, I felt teaching someone about an artwork is difficult. I felt I did not prepare enough, when I teach my friend. Especially, when she ask me about what is its type of image? Why author made it? However, I think this activity doesn’t just teach someone about an artwork, it also  make me more understand how to understand artworks.