Subtest III: Visual and Performing Arts Study Guide for the CSET Multiple Subjects Test

Visual Art

One looks at visual art. Visual art can engage the other senses as well, but the primary way to observe visual art is by sight. This is in contrast to music, and only represents one part of dance, but there is some crossover with other art. For instance, theater incorporates many visual arts forms and techniques. Some examples of visual arts include:

• painting
• drawing
• printing
• sculpture
• monumental architecture

Some visual arts include a tactile component:

• weaving
• pottery (ceramics)
• glass blowing

Each of these has a physicality that adds to the visual component.

Visual arts can include sound or other non-visual components, including things like windchimes and handmade non-traditional musical instruments.

Tools, Materials, and Techniques

There are traditional tools and materials used for the visual arts. For the painter, there are canvas, brushes, and paints. For the illustrator, there is paper, pen, and ink. Each art form has the standard set of tools necessary to produce art.

When first learning an art form, these tools are where the student begins. As a student learns and grows, there might be a tendency to move toward non-traditional materials (e.g., instead of painting on canvas, painting on lumber; instead of drawing on paper, drawing on found objects). Once the basics are mastered, a student should be encouraged to explore new ideas and techniques.

Exploring and Inventing Tools, Techniques, and Approaches

The only limit is the imagination of the student/artist. It is difficult to imagine an art display as being “wrong.” A critic or a member of the public might not like a piece of art, but “art is what art is”: an expression.

If the artist’s purpose is to sell art to make money, an artist may have to sacrifice “vision” to achieve a product that is more commercial—art made with sensibilities more in line with the tastes of the marketplace. If an artist isn’t trying to sell the piece, though, then it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks of the art, not even an art teacher.

Tools, Materials, and Equipment Parameters

An artist needs:

• traditional and non-traditional materials
• an artistic vision
• a desire to create

This is all that is needed.

An artist should be encouraged to combine art forms, such as papermaking and illustration. If an artist makes paper, then draws figures on the paper, the artist is exploring combined art.

Safety

Safety should be the watchword for all student activities. Teachers and students can readily identify obvious dangers (e.g., power tools, sharp edges, certain solvents, wood treatments), but other dangers in an art environment are more subtle and partially hidden (e.g., spray paints, slip and fall situations). Artists tend to get “tunnel vision” when focusing on a project, getting so involved with the work that they lose sight of the dangers. If ever in doubt, it is never a mistake to wear eye protection.

Accessibility

There are five different accessibility issues that teachers and students/artists need to address (or at least consider) when teaching or displaying art. These issues apply to both the students and audience members who want to experience the art:

1. Disability (physical or other)—Can the student or audience member get in the building, approach the art, and/or fully engage?

2. Availability of Classes—Is there a regular, weekly scheduled time for art class?

3. Financial—Are the students provided with materials? Can the students afford to go to galleries and museums? Do the local museums have monthly “free days” for students?

4. Availability of Teachers—Are local, skilled artists willing to work with students? This includes demographic issues; for instance, rural settings tend to have fewer professional artists within a two-hour drive than an urban environment. Cost can be an issue. Professionals will be busy and might require payment to reserve their time on a weekly basis.

5. Fear—Students need to be reassured that they have something to contribute and that they will not be mocked. Students sometimes self-deny, creating their own barriers and removing accessibility. Just because their piece doesn’t look like the example piece or everyone else’s pieces, it doesn’t mean that their work isn’t as valid.

Appropriateness for Age

Younger students have less hand-eye coordination than an older student has. Elementary students are given large brushes and water-based paints. In high school, more advanced students are given more delicate brushes. Normally, oil paints are reserved for college-age students. Similar age-appropriate considerations are used in other art disciplines.

Conceptual Vocabulary for Art and Design

Like all disciplines, visual art has specific vocabulary for each element. Some of the terms are obvious, and some of the terms cross over from other types of art.

Color

There are four basic terms for describing color:

• hue
• tint
• tone
• shade

Hue is where the color appears on the color wheel. When a light is shone onto a paint chip, what is the primary frequency of the light reflected back? This can be considered the “pure color” with nothing added.

Tints are created when white is added to the paint. This desaturates the color and makes the color lighter.

Tone is created when gray is added to the paint, which can make the paint lighter or darker.

Shade is created when black is added to the paint. This desaturates the color, makes the color darker, and increases the color’s intensity.

Note: If you look at a spectrum, the colors run from red to violet. However, if you look at a color wheel, the colors run from red to violet, then continue to magenta and eventually back to red. This is a trick. The observer looks at magenta, but the eyes see violet and red. The brain creates magenta in the mind. The color magenta itself doesn’t actually exist, at least not in the scientific sense. (This is probably not a concept easy to explain to elementary students.)

Also, if you look at a spectrum or a color wheel, neither one will show the color brown. Brown doesn’t actually exist either. What we perceive as brown is actually a muted orange. Brown paint is actually orange paint with a little blue added.

Balance

Traditionally, a balanced piece of art will have the elements spread evenly across the piece. However, instead of a completely symmetrical display, there might be one large object on one side, with two small objects on the other side. Color should be spread evenly across the canvas. If the piece looks like it’s going to fall over, the artist hasn’t achieved good balance.

A good way to check for balance is to turn the piece upside down. Freed from the limitations of looking at the art as a representation of an object (e.g., a face, a bowl of flowers, an animal, a landscape), the art can be viewed as abstract groupings of color. When this is done, bad balance will leap off of the canvas.

Line

Line can refer to actual lines on an art piece or objects lined up in series. The opposite of a piece with “strong lines” is an art piece that has curves or art that “flows.”

Composition

Composition is how objects are depicted in relation to each other. Traditional composition has all the elements spread in a pleasing arrangement.

Connections and Value

Art isn’t just for a monthly trip to a museum or exclusive to school field trips. Art surrounds us and can be found on some of the most mundane objects; the colorful packaging found on grocery store shelves is an example of this. An art teacher must demonstrate knowledge of these, including the following concepts.

Art and Daily Life

In a traditional form, art can be hung on the walls of our homes. More subtly, art can:

• adorn the sides of coffee cups
• decorate the covers of notebooks
• brighten tile floors

Art is everywhere if you look for it.

A Variety of Backgrounds and Cultures

Like other art forms, visual arts can show a connection with backgrounds and cultures outside the borders of the frame. Images can show cultural images and reflect society—both local culture and culture from around the world.

Stories

Other than abstracts, visual art (usually) tells a story. Even a still-life, such as a collection of flowers in a vase, tells a story. Just the arrangement of flowers in the vase express information to the viewer:

• Are the flowers common field flowers?
• Are the flowers hard-to-raise exotic orchids?
• Are the flowers romantic roses?
• Are the flowers displayed neatly or placed in the vase haphazardly?
• Is the vase fancy or earthen?

Each artistic choice tells part of the story.

Complex Ideas and Experiences

Many artists reach for more complex themes. Art can show various states of the human condition. Intermediate and advanced students should be encouraged to express concepts beyond the here and now. Abstract concepts can be difficult to express artistically.

Art Presentation

How art is presented will affect how it is perceived.

When paintings are framed and placed on the wall, that raises questions:

• What sort of frame? Fancy? Unpainted wood? Gilded?
• What color is the frame?
• How high off the ground is the painting? Eye-level? Eye-level for whom?
• Should the painting be Illuminated? What sort of light? How bright? Natural light?

The same is true when pottery is displayed:

• Is it on a plinth (a heavy base)?
• Is it in a cabinet?
• Is it illuminated? How? From the top? From the back? Natural light?

Proper background music is essential. Music has a disproportionate effect on the mood of a viewer.

Art Preservation

There are two types of art preservation: conservation and restoration.

Conservation (maintenance) attempts to keep a piece of art in its current condition. There are various techniques for slowing or stopping deterioration.

Restoration attempts to restore a piece of art to its previous condition. Special experts will:

1. Evaluate the current condition of the art (assessment).
2. Bring the art to a stable condition (treatment).
3. Conserve the art (maintenance).

Skilled specialists can work wonders when restoring art, but there are limits. They can x-ray and scan, remove dirt, remove yellowed lacquer, match pigments, and recreate paint, but at some point, they have to stop or risk damaging the original. No matter what restorers do, Mona Lisa will never look exactly like da Vinci painted her.

Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci

File. (2021, May 29). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mona_Lisa,_by_Leonardo_da_Vinci,_from_C2RMF_retouched.jpg

Purposes

There are three types of visual arts:

• fine art (art for art’s sake)
• commercial (colorful printing on packaging is a good example)
• decorative (e.g., additional flourishes on products, paint on earthenware, ornamentation on the side of building)

Places

Other than in abstracts, art is usually set in a specific time and place. A landscape is anchored in a specific location, real or imagined.

In Thomas Gainsborough’s painting The Market Cart, the time is 1786 AD. The setting of the painting is often presumed to be Gainsborough Lane in Ipswich, UK.

Not all visual art needs to be so specifically anchored.

The Market Cart by Thomas Gainsborough

Retrieved from: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Thomas_Gainsborough_002.jpg/495px-Thomas_Gainsborough_002.jpg?20050519113235

Cultures

Some symbols are clear pointers to specific cultures. An image of a man playing the bagpipes has clear cultural pointers. Like music and theater, visual art uses these symbols to indicate time, place, and the culture of the subjects.

A bagpiper busking with the Great Highland bagpipe on the street in Edinburgh, Scotland

Retrieved from: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Bagpiper_in_Edinburgh_001.jpg/400px-Bagpiper_in_Edinburgh_001.jpg?20101031190545

Historical Periods

Placing certain symbols and/or images into an art piece can denote a different historical period.

In the famous painting below, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat, a historian could identify the time period as the 1880s. Even without any specific knowledge of the famous painting, the clothing is distinctly post-US Civil War and pre-Edwardian. Various clothing elements point to Europe in the very late 19th Century. In the foreground (right), the woman in the purple/gray skirt is wearing a bustle, whose shape is distinctive to the 1880s.

Even without detailed knowledge of 19th-century fashions, many people could identify the painting as being 19th century or early 20th century.

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat Painted from 1884 to 1886

Retrieved from: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/A_Sunday_on_La_Grande_Jatte%2C_Georges_Seurat%2C_1884.png/800px-A_Sunday_on_La_Grande_Jatte%2C_Georges_Seurat%2C_1884.png?20100916032214

When reviewing paintings from other centuries, it is important to remember that a painting is often an idealized version of the past. Often, the patron paying the artist wanted a flattering image to leave to their descendants. Like social media, many times, only the “good parts” were shown. Contemporary notes, letters, and diaries often tell a different story.

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. (2023, January 28). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_de_Vere,_17th_Earl_of_Oxford