The language of Visual Arts
For many taking on art studies at Yr 11 and beyond it’s about the creativity and “doing” side of the arts, wthen all of a sudden some one says “It’s time to do some theory” Yikes!
I remember for me the hardest part was getting my head around the language, as the terms used were not part of my vocabulary (not at that point anyway…)
A few points that may be of value here, any word you are not sure of that you hear in relation to the visual arts, write it down, then grab a dictionary and check it out. There are specific Art Dictionaries that are VERY useful. (I often found myself flipping through the art dictionary out of interest for many of the words and what they meant.)
I also found that people talking about Visual Art soon sent me to sleep, I later found out this was due to my language skills being not up to scratch. However the more I listened the more I got the gist of what they were on about. Suggestion, read (or at least scan through) any writing you can get on visual art, magazines, journals, newspaper articles, exhibition reviews, artist interviews, T.V. shows and so on, it all helps.
It takes time to learn a new language so be sure and check out ways to get a grip on the new terms and words, the proof of your learning is in the use of the words when you talk about art to people about it and both parties know what you mean.
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