Strong and weak feelings about art

Strong and weak feelings about art

Warmer

Brainstorm collocations with and other words connected to the word “art” onto a mind map.

Add words from this list to your mind map where you can.

• (semi-)abstract art
• Abstract Impressionism, e.g. drip paintings
• ancient art
• Art Nouveau
• auctions
• Baroque
• biennales
• bronzes
• busts
• Byzantine art
• calligraphy
• ceramics/ pottery
• charcoal
• collages
• conceptual art
• contemporary art (e.g. YBAs such as Damien Hirst’s shark in a tank or Tracy Emin’s bed)
• Cubism such as Picasso and Braque
• erotic art such as Japanese shunga erotic prints
• Expressionism such as Munch’s The Scream or Klimt’s The Kiss
• fakes
• figurative art
• folding screens
• folk art
• Futurism
• (private/ public) galleries
• graffiti (art)
• hanging scrolls
• history painting
• Impressionism such as Degas’s ballet dancers or Monet’s Water Lilies
• instillations
• Islamic art
• kitsch, e.g. Jeff Koons
• landscape painting
• masterpieces
• Medieval art
• miniatures
• minimalism
• mixed media
• mobiles by Alexander Calder etc
• museum gift shops
• (modern art/ contemporary art) museums (e.g. MOMA and The Tate)
• naive art such as Henri Rousseau’s jungle paintings
• nudes
• Op Art/ trick art
• open air sculpture gardens
• outsider art
• pastels
• performance art such as Yoko Ono’s cut dress
• (black and white/ colour/ digital) photography
• Pointillism, e.g. Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
• Pop Art such as Andy Warhol’s soup cans
• (official/ group/ self-) portraits such as Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring
• Post-impressionism such as Van Gogh’s Sunflowers or Starry Night or Gauguin
• Pre-Raphaelites such as Millais’s Death of Ophelia
• prints such as Japanese ukiyoe woodblock prints
• ready-mades such as Duchamp’s urinal
• (photo)realism
• religious art, e.g, Madonna and Child, Annunciation, Descent from the Cross, or Adoration of the Magi
• Renaissance painting such as Da Vinci’s Last Supper, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling, or Botticelli’s Birth of Venus
• Renaissance sculpture such as Michelangelo’s David
• retrospectives
• Rococo
• Rodin’s The Thinker
• scroll paintings
• sculpture/ statues
• site-specific art
• solo shows
• still lives
• Surrealism like Salvador Dali’s dripping clocks or lobster telephone
• tapestries
• traditional art
• video art
• watercolours
• wildlife painting

Ask about anything above you don’t understand, etc, discussing where it could go on a mind map each time.

Share your opinions on the things above and other things on your mind map, trying to find opinions that you share with phrases like “Me too./ I feel the same way.” – “Really? I…/ You surprise me. Personally, I…”.

Share one opinion you have in common with the class and see if anyone agrees.

Change partners. Do the same with the phrases below, still on the topic of art.

Strong and weak phrases on art

• … could have been painted by a five year old.
• … gives me a headache.
• … is fairly good.
• … is laughable.
• … is overpriced.
• … isn’t bad.
• … isn’t really my cup of tea.
• I absolutely adore…
• I can give or take…
• I can’t get enough of…
• I can’t make head or tail of…
• I can’t really see the point of…
• I can’t stand…
• I despise…
• I detest…
• I don’t have much experience of…
• I don’t mind…
• I don’t really understand…
• I have got used to…
• I just don’t get…
• I think I’m starting to understand (the appeal of)…
• I think… is somewhat overrated.
• I think… is totally underrated.
• I was blown away by…
• I’d love to visit/ try/ learn more about/…
• I’m (still) not sure what I think about…
• I’m a huge fan of…
• I’m baffled by…
• I’m going off…
• I’m really into…
• You can’t go wrong with…

Share one opinion you have in common with the class and see if anyone agrees.

Ask about anything above which you don’t understand, couldn’t use, etc, working together as a class to make suitable sentences each time.

Label phrases above with a big circle for strong phrases and a small one for weak ones, then compare as a class.  

Continue sharing your views on art, but this time flipping a coin to decide what kind of language you should use:

Heads = positive opinion                                              Tails = negative opinion

Heads = strong opinion                                    Tails = weak opinion

Heads = agree                                                Tails = disagree

Heads = strong (dis)agreement                        Tails = weak (dis)agreement