In art classes around the country the elements of art
and the principles of design are too often taught as the
fundamentals of art. Seven is the magic number for
each, though historically, in 1920, Arthur Wesley Dow
established only three elements of art—line, color, and
notan.
Notan is a Japanese word meaning “dark, light” that
Dow used to refer to the harmony resulting from the
combination of dark and light spaces. Subsequently, the
number and variety of elements and principles varied from
expert to expert until they became formalized as
the 7 + 7 by the publishing companies
of K– 12 art textbooks.
Art
The Importance of Interpretation
There are some other important con-
siderations in determining the fun-
damentals of art, as surface design
is not the only basic quality of an
artwork. Students not only view and The Expressive Qualities of Art
analyze art, but interpret meaning The appropriation or borrowing of
from it as well. Fundamental vocab- an image to build upon its original
ulary for understanding the meaning symbolism and recontextualize it
of art is essential in the education of to create new meaning is one of
students in art. Interpretation is to the important ways contemporary
art what comprehension is to read- artists communicate through their
ing, though more active and creative. artworks. Content refers to the
significance of the subject of the
Adding to the Vocabulary of Art artwork for the artist and for the
In order to promote visual and verbal viewer to inter-literacy, art terms like appropria- pret. The subject
tion, content, metaphor, mood, nar- is a literal term
rative, subject, symbol, and theme that refers to
can be added to the basic vocabulary objects in the
of art. These basic terms lead our artwork. A meta-students to an active and imagina- phor is an implied direct compari-tive pursuit of meaning in artworks son of two dissimilar things.
through personal interpretation. The mood or emotional tone of
They provide a fundamental set of a piece can be established through
vocabulary with which to begin the color, media, style, or technique.
creative experience of the interpre- The narrative quality of art, the
tation of art. Even the most nonobjective of artworks can assert its
implications about the viewpoint of
the artist.
story implied by the work, was
much disdained by the modernists
of twentieth-century art, but it is
more highly regarded by postmodern
sensibilities. A symbol is a concrete
object that stands for an abstract
idea. The grand themes of art,
such as the individual and society
or human and nature, are central
issues or ideas observable in artworks.
Practical Approaches
I like to use these concepts with
transparencies or fine-art prints
to stimulate dis-
Students not only view and cussion about
analyze art, but interpret the meaning of
artworks with
meaning from it as well. my students. I
encourage them
to interpret artworks from their
own perspectives while providing
an introduction to the terminology
used to communicate the expressive
qualities of artworks.
