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AP®︎/College Art History
Course: AP®︎/College Art History > Unit 1
Lesson 2: Why art mattersThe Power to Look
This video is part of the Art Institute of Chicago's Art Explainer series. How does what you see in an artwork tell you how to look? Using three artworks from the Art Institute's collection, this video unpacks a central theme and uses innovative visual storytelling to highlight the choices artists made to shape form and meaning in their works. Ultimately, it shows that each of us already possesses a powerful tool for making sense of art: looking closely. Art Explainer videos empower you to look at and understand art from any historical period or culture. Designed for students as well as adults, this video series is produced for the web and usable in a wide range of learning environments, from mobile devices to formal school classrooms.
The following works from the Art Institute of Chicago appear in this video:
The following works from the Art Institute of Chicago appear in this video:
Grant Wood, American Gothic; Yoruba Crown from Nigeria; Gustave Caillebotte, Paris Street; Rainy Day; Cindy Sherman, Untitled #92
. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.Want to join the conversation?
- How does the culture we grow up in shape our perception of art and the world around us?
I want to add the late John Berger's excellent series "Ways of Seeing" to the long list of materials to accompany this video: https://www.ways-of-seeing.com/ch1. (4 votes)- My mother grew up on a farm. She preferred pictures of country scenes, preferably with barns and animals in them She did not care for contemporary art. I grew up in Los Angeles. I like wild splashes of color and really enjoy David Hockney. For me, the difference of cultural background and artistic preference is visceral.(4 votes)
- How does technology change the way we look at art?(3 votes)
- Hello, I was just wondering about the Arts and Humanities Class. My Dashboard gives no indication that I have done anything for this class. However, I have watched many videos on different sections. In my other classes, the dashboard will say how much more I have to do with the different sections, may you help me with this, please?(1 vote)
- From the author:The Humanities are a little different. In math and science there is often a correct answer to a question that can be easily tallied on a dashboard. In the Humanities, while there are dates and other facts to learn, the goal is to understand complexity, and subtlety, and multiple perspectives. There can be many right answers, even some that can be contradictory. As a result, to learn in the realm of the Humanities is to explore and to consider. As a result the Humanities are not always well suited to the quizzes that are the foundation of the scoring tallied on the dashboard. It is more like a journey.(3 votes)
- The Yoruba is very interesting I didn’t know that I was going to learn about the 4 kingdoms about how much the Yoruba mean for each country’s.(1 vote)
- People get drawn to pieces they can relate to, or feel a connection to. It’s most common to be draw to an art piece that speaks to the person more clearly.(1 vote)
- Cool I never thought that if you saw a picture in a new angle you would see where they are looking at or what position they are in.(1 vote)
Video transcript
How does what you see in an artwork tell
you how to look? The visual qualities of an artwork
shape the way we look at it and the meaning we take away. An artist might use a point of view that confronts us with a stern gaze or sight lines to hint at
something we don't see. These strategies set up a dynamic relationship between
artist, artwork and viewer. Considering what is and is not visible in an artwork
or how the artist positions us in relation to the subject can help us
think more deeply about social position, setting and gender. Let's look at a few
examples. This beaded crown from Nigeria was made by one of Africa's largest
ethnic groups, the Yoruba. The Crown's form and patterns were intended to
communicate the King's royal power and his ancestral connections to his subjects.
A key part of the conical crown is its beaded veil which protects the king's
subjects from the potentially dangerous power of his gaze. The veil is also meant
to hide the king's individuality, activating the abstracted faces adorning
both the front and back of the crown. These represent the king's ancestors
whose power to see in both this world and the supernatural one are symbolized
by the face's protruding eyes. The birds represent the essential support of women
in the community. The Kings senior wife is perched at the very top, reflecting
another social hierarchy. Today in a museum we can take a close look at these meaningful forms, but what we don't see is the crown in its original ceremonial
context. On the other hand "Paris Street; Rainy Day" painted by Gustave Caillebotte
in 1877, was always meant to be seen in an art gallery. Born into the Parisian
upper-class, Caillebotte was much like the wealthy man this painting, his education
provided access to tools like the camera lucida enabling him to picture the
changing world in a new way. Caillebotte created this life-sized street scene
soon after the city underwent a massive modernization project. Organized around
key buildings like the Arc de Triomphe, the radiating plan allowed officials to
more easily control the way different social classes interacted. The paintings
large format draws us into Parisian modern life at the end of the 19th
century. The scale of the work connects us to the paintings fashionable couple
in the foreground while the plunging perspective distances
us from members of the working class in the background. While Caillebotte's
painting reflected his contemporary world, American photographer, Cindy
Sherman, found ways to critique it. Fascinated by television, costume and
makeup she first gained recognition in the 1970s for a photo series that evoked
films of the 50s and 60. Always casting herself as a subject, Sherman suggests a
range of submissive female roles. In "Untitled Film Still #92," Sherman
depicts a vulnerable subject cowering on the ground. She crops the image tightly and arranges the shot so that the viewer is looking
down on the female subject from a position of power. Though it resembles a
film still, the images actually stand alone photographed without an
accompanying story. Here, Sherman harnesses the power directors have in
placing their audience within a scene. Because her character isn't looking
directly at us she, doesn't challenge our gaze. We can look as long as we want, but remember, Sherman created this scene so ultimately she's the one directing our
viewing experience. From the veiled Yoruba crown to Caillebotte's panoramic Paris, and Sherman's provocative film still understanding how we look helps to give
an artwork meaning. Next time you're in a museum, consider how the power to look
shapes your experience of other works of art.