Subject: DP Visual Arts Grade: 11th

Teacher: Year: 2019-2020

Course Description:
“The visual arts are an integral part of everyday life, permeating all levels of human creativity, expression,
communication and understanding. They range from traditional forms embedded in local and wider communities,
societies and cultures, to the varied and divergent practices associated with new, emerging and contemporary
forms of visual language. They may have socio political impact as well as ritual, spiritual, decorative and functional
value; they can be persuasive and subversive in some instances, enlightening and uplifting in others. We celebrate
the visual arts not only in the way we create images and objects, but also in the way we appreciate, enjoy, respect
and respond to the practices of art-making by others from around the world….
It is a thought-provoking course in which students develop analytical skills in problem-solving and divergent
thinking, while working towards technical proficiency and confidence as art-makers. In addition to exploring and
comparing visual arts from different perspectives and in different contexts, students are expected to engage in,
experiment with and critically reflect upon a wide range of contemporary practices and media. The course is
designed for students who want to go on to study visual arts in higher education as well as for those who are
seeking lifelong enrichment through visual arts…Through inquiry, investigation, reflection and creative application,
visual arts students develop an appreciation for the expressive and aesthetic diversity in the world around them,
becoming critically informed makers and consumers of visual culture.” Abridged version from IB Visual Arts Guide,
pg 6.

Course Objectives:
● Demonstrate Knowledge and understanding of art content
● Demonstrate application and analysis of knowledge and understandings through visual communications,
art analysis and skills and techniques in art-making
● Demonstrate synthesis and evaluations of critical analyses in the creations, applications, reflections and
discussions of artwork and artists
● Select, use and apply a variety of appropriate skills and techniques in visual arts

Course Content
Term 1 –
Unit 1: Foundational Skills
● Art Making Practice
-Building practical skills
-Introductions to 2D, 3D and lense-based art techniques (the 3 columns of art in DP Art)
Workshop/Bootcamp style With focus on techniques, terminology, artistic process and reflection. May
include but are not limited to:
1. Drawing with graphite, colored pencil, ink, chalk and/or oil pastels
2. Painting with acrylic, oil, and watercolor
3. Digital Photography
4. Photograms
5. Sculpture-hand building, carving, paper mache
6. Weaving and/or site specific installations

-Using the visual arts journal to create the process portfolio

 *How to cite in visual arts journal (APA), go over IB rubric and structure and purpose of journal (digital and
paper)
Students must explore 3 mediums of art within 2 columns of artmaking of 2D, 3D and Digital/lens based art.
The table below represents some of the art mediums the students can explore but are not limited to the list.

Two-dimensional Forms Three-Dimensional Forms Lens-based, electronic and

screen-based forms

Drawing: charcoal, pencil, ink, Carved sculpture: carved wood, Time-based and sequential art:
collage stone block such as stop-motion, digital
animation, video art

Painting: acrylic, oil, watercolor, Modelled sculpture: wax, Lens media: such as analogue
murals polymer clays (wet) photography, digital
photography, montage

Printmaking: intaglio, Constructed sculpture: Lens-less media:

planographic, chine collé Assemblage, bricolage, wood, photogram/rayograph,
plastic, paper, glass scenography, pinhole
photography, cyanotype, salted
paper

Graphics: illustration and Cast sculpture: such as plaster, Digital/screen based: vector
design, graphic novel, storyboard wax, bronze, paper, plastic, glass graphics, software developed
painting, design and illustration

Ceramics: hand-built forms,

thrown vessels, mould-made
objects

Designed objects: fashion,

architectural models, vessels,
interior design, jewellery

Site specific/ephemeral:
Land art, installation,
performance art

Textiles: fibre, weaving,

constructed textiles

Criteria for the process portfolio focuses on the elements below:

1. Exploring Skills, Techniques and Processes
-Documentation of process
-Experimentation with materials, media and technology
-Observational drawings
-Preliminary study and plans
-Photographic contact sheets and test prints
-Computer screenshots of photoshop, lightroom, digital drawings
2. Investigation and making connections
 -Respond to Artists and their work
-Detailed evaluations and critical analysis of artwork (Ways of seeing, 4 Step process)
-Transcription or using the style or technique of an artist
-Making connections between artists and your own work
-Responding to exhibitions
3. Ideas and Intention
-Concept mapping of ideas and themes
-Consider how meaning is communicated through choices of imagery and materials
-Reworking an idea using different techniques
-Self reflection of works in progress
4. Personal Reflection
-Evaluations of art practices and art making experiences
-Challenges faced and obstacles overcome
-Records of valuable feedback received/critique
5. Presentation and Art Vocabulary
-Balance of visuals and text
-Writing is legible
-Layout is considered
-Language is appropriate, art terminology is used Artists names and art movements are spelt correctly.
-All artwork is cited: Name of Artist, Title of artwork, Medium used, Date, and location of image (where did
you find it?)

● Curatorial Practice
-Documenting studio work, establishing good practice
-Peer critiques

Due at the end of Unit 1:

Visual arts journal pages with 2D, 3D and lens-based experimentation
1 peer critique

Unit 2: Exploring Place and Culture

● Theoretical Practice
-Introduction to the comparative study (student selects artworks, there are no requirements for mediums in the
comparative study-as long as the work is from 2 different cultural contexts)
-Formal analysis of an artwork
-Comparing, contrasting and connecting two artworks of varying cultures with Venn diagrams or double
bubble
1. Teacher directed-two pieces
2. Peer work-each student chooses one artwork and pairs with a classmate to compare and contrast
3. Student selects two artworks compares and contrasts

-Art and TOK Topics: Possible Questions for Visual Arts journal, class discussions and/or homework
assignments
1. Art and Meaning
Is there a distinction between high art and low art? Art and Craft? What might this be?
Is there a common ground for what constitutes art?
If something is meaningless, can it be art?
When does performance become art?
Is there a line between the different art forms?
Is life art?
Art vs Craft
What was art called before it was called art?
What were the roles of artist and artisan in the past?
Is craft synonymous with skill?
Is skill still an essential part of art making today?
Is work that relies mostly on technical skill empty of meaning?
Is the artist the person with the IDEA or the person who makes the work, or both?
What is the role of craft in contemporary 21st century art?

Art and controversy

What moral responsibilities does the artist have? Are they different from any other knower?
To what extent does the artist have a moral obligation to avoid or confront issues that might shock or be contrary to
the common populace?
Do you think controversy is important for an artwork to have a strong impact?
Why do artists often rely on the shock factor?
Do materials have power of their own or does the artist imbue the material with its power?
What do we expect from art? Truth? Seduction? Provocation? Beauty?

Ready-made art
The idea is more important than the thing.
You will realize that the ability to discuss and defend your ideas may carry more weight than the actual piece itself.
What does this tell us about conceptual art?

2. Art and Knowledge

What knowledge of art can be gained by finding out about the artist?
Can or should artists’ intentions, and the creative process itself, be understood
through observing artists or knowing something of their lives?
Is the creative process as important as the final product, even though it cannot be
observed directly?
Are an artist’s intentions relevant to assessing the work?(and for the student of art,
should your intention be self evident?)
Can a work of art contain or convey meaning of which the artist is oblivious? Can
you think of an example?

On the validity of unconditioned looking

What knowledge of art can be gained by focusing attention solely on the work itself, in isolation from the
artist or the social context?
Can or should technical virtuosity in itself, a skilled mastery of the medium, be enough to distinguish a work
of art?
Are certain compositions, ways of structuring sounds or shapes, inherently more pleasing than others?
Can a work be judged primarily by the harmony of form and content, the way in which structure and style
work effectively to create or support the subject matter?

On viewer response
What knowledge of art can be gained by focusing on the viewers response?
Can it be argued that art is brought into being only in the response of the audience, that a work is created
anew each time it is viewed?
What is the role of the critic in judgment of the worth of art? Are any of the following sufficient indicators of
the value of a work: its popularity, its commercial value in the market, its universality in its appeal beyond its
cultural boundaries, and/or its longevity?
 3. Art and Originality
Conceptual Art
What is Conceptual Art?
What was Dada?
What is a Ready made?
What is conceptual art today? How has it evolved from its historical beginnings?
Create an idea for a conceptual art work of your own.
If you had no practical limitations, what would you make?

Appropriation
How has technology blurred the boundaries of appropriation?
When is appropriation of another artist’s work homage and when is it plagiarism?
Can recycled and re-uploaded images be considered original work?
Can you maintain ownership of an idea when it’s in the public domain?
Find an example of “acceptable” and “unacceptable” artistic appropriation., courtesy

Digital Drawing
How does technology affect the way images are perceived?
The artist is using a new form of digital technology; is this innovation or Is he just drawing with a different tool?
Does a work of art become less valuable when it is infinitely reproducible ( i.e a digital print)?
Which is the art work? The ipad drawing or the print?
Compare this to traditional printmaking techniques such as etching or lino print.
What is the next step in drawing technology? Imagine...

4. Art and Values

Role in Society
Art has power to change how people think, does this mean it should be controlled?
Isn't art the ultimate freedom of expression?
Should art serve a higher cause, a greater good or should it just be an expression of the individual?
Is it the artists intention or the end result that matters more?
What moral responsibilities does the artist have?
Are multiples ( mass produced) still originals?
Should branding be a part of art making?
What gives art value?

Cultural Assumptions
When looking at art from other cultures, do we consider it the same way we do art from our familiar culture?
Do we still look at it in terms of aesthetic value
Social and historical context?
Does the "exoticism" of the other culture distance us form the work?
Does something made in a long ago far away era still have the power to speak to us across time?
Do we try to relate it to our own culture or do we use a different set of criteria to understand it?
Is art best seen as anthropological or historical documentation, bringing to life a remote society or era?
Should it be understood esoterically, only with independent knowledge of that remote life?
Does art become obsolete?
Is art understood more fully by emphasizing what all cultures have in common or by giving attention to what is
unique to each?
What knowledge of art can be gained by focusing attention on its social, cultural or historical context?
To what extent do power relationships determine what art or whose art is valued?
Is all art a product of a particular place and time in terms of its subject matter and expression?

● Curatorial Practice
-Exhibition Visit (virtually or physically)
-Collecting Artists’ Statements
-Group work and Written response with 4 ways of looking at Art
Class divides into 4 groups and analyzes a piece of work and debate about which view is best when looking at a
piece of art.
1. Intuitive response: A Personal approach, your experience
Yourself, your world, your experience
● What are your first reactions to the work? How does it make you think or feel?
● What does the work remind you of?
● What connection can you make to other things you have seen?
● How do your gender, class, age, background influence the way you respond?
2. Interpretative response: Looking at the message, what is it about?
Content, message, title, genre
● What is the artwork telling us, through its content, title or even, in the case of more abstract work, its form?
● What is it about, what is happening?
● What is the message the artist is communicating? Are there any symbols or indirect references?
● What does the artist call it? How does the title change the way you see it?
● How does the work relate to art history and other traditional genres such as self portraits, Landscape,
History painting, Still Life?
3. Visual Analysis Response: Looking at the object, What can I see?
Elements of art, principles of art, composition, formal qualities
● What colors does the artist use and why do you think this is? How are they organized?
● What kind of shapes and lines do you see?
● What kind of marks does the artist use?
● What kind of surface do you see? Is there texture?
● How big is the work, is scale important to this piece and why?
● What sense of space do you see? Is there illusionistic depth or is it flat?
● What materials does the artist use? Are they traditional? Any found objects? What connotations and
associations do the materials carry?
● How has the work been made? Has the artist made it or is it fabricated? How visible is the making
process? If it is an installation how is it assembled? If it is a video how is it filmed and projected?
● How is the work organized and put together?
4. Evaluation of Cultural Context Response: Looking at the context, relating the work to the wider world. When,
where, who, history, other arts, other fields of knowledge, the present, environment.
● When was it made, what period in history?
● Where was it made, what does it tell us about this?
● What were the social and historical events at the time it was made?
● Can you relate it to other arts of its time, music, literature, film?
● Relate it to other areas of knowledge such as science, geography?
● How has the curator presented the work, are there connections with other works? How is the work hung, lit,
displayed? Are there thematic connections?
● How does the way it is curated affect the viewers experience of the work?
● What information is available and how does this affect your reading of the work?

Due by the end of unit 2:

2 pieces of artwork for exhibition, medium selected by student with proper citations-No Theme required
 Peer critique of artwork
Visual arts journal pages aligned to the pieces of artwork (Final artwork CAN be displayed in the Process
portfolio). All works cited.
Written response to an exhibition visit (homework assignment).

Term 2 –
Unit 3-Finding your vision
● Theoretical Practice
-Comparing artwork using the 4 ways of looking
1. Venn diagrams
2. Double Bubbles
-Building art vocabulary
1. Elements and Principles of art
2. Studio Habits of the Mind, art and inquiry
3. 21st century art vocabulary
4. Genre and timeline of art movements
-Final Selection of Comparative Study topics/Artists
● Art Making Practice
-Guided Studio Work
-Guided Visual journal Work

By the end of unit 3:

Artists selected for comparative study with venn diagram or double bubble completed, first half of
comparative study is completed.
1 artwork for exhibition will be completed.
Process portfolio
Peer critique of artwork

Unit 4-This or that: Exploration in mediums, artists and genres

● Curatorial Practice
-Virtual exhibition activity (Visual journal work)
Peer critiques of artwork and process portfolio
● Theoretical Practice
-Comparing, contrasting and connecting artwork
-Building art vocabulary
● Art Making Practice
-Guided Studio Work with a variety in mediums, artists and genres
-Guided Visual journal Work for process portfolio with a variety of mediums, artists and genres

By the end of unit 4:

3 pieces of artwork for exhibition
Process portfolio to support artwork
Peer critiques of artwork and process portfolio
3/4th of comparative study is completed

Course Assessment
● IB Assessment = 60%
● Practice Tasks = 40%
Bibliography
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