Aesthetics

(Robert Rauschenberg, Erased de Kooning Drawing, 1953)

It seems to me an ambitious move to have added 'aesthetics' to the list of disciplines for DBAE alongside art history, studio production, and art criticism. The heady, philosophical questions of ‘what is art’, ‘what is art for’, and ‘why do we make it’ are difficult enough for art scholars to answer, let alone to present to K-12 students. This is only made more difficult provided the range of theories available from the formalists to contextualists to expressionists. I would argue that the disciplines of art history, art criticism, and studio production all encompass various important aesthetic debates on their own, and that to properly integrate aesthetics is to provide aesthetically minded questions to the three previously existing disciplines.

Proper discussion of art history is impossible without analyzing the cultural context that the artists were operating out of, and the artistic theories that they were employing or challenging when creating work that became relevant enough to discuss centuries later. As an example, it’s difficult to discuss Greek and renaissance art without acknowledging that they were employing a type of mimetic theory, trying to replicate ideal human forms, and in doing so revealed what their version of an ideal human would be.

If we were to look at art criticism, it’s difficult to criticize a work of art without first agreeing on a set of standards and conditions for what makes art successful, and what the goal might be. If judging on formalist ideals, for example, you’re setting the expectation that students would analyze the art in terms of craftsmanship and elements of design only.

Due to aesthetics broad philosophical nature, it’s difficult to fully detach it from any of the existing disciplines. To this end, I think my favorite quote from either article is the second teacher preparation in Lankford: “Reinforce knowledge and skills in studio production, art history, art criticism, and cultural studies. Because aesthetics draws from and feeds each of these, enrichment in any area creates the potential for enrichment and improved integration of all areas.” Rather than setting aside time to break down aesthetic concepts directly, we should guide students towards answering aesthetic questions in everything they do.

Teachers should also be involved in asking aesthetic questions of themselves. An art teacher can’t really even produce a grading rubric for an assignment without revealing their aesthetic inclinations. Much like with multiculturalism studies, when it comes to aesthetics we all have our unconscious biases. It may help to open courses and projects with discussions about what makes a good project, what the goals should be, whether they are related to pure element and form, individual expression, social change and communication, or some other ideal.