Art Appreciation Essay Sample PDF

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“WHILE ART EDUCATORS MUST EMBRACE AN ARTIST’S FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION; THIS FREEDOM EXTENDS ONLY TO THE WORK’S RIGHT TO EXIST.”

Agree Expressing oneself through art is under is a basic human right that is guaranteed by the constitution (National art association Board, 2019). It is the duty of art educators to guide the artists to what is right or wrong, and enable them to think critically. Every artist holds an identity that makes them different from other artists, and it is the duty of art educators to help them discover who they are and who they will become as an artist. Their freedom of expression must not also be taken away from them because it is a violation of a person’s right to express themselves (Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2021). The artist must also understand that freedom of expression is both a right and a responsibility where one must be careful in creating and performing an artwork. Even if there is a right to expression, censorship must still take place, especially if the artwork holds disturbing or harmful content. An example of this situation is the figure one found on page 39 of the article written by Henry (1997) where a student made a drawing with male genitalia which was rejected due to its disturbing content. Therefore, it must be censored and kept away from the public. In conclusion, art educators must embrace the freedom of an artist to imagine and express, but they should also limit their way of execution by ensuring that the artist does not create an artwork that seeks to disturb or offend others without removing their freedom to express. Furthermore, artworks that are labeled as offensive should not be displayed in front of the public, but the artwork’s right to exist must still be respected and the artists must be corrected.

“FOR I BELIEVE THAT ART IS ESSENTIALLY AMORAL AND EXISTS APART FROM OTHER VALUES.” Disagree: Merriam-Webster defined the word amoral as a state of neither being moral or immoral. In arts, amoral would mean that it does not care about what is right or what is wrong. The author believes that art is amoral and apart from other values, but we disagree because we believe that art must be concerned with what is right or wrong considering that artwork will always make an impact and effect on the viewers. The sole purpose of censorship is to block and control artworks with offensive or inappropriate content (Lone-Star College University Park Research Guide, 2021) which could offend or threaten children and other vulnerable people. This is why censorship helps in maintaining the value of art. Art also cares about its surroundings just like what is seen in figure two where a nine-year-old child created a drawing of his experiences (Henry, 1997, p. 41). In that figure, we saw the child creating art in a form of realism. Realism is an attempt to represent what is going on in a person’s everyday life (Ross, 2014). To connect it with the reading, the figure of the child showed concern by telling the viewers what is going on in his recess during school hours. Therefore, we argue that art must not be apart from one’s value because art is the reflection of the artist who has his own moral framework.

“ART THAT IS SOCIALLY REPREHENSIBLE IS NOT ONLY MORALLY FLAWED BUT AESTHETICALLY FLAWED AS WELL.” Agree:

According to Human moralism, retrieved from IvyPanda (2021), there is a quote from Jacobson saying “Moral defects in a work of art are aesthetic flaws; insofar as they are present, the work’s aesthetic value is diminished”. This means that the aesthetic valence of an artwork can be determined based on society’s moral responses. The artwork can also be portrayed as dangerous if it does not inspire or satisfy the public. Moreover, art is like a language and an artist is like a speaker. No matter how great the clothes do the speaker wears, if his message disrespects a person’s belief, the audience will appreciate the speech and will focus only on the mistake of the speaker. The same goes with art, we believe that an artwork will no longer be appreciated in society if it holds a disturbing and disrespectful content. To connect it with the reading, a child made a self-portrait, but its aesthetic value was completely ignored by his teacher due to its sexual content (Henry, 1997, p. 40). Another example was also found on page 40 where the professor decided not to show a film entitled “Triumph of the Will” by Riefenstahl to his students because of the promotion of fascism.

“IT IS IN THE NATURE OF ARTISTS TO PUSH THE LIMITS OF ARTISTIC LICENSE BEYOND SOCIAL ACCEPTABILITY.”

Agree or Disagree: Art is crafted based on the artist’s imagination and aligned with the freedom of expression. Hence, there are no boundaries when it comes to creating an art. Many famous artists became well known because of their ideas that are outside the box especially Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain” (ABC News, 2019). We believe that we do need to consider society’s view in making an artwork, but it should not be the main reason why we create a piece. We must have a mindset where we craft art to express ourselves, not to impress the public. As stated in the readings, the five-year-old girl investigated the beauty of the body through the differences in sex which is seen in figure one (Henry, 1997, p. 40). We can clearly see that the girl ignored what her teachers and classmates might think. Henry also stated “Observing the evolution of this work, I noticed that the child's artistic intentions were self- rewarding. She did them without the need to solicit attention or approval from an audience. The drawing was created as an extension of imaginary play and as a form of symbolic inner speech”. Therefore, we conclude, that it is in the genes of the artists to create art beyond the expectations and approval of society.

Reference: ABC News. (2019, July 23). Marcel Duchamp: The radical artist who changed the course of art | The Mix. [Video]. Youtube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv78ebotgrY

Equality and Human Rights Commission. (2021, June 3). Article 10: Freedom of Expression. Retrieved from https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/human-rights-act/article-10-freedom-expression

Henley, D. (1997). Art of Disturbation: Provocation and Censorship in Art Education. Art Education, 50(4), 39–45. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2307/3193652

IvyPanda. (2019, June 4). Do Ethical Flaws in an Artwork Detract from its Aesthetic Value? Retrieved from https://ivypanda.com/essays/do-ethical-flaws-in-an-artwork-detract-from-its-aesthetic-value/

Lone-Star College University Park Research Guides. (2021, September 27). What is Censorship? Retrieved from https://upresearch.lonestar.edu/banned-books/censor Merriam-Webster, (n.d). Amoral. Merriam-Webster dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/amoral National Art Education Association. (2019, May 16). Censorship and the Arts. Retrieved from https://www.arteducators.org/advocacy-policy/articles/502-naea-position-statement-on-censorship-a nd-the-arts Ross, F. (2014, February 7). Why Realism?. Art Renewal Center. Retrieved from https://www.artrenewal.org/Article/Title/why-realism...