Novice Strategies for Understanding Paintings

Abstract

Abstract Visual analysis is taught in art history classes as a skill which aids a student in understanding a work of art in its appropriate conceptual or historical context. To provide a foundation for the design of computer‐based lessons to train students in the skill, this study attempted to discover the strategies that novices employ when viewing a set of paintings. Verbal protocols obtained from novices in this study indicated that they described semantic features, or content, of paintings more than the formal elements, e. g. line, colour, shape, when viewing realist paintings. However, when presented with abstract, i. e. less semantically accessible paintings, novices shaply altered their approach and discussed formal elements over content. These findings suggest that an analysis of formal elements is not performed by a novice when a painting depicts a clear subject, but is attempted when the subject‐matter becomes obscure. This implies that, at some level, novices realize that the meaning of a painting can be extracted from attention to the formal elements. Interestingly, novice protocols contained the same categories of strategies deemed important by experts. The lack of training in visual analysis was not notably manifest with respect to style. Of all formal dimensions, this one yielded the greatest discrepancy between novices and the expectations of instructors.

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