Cyan_phoeniX
Active Member
Theory Exams in Visual Arts has always been a problem for many people. I'm sure most of you have noticed how general the syllabus is, and if you've looked at the past HSC's how different the questions are each year. In a way it is better than the atrocious english HSC exams which encourages recycled ideas, but the general nature of VA means that not everything can be studied and so when you are in an exam you need to answer the questions using every general fact you know about art.
Simply learning every apect of several selected artist should definitely help you in the extended response found in the second part of the VA exam, but will do nothing for you when you try and attempt the first part. The only help you can get for the first part is from general art knowledge.
There is a book called Annotated Art by Robert Cumming.
Its large in size, but don't let that fool you, it is big because the book contains large good quality images of around 50 paintings.
The book has clear annotated facts about each work, and i guarentee you if you like art you will find every detail very interesting.
What is significant is that each painting is well known and unique in that each work either challenged or redifined its time in art convention. It also tells you of specific techniques and any general fact about the work. Knowing information such as this can definitely help you as you can apply most of the information to any work you will encounter, or at least relate it to any work.
Markers know that most students do not know the works that they will have to anaylise in the HSC, but they love it if students give reference to other similar works or insert in their answer specific techniques or well informed opinions. Study the book well (and i mean spend hours on each work, just to soak in the information) and you are better prepared (and have wasted less time) for the VA HSC exam than you would have if you had studying generic artists.
Check out your local or school library for the book or just buy it somewhere. It's definitely worth checking out. (BTW, I'm not a salesman, just an ex art-student who is very happy with the book
)
Simply learning every apect of several selected artist should definitely help you in the extended response found in the second part of the VA exam, but will do nothing for you when you try and attempt the first part. The only help you can get for the first part is from general art knowledge.
There is a book called Annotated Art by Robert Cumming.
Its large in size, but don't let that fool you, it is big because the book contains large good quality images of around 50 paintings.
The book has clear annotated facts about each work, and i guarentee you if you like art you will find every detail very interesting.
What is significant is that each painting is well known and unique in that each work either challenged or redifined its time in art convention. It also tells you of specific techniques and any general fact about the work. Knowing information such as this can definitely help you as you can apply most of the information to any work you will encounter, or at least relate it to any work.
Markers know that most students do not know the works that they will have to anaylise in the HSC, but they love it if students give reference to other similar works or insert in their answer specific techniques or well informed opinions. Study the book well (and i mean spend hours on each work, just to soak in the information) and you are better prepared (and have wasted less time) for the VA HSC exam than you would have if you had studying generic artists.
Check out your local or school library for the book or just buy it somewhere. It's definitely worth checking out. (BTW, I'm not a salesman, just an ex art-student who is very happy with the book
)