Wednesday, 27 April 2011

How To Excel at Art Crits


Normal student reaction at Art Crits


So we’ve all been there, Group Crit, Show and Don’t Tell Crit, Mediated Crit etc, but has anyone ever really shown you a formula for getting through a crit in one piece?

Well, surprise surprise, there is indeed a tried and tested process for ensuring that you don’t end up flummoxed, tongue tied or looking like a muppet when your tutors ask you to add your thoughts in a crit session.
It’s known as “The Feldman Method” developed by Edmund Feldman, Professor of Art at the University of Georgia and incorporates a simple, 4 stage process to assist in the successful critique of any artwork. The process is broken down into the following four steps; 
1. Description
2. Analaysis
3. Interperetation
4. Judgement

(A useful mnemonic for remembering the process is “Dem Apples Is Juicy”)

It may seem like an obvious process to some, but I am certain there are many students on art courses across the land who have no clue as to how best to handle a crit session.

Here is a link to a useful blog entry that should help even the most confused art student get through a crit and feel like they are in control and be able to de-code the work on show and assess whether it meets the artists’ intentions: Click here
And here’s a helpful, printable aide memoir that you might want to adopt or adapt to suit your requirements: 
We hope you find this as useful as we did.

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