Curated OER
Lesson: Urs Fischer: Your Choice: Reality or Illusion?
Young analysts write a comparative essay, but about what? They compose a paper based on several critical discussion about reality and illusion, and how both are blurred in art. They analyze several theatre pieces that exemplify Brechtian...
Arizona State University
Arts Work: Visual Arts Criticism
If you're looking for a complete list of art critique questions, this is the site for you! You'll find ideas for description, analysis, elements, technique, judgement, and audience.
Yale University
Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: How to Appreciate a Painting
Christine A. Elmore's curriculum unit designed "to facilitate her third-graders' enjoyment of and response to fine art." This unit can be applied to all age groups and provides an extensive background on art in general.
Museum of Modern Art
Mo Ma: Pioneering Modern Painting: Cezanne and Pissarro (1865 85)
Exhibition brings together the work of two masters of the early modern period, Cezanne and Pissarro. Compares and contrasts their styles, choices of subject, techniques, and development, with interesting thematic pathways into the...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of African Art: Big and Small Are Tricky
An exhibition that uses African art to explain the concepts of bigness and smallness. In the world of art, big and small can refer not only to physical size but to relative size, to the impression an object makes, or to the largeness of...
Other
Louvre Museum: Mona Lisa: Portrait of Lisa Gherardini
Learn about the various actions that have been taken to preserve the "Mona Lisa," one of Leonardo's most famous portrait paintings. Explore compositional details, unfinished portions of the painting, and other interesting tidbits about...
New York Times
New York Times: Vincent Van Gogh: A Draftsman's Fist
Michael Kimmelman, art critic for the New York Times, narrates a walk-through slideshow of an exhibition of Van Gogh's drawings mounted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2005. Wonderful examples of Van Gogh's landscapes and...
New York Times
New York Times: Picasso and Matisse
Michael Kimmelman, art critic for the "New York Times," narrates a slideshow of the work of two titans of twentieth-century art, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. He clearly documents the friendly rivalry that existed between these two...
New York Times
New York Times: Multimedia Slideshow: El Greco
Michael Kimmelman, art critic for the "New York Times," narrates a slideshow of the work of the enigmatic El Greco, touching on El Greco's artistic influences, his sense of himself as an artist, and other interesting insights.
Other
Rijksmuseum: Rembrandt's "The Night Watch"
A full-featured exploration of Rembrandt's "The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch," better known as "The Night Watch." Learn who is in the painting, the symbols in it, what makes "The Night Watch" innovative,...
ArtLex
Art Lex: Constructing Sculpture
A great instructional activity idea! This site from Artlex walks you through a instructional activity on Constructing (Assemblage) sculpture. It is based upon the work of Deborah Butterfield and there are great images of some of her...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of African Art: A First Look at the Disney Tishman Collection
A survey of traditional African art in a variety of media--wood, ivory, metal, and ceramics--from an impressive collection donated to the National Museum of African Art by Walt Disney in 2005. Includes examples of masks from the Yoruba...
Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Guggenheim Museum: Looking at Art: Art Investigations: People in 1900 Paris
Based on what you see in a painting, what kind of conclusions can you draw about the artist's view towards his or her subject matter? Examine Pablo Picasso's "Le Moulin de la Galette" and respond to thought-provoking writing/discussion...
ibiblio
Ibiblio: Web Museum: "La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat
A short essay on Seurat's famous "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte." This essay discusses whether this painting is a statement in anti-impressionism or, in fact, a natural progression of the movement's ideas. Interesting...
Other
Kindergarten Visual Arts: Mother and Child
Lesson plans about interpreting art aimed at kindergarden students. Uses portraits of mothers and children by Pablo Picasso and Mary Cassatt as insiration.