Curated OER
Art Criticism: Understanding Wayne Thiebaud's Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts
Analysis consists of an understanding and interpretation of evidence and elements found in any number of expressive mediums. Upper graders critique the work of American Realist Wayne Thiebaud through a series of excellent guided...
BBC
Bbc: Simon Schama's Power of Art
At the companion website for the BBC series "Simon Schama's Power of Art," hosted by Columbia University professor Simon Schama, find insightful analysis of eight artistic masterworks, each of which represents a turning point in history....
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...
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,...
University of California
Uc Berkeley Library: Mark Twain Takes on Art
A great look into the thoughts of Mark Twain and how he feels about certain pieces of art. Tongue-in-cheek, playful and fun. A great link between literature and fine arts for the educator!
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...
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian American Art Museum: Director's Choice
The director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum applies her analytical skills in explaining the formal and aesthetic qualities of her favorite American masterworks from the Smithsonian's collection of American art.
Other
The Frick Collection: Ingres
A careful study of a portrait painting of the Comtesse d'Haussonville that illuminates the important qualities of Ingres's faultless neoclassical style.