The Gifted program prepares students for active and imaginative intellectual life by fostering analytical and critical thinking as well as self-expression and reflection. In the elementary years, students learn to apply logic, reasoning and analysis. This focus on questioning transitions into personalizing a method for inquiry. Student interests and modes of working are nurtured as students become more aware of their knowledge development. In the middle school years, students explore world cultures, mythology, communication, research, and metacognitive skills while building an awareness of the humanities.In the high school years, students will follow Socrates’ dictum that “the unexamined life is not worth living” by engaging in seminars that focus on philosophical theory and analysis of literary and visual texts.All in all, instruction is designed to meet their individual needs.
Description:
This course examines major forms of artistic expression from the past and present and from a variety of global cultures. You will learn to situate art within a historical context as well as to look at art critically, in order to express what you are seeing and how it affects you by focusing on the following big ideas:
- Artist manipulate materials and ideas to create an aesthetic object, act, or event.
- Art making is shaped by tradition and change.
- Interpretations of art are variable
Units:
- Unit 1: The Ancient World
- Unit 2: The Middle Ages
- Unit 3: The Early Modern Era
- Unit 4: Modernism and Post-modernity
Subject: AP Art History / Grade: 10-11 / Suggested Timeline: 8-9 weeks
UnitTitle:
The Ancient World
Unit Overview/Essential Understanding:
Students will identify the great works of art and architecture from the Paleolithic Era to the fall of the Roman Empire, explaining the effect of socio-political and socio-cultural forces on art production.
Unit Objectives:
The course continually focuses on answering the following essential questions:
- What is art and how is it made?
- Why and how does art change?
- How do we describe our thinking about art?
- Do artists change the course of history?
- Why do artistic movements come and go? What forces cause change?
- When cultures exchange ideas, how do those ideas changeculture?
- How does scientific and technological developments affect art?
- Do artistic trends shape or reflect culture and identity?
- How do form, content and context express and influence meaning?
- How do elements and principles facilitate visual communication?
- How do you skill and technique enable the creative process?
- How do we use critique to inform art?
- Analyze the importance of animals in Paleolithic art
- Explain the stylistic shifts in Egyptian art history
- Analyze the innovations of Sumerian-Mesopotamian art
- Explain the significance of classical Greek innovations in the arts
- Compare and contrast the artwork of Republican Rome and the Empire in its rise, decline, and fall
Focus Standards Addressed in this Unit:
- 9.2.12. A Explain the historical, cultural and social context of an individual work in the arts
- 9.2.12.B Relate works in the arts chronologically to historical events (e.g., 10,000 B.C. to present)
- 9.2.12.C Relate works in the arts to varying styles and genre and to the periods in which they were created (e.g., Bronze Age, Ming Dynasty, Renaissance, Classical, Modern, Post-Modern, Contemporary, Futuristic, others)
- 9.2.12.D Analyze a work of art from its historical and cultural perspective
- 9.2.12. E Analyze how historical events and culture impact forms, techniques and purposes of works in the arts
- 9.2.12. I Identify, explain and analyze philosophical beliefs as they relate to works in the arts
Important Standards Addressed in this Unit:
N/A
Misconceptions:
N/A
Concepts/Content:
- Paleolithic/Neolithic Era
- The Ancient Near East
- Ancient Egypt
- Ancient India
- Ancient Greece
- Roman Republic and Empire
- Differentiate the components of form, function, content and or context of a work of art
- Describe how context influences art creation
- Describe how tradition and change feature in creation of art
- Analyze how formal elements elicit a response
- Justify attribution to an unknown work
- Slide lectures, chapter tests, essay topics:
- Discuss the significant differences in the depiction of animals and humans in Paleolithic art Akhenaten’s reign as a cultural and religious break with tradition
- Select two sets of images that represent the shift from classical to non-classical styles
- Identify and compare works, centuries or periods and elements of either style
Assessments:
- Paper topic: Analyze the Parthenon from its context in Greek politics as well as its influence and similarities to an American nationalist structure. The following sources must be discussed and incorporated into the essay: Thucydides: “The Melian Dialogue,” “Funeral Oration of Pericles”
Interdisciplinary Connections:
Art, Social Studies / Additional Resources:
- Gardner’s Art Through the Ages
Subject: AP Art History / Grade: 10-11 / Suggested Timeline: 8-9 weeks
Unit Title:
The Middle Ages
Unit Overview/Essential Understanding:
Students will identify the great works of art and architecture from the fall of Rome to the late Gothic era, explaining the effect of socio-political and socio-cultural forces on art production.
Unit Objectives:
By the end of the unit students will be able to:
- Distinguish between classical and medieval civilization/style
- Study the impact of pilgrimage, Crusades and towns on art
- Study the development of Gothic cathedral design
- Evaluate the importance of emotionalism in Gothic art
- Compare/contrast masjid design in various cultures and eras
- Explain the influence of Islamic architecture on European Gothic art
Focus Standards Addressed in this Unit:
- 9.2.12. A Explain the historical, cultural and social context of an individual work in the arts
- 9.2.12.B Relate works in the arts chronologically to historical events (e.g., 10,000 B.C. to present)
- 9.2.12.C Relate works in the arts to varying styles and genre and to the periods in which they were created (e.g., Bronze Age, Ming Dynasty, Renaissance, Classical, Modern, Post-Modern, Contemporary, Futuristic, others)
- 9.2.12.D Analyze a work of art from its historical and cultural perspective
- 9.2.12. E Analyze how historical events and culture impact forms, techniques and purposes of works in the arts
- 9.2.12. I Identify, explain and analyze philosophical beliefs as they relate to works in the arts
Important Standards Addressed in this Unit
N/A
Misconceptions:
- The clash of civilizations theory; dark ages as an era of creative inactivity; art defined solely as individualistic self-expression
Concepts/Content:
- Late Antique/Early Christian
- Islamic World
- Early Medieval/Romanesque
- Gothic
- Differentiate the components of form, function, content and or context of a work of art
- Describe how context influences art creation
- Describe how tradition and change feature in creation of art
- Analyze how formal elements elicit a response
- Justify attribution to an unknown work
- Slide lectures, chapter tests, essay topics: on John Berger’s analysis of Fayyum portraits, unknown Islamic artworks, compare and contrast tympanum sculptures at Moissac, Autun and Vezelay
Assessments:
- Essay: Illustrate the synthesis of classical idealism with medieval emotionalism by referring to specific works in sculpture—Reims, Rottgen Pieta, etc.
Interdisciplinary Connections:
Art, Social Studies / Additional Resources:
- John Berger, The Shape of a Pocket
Subject: AP Art History / Grade: 10-11 / Suggested Timeline: 8-9 weeks
Unit Title:
Early Modern Era
Unit Overview/Essential Understanding:
Students will identify the great works of art and architecture from the Italian Renaissance to the Enlightenment, explaining the effect of socio-political and socio-cultural forces on art production.
Unit Objectives:
By the end of the unit students will be able to:
- Distinguish between Early and High Renaissance
- Identify the work and explain the influence of Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian
- Compare and contrast the work of the Old Masters of the Dutch and Flemish traditions
- Analyze the ways in which ideology shaped art production in the eighteenth century
Focus Standards Addressed in this Unit:
- 9.2.12. A Explain the historical, cultural and social context of an individual work in the arts
- 9.2.12.B Relate works in the arts chronologically to historical events (e.g., 10,000 B.C. to present)
- 9.2.12.C Relate works in the arts to varying styles and genre and to the periods in which they were created (e.g., Bronze Age, Ming Dynasty, Renaissance, Classical, Modern, Post-Modern, Contemporary, Futuristic, others)
- 9.2.12.D Analyze a work of art from its historical and cultural perspective
- 9.2.12. E Analyze how historical events and culture impact forms, techniques and purposes of works in the arts
- 9.2.12. I Identify, explain and analyze philosophical beliefs as they relate to works in the arts
Important Standards Addressed in this Unit:
N/A
Misconceptions:
N/A
Concepts/Content:
- Early Renaissance
- High Renaissance
- The Reformation
- Baroque
- Rococco
- Neoclassicism
- Differentiate the components of form, function, content and or context of a work of art
- Describe how context influences art creation
- Describe how tradition and change feature in creation of art
- Analyze how formal elements elicit a response
- Justify attribution to an unknown work
- Slide lectures, chapter tests, essay topics:
- Explain the differences between Early and High Renaissance styles
- Compare and contrast the work of Rembrandt and Caravaggio or Rubens
Assessments:
- Essay topic: Explain the relationship of classical art and architecture to the nascent nationalism of Europe in the eighteenth century
Interdisciplinary Connections:
Art, Social Studies / Additional Resources:
- Gardner’s Art Through the Ages
Subject: AP Art History / Grade: 10-11 / Suggested Timeline: 8-9 weeks
Unit Title:
Modernism and Beyond
Unit Overview/Essential Understanding:
Students will examine the transition from academic, classical art style to the revolutionary avant-garde movements of the nineteenth century into the current era.
Unit Objectives:
By the end of the unit students will be able to:
- Explain the impact of Romanticism on art style and subject
- Contextualize realism with the political movements of its times
- Relate changes in culture and intellectual history to modern art movements
- Distinguish between the variety of “isms” in the arts
- Identify the work of a few key artists (Van Gogh, Picasso, Duchamp) and assess their impact on modern art-making
Focus Standards Addressed in this Unit:
- 9.2.12. A Explain the historical, cultural and social context of an individual work in the arts
- 9.2.12.B Relate works in the arts chronologically to historical events (e.g., 10,000 B.C. to present)
- 9.2.12.C Relate works in the arts to varying styles and genre and to the periods in which they were created (e.g., Bronze Age, Ming Dynasty, Renaissance, Classical, Modern, Post-Modern, Contemporary, Futuristic, others)
- 9.2.12.D Analyze a work of art from its historical and cultural perspective
- 9.2.12. E Analyze how historical events and culture impact forms, techniques and purposes of works in the arts
- 9.2.12. I Identify, explain and analyze philosophical beliefs as they relate to works in the arts
Important Standards Addressed in this Unit:
N/A
Misconceptions:
- Modernism requires no thought or talent; conceptualism as subordinate to subject matter
Concepts/Content:
- Romanticism
- Realism
- Impressionism
- Post-impressionism
- Fin-de-siecle art
- Expressionism
- Cubism
- Dadaism
- Surrealism
- Abstract Expressionism
- Postmodern
- Differentiate the components of form, function, content and or context of a work of art
- Describe how context influences art creation
- Describe how tradition and change feature in creation of art
- Analyze how formal elements elicit a response
- Justify attribution to an unknown work
- Slide lectures, chapter tests, essay topics:
- Select a single work of Van Gogh’s and explain how it epitomizes the artistic changes of the 19th century
- Discuss the innovations of Dadaism and Duchamp and how they impacted modern art development
- Debate the definitions/boundaries of high brow and low brow art as they developed in the twentieth century
- Compare and contrast the work of Meissonier and Manet
Assessments:
- AP Art History Exam and in-class slide ID exam
Interdisciplinary Connections:
Art, Social Studies / Additional Resources:
- Gardner’s Art Through the Ages
- John Berger, Selected Essays