What Do I Need to Teach Art History in College

The Art History Myth

So many students register for an art history class with an inaccurate idea of what the field of study entails. They believe it's a course for looking at pretty pictures all day and they'll be able to skate correct through it. Nonetheless, this is not the instance. Fine art history covers far more than looking at pictures, and requires exceptional written report skills if the goal is an "A" letter course. In my experience as an fine art history student, I noticed three distinct types of students in my classes:

• The art history major who needs and wants to study the subject.
• The art major who is required to have a certain amount of art history courses.
• And, the other random majors who needed an elective and idea that art history would be fun and like shooting fish in a barrel.

Whatever their surface area of study, many students are completely shocked when they receive those first exam scores. Those C'due south, D'due south, and F's are e'er a quick slap in the face to those students who callously believed fine art history to be a fluff class. Sadly, fifty-fifty many students majoring in the discipline struggle for high marks on exams because while they may be passionate about the discipline affair, they just don't know how to properly prepare for an examination.

Fifty-fifty by the time I was taking the upper level courses, many of my fellow students still hadn't adopted practiced studying practices. Semester afterward semester they approached studying for exams in the same manner; scrambling to memorize the content concluding minute while guzzling venti latté'due south at Starbucks in the pupil union until two or iii o'clock in the morn.

If you are currently taking an fine art history class, or planning on it, yous'll probably hear students and even instructor'due south say, "Memorization is the key." This is true to a point. You will need to memorize titles, artist names, and dates, at to the lowest degree, merely memorization tends to be temporary noesis. Sitting downwardly with a stack of flash cards and memorizing what's on them may be the quicker manner to pass the examination, but it is an excruciatingly BORING way to study, and you'll forget everything past the adjacent solar day.

My methods of studying take a smashing deal more fourth dimension. These are non methods for people who want to know how to laissez passer an fine art history test without putting in any work. My report strategies are meant for the student - whether an art history major or a student of another field - who wants to get an A and doesn't mind working diligently to become there.

My methods are also tried and truthful. I graduated magna cum laude with a caste in art history, and with the highest GPA of all the art history majors graduating with me. Those friends of mine who pulled the late nighters with the flash cards did not graduate with honors.

So, my promise is, if you're willing to work for the form, I volition requite you the strategy that will get information technology for you. In the long run, your life will actually be easier come examination time because yous won't need to cram for the exam; you'll already know the answers.

Art History Trivia

Some Full general Study Tips

To brainstorm, I'd like to innovate some general proficient study habits:

1. Don't wait until correct earlier the test to study.

   I've already alluded to this step, and while information technology seems about obvious, it is surprising how many people ignore this simple precept. Fourth dimension and time over again students attend class and think their task is washed for the twenty-four hours.

   Incorrect!

   There is a reason instructors create a syllabus outlining the schedule for the duration of the course. Your form syllabi is non something you should toss into the garbage on your way out of the classroom on the get-go day. No, that document needs to become the basis of outlining your study schedule for the semester.

   Staying on meridian of your syllabus enables y'all to anticipate the upcoming topics. The best practise is to prepare for the lecture by reading the corresponding literature before the topic is covered. This mode, the lecture actually reinforces data you've already gained and aids in amend retention.

2. Have notes in class

   Another obvious tip ignored by as well many students. Taking notes in lecture classes is optimal for keeping i's mind engaged. Even if the teacher is covering details seemingly irrelevant to the affair at hand, accept notes. Information technology keeps you focused, and the human activity of writing besides helps with retaining cognition.

   Yes, I'm not just recommending notes, but I'1000 suggesting you actually write them equally opposed to typing them. For those of us brought upwardly with computers, our typing skills are generally plenty proficient for us to blazon and transcribe what a professor is saying without actually giving it any attention. But, that also makes information technology all too easy to type what y'all hear without actually listening.

   And of course, at that place are the many distractions computers bring with them: Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, electronic mail, Amazon, etc. While yous're busy checking your status on Facebook, your instructor likely merely gave the class a crucial bit of information pregnant the difference between getting an A on the essay portion of the test and non getting credit at all. If, for whatever reason, you still cull to use a computer in course, don't have Facebook or whatsoever of the other distracting sites open up in another tab. Those pesky notifications telling you something new has occurred are far too tempting to ignore, and earlier you know it you're checking your updates more than than taking notes.

3. Study in a place Not comfy.

   The optimal location for studying, especially if you need to devote a practiced clamper of fourth dimension, is somewhere with no other activity options. The library, a quiet bookstore café, or a coffee house brand for peachy places to study. The environs is more often than not subdued, tranquillity, and they offering something to do while taking a written report break without causing distraction.

   Well-nigh people have difficulty studying at habitation because there are likewise many other things to do. My apartment was never cleaner than when my college roommate had an assignment due or a test coming up. Studying at abode makes it besides easy to distract yourself with other of import things that need to exist washed.

4. Mind to instrumental music while studying.

   Nigh of us accept heard listening to classical music is best for while studying, but what if you don't like classical music? I likewise highly recommend listening to something to block out the dissonance of your surroundings, and I detect that music helps focus the heed and earlier you know it you've spent hours studying without even realizing time has passed. But, we don't all dig Beethoven and Mozart equally background noise (personally I do, but I tin can sympathize this isn't for everyone's taste). If you're not in to classical tunes, try listening to film scores. If you bask an edgier sound to your music, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Ynwei Malmsteen, Ethan Brosch, and many other guitarists accept solo albums of purely instrumental compositions. Prefer a mix? Endeavour Apocalyptica, 2 Cellos, or David Garrett.

5. Report in cycles of xx to forty minutes with five to ten infinitesimal break-in betwixt.

   A four 60 minutes written report session with no breaks is a boring and frankly daunting job. If this is your thought of what studying entails, information technology's no wonder you avoid information technology. Dividing the job into smaller, more manageable chunks with five to 10 infinitesimal breaks to expect forward to volition brand that overall four hour catamenia a much more enjoyable experience.

   When you take a break, do something non-task oriented. This is when you cheque Facebook or the other social media sites, possibly you get a snack or another cup of coffee, play candy crush on your iPhone, etc. But, don't permit your breaks distract you from returning to the task at hand. When break time is over, close out of any game or social media y'all're using and become dorsum to business.

6. Don't always study alone.

   Partnering with another member of your class has many advantages. Showtime, if you missed a class or dozed off during a lecture, yous tin can compare notes and make sure you're caught up. Second, the active engagement of quizzing each other is less monotonous than reading chapter upon chapter in the text or using flash cards. Finally, if you lot get along with your study partner(southward) a lot of times these sessions experience more like hanging out, thus making studying far more than entertaining.

To sum it up, these aren't all technically study tips, but more of an academic modus operandi. Information technology's the aforementioned reasoning behind the idea that cleaning as you melt results in less kitchen mess later on the meal. Piece of work a little flake conscientiously throughout the semester and you'll be sleeping like a baby the night earlier the exam while the balance of your class burns themselves out and about overdoses on caffeine.

Art History Study Tips

At present, for the art history specific tips.

1. Flash cards.

   If I've fabricated it seem then far as if flash cards are dull and monotonous, I'1000 sorry. I'm sorry because, equally dull and monotonous as they can be, they're nevertheless the number 1 best report tool for art history. Recall, I did say that memorization does play a certain office upwardly to a signal, and wink cards are optimal for drilling the pertinent information - name, appointment, title, style, location, etc. - into your caput.

   There is, of class, the onetime schoolhouse way of making flash cards. Note cards with a printout of the paradigm on i side and the corresponding details on the reverse side. Or, you tin can employ Keynote, or Ability Point if you have a Windows automobile, to create a digital version of flash cards. On one slide y'all show the prototype, most of which tin can be found on Google Images or ARTstor, and enter the details on the side by side slide.

   There are as well dissimilar variations of online wink card programs. I personally never had any success with these and plant them to be more of a waste of time than helpful, merely if this is more to your liking you tin discover enough by searching for "flash card maker" on Google.

2. Create a chief list.

   It may be wiser to create this before you create the flash cards, but either mode y'all'll demand this to study. For my own studying purposes, I always used Numbers (Excel for the Microsoft users out in that location), and I made lists for Date, Championship, Creative person, Style, Medium, Location, and Catamenia. Then I would enter each artwork covered in the session in appointment order from oldest to newest.

   Yet, there are many ways to organize your lists. Depending on how you lot're being tested, or what information y'all're being tested on, you lot may want to grouping by artist, by period, by manner, by medium, or past location. Creating this list is really upward to your preferred fashion of arranging information.

   As y'all assemble your list, leave room for notes. You lot will use this list in conjunction with your wink cards or Keynote/Power Point file to annotate relative information to the images y'all are reviewing.

3. Expand your learning exterior the classroom.

   Don't stick to reviewing simply your course notes. Look up biographical information about each creative person on the exam. Information technology is likely more cognition nearly the creative person will aid you lot better understand their choices of subject matter, medium, and/or way. Contextual data will without a uncertainty assistance cement the where and the when. For case, knowing Leonardo Da Vinci, an Italian by birth, finished his career and life in France, may assistance you call back that La Joconde is in the Louvre, not Italian republic.

   At that place is plenty of contextual information available for many of the famous works in the history of art. Principal sources are best, but at that place are numerous secondary sources out there. So before the exam, cheque out supplementary materials from the library or even apply Google to find online manufactures about the material you're studying.

   The trick to truly being able to recognize and call up facts about artworks is to actually know the information. Learning as much equally you tin about the artist, the time period, the individual works themselves will only help you retain the information more permanently. Follow these tips, and you'll walk in to every test and confidently pass it with ease.

An Example of A Master Listing of Works to be Studied

Appointment	Title	Artist	Medium	Manner
1888	The Nighttime Café	Vincent Van Gogh	Oil on Sheet	Post-Impressionism
1889	Mural with Wheat Sheaves and Rising Moon	Vincent Van Gogh	Oil on Canvas	Post-Impressionism
1889	Starry Nighttime	Vincent Van Gogh	Oil on Canvas	Post-Impressionism

Scroll to Proceed

Read More From Owlcation

Stack of supplementary art history reading materials.

Photo by RJBarnes

Some Helpful Reference Materials

Some very helpful materials to supplement learning outside the classroom are:

• For fine art theory:
  • Meaning in the Visual Arts by Erwin Panofsky, ISBN 978-0226645513
  • The Methodologies of Art: An Introduction by Laurie Schneider Adams, ISBN 978-0-8133-4450-8
  • Means of Seeing past John Berger, ISBN 0-fourteen-013515-4
• For Classical (and Renaissance) fine art: Who'south Who in Classical Mythology past Adrian Room, ISBN 0-517-22256-6
• For Mod art: Theories of Modern Art by Herschel B. Chipp, ISBN 978-0-520-05256-7
• For symbolism in Western Christian art: Signs & Symbols in Christian Fine art past George Ferguson, ISBN 978-0-19-501432-7
• Other:
  • The Cambridge Introduction to Fine art: Looking At Pictures by Susan Woodford, ISBN 0-521-28647-6
  • The Art of Writing about Art by Suzanne Hudson and Nancy Noonan-Morrissey, ISBN 0-15-506154-2
  • Art History'south History by Vernon Hyde Small-scale, ISBN 0-13-085133-7

Don't forget to check out biographies of artists and exhibition catalogues for even more in depth supplementary materials.

Some helpful online resources

• Fine art Project - Google Cultural Institute
  The Google Cultural Establish brings together millions of artifacts from multiple partners, with the stories that bring them to life, in a virtual museum.
• Artstor
  The Artstor Digital Library - digital collections of artworks from around the globe.
• JSTOR
  Journals, primary sources, and at present BOOKS

Just for good measure, this is my diploma showing I graduated with honors and a caste in art history.

Photo by RJBarnes

In Conclusion

Art history is a fascinating subject, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has the slightest interest in art. Even so, it is not an easy grade, and even those of us who major in the field struggle to make the grade. I wish I'd had someone to outline for me the best way to approach studying and learning the fabric. Instead, I had to larn the difficult way. For those of you who discover yourself grappling with the cloth, I hope this commodity helps you get the grades you deserve.

Alexia on October 21, 2019:

Peachy tips! Thank you for sharing. you are 100% right nearly study earlier the class, and write notes during the class.

CANDICE on January 18, 2018:

Your overview with written report skills is an academic culture of its own! Keen idea to help students!

I'm 69 with a degree in art history , French and biology- 5 years to achieve plus a junior yr in French republic and a summer in Florence, Italy.

Question for all:

I similar the construct for learning each work of art! I did this for myself in learning works of fine art for myself. I bought postcards of art works everywhere I went-about 1000. I indulged myself in art in 1968,69,71,76 meaning I kept on studying!

Once again, preparing myself for medical school, I worked in a hospital to make certain I wanted to be a doctor. Without realizing I liked children, I tutored a medico's child in math. I wanted to be great and aid kids. And then, I did iii masters degrees over 8 years in special ed.,counseling psychology and writing curriculum. I never was layed off. I was moved around in grades k-9 over several years. The best part of this story is that posters of fine art works laid around in the library and were rarely used.

And so, I started teaching fine art history to kids of all ages. I introduced a painting or sculpture and designed a projection for my students every week. I taught for 29 years. I was in a French Immersion schoolhouse for 13 of those years.

QUESTION: People who call up they are expert or groovy art historians utilize your model. Information technology'due south the but subject I lknow with such a retention impact. As far equally teaching goes, there is no like shooting fish in a barrel way to be an art historian. Having plenty courses to break down the memory load is the but solution I see. Over four years if possible, art history majors could take two -3classes per term. That is heavy. They don't all have to exist in a sequence. I think doing prehistoric art aligned with the emerging era of modern art could teach some invaluable understandings. Only an example. I got all deserved A's considering I worked hard and loved art! I am a bully writing instructor through comments through the years. I liked to motorbus. Neither producing art myself or writing interested me to this solar day.

What skills did your greatest colleages effectually the world possess that may have been different but useful? The way of learning and teaching to a test gets erstwhile fast. Studying foreign languages is very complex, but without a deep agreement of grammar and syntax and vocabulary growth,

those older than second form would struggle without a tutor and adults without instructin carry traverlers' dictionaries for life.

I'thou going to comtinue your articles. This is a nifty site! I feel good renewing my retentiveness of what I love!

SCREW THIS on Dec 07, 2017:

I Detest THIS! THIS IS USELESS AND It GAVE ME NO HELP! Spiral THIS!

Alan on May 21, 2017:

I found this days later finishing the class. My last ditch effort for a B came up short. I concluded upwardly with a 78%. Really tough class. Studying for the material was really hard. I had to know everything in lecture and everything in book plus research exterior of both if study guide had things left out of both. It was an extrodinarily tough. I got overwhelmed. Only I stuck with it and after doing well on mid term paper, quizzes and actress credit plus getting omnipresence points I will take the C. I got one B, four Cs and a D, which was taken out as everyman score is taken out, on the exams. Only was to have gotten a B would have been an A on the final and I got a 71%. Simply I tried my hardest. The studying method might have been a little off. But also I might accept simply had it too tough. I could spend hours on this. But consider I took two other classes. And was lost with following instructor on notes sometimes I did well.

Lindsey on February 28, 2017:

Get Knights!

Thank you for the great study tips, I'll use them for my art history midterm! :)

Rita Barnes (author) from Florida on December 01, 2016:

Michele, I'1000 so happy to hear this article was helpful, and congratulations on that "A" in history of photography!! You lot got this!

MiWilber on December 01, 2016:

@nmu.edu

Rita,

Thank you lot for all of this dandy information. I am a photography major at NMU and I am freaking out about taking the three Art History classes I need for my degree. Yes, after taking History of Photography and passing with as "A" I know it takes hard work and dedication. I'one thousand in my early 50'due south and feel overwhelmed at times with all of this studying. I merely don't want my GPA to be afflicted so I demand the grades!

Thanks again!

Michele

Rita Barnes (author) from Florida on February 10, 2015:

@ weirdalex

I hope this does assistance y'all get through your class. It was many classes and a lot of hours studying earlier I figured out the best way to approach the information. Most importantly though, I promise what you learn in your class inspires you to keep cartoon and creating fine art!

Alana on Feb 09, 2015:

very helpful

thank you

weirdalex on January 10, 2015:

Thanks then much for posting this! I think this is going to assistance me a lot in my course. I actually like the idea of creating a tabular array for artists and information virtually them. I love creating fine art, and then I thought I'd honey fine art history, just I plant the class (which I'm currently taking for a GE requirement) to be a lot harder and less interesting than I thought. I'thousand not into history, merely I dear drawing and such. I think this is going to help a lot, and I think I'll have a lot more fun studying the field of study now. :)

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Source: https://owlcation.com/academia/How-to-Study-for-an-Art-History-Exam-and-Get-an-A

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