Jennifer Furr

February 8, 2015
Reading Review #3 Holiday art and the influence of aesthetics
Summary
Art education theories and practices shifted during the time span of the late
1880s to the early 1900s in the way that Art educators began to place more emphasis
on creativity and aesthetics. Holiday art played a big part in how art educators desired
to beautify life and everyday things. Early modern artists believed that visual arts were
a universal form of expression invoking sensual pleasure of an emotional response in
the viewer. Art became a means to extend human faculties toward higher spiritual
powers (Stankiewicz, 2001, p.85). Good taste in art, especially, was stressed.
Holiday art and seasonal activities became a major part of school art curricula in
the early twentieth century. Henry Turner Bailey and his opinions of holiday art were the
main reason why this happened. Bailey gave many persuasive reasons why art
educators should be making holiday art with their students. He encouraged art teachers
to create a festive atmosphere for themselves and their students by paying attention to
the unique beauty of each new day, by varying instructional methods, and by bringing
history and symbolism into their classes (Stankiewicz, 2001, p.70). Bailey used the
platform of his magazine, School Arts, to promote holiday celebrations. He thought that
holidays occasioned easy motivational opportunities for lessons on design principles,
such as unity, balance, and rhythm (Stankiewicz, 2001, p.76). He further supported his
claims about holiday art by saying it answered a need for intensification of experience
without permitting too much intensity (Stankiewicz, 2001, p.73). He also thought it
should be a pleasurable activity for students and feel more like entertainment than work.
Just as Bailey was working so hard in his column to promote the entertainment
value of holiday art, other art educators were busy promoting and developing aesthetic
theories. Aesthetic theories led to the emergence of different approaches to the creation
and study of works of art based on beauty, form and composition. Early modern artists
believed that visual arts were a universal form of expression invoking sensual pleasure
of an emotional response in the viewer (Stankiewicz, 2001, p.85). Arthur Wesley Dow,
Albert H. Munsell, and Denman Waldo Ross all compared the beauty of music to visual

art. Dow contrasted his structural approach with traditional academic teaching, which
emphasized imitation and copying nature or exemplars of historic stylesDows goal
was to help students recognize universal artistic values by replacing Western academic
realism with an appreciation of artistic form that transcended national boundaries
(Stankiewicz, 2001, pp.89-90). On the other hand, Ross had a bit of a different
viewpoint than Dow on how to teach aesthetics. From Rosss perspective, the
challenge for art education was to bring technique and fine impulses together through
systematic instructionRoss didnt expect results until a student had repeated his
course 2-3 times (Stankiewicz, 2001, pp.94-96). There was yet another differing
opinion with John Ruskin, who said that design was unteachable. Ruskin thought design
was intuitive, a result of creative force, part of the innate personality of the artist
(Stankiewicz, 2001, p.87). All of these theories influenced American art education. The
biggest shift from the old way of teaching art, the technical drawing, to the new aesthetic
based, was that emerging modernist aesthetic theories set art apart from other
activities and sometimes presented art-making less as a result of conscious will and
effort than as a mystical gift or natural force (Stankiewicz, 2001, p.102).
Personal Reflection
Stankiewicz both supports and enriches my views on art education. There were
so many great aesthetic theories during this time frame, and they all had something
good to offer. However, I think Ross had the views that resonate the most with me, as
far as the elements and principles of design go. He argued that anything done by
humans has 2 elements: a motive based on the needs and goals of life, and
performance (Stankiewicz, 2001, p.94). Your own personal needs and goals in art can
be greatly enriched by your performance. I think you have to at least have a
foundational knowledge of the elements and principles of design, in order to have a
successful art style. Yes, there are always exceptions to the rule, as folk artists have
proven time and again, but not everyone is interested in folk art, and it pays to know and
educate yourself about every style possible. To even begin to know that, you have to
know the particular elements that compose a certain style. Ross believed arts of the
past revealed the full range of technique and motives possible in drawing and

painting. ..He thought students should complete hands-on exercises with the elements
and acquire a thorough knowledge of the practices of past masters in the art
(Stankiewicz, 2001, p.95). I think in order to understand contemporary art of the 21 st
century, you still need a basic knowledge of the elements and principles of design. It is
true that contemporary art breaks a lot of the rules of older, classical art, but you will still
find basic elements such as line, color, texture, rhythm, and pattern, even in
contemporary art, so it is most helpful to be educated in the areas of design. This is
useful, not only to identify thematic subjects within art pieces, but to create your own, as
well. I would say that would hold true for art students of all ages.
References
Stankiewicz, M. A. (2001). Meaning and Purpose of Holiday Art, and We Aim at Order and Hope for Beauty. In
M. A. Stankiewicz, Roots of art education practice (pp. 68-103). Worcester, MA: Davis Publications.
Wygant, F. (1985). Art structure: Fundamentals of design before the Bauhaus. In B. Wilson & H. Hoffa
(Eds.), The history of art education: Proceedings from the Penn State conference (pp. 158-162).
Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.
Mock-Morgan, M. (1985). The influence of Arthur Wesley Dow on art education. In B. Wilson & H. Hoffa
(Eds.), The history of art education: Proceedings from the Penn State conference (pp. 234-237).
Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.