The development of the artist at YCIS Pudong
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THE study of art today is far different from it was in the middle of the 20th century.
The world has expanded beyond our belief and imagination, and the emphasis is no longer on traditional genres like drawing, painting, or sculpture. Technology has transformed everything, and we can communicate a lot more fluidly, so we don’t draw the line on the processes or skills that we use.
Our practice today is all about analyzing and responding to the world that we live in. Our students are not limited to the things they find in art books, or what people would say is “art.” What becomes interesting is when the students realize that art is a way of thinking and that they are not restricted to the subject matter because, nowadays, anything can be their subject matter! This is the beauty of art and design in the 21st century.
In our secondary division at YCIS Pudong, we teach art and design from Year 7 through Year 13, through the International General Certificate of Education, and the International Baccalaureate programs. When we are developing the curriculum for Years 7 to 9, we think about the skills required for the curriculum, such as building up the students’ drawing and painting techniques — their use of tools, materials and processes — and also guiding how they think about what they are making. Traditionally, students might have believed that all they were going to do in art was make pictures, but what we want them to understand is that when you are creating artwork, you are communicating ideas, or you have the potential to do so.
As the students get older, we start to introduce some more conceptual ideas. What could this mean? How might we interpret that?
This way, the students understand that images are not fixed, that the process of making art is just as important as the product itself, and it is something that you have to work on. Problem-solving is an essential facet of art and design — it’s not just about the aesthetics of the image. Anyone can learn to draw or copy something, but we want the students to develop the ability to question and to solve problems.
When it comes to IGCSE, we want the students to develop themselves further. They should be quite confident and competent with their skills by that point, and they will be working independently. During IGCSE and IB, students are marked on the process more than on the outcomes. The story of how they got to the final result is fundamental. At IGCSE, 80 percent of the marks are on that exact process: The storytelling of how they started with an idea and the journey they went on to reach the final product.
It’s a lot more contextual and conceptual at the IB level, and I think that’s where students suddenly realize how exciting the subject can be. This is because they are in control of the things they look at. We ask them to dig deep to choose the subject area or the topics that they are most interested in, and they look at artists who have been doing something similar and determine how they can approach the subject differently and expand upon it.
So, they are not just thinking about art as something that comes from their heads or imaginations. There is a common misconception that to be a good artist, ideas must only be yours, and if you look at anybody else’s work, it’s copying. In reality, we are all a springboard for one other, and the point of the entire Secondary program here is to get the students to understand that when we study other artists, we are looking at their views and perspectives and that can help us expand on those ideas, taking them further.
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