Art History as a Tool for Critical Visual Literacy

The value of art history is not or should not be presented as close looking or knowledge of specific art works across a range of times. Just like statistics teaching students how to be critical of statistics in media, or literature classes teach students how to dissect a book to understand its message, art history is about more than the art taught about in the classrooms. It is about taking the tools learnt in the classroom about specific art from specific times and applying them outside of it. The focus of art history in the classroom and how it could be presented is by what tool it provides to students, critical visual literacy. This can be achieved by not simply teaching by going beyond the textbook to include contemporary media into lessons. This does not mean extending the survey courses to include more contemporary media as part of a new era, but incorporating the media into each lesson. For example, teaching art history requires teaching the conditions in which art was produced in certain eras, by who, for whom, the patron, the location of display, intended audience, etc. When explaining the patronage system in the late medieval and early renaissance, parallels can be drawn to contemporary social media jobs to understand how to read adverts and political campaigns on social media today. This lecture explores particular examples of how parallels can be drawn without the pitfalls of ahistoricism.