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Practice Looking at Art: The Four-Step Process

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Kempee Royce Cruz
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100 views1 page

Practice Looking at Art: The Four-Step Process

Uploaded by

Kempee Royce Cruz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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10/18/2020 Practice Looking at Art | The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The galleries of the MFAH main campus, Rienzi & Bayou Bend are open on a new schedule. Advance
timed tickets are recommended. We welcome all visitors at any time. Learn more & get tickets 
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Practice Looking at Art


Engaging with a work of art is a meaningful and lasting experience. This four-step process encourages close looking and careful
thinking with any work of art, whether viewed in the Museum, in the classroom, or at home.

The Four-Step Process


1. LOOK 
Take time to look at the work of art.

Encourage students to take in the entire work of art, paying close attention to details.
Ask the question, “What do you notice?” and encourage students to take inventory of
everything they see.
Instruct students to look at a work of art for 30 seconds, and then to turn around and
try to remember everything they observed. When they are looking at the work of art
again, ask them about the details that they remember. What did they overlook?

2. DESCRIBE
Talk about what you see in the work of art.

Encourage students to describe all of the things that they see. Explore line, shape,
color, composition, material, and subject matter.
Instruct students to use expressive language to describe what they see in detail. For
example, instead of saying, “I see the sky,” they could say, “I see a dark, foreboding sky
full of heavy clouds that sulk across the composition.”
Egyptian, Co n of Pedi-Osiris, 305 BC–AD 30,
3. THINK  carved and painted wood and gold, the
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum
Interpret and assign meaning to the work of art.
purchase funded by the Alice Pratt Brown
Museum Fund.
Discuss the following with your students:
What story is taking place? What is the setting, or the time and place depicted? view image
What is the mood of the work? How do you know?
What is this work of art about?
What do you think the artist was trying to communicate through the creation of
this work of art?

4. CONNECT
Relate what you see to your own life, or to other works of art or images you have seen.

Discuss the following with your students:


What does this work of art remind you of? Why?
How does this work of art relate to an aspect of your own life?
Compare this work of art to other images/objects that you have seen, either in a museum or in your everyday life. How are
they similar? How are they different?

Test it out! Choose a work of art from the slideshow above, and use the strategies of LOOK, DESCRIBE, THINK, and CONNECT as you
look closely with your students.

Copyright © 2020, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. All rights reserved.

https://www.mfah.org/education/practice-looking-art 1/1

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