A Postmodern Approach in Visual Arts Education: Painting Department Workshop Course Activities

Abstract

Many factors including the World Wars, consumption society as a product of the capitalist system, and technological novelties have been influential in development of attitudes by human beings against the modern world and its values. This thought system, i.e. postmodernism, encompasses questioning and criticism of all established values, ideologies, and grand narratives. One of the basic elements of postmodern art criticism is that art became detached from life. Having almost simultaneously influenced all the fields of social sciences, postmodern thought also affected the educational approaches as adopted in visual arts education. New approaches are needed in the visual arts education due to the fact that the discipline-based approach, which is based on art history, art criticism, aesthetics, and production, seems to have failed to meet the requirements of the postindustrial age. Multiculturalism should be involved in education, and especially in visual arts education, since thanks to the technological advancements any information or news can be simultaneously shared throughout the entire world and that different cultures cohabit the same geographical location. In addition, interdisciplinary interaction should be involved too in order to enrich the instruments of artistic expression. Last but not least, visual culture studies and practices should also be involved so as to develop critical thinking skills. This would require adopting different and new approaches as regards the respective roles of the stakeholders, curriculum contents, teaching methods, and teaching environments in the visual arts education field. In this context, the views of students, as stakeholders within the education process, are important. Therefore the aim of the present study is to investigate the view of students on their own works based on their research on cultural values, questioning, interdisciplinary relations, and contemporary art approaches. The study was conducted between 2012 and 2015 based on art-based survey design, a qualitative research method. Data were collected from four students attending to painting department workshop course, who involved in the entire process, by semi-structured interviews and video recordings and the findings were interpreted upon descriptive analysis. As a result of the study, the students reported that they used visual culture images and objects in their works, that they were influenced by local values, that they made use of interdisciplinary relations, that they reflected their research on different cultures on visuals, that they used certain objects in their metaphorical contexts as an instrument of expression, and finally that they were positively impressed by such a student-centered approach.