HOW TO ASK A QUESTION...

It is the expectation that all students will participate in each class discussion. Each student will have at least one prepared question for each period. Here are some suggestions for those students who were not required to engage in discussions before and have not developed the necessary skills. There are a variety of question types to consider. Among these are the following:

        Clarification. These are questions which are asked to gain a clear understanding of the statements which are being made or the questions being asked. It is often useful to suggest possible rephrasing so there is little doubt about the meanings implied.

        Expansion. Such questions are asked to broaden the scope of the statement. Often these may be introduced by such statements as "When you say artists, I presume you are including crafts persons as well as the usual categories of painters, etc."

        Amplification. Questions can be used to add new ideas to the material under discussion. An example might be "Did you know that such behavior was common among the classical Greeks?"

        Challenge. Questions are ways of raising doubt about the quality of the material given. "Could you give a specific example of such behavior in classical times?" One advantage of this approach is that if you get an answer, you have not said that the person making the statement was wrong. This leads to a friendlier and more open atmosphere for further discussion.

        Change of Direction. Sometimes you might wish to lead the discussion into a different realm. This can often be done by asking. "Could the concept you touched on in your earlier statement be applied to modern artists as well?"

        Related Material. Like the change in direction, one can ask questions to develop ideas that might have been triggered by the discussion.

Now, read the following statement by James McNeil Whistler and see if any 0f these methods of questioning might be applied.

"Listen! There never was an artistic period! There never was an art-loving nation. And the people questioned not, and had nothing to say in the matter. So Greece was in its splendour, and Art reigned supreme--by force of fact, not by election--and there was no meddling from the outsider . . .Nature contains the elements, in colour and form, of all picture; as the keyboard contains the notes of all music. But the artist is born to pick, and choose, and group with science, these elements, that the result may be beautiful--as the musician gathers his notes, and forms his chords, until he brings forth from chaos glorious harmony. To say to the painter, that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to the player, that he may sit on the piano.

"That Nature is always right, is an assertion, artistically, as untrue, as it is one whose truth is universally taken for granted. Nature is very rarely right, to such an extent even, that it might almost be said that Nature is usually wrong; that is to say, the condition of things that shall bring about the perfection of harmony worthy a picture is rare, and not common at all. Why this lifting of the brow in deprecation of the present--this pathos in reference to the past? If Art be rare today, it was seldom heretofore. It is false, this teaching of decay. The master stands in no relation to the moment at which he occurs--a monument of isolation--hinting at sadness-having no part in the progress of his fellow men. He is also no more the product of civilization than is the scientific truth asserted dependent upon the wisdom of a period. The assertion itself requires the man to make it. The truth was from the beginning. So Art is limited to the infinite, and beginning there cannot progress.

"A picture is finished when all trace of the means used to bring about the end has disappeared. To say of a picture, as is often said in its praise, that it shows great and earnest labour, is to say that it is incomplete and unfit. Industry in art is a necessity--not a virtue--and any evidence of the same, in the production, is a blemish, not a quality; a proof, not of achievement, but of absolutely insufficient work, for work alone will efface the footsteps of work. The work of the master reeks not of the sweat of the brow--suggests no effort--and is finished from its beginning.

"Learn then, . . . that there is no such thing as English Art. You might as well talk of English Mathematics. Art is Art, and Mathematics is Mathematics. What you call English Art, is not Art at all, but produce, of which there is, and always has been, and always will be, a plenty, whether the men producing it are dead and called--, (I refer you to your own selection, far be it from me to choose), or alive and called--, whosoever you like as you turn over the Academy catalogue."

 Examples of questions which might be asked of these paragraphs.

Clarification: "When Whistler says that art is art is he saying that art is whatever the artist wants it to be?"

Expansion:" Does Whistler mean that all art of the past falls under the same theories as he projects here? In other words, does Whistler believe that art was art for Egyptian painters in the same way it was for late nineteenth century artists? Even if the Egyptian painters weren't called artists?"

Amplification: "Doesn't Whistler's argument become the basis of one of the major debates in modern art?"

Challenge:"Did anyone take Whistler seriously? If so, who?" Or, "When Whistler says that nature is rarely right is he not aware of the new concerns of late nineteenth-century thinkers with science?"

Change of Direction: "Isn't the contrary position, that art is the expression of the people, a more useful way of understanding class distinctions as they relate to art than the elitist position offered by Whistler?"

Related Material: "Is any of Whistler's art of a purely geometric nature?" "Isn't he the man who is known for painting his mother?" "How does he reconcile these directions?"