Popular or Fine Art
Nowadays a lot of people consider that the differences between popular and fine art are often matters of classification. One may agree or may not. A new issue in aesthetic education today has to do with the choice of art examples to use in the classroom. A teacher has to decide whether these art examples should be restricted to recognized works of art or allowed to include such art forms as posters, billboards and other items of popular art.
Popular art is a reflection and product of popular culture. Many people consider popular art to be appropriate for study in the field of art education, because it facilitates the aesthetic experience. Popular arts are already a part of children`s lives and they enable the teachers to start where the pupils are. The art which pupils encounter in schools – the official or high art embodied in the official curriculum – stands in an adversary relation to the media of popular entertainment. It`s important that the popular arts allow students to talk about emotionally meaningful experiences. There is also an opinion that popular art was the result of the public`s inability to appreciate high art. Many teachers who recognize popular arts as art forms suggest that the schools should go beyond them because “serious art” makes more demands on the viewers.
A positive position in regard to the popular art. There is no doubt that fine arts in each epoch supplied the models from which the rules and principles were derived and used by next generations. Fine arts are more noble and more worthy than popular arts. But we are not going to compare magnificent fine art objects with comic strips and other essentially vulgar commodities. What we see in art museums and art galleries includes a lot of different things from all over the world, from cultures and periods of time in which the concept of art didn`t exist. In their original contexts such objects often served a variety of functions such as magical, ritualistic, utilitarian but never aesthetic. It is well known that many of the things we regard so highly today were ignored or scorned at different periods of time. Many things we ignore and scorn today were at one time highly regarded. The same thing may happen with popular art, that`s why teachers shouldn`t be so quick to criticize popular art. If a teacher is able to establish a trusting relationship and a rapport with his students the students will be more responsive to any form of art which a teacher wishes to introduce.