Visual Arts: Discussion, Questions & Potential Solutions

[Joseph41]

This thread is for all exam related discussion. Was it easy? Was it hard? What did you get for 'that' tough question?? Feel free to pop any and all of your thoughts below.

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[Caitlynk_22]

So the art exam. I thought it was FINE. Question 1 and 2 piece of cake.

Question 1 was about how one artist reinterpreted some other persons work from the 90s.

Question 2 was two images of a painting by Marie Baltshirtseff called In the Studio and the other one was The Amateurs by Honore Daumier

 Question 3 involved a bit more thinking but wasn't too bad. It was pictures of Jason deCaires Taylor's underwater sculptures and we had to answer about the significance of the art making decisions.

I chose question 7 for the essay question with the conceptual practice. The quote in the question was 'Art is an effort to create... a more humane world' which was okay and fit my essay pretty well. I had four artists so I cut it down to three since the fourth didn't match the question but that's all good.

We walked out and my Art teacher was like those essay questions were hard for conceptual practice and the plates were weird for section 1. I don't think she liked the exam paper XD

[dcesaona]

Overall, the exam was okay, but of course I have my doubts.

Question 1 was okay. I felt a bit stumped by it when I first saw it but when I broke it down it was fine.

I heard people talk about how for question 2 they mentioned the contrast in the art world, where the female reclining nude was common, but in the second Plate, the male artist was partially covered, suggesting a double standard sort of thing that's present in the art world. I thought that was a reallyyyy good observation. But I didn't include it  I did, however, talk about how the use of black charcoal and gouche allowed for expressive brushstrokes which allowed the artist to convey the variety of emotions individual's have to a work of art, conveying one aspect of the art world (how the audience receives and responds to the artwork). I talked way too much on this work than the other one though and I'm hitting myself for that.

Question 3 was really simple. Practice is always straightforward and liked the artwork.

Then I felt confident about my essay! I chose question 5 (I spent about 5 exam minutes trying to figure out whether or not to answer the conceptual practice question or the practice one). I ended up going with, 'artists' ideas can be transformed into sophisticated and challenging works of art', which worked well for my two artists, Francesca and Smart, as they generate ideas about the geometric world, which translates into sophisticated compositional strategies.

So yeah, annoyed that I can pin point where I might have lost marks, but I feel okay with it. 

The whole art course is done! Massive congrats to everyone! A major work and exam done! 

[talitha_h]

I’m really happy I found the exam fairly easy! no crazy curveballs in the unseen questions which i was scared of. I did question 7 for the essay as did most people i talked to. My only concern is that i didn’t write enough for the 12 marker. i filled 2 and a bit of the 3 pages but i write really small so who knows.

[jamonwindeyer]

Congrats everyone! Sounds like everyone took something positive away, love it

[beatroot]

Congrats everyone! Sounds like everyone took something positive away, love it

I agree with Jamon here^ Sounds like the Visual Arts exam went pretty well today! I mean, art exams generally do go well due to its flexibility.
Well done to the class of 2018 VA students for finishing their art exam today!

[angewina_naguen]

Little bit late on my entry but my thoughts basically align with everyone else's!

I ended up choosing the same essay question as dcesaona and used Patrick Dougherty, Alison Sigethy and Ai Weiwei for my response  Really glad that it suited my prepared content. I could've attempted any of the questions with ease.

Might be an unpopular opinion but the 5 marker was actually my favourite part of the exam! It was simple and pretty much gave itself away with the word "reinterpretation" in the question. I found the 8 marker a little more difficult because I had never encountered a Realism artwork in an exam before so I was having trouble selecting what to write down without deviating from the question. The 12 marker was an awesome artwork but I wish I wrote more. Hopefully it was enough! Fingers crossed now