Thursday 28 August 2025
On Friday last week, Art History students took a field trip to view the Century of Modern Art exhibition on loan from the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio.
The Level 2 students are using selected works from the collection for an NCEA internal assessment, examining how media are used to create effects in art works, and the exhibition presents an unparalleled opportunity to see original Impressionist and Realist works by prescribed artists in the flesh.
Alienor Van Waerebeke (Year 12, Middlemore) and Frankie Faulkner (Year 12, Taylor) photograph Along the River Front, New York (1912) by Everett Longley Warner.
The assessment requires students to describe how media are used, applied or manipulated and explain how that creates specific effects in selected works.
They were able to view original works by important Impressionists such as Renoir, Manet, Monet, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Caillebotte, and Pissaro, as well as two Realists, Millet and Daumier — all artists which we study in the Level 2 syllabus.
Usually such works can only be viewed in reproduction, making careful, detailed analysis very dependent on the quality of the reproduction: here the students could view, photograph analyse and annotate in situ. And here is where the iPad becomes an invaluable tool. Its portability and versatility make it the ideal field device for recording and annotating.
The students were able to select detailed passages of painting, photograph the close-up and then annotate the photographs with written descriptions using their Apple Pencils. Important details identifying and describing each work are given on the accompanying museum labels, which could be scanned using their Live Text feature and added to their notes for each work.
Developing efficient workflows and knowing which tools and apps to use in a given situation — such as a field trip or museum visit — is an important aspect of developing digital literacy.