Analytic and holistic approaches to Fine Art education: a comparative approach

Abstract

After four years teaching in university Fine Art departments in Seoul and elsewhere in South Korea, I have discovered that pedagogic styles and methodologies, as well as expectations, are very different from those familiar to me from studying and teaching in my own country, the United Kingdom. Recognizing these deep differences has led me to question what I see as certain covertly universalizing tendencies within Western pedagogic conventions that conceal valuable differences, and this is what I address here. Following the social psychologist Richard E. Nisbett, I define these differences under the rubrics ‘analytic’ (West) and ‘holistic’ (East). I discuss how these different cognitive styles affect ‘cultures of learning’, and conclude that South Korean pedagogy in Fine Art has something to teach us in the West. A more flexible kind of pedagogic approach would be one that brings the insights of the ‘East Asian’ ‘culture of learning’, which is grounded in ‘intimate’ embodied meaning, social interdependence and holism, into contact with ‘Western’ insights grounded in dualism, detached analysis and individual integrity and autonomy.

Notes on contributor

Simon Morley is an artist and writer, and teaches Fine Art at Dankook University, South Korea. He has recently had solo exhibitions in London, Paris and Seoul. His artist's website is www.simonmorley.com. He has published in a number of journals, including Third Text and JVAP, and is the author of Writing on the Wall: Word and Image in Modern Art (Thames & Hudson/California University Press, 2003) and editor of The Sublime: Documents in Contemporary Art (Whitechapel/MIT Press, 2010). He is the co-author of the recently published The Winchester Guide to Keywords and Concepts for International Students in Art, Media and Design (Wiley, 2014). His academic website is https://dankook.academia.edu/simonmorley.