Peculiarities of Teenagers’ and Youth’s Perception of Paintings by Ukrainian Artists of the XIX-XX Centuries During an Experimental Project "Beyond the Space and Time: Art Dialogues with Artists”

Abstract

The experimental project “Beyond the Space and Time: Art Dialogues with Artists” was conducted among high school students. The participants were offered to hold a kind of an art dialogue with Ukrainian artists of the XIX-XX centuries. The following goals were set: to present the works of world-famous Ukrainian artists of the XIX-XX centuries to high school students; to create interest in the cultural heritage in general; to create a safe space for developing the ability to see beauty. By finding an emotional response while looking at the artworks, teenagers and young people were able to reflect on their own values. Some of the 15 reproductions of paintings by Ukrainian artists on display received the most positive responses, and some of them were chosen by the participants to create an art review. The quantitative analysis of positive and negative ratings in the two age groups (13-14 y.o and 15-16 y.o.) allowed to analyse the data in terms of the peculiarities of perception of artworks, the functions of art, and the peculiarities of perception of art by adolescents.

Participants were asked to rate each painting on a 10-point scale and describe their thoughts and feelings when looking at the painting that received the highest score. This task influenced the participants’ quality of interaction with the artwork, as the evaluation process required careful consideration of the painting. The selected reproductions of paintings are known all over the world, but were not familiar to the Ukrainian audience (except for Taras Shevchenko’s painting “Kateryna”). The positive effect of a quality viewing of the painting on the formation of new neural connections was determined.

The uniqueness of the project is the combination of passive and active forms of art therapy and a certain interdisciplinarity, as the project participants get to know the peculiarities of Ukrainian art and can feel the positive impact of art on their emotional sphere through their own experience of perceiving beauty. The therapeutic value of the project is the use of such stress management tools as imagination, contacts, faith, and emotions. It is concluded that the project has a positive impact on the formation of sociocultural identity. Continuation of the project is reasonable. The results showed ways to improve the questionnaire survey of project participants. Extending the time of the meeting with the participants will enable them to get an explanation of certain basic concepts: "composition", "style", "plot" and others. Supplementing the questionnaire with questions about colour associations and explaining the reasons for choosing a particular reproduction of a painting will provide more information about the peculiarities of viewers’ perception of certain artistic images.