Out of Hours

Describing Art

The Tate Modern Audio-Guide for visually impaired visitors is used for this session. Students are asked to try to draw an artwork from hearing a description of it. They are then shown the actual artwork and compare it to their understanding of it from the description. The students then sit back-to-back and describe artworks to one another from postcards. One students describes the artwork, the other draws it. The group discussion centres on the misleading nature of descriptions.

Location: at Tate Modern

Learning Objectives

To describe an artwork
To discern and be able to describe what is important in making a description
To consider and be able to use the order of the description (title, medium, content/subject, context, personal response)