Abstract
This study presented students with a work, and asked what themes they could identify in that work. An analysis of completed student worksheets revealed six types of response. Among these, (4) Mysterious beauty was seen as the theme of the picture by the group of highly receptive students. Inverting the relationship between highly receptive students and theme type, identifying (4) Mysterious beauty as the theme may be viewed as a desirable outcome, rating highly as a mode of art appreciation. A positive correlation was found between the ability to apprehend the makeup of a work from a structural point of view (the way in which individual parts are connected aesthetically), and aesthetic ability. Helping students to understand artworks at an emotional level will be a matter of working diligently to boost their aesthetic ability. This in turn will establish an excellent foundation for comparing works of art; students for example becoming aware of more approaches to the aesthetic evaluation of art, the greater their own aesthetic ability. The broad aim of teaching art appreciation ought to be the nurturing of “aesthetic ability” as defined in this paper.
