Art Explainer 1: The Power to Look

How does what you see in an artwork tell you how to look? Using three artworks from the Art Institute’s collection, this video unpacks a central theme and uses innovative visual storytelling to highlight the choices artists made to shape form and meaning in their works.

Learn more about these artworks:
Yoruba crown:
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/132676?search_no=10&index=9
Caillebotte cityscape:
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/20684?search_no=12&index=4
Sherman photo: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/229389?search_no=7&index=3

Art Explainer videos empower you to look at and understand art from any historical period or culture. Designed for students as well as adults, this video series is produced for the web and usable in a wide range of learning environments, from mobile devices to formal school classrooms.

Artwork credits:
Grant Wood
American Gothic, 1930
Friends of American Art Collection

Yoruba
Crown (Ade), Late 19th/mid-20th century
Cora Abrahamson Endowment

Gustave Caillebotte
Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877
Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection

Cindy Sherman
Untitled Film Still #56, 1980
Restricted gift of Allen Turner, 1988.389
© Cindy Sherman. Courtesy Metro Pictures, New York.

Cindy Sherman
Untitled Film Still #12, 1978
Restricted gift of Paul and Camille Oliver-Hoffmann, 1988.386
© Cindy Sherman. Courtesy Metro Pictures, New York.

Cindy Sherman
Untitled Film Still #24, 1978
Restricted gift of Paul and Camille Oliver-Hoffmann, 1988.387
© Cindy Sherman. Courtesy Metro Pictures, New York.

Cindy Sherman
Untitled Film Still #41, 1979
Restricted gift of Paul and Camille Oliver-Hoffmann, 1988.388
© Cindy Sherman. Courtesy Metro Pictures, New York.

Cindy Sherman
Untitled Film Still #3, 1977
Gift of Robert A. Taub, 2012.357
© Cindy Sherman. Courtesy Metro Pictures, New York.

Cindy Sherman
Untitled #92, 1981
Gift of Edlis|Neeson Collection, 2015.157
© Cindy Sherman. Courtesy Metro Pictures, New York.