To initiate our discussion, let us observe this full color reproduction of a portrait by Amedeo Modigliani. How might one react to this work of art? One person might assert that this lady was not to his liking, he could never fall in love with someone that looked like her. Another, might believe that she was just plain ugly and, therefore, would hate this painting.

These reactions represent the kinds of biases and prejudices that come into play when people are unfamiliar with the world of art and are lacking in the skills to engage in objective art criticism. The most prevalent stance is to expect that works of art will be faithful to nature ...the more the work looks like the "real thing" the more it is valued. The inability to distinguish between subject and theme and between what is being represented and what is implied results in expressions of personal taste ranging from "I love it" to "I hate it" or statements like "I don't know much about art, but I know what I like" (which really means "I like what I know"). We need to cultivate abilities that enable going beyond such limited reports of one's personal state of mind. We need to develop the skills and knowledge required to make sense out of the visual qualities that permeate everyday experience as well as the vast world of art; i.e., being able to engage in making informed and objective critical responses.

The importance of being "art literate" becomes obvious when one compares the following quotation to the responses of the "uninformed" observer. It was provided by the French critic Claude Roy as he considered what is distinctive about Modigliani's style.

It is a portrait, most usually one of a woman, handled in the decorative portrait tradition of the Italian masters. The line meets the eye clearly at every point, clean-cut and firm. It animates the picture surface, organizing it throughout in a rhythm of sinuous curves, melodious and light as gossamer. It suggests the human body in all its plenitude by resorting to distortions which, while wholly arbitrary, are completely satisfying to the senses: neck and hands are inordinately -- yet exquisitely-- elongated; the torso as a rule is relatively short; the head, tiny in proportion to the body, is built up around the long straight line of the nose; the eyes are usually two almonds tinted light blue, gray or green, without any definite indication of the pupil. As a rule the model is seated on a chair in a graceful attitude of languid, dreamy melancholy, which we are free to interpret as morbidezza one hundred per cent Italian, as vegetative indifference one hundred per cent modern, or as the gentle afterglow of sensuality gratified. The sitter is almost invariably shown in front view. But it is in the layout ...always flawlessly accomplished, that the artist displays his superb inventive skill, his unerring taste, the subtlety of his visual computations, his gift of creating all-pervasive rhythm with all-but-invisible arabesques. Characteristic of the palette . . . is . . . an intensely warm and luminous flesh tint that makes the face, neck, arms and hands stand out against garments and background. It consists of orange, mixed with vermilion and two or three yellows, edged with a thin line of black or bistre.

Claude Roy, Modigliani (Albert Skira: New York, 1985), pages 72-74