Abstract

It is widely recognized that teachers experience difficulties guiding and valuing the interpretation of contemporary art work in the classroom. Even though these artworks are usually open, complex and ambiguous, teachers rarely get students to think deeply and reflectively about art, beyond the stage of favoritism. This article explores the way a teacher can guide the group process of contemporary art interpretation, not solely with the aim of explaining the work but to make it part of a personal experience of the world. For this the theoretical framework of hermeneutical aesthetics, as stated by Hans-Georg Gadamer, is explored and applied to four art lessons in teacher training. Applying Gadamer’s thinking of art interpretation as a constant dynamic enquiry to a classroom setting shows that a hermeneutical approach widens the lens of the students and leads to a more profound narrative construction of meaning than an interpretation process based on logic understanding and sequential reasoning.