using art (paintings, drawings, and engravings) to teach economics

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Using Art (Paintings, Drawings, andEngravings) to Teach EconomicsMichael Watts a & Chineze Christopher aa Purdue UniversityPublished online: 04 Oct 2012.

To cite this article: Michael Watts & Chineze Christopher (2012) Using Art (Paintings, Drawings,and Engravings) to Teach Economics, The Journal of Economic Education, 43:4, 408-422, DOI:10.1080/00220485.2012.714317

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THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC EDUCATION, 43(4), 408–422, 2012Copyright C© Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 0022-0485 print/2152-4068 onlineDOI: 10.1080/00220485.2012.714317

ECONOMIC INSTRUCTION

Using Art (Paintings, Drawings, and Engravings)to Teach Economics

Michael Watts and Chineze Christopher

The authors provide a brief review of how economists have dealt with art in their research andmore popular writings, and then consider the case that has been made for using art and other visualmaterials in general education and—in very few cases—to teach economics. A new Web site on Artand Economics is introduced that makes it easier for economics instructors to find and use art withtheir students. They discuss several different ways of using the art in classes, and provide a table withover 50 paintings from the Introduction slide show at the Web site to illustrate the range of economicconcepts and issues that can be taught with art.

Keywords art, artists, paintings, teaching economics

JEL codes A12, A20, A22, Z11

BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW

Like economists, artists often study “the ordinary business of life.”1 Many well-known artists havepainted at least some works featuring daily activities, and some artists specialize in that genre ofpaintings. So it is not really surprising that examples of consumption, goods and services, pro-duction, labor, occupations, specialization, natural resources, capital resources, markets, publicgoods, elections, money, banking, financial crises, unemployment, poverty, wealth, and discrimi-nation have been featured in paintings, drawings, and engravings. Or as John Dewey phrased thatidea in 1932, in a series of lectures that became his book Art as Experience (1934/2005), art is away to capture the experience of life, and to transmit that experience to those viewing art. Dewey

Michael Watts (e-mail: [email protected]) is a professor of economics, and Chineze Christopher (e-mail:[email protected]) is a doctoral student in economics, both at Purdue University. Watts is the corresponding au-thor.

The authors thank Jane Anderson, Mara Gallo, John Fasshnacht, and Robert Wakeland for their work with the Web siteon Art and Economics described here. The Web site was developed with support from the Calvin K. Kazanjian Foundationfor Teaching Economics. Jonathan Wight, Marc St-Pierre, and KimMarie McGoldrick provided helpful comments onearlier versions of the paper.

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ART AND ECONOMICS 409

argued against those who wanted to separate art from experience, and called for including art ingeneral education rather than putting it on a pedestal for a cultural elite engaging in conspicuousconsumption and leisure.

Many economists have studied various aspects of the economics of art, and a few have con-sidered broader impacts of art on economic history, and even on the field of economics. Forexample, in John U. Nef’s Cultural Foundations of Industrial Civilization (1958), focusing on the“aesthetic basis of civilization” in periods after the renaissance “cult of delight”—which he notedwas also central in Macaulay’s historical writings—Nef argued that “The coming of civilizationdepended also upon the spread of good form in the arts and in the art of living, upon a clarifica-tion and a discipline in the instruments used by artists in achieving their results in every media”(p. 123). He noted that while methods for mass producing inexpensive products proceeded farmore rapidly in England than in France from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century,France was able to hold to and advance the search for quality in production and consumption,which also shaped the kind of industrial civilization that developed in Western Europe. Nef con-cluded, “There is an important sense in which the dedication of the Europeans to the constructionof a beautiful Europe, by the strengthening of fine craftsmanship in the service of the crown andthe various ranks of the nobility and higher bourgeoisie, was essential to industrialism” (135).

Currid (2007), not an economist, provided a similar (albeit updated) argument in her book onhow fashion, art, and music drive the New York City “Warhol Economy.” Zablotney (1999)reviewed artistic images of commerce produced in late-eighteenth-century London. Nygren(1988) reviewed money as a theme in American painting. Moore (2004) offered a heterodoxperspective on the relationship between political economy and art, but still stressed the linksbetween economic structures and conditions and art.

Some prominent economists’ concerns about cultural and creative issues influenced by socialand economic institutions have been featured in their writings, and influenced and/or been in-fluenced by the social circles in which they moved (e.g., see Throsby [2011] on John Ruskin;Balisciano and Medema [1999] on Lionel Robbins; and Goodwin [2011] on Keynes and theBloomsbury group). Wight (2006) reviewed arguments on using literature, painting, and theother “noble arts” to develop individual character in Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Senti-ments and Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. Smith even claimed that using literature andart to do this was more effective than having people read philosophers’ works on ethics.

The role of income in encouraging or discouraging the quantity and/or quality of art has beenconsidered by some economists; for example, Nef (1958, 152) endorsed Plato’s identificationof the two main causes of a deterioration of the arts: wealth and poverty,2 while Barber (1999,2011) considered the effects of the drop in national income during the Great Depression onpublic support for the arts. The relationship between income and art has been taken up by othersocial scientists, too. For example, in an article that prompted responses from four prominentsociologists, Lizardo (2008) argued that the “stratification” of ownership and consumption of artwas better predicted by educational attainment than by income.

Not surprisingly, most of the work economists have done on art analyzes various aspects ofmarkets for art, across many genres, time periods, and locations. To list only a few such examples,see Goetzmann, Renneboog, and Spaenjers (2011), Galenson (2008), and Solkin (1992). Othereconomists have dealt with public good aspects of art (e.g., Van Houdt 1999; Goodwin 2005; andZuidrvaart 2011). Tyler Cowen (1998, 2002, 2005) has carved out a special niche in investigatingthe effects of market forces and international trade on cultural heritage and expression.3

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410 WATTS AND CHRISTOPHER

Turning to the literature on promoting more effective teaching and learning in economics andother subject areas, there are many studies on visual learning styles, promoting students’ abilityto visualize mathematical or other quantitative relationships, and how instructors can use visualdisplays (including videos and animation) to improve teaching in different disciplines (e.g., Linand Atkinson 2011; Thomas, Place, and Hillyard 2008; Woolner 2004; Goldfarb 2002; Gahegan2000; Flood, Heath, and Lapp 1997; and Sinatra 1986). But Mahzarian Ranaji (quoted in Berrett2012), a Harvard professor of psychology, recently claimed “There’s no evidence, zero, thatteaching methods should be matched up with different learning styles. It’s intuitively appealing,but not scientifically supported.” A case for featuring art in general education to develop deeperunderstanding and complex and subtle aspects of critical thinking, building on ideas from Dewey(1934/2005) and more recent work on learning theory by Bruner and Vigotsky, is presented inEisner’s (2004) The Arts and the Creation of Mind.

Very little work on visual learning has been done for economics teaching and classes per se,but Boatman, Courtney, and Lee (2008) found that a preference for visual learning had a positiveeffect on student learning in introductory economics classes, while Cohn et al. (2001, 2004) foundthat using graphs in principles classes had negative or no significant effect on student learning, andlater investigated factors related to student attitudes about graphs, and the relationship betweenthose attitudes and students’ performance in economics classes.

This broad but brief literature review shows that art has drawn the interest of many economists,dating back to the time that economics emerged as an autonomous discipline, but especially overthe past 50 to 75 years. Despite that, economists have not generally tried to use art to makeeconomics more visual, memorable, or even beautiful in their teaching, or to take advantageof paintings and other forms of art that deal with economic ideas and issues and the ordinarybusiness of life. In the rest of this article, we describe and provide examples of how that can bedone, highlighting a new resource that makes it easier for instructors to do that.

ART AND ECONOMICS: A WEB SITE FOR ECONOMICS TEACHERS

At a new Web site (https://intra.krannert.purdue.edu/sites/econandart/Pages/Home.aspx), a seriesof PowerPoint slide shows featuring paintings, prints, drawings, etchings, and lithographs areavailable for classroom use. There is no charge for using the site, but users must agree not todownload, copy, or print the images of the artwork.4

There are currently four types of slide shows available: (1) an introductory set of slides,providing a brief rationale for using art to teach economics, and an overview using over 50 worksof art to illustrate a wide range of economic concepts and issues; (2) several slide shows on specificeconomic topics and issues (including “Labor, Occupations, Specialization, and the Division ofLabor”; “Leisure and Recreation”; “Natural Resources and Agriculture”; “Capital Resourcesand Technology”; “Money, Banking, Financial Crises, and Bubbles”; “Demographics and LifeCycles”; and “Economic Functions of Government, and Public Choice”; (3) slide shows on worksby individual artists, including Norman Rockwell, Diego Rivera, and the Breughels; and (4) a“Coming Attractions” slide show showing a few examples of works that have been collected forslide shows on many different topics that are still under development, currently including “Goodsand Services”; “Scarcity, Choice, and Opportunity Cost”; “Markets and Exchange”; “Income

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(Absolute and Relative), Income Distribution, and Happiness”; “Discrimination”; “Altruism andCharitable Works”; “Urbanization”; “Risk and Entrepreneurship”; “International Economics”;“Property Rights and Enforcement”; “Economic Systems”; “Soviet Art”; “WPA Art”; and slideshows on other individual artists, including Thomas Hart Benton, Jacob Lawrence, KatsushikaHokusai, William Hogarth, and H.D. Tylle.

Table 1 lists the paintings and drawings included in the introductory slide show, the name ofthe artist, the date the work was done, the gallery or museum in which the work is displayed (ifapplicable), at least one major economic concept or issue that is illustrated in the work, and abrief synopsis of how the artist depicted the economic content. The format of the table broadlyparallels the table in Watts and Smith (1989), which identified passages from works of literatureand drama dealing with economic concepts, issues, and themes. The order of paintings in table 1follows the order in which they appear in the introductory slide show on the Web site.

Table 1 will be useful to someone deciding whether or not to use the Web site, and demonstratesthe wide range of economics content reflected in the art. But indirectly, it also makes anotherimportant point, because the difference between looking at the paintings and looking at the listof art and the verbal descriptions in the table could hardly be more stark and simple. In a word,the artwork is visual. In a few words, it is often stunningly visual. But on the other hand, someworks were painted to show aspects of life that are painful, grim, or ugly, such as poverty,discrimination, disease, or the inherent loss of resources associated with war and various naturaldisasters. Whether the art is beautiful, stark, or intentionally ugly and horrific, however, it istypically memorable because of its visual impact. In many cases, the works are also memorablebecause the visual impact is used to create a stronger emotional impact than lectures, textbooks,or graphs. Taking advantage of that in the classroom requires some planning and care, and at timesmay even entail the risk of upsetting some students; but used effectively, it can be an importantasset in engaging students.

Some pieces of art have less direct visual impact until students learn more about the work. Inmany cases this happens because the art presents a “story” that only has meaning for those whounderstand the story being told.5 For example, in a painting by Moretto da Brescia from the 1540s,a wealthy young man wearing an ermine cape is sitting at a table with a collection of ancient goldcoins, looking decidedly unhappy. In the language of the period, he suffers from melancholy. Thereason for that is provided by the inscription on his cap, in Greek, which translates as “Alas, Idesire too much.” Knowing that, the painting becomes a remarkable representation of the ideasof scarcity and unlimited wants.

Other paintings are allegorical or mythological, once again requiring some explanation for mostcontemporary viewers. For example, Domenichino’s painting from 1616–18, Apollo and NeptuneAdvising Laomedon, depicts the story from Ovid’s Metamorphosis in which the founder of Troyagrees to pay the two gods (disguised as mortals) for their expertise on how to build the walls ofthe city so that they will never be taken by land or sea. The walls are built to those specifications,but when Laomedon refuses to pay the gold he promised, the Trojans eventually pay the pricefor that breach of contract and property rights. Today most people only know the Helen of Troy,Paris, and Achilles story; but was it love or economics that led to the fall of Troy? Or was Helenperhaps also an example of a kind of property, at least as seen by some characters in the Iliad?

Hans Holbein’s allegorical Triumph of Riches and Triumph of Poverty are perhaps the mostfamous of the paintings and drawings by many artists that look at the causes and consequences of

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tinu

edon

next

page

)

413

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nloa

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er 2

014

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tal;

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rait

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scri

ptio

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says

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tolo

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illo

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urn

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on16

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and

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me

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t.

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erM

edea

ris

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lySu

san

1941

Smith

soni

anA

mer

ican

Art

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eum

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ashi

ngto

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C

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Mus

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ate

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spir

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cer

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ty

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ting

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dab

unda

nce—

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lyag

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ltur

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414

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6 O

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TAB

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age

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iona

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urop

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kets

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ting

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esof

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(Con

tinu

edon

next

page

)

415

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ida

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014

TAB

LE1

Pai

ntin

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the

Intr

oduc

tion

Slid

eS

how

for

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Art

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ics

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ontin

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eof

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ist

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alle

ry/M

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mor

them

eD

escr

iptio

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John

Phill

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heD

ying

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trab

andi

sta

1858

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Roy

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ctio

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ondo

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and

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man

tic

scen

eof

love

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deat

hse

tin

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n,li

keB

izet

’sco

ntem

pora

ryw

ork,

“C

arm

en.”

Geo

rge

Took

erW

aiti

ngR

oom

1959

Smith

soni

anA

mer

ican

Art

Mus

eum

,W

ashi

ngto

n,D

C

Gov

ernm

ent;

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icch

oice

;B

urea

ucra

cyA

crow

ded,

depe

rson

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edw

aiti

ngro

omw

ith

peop

lest

andi

ngin

num

bere

dcu

bicl

es,c

augh

tup

ina

mas

sive

bure

aucr

acy.

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erB

rueg

helt

heE

lder

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herl

andi

shP

rove

rbs

[als

oca

lled

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Blu

eC

loak

orth

eTo

psy

Turv

yW

orld

]

1559

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liche

Mus

eum

,B

erlin

Too

man

yto

list

Ove

ra

hund

red

prov

erbs

depi

cted

inon

epa

inti

ng,m

any

wit

hec

onom

icth

emes

.

Pete

rB

lum

eT

heR

ock

1944

–48

Art

Inst

itute

ofC

hica

goN

atur

al,h

uman

,and

capi

talr

esou

rces

Asy

mbo

lic

pain

ting

,oft

enin

terp

rete

das

rebu

ildi

ngaf

ter

the

dest

ruct

ion

ofW

WII

.R

ene

Mag

ritte

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Hum

anC

ondi

tion

1933

Nat

iona

lGal

lery

ofA

rt,W

ashi

ngto

n,D

C

Nat

ural

reso

urce

s;L

abor

Are

alis

tic

pain

ting

wit

hin

apa

inti

ng,

show

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tly

wha

tis

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outs

ide

thro

ugh

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rom

alo

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inti

ngs

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sion

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tion

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out

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purp

ose

ofar

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arti

sts,

som

etim

eshu

mor

ousl

y.J.

The

odor

eJo

hnso

nC

hica

goIn

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or19

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4Sm

ithso

nian

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eric

anA

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ung

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enin

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san

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renc

e.

416

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nloa

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ida

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e U

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personal success and failure. But here, too, the allegorical figures and content must be explainedfor most modern viewers.

In other cases, the general subject and economic content in pieces of art is apparent, butbackground information about the scene that is shown and/or the artist can be used to make theimage even more interesting and memorable, and to promote class discussions of the art andeconomics. For example, Jerome Myers painted scenes of New York tenements in the 1920sand 1930s, powerfully illustrating issues of poverty and income distribution. But the structureand content of his paintings are more interesting and explained more fully by knowing that nearthe end of his career he said, “Others saw ugliness and degradation there, I saw poetry andbeauty.”6 The poetry and beauty come through in the paintings, and that can be used to raise basicquestions about happiness as a function of absolute and/or relative income and consumption—atopic studied by many economists in recent years (Clark, Frijters, and Shields 2008).

How can economics instructors use the paintings, drawings, and slide shows provided on theWeb site? Let us briefly review some of the options, knowing full well that some instructors willsee other methods.

The simplest and shortest approach, which we have used successfully with both U.S. andinternational classes, is to show an individual piece of art to launch a discussion on an economicconcept or issue, usually with little or no other introduction, and certainly not an introductorylecture on the idea. Using a single piece of art this way often leads to a broad, open-endeddiscussion, with different viewers seeing different ideas or possibilities in the art. This is il-lustrated in Bohanon (2011), who takes his principles classes to a campus art museum, haseach student pick one painting, and write up a brief description of the economic ideas theysee portrayed (in a haiku, a short explanation of the haiku, and what the student sees in thepainting).

Except for the allegorical and “story” paintings described above, it is relatively easy foreconomists to look at paintings or drawings and see economic concepts, issues, or themes—ifthey are depicted. But obviously a major reason for not doing that is the high search costs entailedin finding good paintings to use. That, of course, is a basic rationale for this Web site, andorganizing most of the slide shows by concept or topic.

Once a painting on a concept or topic has been selected to use as a starting point for classdiscussion, the simplest and probably most effective way to proceed is to display the painting forthe class to see and consider for a minute or two. The instructor can then open the discussion byasking a leading question (e.g., “Do you think the characters in Jerome Myers’ paintings of NewYork tenements are shown as happy or unhappy?”). If the painting selected is allegorical or a“story” picture as discussed above, then the relevant background information about the symbolsor story will have to be provided to the students, too.

Even if there is not time for class discussions on all of the topics covered in a course, or forinstructors who are devout (and skilled, one hopes) lecturers, paintings can be used effectivelyat the start (and/or in the middle or end) of otherwise standard lectures, introducing at least thatmuch variety and additional interest to the class session.

A logical “next step” is to use two or more paintings on a related topic. An easy way to dothat is using one painting to introduce a topic and another painting to conclude, review, and sumup the class session. If this is done frequently throughout the course, students quickly adapt tothe format. Many students find it enjoyable and in some ways reassuring to see the conceptsintroduced and reinforced in a visual, nontechnical format.

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A more extensive approach, using many paintings to help teach a concept or issue, is directlysupported by the structure of the slide shows on the Art and Economics Web site, which canusually be shown in full to a class (without extensive commentary or student discussion) in aboutfive to ten minutes. Or the students can be assigned to view a slide show as an out-of-classassignment, and perhaps be required to turn in answers to one or more of the discussion questionsat the end of the programs, which are discussed below.

Interestingly, as the full slide shows, or at least more pieces of art dealing with a commonconcept or issue, are used in classroom presentations, the range of the classroom discussiontypically narrows, becoming more directive and focused, and less exploratory. In other words,this more directed approach uses a set of works of art to help teach or to reinforce understandingof a particular concept or issue.

That is not meant to claim it is better or worse to use the art this way, rather than using just oneor two paintings to initiate a more freewheeling discussion on some broader topic. We see valuein both approaches, and leave the choice or mix of approaches to individual instructors where itbelongs, and in any case will always reside. But to promote the second approach with viewerswho have gone through the full slide shows on particular economic concepts and issues, or worksby an individual artist, each of the slide shows on the Art and Economics Web page, exceptthe Introduction program, ends with a set of discussion questions titled, “Is a Picture Worth aThousand Words?” There are usually between four and eight discussion questions for each slideshow, with most asking viewers to use what they have seen in the art to answer the kinds ofquestions that are regularly featured in undergraduate economics courses. Some examples areprovided below:

From “Natural Resources and Agriculture”:

• Give examples of paintings that show pure “gifts of nature” and natural resources, andothers that show natural resources that have been made more valuable through the use oflabor or capital goods. If labor and capital have been used to make natural resources morevaluable, how would you classify the resource then—as land (natural resources), labor, orcapital?

From “Capital Resources and Technology”:

• Identify examples of capital resources owned by families, private businesses, and the gov-ernment. Which of these three groups do you believe invests the most in capital resources?

• Is capital usually a substitute or complement for labor (skilled and unskilled), and fornatural resources?

From “Labor, Occupations, Specialization and the Division of Labor”:

• Which of the paintings show skilled labor, and which show unskilled labor? How do workersbecome more skilled?

• Are specialized or self-sufficient workers more likely to have high incomes?• What good and bad features of different jobs are illustrated in the paintings? For example,

which of the jobs seem to involve more risk of injury to workers, or doing more interesting

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work in pleasant worksites? How are good and bad features of different jobs likely to affectthe wages or salaries paid to workers in those jobs?

From “Leisure and Recreation”:

• How have changes in technology affected the overall amount of recreation and leisureavailable to people, and the mix of leisure or recreation activities they pursue?

• Is the distribution of leisure and recreation equal or fair? Is it more often enjoyed by thosewith more income and wealth, or by males?

From “Money, Banking, and Financial Crises”:

• Do the paintings and drawings suggest ways in which financial crises from earlier centurieswere different from those in the last century or recent decades? Do they suggest keysimilarities? What role does psychology and mob or “bandwagon” behavior play in financialcrises?

• What is money? Is gold always money, or is money always gold? What makes moneymoney? What makes money socially useful and important when things are stable? Whatkinds of problems do financial crises and unstable money cause or make worse?

From “The Role of Government; Public Choice”:

• What kinds of goods and services, including institutional structures, can governmentsprovide that encourage market activity, economic growth, and prosperity? Which of thepaintings illustrate those goods, services, and institutions?

• Do public officials and government workers always represent the best interests of thepeople? Can some kinds of government policies reduce incentives for people to work, save,and invest? Do special interest groups ever acquire too much influence in setting publicpolicies? Which of the paintings illustrate some aspects of these kinds of governmentfailure?

CONCLUSION

An interesting and obvious question, which we have not yet studied in any formal way, is howeffective are the slide shows in teaching concepts and issues, compared to traditional lecturesor to other online and distance learning approaches, or when used in combination with standardlectures or distance learning materials?

Informally, we have asked spouses, friends, and even participants in Learning in Retirementprograms who have seen the slide shows, but in many cases have not taken courses in economics,whether they felt they could at least begin to answer the discussion questions, based just on seeingthe slide shows. Thus far their answers have been strongly affirmative, with only modest quali-fications. “Modest” is actually a literal characterization of some of the qualifications, reflectingsome viewers’ sense of modesty in claiming to understand what many of them view as a difficultsubject. Sadly, in many cases they also noted unpleasant or at least mixed memories of principles

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courses they took as undergraduates, and of their performance in those classes. But overall, interms of using art to teach economics and interest people in economic concepts and issues, wefind these responses and the answers to the discussion questions that the respondents offer quiteencouraging.

A formal study would be interesting, of course, and add to the limited literature noted aboveon visual learning in economics. But even if the cognitive gains are not significantly (let alonesubstantively) different from what students learn in a standard course that is all or mostly straightlecture, there is still a utility maximization argument for using art to help teach economics(including the utility of both students and instructors). Bringing artists’ sense of beauty and truthto economics classes is another way to water what many current and former students view as avery dry field. And many of the students who already like economics courses and instructors willappreciate another way of looking at the topics, based on the ordinary business of life as seen anddepicted by artists.

NOTES

1. Watts (2003) and others made similar claims about literature and drama. Other economists have done thesame for different kinds of cultural media, including feature films, documentaries, music, and animatedfilms and videos. In his article on Adam Smith’s use of the “noble arts,” Wight (2006, 156n) providesa long list of references on using all of these media to teach economics, with the notable exception ofpainting/art. This exception shows that, for the most part, using art to teach economics is untraveledground. Zevin (1980) suggested using artifacts and visual images, including “art” (left at that genericlevel), to teach economics at the precollege level; but all of his specific examples feature artifacts, ordrawings and advertisements of artifacts. In 2011, at the first national conference on teaching economicsand research in economic education sponsored by the American Economic Association Committee onEconomic Education and the Journal of Economic Education, Watts organized a panel discussion thatfeatured presentations on the Web site on Art and Economics featured here, and papers by Bohanon(2011) and Cotti and Johnson (2012).

2. Both economists and art educators have also noted the importance of the rising quantity and value ofleisure time versus time spent working, for example in Greenwood and Vandenbroucke (2005) and White(1975).

3. World history and geography textbooks, even at the precollege level, often use art to illustrate culturaland economic differences across time and nations.

4. Digital images for most of the art are available on other Web sites, such as Wikimedia Commons.5. Optional text screens are now being added to the Web site slide shows to provide background infor-

mation on the economic content shown in the art—especially for these “story pictures” and allegoricalpaintings—and on the artists and the works of art. Only the introductory slide show includes explanatorytext slides as separate screens. The first software platforms used for the Web site, including standard wikiplatforms, did not support the multiple optional text slides. After some customization by informationtechnology (IT) specialists at Purdue University, the current platform will. Optional text slides are nowbeing posted for the introductory slide show, and will be posted for the other slide shows over the nextyear as they are completed.

6. This kind of information will be provided in the slide shows using the optional text slides.

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using art (paintings, drawings, and engravings) to teach economics

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