EuraStudy
IESubject guide
Leaving Certificate Art (NCCA specification), Higher and Ordinary Level, with the SEC examination.
Overview
Leaving Certificate Art (NCCA specification), Higher and Ordinary Level, with the SEC examination.
Complete topic map
Every topic recorded for this subject in the curriculum is reproduced below in its full hierarchy. The descriptions reflect the mapped scope without implying additional exam rules.
Learners develop visual-detective skills by analysing artworks, recognising styles and features, using critical and visual language, and drawing on the natural and built environment as sources of inspiration.
Learners gather and collate information across varied media, record visual observations through different techniques in a sketchpad, and justify their choice of media when capturing their interpretation of the world.
Learners extract and discriminate information from research, produce an annotated visual record of their enquiry, and apply problem-solving to experiment with ideas, media and techniques.
Learners situate their work within a changing social, political and ethical world, engage with recognised artists and artworks, and trace links across artists who explored similar themes.
Learners formulate an area of enquiry, identify sources, draft supporting studies and visual responses, and articulate and annotate a rationale for their research decisions.
Learners move from concept to realisation, interpreting primary sources such as the human figure and the environment and applying appropriate skills and techniques to create realised work from their research.
Learners apply and evaluate the art elements and design principles in their making, critique their own and others' work, and translate their learning in Visual Studies into practical outcomes.
Learners describe their motivation, create and edit studies and realised work, understand the properties of chosen media, and connect research, process and decisions to the finished piece.
Learners curate and present work in a considered way, and evaluate, communicate and justify the meaning and context of their chosen pieces.
Learners discuss examples from Visual Studies, recognise artistic thinking and elements in their own and others' work, and question both established and new ideas.
Learners locate their own work in relation to other artwork within stylistic, social, political and ethical contexts.
Learners value their own and others' work, argue the merit of a work using contextual evidence, and experience art through sensory and emotional responses.
Learners reflect on the development of ideas from conception to realisation, present sustained and varied investigation of a stimulus, and synthesise and justify their visual responses and decisions.
A six-element lens (Context; Artists and Artworks; Analysis; Art Elements and Design Principles; Media and Areas of Practice; Innovation and Invention) used to study what was created before, during and after a period or movement.
The Western art canon from Romanesque/Gothic through Renaissance and Baroque to Realism/Impressionism, Modernism and Post-1960, of which one section of focus is studied for the written exam.
Significant periods of Irish art from Pre-Christian and Insular Art through Late Medieval, the Georgian period, Irish Modernism and Post-1960, of which one section of focus is studied for the written exam.
Critical literacy and contextual inquiry into everyday art and culture across all four sections of focus: Artists Theory and Thinking, Artists Processes and Media, Art as Social Commentary, and Art and the Environment.
SEC assessment in three components from a shared stimulus brief: practical coursework (50%), a practical examination of up to five hours (20%) each with an artist's statement, and a 2.5-hour Visual Studies written examination (30%).
Where this subject applies
These pathways and regions are explicitly connected to the subject in the curriculum.
Higher Level
Higher Level — the more demanding level, with broader and deeper content and the H1–H8 grade scale.
Ordinary Level
Ordinary Level — the foundational level covering the core of the syllabus, graded O1–O8.
Official sources
The public sources below are referenced directly by this subject or by one of its topics.
This editorial selection points to the relevant official bodies. Always confirm current requirements, dates and exceptional arrangements with your school and the responsible authority.
2
Public references
IE · EuraStudy Guides
Open the curriculum guide to see every subject and topic, or continue to EuraStudy to begin working with the material.