Visual Culture Table of Contents Artist List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Gregory Abbott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Art Criticism: The Sacredness Cow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Doug Braithwaite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Fluency in Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Jonathan Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The Art of Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Alex Darais . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Visual Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Paul Davis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Understanding the Idea of Visual Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Do You See What I See? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Frank McEntire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Pop Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Swapping Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Bruce Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Art as a Cultural Critique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Andy Warhol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Film in Visual Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 i Visual Culture Artist List Gregory L. Abbott (1945– ) St. George, Utah Sacred Cows of Art History at the End of Innocence: Homage to Kurt Schwitters 1986 mixed media 23” x 39-1/4” Doug J. Braithwaite (1964– ) Toys and Tools 1996 oil on canvas 38” x 40” Jonathan Douglas Brown (1963_ ) So, Luke has a Sister 2000 watercolor Alex Basil Darais (1918– ) Provo, Utah Over Three Billion Served mixed Media 36” x 36” Paul Howard Davis (1946– ) State Street 1979 oil on canvas 19-5/8” x 15-3/4” Frank McEntire (1946– ) Salt Lake City, Utah Buddha in the Beehive 2000 mixed media 61” x 30” Bruce Hixson Smith (1936– ) Springville, Utah Ode to Ad 1978 oil on canvas 48” x 42” Andy Warhol (1928–1987) Marilyn 1962 silkscreen, 36” x 36” 1 ARTIST: TITLE: MEDIA: SIZE: Gregory L. Abbott (1945– ) St. George, Utah Sacred Cows of Art History at the End of Innocence: Homage to Kurt Schwitters 1986 mixed media 23” x 39-1/4” BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION Born in 1945 and raised in Bakersfield, California, Gregory Abbott has had the desire to paint for as long as he can remember. During his childhood, his parents took him on outings to Los Angeles to visit museums and art galleries. Abbott remembers attending the opening of the Los Angeles County Art Museum. He and his parents attended surrealist shows that included the works of Dali, Miro, De Chirico, Ernst, and Duchamp. They also attended a show of works by impressionist Pierre Bonnard. Even today, Abbott is challenged by works he first saw as a youth. Abbott once had a preschool teacher criticize him for “not using the ‘right’ colors for a drawing.” Abbott remembers being offended by the teacher’s attempt to “control his artwork.” Seeing himself as an artist at an early age, he painted murals on the walls of his home. At the age of 12, he painted his uncle’s water tower in Parowan, Utah, with the image of a huge reclining nude. His uncle was shocked by the image and made Abbott repaint the tower with solid gray primer. Following high school, Abbott attended Brigham Young University before moving to Oakland, California, where he enrolled at the California College of Arts and Crafts, earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1970 and his Master of Fine Arts in 1972. Since graduation Abbott has worked as both an artist and as an interior designer. Abbott is currently painting murals in private homes in Las Vegas as well as in the Luxor and Monte Carlo hotels. In addi- tion, he is designing wall papers, fabrics, and murals for Disney’s new Lion King and Venezia Hotels. For Venezia, with his impudent sense of humor, he has used elegant 18th Century Baroque designs whose negative spaces form Mickey Mouse ears, as do the spaces in the Quattrocento windows copied from the Palace of the Doges. His paintings can be found in a number of private and public collections. His work is shown in numerous galleries in Utah, California, North Carolina, New Jersey, and New York. Before Abbott begins the physical creation of a piece, he contemplates the overall mental image of what he wishes to express in his art. Once the image is clearly defined, the artist quickly executes the work in acrylics on acid-free paper or masonite panels. Framing materials are often unconventional materials such as particle board with “overart” in mixed 2 mediums. Abbott often incorporates trompe l’oeil (fool the eye) images along the margins of a piece, creating additional references which influence the interpretation of the work. Using surreal images, Gregory Abbott’s work depicts an ever-changing and complex narrative using ordinary objects juxtaposed in settings that jar the viewer into looking more deeply at the work. Through the use of paradox, Abbott takes “ordinary images like cows—his ‘everyman’— and establishes relationships that create new ways of seeing those objects, giving them new meaning and increasing our understanding of ourselves and others.” Gregory Abbott’s surrealistic art expresses a unique point of view which includes a strong sense of beauty and the use of hidden images and word play, combined with humor and satire. His cow paintings, like Sacred Cows of Art History:At the End of Innocence, express his feelings about life: Ordinary people, obscured by the group, have extraordinary events happen to them that spark heroic acts,greatness,or marvelous insight and set those ordinary people apart from the group. “His masterful treatment of trompe l’oeil, realistic fantasy, and surrealistic methods of painting help the viewer see beyond the subject matter and into the content of each painting. His art has a life of its own, and it reflects his celebration of life.” Abbott is recognized as a clever artist, master designer, and storyteller. Continuing to paint as he did when he was a child, Abbott surrounds himself with dinner plates heaped with pigments and crouches over his work, which is placed on the floor of his studio. With this set-up, he can work on a painting from all four sides. The different perspectives allow him to correct composition and discover new shapes. “’I love color, form and message,’ says Abbott. ‘It is all important to me. What I choose to paint makes sense of what I expe3 rience. It is the means used to analyze and justify my existence.’” Abbott’s Sacred Cows of Art History: At the End of Innocence—Homage to Kurt Schwitters depicts a living room scene in which a cow is seen looking at a black and white cowhide couch set against a window. Also in the room are two wooden cow-shaped forms, one of which is covered with a collage of images and newspaper clippings. All the different shards and objects have come together to make the room. The cow appears startled to see the familiar-looking couch, which Abbott says is actually part of the cow itself. He sees the cow as being totally immersed in himself and perhaps, headed toward his own destruction. Like all Abbott’s paintings, the work has many layers and symbols and can be understood and appreciated on many levels. Sacred Cows of Art History is a tribute to the artist and writer Kurt Schwitters, who was a member of the Dadaist movement. The artists of this movement were disillusioned by World War I and as a result, promoted ironic and cynical anti-art. Although these artists expressed themselves in a number of different styles, their work all dealt with absurd and illogical subject matter, sharing a common emphasis on the importance of chance. Kurt Schwitters was born in Germany in 1887. He emigrated to Norway in 1937 and later fled to England in 1940 to avoid the Nazis, who considered him a degenerate artist and had put him on their death list. He died at the age of 61 in England in 1948. Schwitters is best known as the developer of a style of collage known as Merz (pronounced Mertz), which used old bus tickets, string, candy wrappers, newspapers, and other refuse to create images. The name came about by chance, as befitted a Dadaist form of art, when Schwitters cut the word “kommerz” from a newspaper, but then used only the last four letters in his collage. The artist referred to his collages as “Merzilden” (merz pictures) and his sculptural versions as “Merzbau” (merz building). Of the latter, only one remains in existence, located in the Hatton Gallery, New Castle upon Tyne, England. Abbott says of Schwitters’ work that it consists of “wonderful assembleges,” which although Dadaist, are “almost sentimental, conveying a strong sense of humanity.” A piece owned by the Los Angles County Museum even has a “tenderness and sweetness about it.” Greg Abbott enjoys how the works retain a sense of the origins of the found objects yet make a new whole, a quality also evident in Abbott’s own works. Endnotes Abbott, Gregory L.Interview, August 13, 1999 4 Art Criticism: The Sacredness Cow OBJECTIVES Students will (in small group discussions): 1. Describe the visual qualities in the art work. (What are the images found in the artwork?) 2. Analyze the elements and principles of design found in the artwork. (How are the images arranged in the artwork? How is color, texture, line, shape, etc. used in the artwork? How are the elements arranged in a similar way as Schwitters artwork?) 3. Interpret the meaning of the artwork. (What message or meaning is the artist trying to communicate?) 4. Judge the effectiveness of all the elements and meanings of the artwork? (Do all the visual elements add to the meaning of the work of art?) 5. Create a student generated collage by using the style of Kurt Schwitters or Abbot as examples. STATE CORE LINKS Standard 2: Students will find meaning by analyzing, criticizing, and evaluating visual art. Standard 4: Students will find meaning in visual arts through settings and other modes of learning—Obj. C: Evaluate the impact of visual art on life outside of school. Materials 1. Poster of Sacred Cows of Art History: At the End of Innocence—Homage to Kurt Schwitters by Gregory I. Abbott. 2. Slides of Kurt Schwitters artwork: Okola (1926) and Merzbild 25A (1920). Instruction 1. Teacher shows the poster of Sacred Cows of Art History: At the End of Innocence— Homage to Kurt Schwitters by Gregory I. Abbott. and slides of Kurt Schwitters artwork and asks students to make comparisons and contrasts between the artists’ work. 2. Divide the students into small groups (depending on the class) and give each group a task to describe, analyze, interpret, or judge Sacred Cows. 3. Have each group choose a spokesperson to share the groups findings in front of the class. 4. Provide a common object (ie. a chair, an orange) as a theme for their small group art work. Provide heavy paper or cardboard, glue, paint, fabric, newspaper, magazines and other found objects. Each small group will create a collage using the different materials provided. Assessment 1. Informal assessment: Teacher will observe individual students’ understanding and work. The teacher will talk to students during group discussions and guide the students through the art criticism process 2. Studio assignment and rubric used as a tool to assess student-generated artwork. Sources 5 1. Arnason, H.H. History of Modern Art (1970). 2. Utah State Core Curriculum. 3. Sources for Kurt Schwitters images and information: Okola: http://www.caleidoscopio.art.br/cultural/artesplasticas/vanguarda/dada_04.htm Merzbild 25 A: www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/asc/projects/comm544/library/images/408.html Other Schwitters images and information: • www.sprengel-museum.de/englisch/12SchwArchiv/12schwitters-intro.html 3 works • virtuell.kunstmuseumbasel.ch/WebObjects/KMBSiteVirtuell.woa/Contents/ WebServerResources/static/index.html • www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_works_144_0.html 4 works, large images • moma.org/collection/depts/drawings/blowups/draw_015.html • www.ncl.ac.uk/hatton/collection/schwitters/index.html only surviving image of merzbarn—Schwitters said “My Merzbarn is better and more important than everything I have done up to now.” Site contains biographical info, photos, and links to a page with articles etc. • www.roland-collection.com/rolandcollection/section/18/563.htm source for a video about Schwitters, Norwegian with English subtitles Kurt Schwitters Merzbild 25A usc.edu/schools/annenberg/ asc/projects/comm544/library/ images/408.html 6 ARTIST: TITLE: MEDIA: SIZE: Doug J. Braithwaite (1964– ) Sunset, Utah Toys and Tools 1996 oil on canvas 38” x 40” BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION Artist’s Statement I was born May 9th 1964 in Sunset, Utah. My parents both came from Central Utah (Manti and Salina) and I spent a lot of my growing up days there riding horses and helping/playing on the farm. My wife Jeanette came from Escalante, and we also spent a lot of time down there. I graduated from the University of Utah with a bachelor’s degree of Fine Arts in May 1992. I studied mostly with Paul Davis and Dave Dornan, but also spent limited time with Ed Maryon, Doug Snow, and Tony Smith. I have participated as a staff member of the University of Utah Summer and Fall Painting Workshops held in Southern Utah from 1990 to the present, where I have picked up experience organizing and teaching landscape painting and figure drawing. I have also taught life drawing at the Petersen Art Center in Salt Lake City from 1995 through 1996. I have taught beginning painting (still life) and landscape painting for the University of Utah Division of Continuing Education. My work has been at Broschofsky’s in Sun Valley, Phillips in Salt Lake City, and Torrey Gallery in Southern Utah. My work is presently developing in two directions, landscape and contemporary still life. I am spending a lot of time out in the landscape where I have mostly been looking for subjects that connect me to my roots in Central and Southern Utah. I have also been working in the studio on more contemporary still-life paintings, subjects that are more personal. I have been looking at paintings by Walter Murch and some earlier paintings by William Harnett. I like the idea of using 7 objects that are found around the house that are not normally considered worthy of painting but are able to work as metaphors or simply as objects that are dated and tied to my lifetime. Doug Braithwaite’s brushwork is strong and skillful and his paintings have a striking clarity and honesty that appeal to a broad spectrum of art lovers. He has won many awards, had solo shows at Phillips Gallery, Torrey Gallery, and at the Coda Gallery in Park City, Utah, and his work is in the permanent collection of the Springville Museum of Art. Fluency in Art OBJECTIVES-State Standard Assessed: Standard 3 EXPRESSING—Objective B: Curate works of art ordered by medium and content, Indicator 2: Exhibit works of art selected by themes, such as mastery of a medium, Core objectives, and significant content. OUTCOME ASSESSED: Students will be connecting theories to objects, participating in collaborative learning brainstorming groups, and individually developing an idea into a concrete object that will be displayed to an audience. Materials: Tools by Braithwaite Images of Tom Friedman’s work dealing with the pencil. see Hainley, B., Cooper, D., & Searle, A. (2001). Tom Friedman. New York: Phaidon. Information on the history of the pencil, see references http://www.pencilpages.com/mfg/fabercastell.htm http://www.pencilpages.com/articles/make.htm http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Pointless/PencilGrades.html http://www.roger-russell.com/normapg.htm http://stjosaphat.tripod.com/nserratosays/id9.html http://widerreach.com/yellowpencil/pencilhx.htm http://www.papermate.com/sanford/consumer/papermate/jhtml/faq/faqpencil.jhtml Lots of pencils See handouts Location to hold finished exhibition Activity Discuss the Braithwaite painting entitled “Tools” with students. Questions can include: Why did the artist choose the title “Tools”? Does the artist have an agenda for the viewer? Who is the artist targeting? What other “tools” could the artist have depicted in the painting and how could those tools be politically or socially charged? What are the tools of an artist? What are the tools of a student? Explain to the students that they will be using the most basic tool of a student and an artist to create an art exhibit… A pencil. Students will create a thematic exhibit that conveys a sense of fluency within a chosen theme. For example, the artist, Tom Friedman, may be studied and discussed in terms of fluency and flexibility. Mr. Friedman’s art works are novel in many media and processes, although each one discusses the content of novelty. An exhibit will be curated that discusses one of Mr. Friedman’s works in terms of fluency. An example of this would be to see how many sculptural ideas could be made using common materials, such as the pencil. Students will be using the pencil as a concept for a sculptural piece that they will photograph upon completion. The photograph and the sculptural pieces could be exhibited along with preliminary sketches and brainstorming notes. A handout on the subject of pencils has been included to simplify this process for the student and to explain what is required of him/her. 8 Tom Friedman’s work is known to be creative in both fluency and flexibility. These examples show Mr. Friedman’s ability to express novelty within one material, which shows that he has a fluency in this medium. . . . a pencil. 9 Student example 10 The following list was generated by a high school student as part of the lesson. • Make a list of aesthetic theories or art movements with the class and have students come up with a novel idea for exhibiting something about a pencil from that aesthetic perspective on their own paper. • In groups, decide upon one aesthetic theory and share the ideas that each student gathered for that theory. Every student should come up with three more ideas for that theory while working in groups. • Students should sketch out one of the most novel ideas developed individually. Ideas may be reworked until they are truly unique. • Share the sketches together as a class. If the idea is novel, the student will be able to create the idea, photograph it, and display it, along with an artist statement about the work. VARIATION: A photograph of the work is optional. 10 Sample Pencil Ideas By Clark Goldsberry 1) Use a pencil and a jet ski to write my name on a lake. 2) Draw a line through nature: Hike over a mountain with a pencil tied to my shoe. 3) Leave a pencil in a river for a really long time. 4) Carve a pumpkin… with a pencil. 5) Cover a pencil in chewing gum, then leave it on my bedpost overnight. 6) Make chocolate dipped pencils and put sprinkles on top. 7) Try to write the entire dictionary with one pencil. 8) Pencil Popsicles? 11 9) Glue a lot of pencils together to make one big pencil. Then make a drawing of something… maybe another pencil? 10) Get a pencil vending machine. Fill it full of pencils that have already been used, and guarantee that each pencil was used to create some sort of a graphite masterpiece. Sell them for a lot of money Name: Period: Date: List aesthetic theories or artistic movements, and describe or sketch a novel idea for creating something about a pencil from that aesthetic perspective. Theory: Sketch or describe your idea: Theory: Sketch or describe your idea: Theory: Sketch or describe your idea: Theory: Sketch or describe your idea: 12 Theory: Sketch or describe your idea: 13 Name: Name: Name: Name: Name: Period: Date: Choose one aesthetic theory or artistic movement as a group to discuss. Share each of your ideas that were generated about that particular theory. Then, come up with three more ideas for that theory as a group. What is the theory your group will brainstorm? List the three new ideas that you have come up with as a group to display an object (pencil) in terms of this aesthetic theory: 1. 2. 3. 14 ARTIST: TITLE: MEDIA: Jonathan Douglas Brown (1963– ) Springville, Utah So, Luke has a Sister 2000 watercolor BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION Jonathan Brown was born in Muncie, Indiana on November 24, 1963. His love of drawing started early, and one of the cartoons he did of the high school principal almost got him expelled. (Luckily, “free speech” came to his rescue.) He attended Salt Lake Community College and landed his first job at the Davis County Clipper in Bountiful, Utah. Brown joined the team of Salt Lake City’s Deseret News when he was hired as a free-lance editorial cartoonist in 1997. Shortly thereafter, he beat out the competition and earned the highly coveted position of Editorial Cartoonist, which he still holds today. Brown has won many awards for his editorial cartoons and is recognized nationally and internationally. Most often his recognition comes from editorials written in response to his work, and these range from citizens all over Utah to Salt Lake City’s mayor, Rocky Anderson. Even though he was once seriously threatened by a reader, Brown doesn’t mind negative reactions to his editorial cartoons. What he hopes for most is that his work will inspire people to act, and writing a letter to the editor is just that. Because all art is subjective, many times his work is misunderstood; people see things in the cartoons that he didn’t intend. Even though some don’t agree on his viewpoints, most praise him for keeping them “current on national and local Utah issues.” Brown’s artistic inspiration came from a variety of sources including Pat Oliphant (often seen in the Washington Post and the New York Times), Jeff MacNelly (creator of the comic “Shoe”), and Jim Borgman (of the Cincinnati Enquire). Brown comments that 15 although he tries to deal with all subjects, his favorite to do is political cartoons. He does the most of these as he jumps from one issue to the next. His style has evolved over the years and varies from one genre of cartoon to another. He usually sticks to traditional stylistic methods (such as cross hatching) in his political cartoons. The one artistic technique he uses in all his works is drawing with the Col-Erase non-photo blue pencil first. This pencil does not reproduce when photocopied or scanned into the computer, so he can use ink directly on top of it. When he does ink in the cartoon, he uses sable brushes (Kolinsky series 7, No. 2, and No. 0). He actually draws with the ink-filled brushes and later adds the cross hatching and lettering with a pen. The final step is to scan it into his computer and email it to his boss at Deseret News. (Gotta love the information age!) There are no secrets to how Brown comes up with his memorable editorial cartoons. “It’s definitely a process that you learn how to do over time,” he explains. “The first thing you need to do is narrow the topic down so it’s bite size. A reader needs to ‘get it’ in a matter of seconds. . . . Flood your mind with lots of news, and connections happen between one story and another.” The ideal cartoon is one that seems “organic: so perfect and natural.” Of course, perfection doesn’t come instantly. “Once you come up with a good idea,” he confesses, “You need to keep working on it to better it. It takes me two to four hours to think of an idea and a few more to try it out. Often, I change my mind mid-process. It doesn’t always end up how I started.” Many might argue that cartooning is not art, and his high school teacher even told him this.Brown completely disagrees. “I don’t see any difference between oil painting and cartooning. . . . Artists create. . . . Construction workers can be artists, too. They can create artwork just as much as I do.” Besides doing editorial cartoons, Brown sculpts and hopes to one day do cartoons in 3-D. Brown gives several pieces of advice for those wanting to fully experience his work or actually go into cartooning themselves. “If you want to understand an editorial cartoon,” he advises, “Plug yourself into the media for a while and you’ll understand it better. [My cartoons] are social commentary.” For young artists wanting to follow Brown’s footsteps, he recommends that they saturate themselves with current events. “You need a college degree to broaden your experience as much as possible, and you also need to develop a talent for drawing.” He also admonishes “not to limit yourself to just the visual because dancing, acting, and theatrics will help your cartoons.” One more thing: writing is key. “Cartoon writing must be in bite-size chunks. Avoid the temptation 16 to write too much. Less is more!” [If you would like to contact Jonathan Brown for additional information for your class, he requested you call his office phone number at (801) 491-8221. Don’t hesitate to leave a message if he’s not there.] The Art of Comics, Darth Vader, Jonathan Brown Comics in Visual Culture and Their Effects on Humanity OBJECTIVES AH–Art History, A–Aesthetics, C–Criticism, P–Production Students will be able to: • examine a new artist, Jonathan Brown, and his style of painting–AH • analyze a comic based on it’s ability to clearly address a social or political theme–P • discuss the aesthetic question what is art? Begin to create own opinion on the matter–A • discover how society has affected comics and illustration throughout this century–AH • create a comic which is either funny or has a superhero, and which addresses a social or political idea using the same steps as would be used with a professional comic artist–P • express opinions of comics and artworks through new aesthetic/criticism philosophies–C STATE CORE LINKS Based on a Foundations 1 (7-12) Standard 1 -Explore a variety of art media, techniques, and processes. -Create works of art that show the use of the art elements and principles. Standard 2 -Objective 1, Interpret works of art. -Objective 2, Learn how to use aesthetic approaches to compare and discuss works of art. Evaluate works of art based on how they were created, effective use of the art elements and principles, fulfillment of functions, and expressive qualities. Standard 3 -Objective 1, Identify and Create works of art that show subject matter, themes, or individually conceived content. Standard 4 -Objective 1, Use visual characteristics to group artworks into historical, social, and cultural contexts. Analyze the impact of culture on works of art. Evaluate own relationship with artworks from various periods in history. -Objective 2, Evaluate the impact of art on life outside of school. Materials • Jonathan Brown’s cartoon • Examples of other comics both funny and with superheroes • Picasso’s Guernica, and David’s Death of Marat Large image of Guernica at mala.bc.ca/~lanes/english/hemngway/picasso/guernica.htm Large image of Death of Marat at cgfa.sunsite.dk/jdavid/p-jdavid26.htm • Movie clips of comics made into films (Spiderman, Superman, Batman, etc.). • Watercolor paper. • Pen and Ink • Watercolor Activity 17 Definitions What is Art? - A question,which is posed through the study of philosophy in art, called Aesthetics. Implies a search for a true definition for art. Can everything be considered art or is there criteria to make it so? Instrumentalist theory—Philosophical theory in art which implies that the greatness of a work is dependent on the greatness of its purpose. The artwork serves a political, moral, or economic purpose and should have a great effect on the audience. Sociological theory—Much like the Instrumentalist theory, but more directed to social ideals. Art is identified with its context and is a radical means of communication–the social force for promulgation of revolutionary ideas. Believes the artist’s inner world is too narrow and the artwork must embrace deeper social values. Introduce the artist Jonathan Brown and discuss his comic style and subject matter. In his painting of Darth Vader, Jonathan Brown has used information from the culture around him to create a comical rendition of the idea of genealogical studies. To make numerous comics for the Deseret News, Jonathan Brown has to stay on top of the news and events around him, finding ways to tie them together. Discuss what different aspects of the culture an artist must study in order to be a successful political cartoonist. Discuss the idea of Visual Culture with the students and how images around us can affect the way we think or react in certain situations. Discuss the possibility of film being a large contributor to Visual Culture. How has film changed since times such as in Frank Huff’s painting of a drive-in? Are actors better or worse? Have special effects taken over the importance of good acting? Is a movie less successful if it doesn’t utilize 3-D animation for special effects? Art History Look at Jonathan Brown’s and other political cartoonists’ work and discuss their reflection of society. Do they seem accurate or exaggerated? Explore different works of art through history which directly address different political and social issues. Why would visual images like cartoons and painting be a good way to address social and political views which may be very sensitive topics in society? Look at works such as Picasso’s Guernica, which depicts a horrible war scene of an innocent town that was bombed for political end. David’s painting Death of Marat is also a good example of addressing a controversial event. 18 Art Criticism Visual Culture is a wonderful way to introduce new criticism philosophies. Using comics, explore the philosophies of the Sociological and Instrumentalist theories. Discuss how, based on these theories, artists should always be creating art with respect to society or social and political ideas. This philosophy suggests that art isn’t good enough if created just within the artist’s own thoughts, it must communicate ideas and events of present history, social and economic issues, class distinction, and so forth. These artworks should be making a statement calling for action from the audience with regards to the society around them. Have students use a basic criticism model to critique an artwork and a comic with these philosophies in mind. Does the work call for action? Does it address issues of society or is it just a reflection of the artist’s ideas or life in some way? Aesthetics Exploring comics and illustration is a good way to introduce the area of Aesthetics, which asks,”What is Art?” Whether or not illustrative and commercial works are truly fine art or just a well-learned trade has been an argument for decades. Some feel that artwork created for commercial means is not real art, it’s just an expression of someone’s idea in a pictorial form. Ask students how they think comics or illustrations might be different than the art they might see in a museum. Ask what is similar. Have students choose a side and argue their point with artistic examples in a short essay; then separate the class into two groups, each representing the opposite opinion. Hold a mock trial of illustration/graphic design vs. fine arts. The teacher can be the judge and mediate responses; each group will have to argue its points with relevant questions and answers. At the end, bring all relevant points to the bench and discuss, this time with the class being the jury, and arriving at a verdict. The class can vote to see if a consensus is reached, or they can be a hung jury, left to contemplate further the information gathered. A retrial can later be scheduled if needed. This option allows for further thought and research. Production Have students use the example of Jonathan Brown and other comic artists to help them create their own comic design. Students should go through each step: first, create a character for their comic. They must decide if it will be a political cartoon, funny comic, or a superhero comic. Students should map out the character development, answering questions about personality (funny, serious, superhero), looks, background information, where the characters live, special quirks, super powers, and so on. Have students do a pencil and pen drawing of their character, complete with costume design. If it is possible to get the same blue pencil comic artists use for preliminary drawings, it would be most authentic. Comic artists most often use colored ink to fill in the drawings; however, watercolors can also be used for the colors and might be more accessible to the classroom. After a full character analysis and drawing is done, the students can then create a full comic with numerous frames. Assessment -After discussion of Comics effects on Visual Culture have each student write down two ways they believe comics are a part of our visual culture. This can be used as an informal 19 assessment. -Participation in Aesthetics can be an informal assessment. -Formal Assessment- After students have written a short essay for the aesthetic argument what is Art? Have them switch essays with another student with the same opinion on the matter. Students should then analyze and rate the value of the arguments made and the clarity of the argument; reasons should be given along with examples of good arguments. Both should be turned in and graded a 1-3 rubric based on, clarity, ability to analyze neighbors essay, valid points in own essay, and composition. Artworks can also be graded using a rubric with criteria being creativity, craftsmanship, and completion character analysis and rendering. -Artworks can be added to portfolios and graded on an analytic rubric rating scale of 1-5. -The artworks and critiques can also be combined into one rubric as well or graded holistically with all works at the end of a term. Sources Additional reading: Past evening for educator packets Barret, Terry. Criticizing Art. Mountain View, California. Mayfield Publishing Company. 1994. Townsend, Dabney. An Introduction to Aesthetics. Massachusetts. Blackwell Publishers. 1997. Day, Michael & Hurwitz, Al. Children and Their Art: Methods for the Elementary School. Texas. Harcourt Brace College Publishers. 1958. Beattie, Donna Kay. Assessment in Art Education. Massachusetts. Davis Publications, Inc. 1997. VARIATIONS This lesson is based on a middle-school level. Various areas can be altered to accommodate an elementary-level learner. Students may not understand certain Aesthetic philosophies like the socioeconomic and instrumentalist theories. In critiquing the artwork, the student may analyze the work and decide their own interpretation of what the comic artist is trying to www.nthurston.k12.wa.us/ths/ portray. Then each student can try writing his or her chosen comic artist and asking the artist specifically about a certain comic study to find out the artist’s thought behind it. Did it truly have something to do with some social issue? Was it a successful work according to what the artist intended the artwork to accomplish? 20 EXTENSION Students may take the production assignment further by creating a full comic with numerous frames or create the additional character analyses for the comic. Also, it would be good for students to further research another comic artist besides those discussed in the lesson like Jonathan Brown. Students can have firsthand information on whether another fine artist through history influenced the artist. They can learn an illustrator’s personal view on the question of What is Art? And whether they believe their work is truly fine art or just commercial, propagandistic drawings. Shafer, Bo Peep’s Cost of Living http:// www.lib.byu.edu/online.html 21 ARTIST: TITLE: MEDIA: SIZE: Alex Basil Darais (1918– ) Provo, Utah Over Three Billion Served mixed media 36” x 36” BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION Alex Darais was born in 1918, in California, to Greek parents. He gives credit for his interest in fine arts to his parents, who exposed him to their Greek culture. Both the fine arts and Greek traditions remain an important part of Darais’ life. When he was serving in World War II, Darais received a paperback book of poems from the Red Cross titled The Pocket Book of Verse, Great English and American Poems, edited by M.E. Speare. He read these verses a great deal, and they inspired his life-long love of poetry. In 1946, back from the war, Alex Darais attended Brigham Young University and majored in art. He also began to write poetry. After graduating, he went to Claremont Graduate School in California. Having completed his master’s degree, he returned to Brigham Young University in 1953 to teach art at the old Academy. As a designer and painter, he became one of BYU’s most beloved and respected faculty members. Alex Darais was deeply influenced by cubist watercolorist John Marin and abstract artist Marsden Hartley, as well as by the oriental philosophies of Zen Buddhism. Darais often quotes from his favorite philosophers in classes and in casual conversation. For example, when being interviewed for this biography, he said at his age, he’s very aware of the passage of time, and he quoted two old Greek proverbs. “The only permanent thing is change,” and “You can’t step in the same river twice.” Darais says his art works come in response to feelings and experiences, they are intimate and involved. As a teacher and father of seven, he found time constraints 22 required him to do his art “ on the run.” He changed from oils to gauche and acrylics so he could allow his art “ to spill out onto the canvas.” This change in media has given his art a sense of expediency and spontaneity that accurately reflects his feelings. Alex has always had an exquisite eye for design, especially for pleasing and interesting patterns hidden in everyday scenes and objects. He finds aesthetic value in shapes most people never notice. Once, at a wedding reception of a friend, he had someone stand on a chair to take a photograph of the intriguing shape of a spill on a tablecloth. As a teacher, he worked to awaken in his students a sensitivity to the infinite beauties all around them, as well as to the design of utilitarian objects. He was once asked to no longer bring his design class to a local department store because the department manager was afraid the students’ outspoken critiques of the dinnerware and flatware would discourage customers. Darais constantly points out both interesting shapes and also poor design to his students and to anyone who happens to be around him. He asks everyone to think and to analyze whether objects fit, ( How would that spoon fit your hand? How would it feel in your mouth?) whether the objects are comfortable, are durable, and are practical. Graphic design has also always interested Alex. His best-known projects are probably the Bonneville Bank and Sundance logos. His design orientation carries over into his approach to painting. He makes no attempt to create a three-dimensional picture plane, but uses a straightforward, twodimensional expression of his ideas and feelings. His paintings are graphic images. Besides his innate interest in design, Darais’ love of poetry has helped inspire his art, as well as, his art inspiring his poetry. Darais painted Over Three Billion Served in 1974, and later in 1986, he wrote the poem “Beef.” (The poem is found in his book Little Bird, Selected Poems and Paintings available through BYU’s Museum of Art) Conversely, he wrote the poem “Dark Continent” in 1965, after reading a news story in the Provo Daily Herald ; and in 1969, painted a work with the same title, Dark Continent. The painting Over Three Billion Served was painted after Darais noticed a red cross lying on the ground in a parking lot. When he picked it up, the McDonalds’ “Big Mac” container “immediately conjured up an image with religious connotations.” Thoughts of all the animals that had been slaughtered to make hamburgers came to mind, and he could envision one cow that was trying to break out of the herd. The images also were tied to personal and powerful religious feelings about sacrifice. Out of these feelings came a piece of art portraying both religious values and social criticism. Like many artists and teachers, Darais paints and teaches for the sheer joy of it. However, unlike most artists, Darais has 23 shied away from promoting or selling his art. His wife says each art work is like a child to him, and he can’t bear to discuss price, so he doesn’t sell many. He has given a few pieces to area museums, and his seven children have each picked out their favorites. In 1990, Darais had a book of poetry and art published: Little Bird, Selected Poems and Paintings. The book is the result of more than a decade of work. And in April of 1995, a retrospective exhibit of his art work was displayed at the new Museum of Art on the Brigham Young University campus. Darais’ metaphorical work Over Three Billion Served includes a flattened “Big Mac” container from McDonald’s, which forms a red cross in the center of a muddied, asphalt-like background on which white cows have been sketched in rows, all but one cow facing the center. Darais’ inspiration for this piece was the discovery of this red cross hamburger carton lying on the pavement in a parking lot. For the artist, the flattened “Big Mac” container “immediately conjured up an image with religious connotations.” He thought of the many animals that were slaughtered to make hamburgers and envisioned one cow trying to break out of the herd. These images were linked to the artist’s own personal feelings regarding sacrifice. The resulting artwork candidly depicts religious values and social criticism. For many years, Darais has been an avid writer of poetry as well as a painter. One inspiration has often led to the other, whether it be art inspiring poetry or poetry inspiring art. Darais painted Over Three Billion Served in 1974, for which he later wrote the following poem, “Beef” (1986), which describes the modern phenomenon of fast-food restaurants and the artist’s response to their ever-growing clientele. Beef by Alex Darais May 10, 1986 Not long ago, while waiting for one of my sons to finish his shift at the fast-food restaurant, I glanced at the dramatic curvilinear sign And was stunned by the latest statistics Proclaiming that three billion had been served. It seemed only last week when it was only two. I watched the constant stream of customers Standing impatiently in several of the lines While others voraciously ate and chattered, Seemingly oblivious to the food or traffic. And could easily believe he increase in the number, No wonder my son developed a sore wrist from Scraping the hot grill night after night As I waited and watched this modern phenomenon, I envisioned a long, solemn procession of Mournful, mooing cows moving slowly to the Slaughterhouse. I couldn’t help but recall With nostalgia my father’s cafes along the Ocean Front in Venice, California, in the early Twentieth century an unforgettable era when eating out was a leisurely, romantic experience. Recently, the number served in the fast-food Restaurant has accelerated to an incredible sixty billion hamburgers throughout the world. At this rate it won’t be very long before This astronomical number will easily surpass Our national debt; a number beyond comprehension The young would add that it’s gastronomical As their figures also get bigger and bigger, Along with their expanding cholesterol count-And human casualties in the battle of the bulge. Again I envision the long procession of cows Doomed to become mincemeat--I mean hamburgers 60,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 hamburgers! Used by permission of Alex Darais and the BYU Museum of Art 24 “VISUAL CULTURE” Over Three Billion Served by Alex Basil Darais OBJECTIVES Students will (in small group discussions): 1. be introduced to images and definitions of Postmodern art, 2. recognize images found in Visual Culture, 3. analyze and interpret the meaning of symbols found in Visual Culture, 5. create a student-generated image reflecting a Postmodern theme and using symbols from Visual Culture. STATE CORE LINKS Standard 2: Students will find meaning by analyzing, criticizing, and evaluating visual art. Standard 4: Students will find meaning in visual arts through settings and other modes of learning—Obj. C: Evaluate the impact of visual art on life outside of school. Materials 1. Posters of Over Three Billion Served by Alex Basil Darais to show that the artist used an ordinary object and Homo Barbarus Cum Tano Dolore Capitis—Bearded Man With A Headache This Big by Wayne Kimball. 2. Slides, transparencies, or reproductions of: (can find using Google’s image search) # 1 Brillo Box (19 ) by Andy Warhol (ordinary kitchen objects) # 2 Green Coca Cola Bottles (1973), by Andy Warhol (symbol of marketing food objects) # 3 Marilyn Monroe (1962), by Andy Warhol (symbol of mass media and superstar image) # 4 Whaam (1963), by Roy Lichtenstein (symbol of mass media and comic strips) # 6 Soft Toilet (1966), Claus OIdenburg (ordinary household object) 3. Handout with symbols from Visual Culture. Instruction 1. Teacher will pass out a handout with symbols found in visual culture and have students identify them. 2. Show the poster of Over Three Billion Served by Alex Basil Darais. In a class discussion, ask the students to identify the images found in the art work and to interpret the meaning of the work of art. Students might say that the McDonald’s cover is representative of mass consumption in this country and the McDonald’s image is found throughout the world. It stands for fast food. . McDonalds sells food but it is really about the acquisition of real estate. 3. A slide presentation of artwork that depicts 25 symbols of visual culture will be shown to students. Emphasize that artists in the postmodern era often use images from Visual Culture in their artwork. The artist’s intent is to show that in contemporary times art and life are often synonymous. 4. Show the poster of Homo Barbatus Cum Tano Dolore Capitis—Bearded Man With A Headache This Big by Wayne Kimball. Ask students if they remember a commercial that used a similar statement. Act out the Excedrin commercial that states (with extend arms) “Take Excedrin for a headache this big.” The artist intermixed the commercial with a classical Greek image (appropriation) to create a humorous double meaning or visual pun. Wayne Kimball states that he “selects subjects which, when put together suggest meanings beyond themselves—in hope that they will be perceived as some kind of metaphor, puzzle, or riddle or dilemma to which contemplation will surely supply an answer.” Kimball assumes that the viewer, as a member of visual culture who watches TV recognizes the gesture and reference to the commercial, as well as seeing the humor in juxtaposing it with the classical ideal represented in Classical Greek art and text. 5. On the board write Postmodern Art and list its characteristics as follows: a. Sometimes relies on knowledge of Visual Culture. b. Appropriates (borrows or steals) images from other works of art or Visual Culture. c. Sometimes uses text, language or double meanings, such as a metaphors or visual puns. d. Sometimes the artist’s intent is to make a political, social, economic, or a very personal statement about gender, race, or culture. 6. Have students break into groups and brainstorm to come up with various examples of visual puns (e.g. brainstorm, bulldozer, handgun, rainbow trout, bookstore, water-ski). Have the students share their examples with the class. 7. Explain the production assignment to the class. Have the students design a student-generated art work with a postmodern theme. The assignment should have at least three of the following design elements: a. A visual pun or metaphor the student wants to communicate. b. A political, economic, or social statement that reflects what his or her art is about. c. Use of a postmodern format or media. d. The art history references (appropriation) to be used in the work. Assessment 1. Informal assessment: Teacher will observe individual students under standing and work. The teacher will talk to students during group discussions and guide the students through the art criticism process. 2. Studio assignment and rubric used as a tool to assess student generated artwork. SOURCES 1. Arnason, H.H. History of Modern Art (1970). 2. Utah State Core Curriculum. 26 ARTIST: TITLE: MEDIA: SIZE: Paul Howard Davis (1946– ) State Street 1979 oil on canvas 19-5/8” x 15-3/4” BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION Paul Davis, a painter, teacher, and art administrator, was born December 2, 1946, in Quonset Point, Rhode Island. After attending Boston University and earning both a Bachelor of Fine Art (1973) and a Master of Fine Art (1975), Davis began a long and distinguished career as a teacher and painter. He taught at Boston University, Reegis College, Art Institute of Boston, and the University of Utah, from which he recently retired. Davis has exhibited around the state of Utah as well as in numerous group exhibits throughout the country. His work has been seen at the Bountiful Art Center (Bountiful UT), the Kimball Art Center (Park City UT), Springville Museum of Art (Springville UT) Corcoran Gallery (Washington, DC), Amerika Haus (Hamburg, Germany) and many others. Paul Davis is the recipient of the Painting Prize, “Utah ‘80” from the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, the Utah Arts Council Visual Arts Fellowship, and the Western States Arts Federation/NEA Fellowship for Visual Artists. Davis says of his own painting methods, “As my paintings accumulate layers of paint, they accumulate layers of meaning for me. When a painting is almost done, if it is any good, I begin to realize what it has been trying to tell me. If it is a good picture it continues to reveal itself.” Deseret News Jan. 24, 1981 Paul Davis has had a distinguished career as an artist. His work is described as being remarkably original. Davis is a realist who probes beyond mere imitation to find complexities and intensities of contemporary living. “He has great sensitivity to 27 conditions of light and a wonderful control of tonal values. This responsiveness to light is the painter’s supreme gift. He is a most serious and dedicated artist with an acute eye and a highly developed critical sense.His work is sophisticated, knowledgeable and completely independent.” (Andrew Forge) As Davis looks to the future he continues to accelerate in his painting career. He is currently working on opening a studio/ gallery for Utah artists. UNDERSTANDING THE IDEA OF VISUAL CULTURE When Captain James Cook’ ship, the Endeavour, sailed into the bay that we know now as Cape Everard on April 22, 1770, touching upon Australian shore for the first time, the British saw Aboriginals fishing in small canoes. Whereas the native population of Tahiti had responded with loud chanting and the Maori of New Zealand had thrown stones, the Aboriginals, neither afraid nor curious, simply went on fishing (Hughes; 1986). That afternoon, two heterogeneous world views met for the first time. Only when Cook had lowered a small boat and a small party rowed to the shore did the Aboriginals react. A number of men rowing in a small boat was a practice they could interpret. To them, it signified a raid and they responded accordingly (Moorehead; 1967). Undoubtedly the Aboriginals must have ‘seen’ something and even if they could not see it as a ship, they must have felt the waves it produced in their canoes. However, as its form and height was so alien, so contrary to anything they had ever observed or produced, they simply chose to ignore it since they had no procedures of response for something they could not remotely recognize. The waves Cook’s ‘Endeavour’ sent out that gently rocked the canoes of the fishermen can in retrospect be seen to have functioned as the vanguard of the alien system of signs the British imposed on the native population of Australia. De Certeau (1984:171) argues that it is the operation home.wnclink.com/russell/ of encoding, which is articulated on signifiers, that produces images/photos/endeavor.jpg meaning. This extraordinary story of Captain Cook perfectly narrates the steps that are required in this operation of encoding. What is essential in this reflexive process is a procedure of translation. This is the moment when a practice or a visual object that requires an interpretation is translated into an understandable experience. This occurs when a familiar aspect or procedure is recognized in an otherwise unknown experience. Making sense or producing meaning always requires the possession of procedures of translation. This is just as true in your classroom as it is when divergent cultures collide. The Australian Aboriginals saw something they could not translate into their own way of seeing, as the Native Americans who first saw the Conquistadors riding horseback and misinterpreted them as two headed, four legged creatures. The Hawaiians who first saw James Cooks ships could only recognized the mast and sails as the ancient symbol of Lono, the God of the Productivity, which was a long upright stick with a cross bar near the top and long streamers of white Kapa cloths hanging downward like flags or pennants from the cross beam. For that matter, the Europeans mistranslated the same Lono symbol as a vestige of a Christian crucifix. Or like the pre-World War II Americans who listened to the radio from 8: 00 to 9:00 on Halloween eve in 1938 and tuned into Orson Wells infamous broadcast of H.G. 28 Wells, War of the Worlds had but one adequate procedure of translating what they heard into their own private surroundings: PANIC. For the radio listeners of the 1930’s the news flash was the proper mode for depicting ‘reality.’ Its alleged truthfulness had never been publicly questioned before. ‘Infotainment’ as we know it in our postmodern times, was unknown in pre-war America and nearly everyone hearing the broadcast, including the disclaimer at the beginning, believed it to be an actual invasion of Aliens from Mars. That critical moment that occurs when something unintelligible is introduced into an otherwise intelligible discourse has always fascinated artist. This breakdown of the normal attribution of meaning might cause panic, or it might seem so strange the the mind ignores it, but it is always a moment of wonder and surprise. Moments of wonder and surprise make us question our normal repertoire of responses. These moments make us aware of the social and cultural nature of our ways of seeing. In these moments of surprise we wonder. Wonder is a very productive critical operation. We may become curious as to what or who is causing this breakdown of meaning. We might want to find out who or what is responsible, and in doing this we learn, and the beauty of it is that this learning doesn’t feel like learning; we simply acquire new insights. Why is it important to be aware of the social and cultural nature of the procedures that determine what is sense what is non-sense? If you are aware that making sense - producing meaning - is a social and cultural agreement, you will see that ways of seeing , ways of reading and ultimately ways of living are social and cultural human made constructions and that human made constructions can be changed and even improved upon. If you can’t see these cultural constructions as “invented” but as sacrosanct then you have lost your ability to find yourself within it or to attempt to make any improvements, awarenesses or changes. Learning about the nature and function of the procedures that determine the boundaries between sense and non-sense is ultimately learning how to change these procedures and thus how to change social and cultural constructions. Artists have always exploited the moment of breakdown precisely in order to show how social and cultural factors determine exactly that domain where these factors supposedly do not count: aesthetics. In 1917, Marcel Duchamp donated a found object sculpture entitled “Fountain” to an exhibition at the new ‘Society of Independent Artists’, of which he was a director. ‘Fountain’ was an ordinary urinal, signed by the artist and displayed upside down. Duchamp offered his work anonymously under the name “R. Mutt” in order to, “test the society’s supposedly free, non-restrictive policy toward modern, independent art.” The committee failed Duchamp’s test, as they rejected “Fountain,” which was nothing but a urinal with the supposed artist’s name painted at the base, as ‘dirty and vulgar’. Duchamp was disgusted at this display of what he considered to be Victorian values of morality and propriety, and dedicated the second and final issue of his publication, ‘The Blind Man’ to the criticism of the society which had failed to live up to his ideals. (Terry: 2001) Where the Aboriginals thought they saw an island instead of Cook’s sailing ships and where Amerindians saw Spaniards as monstrous alien animals and average Americans mistook drama for news, the initial public of Duchamp’s “Fountain” thought they saw an ordinary urinal displayed upside down, signed by the artist. And of course, they were right! It was and still is an ordinary urinal displayed upside down, signed by the artist. Duchamp thought and claimed however, that by signing it and by placing it in another, very different, context, that by these simple acts he could transform the object - the urinal - into a work of 29 art. Not that the object had changed but that the viewers perceptions had changed. ART IS NOT THE THING ONE LOOKS AT. ART IS THE WAY ONE LOOKS AT THE THING. The ‘Society of Independent Artists’ rejected Fountain. Remember that the people belonging to this society were among the most progressive, avant-garde artists of their day. And even they could not see what Duchamp was actually trying to do. Duchamp’s intention was not to transform the object into a work of art, but to transform our way of seeing an object as a work of art. What he actually said was: “Why is it that an object placed in a museum is so intensely looked at from every angle, is it that only those things that deserve to be gazed upon are in museums, not in our everyday surroundings, not in our everyday life? Should we only look intensely when we walk in a museum? Why can’t we look a little closer at those things that surround us? A urinal, for example?” georgetown.edu/faculty/ Here we have a series of lessons designed to help irvinem/CCTP738/artsurvey.html young students look and see what they are looking at. The only way that I can see this skill being developed is to engage in the process and the phenomena. By deconstructing aspects of our visual culture and reassembling the visual elements in our minds (and the camera) we can learn to see (understand) what we are looking at and thereby empower ourselves toward discernment in an otherwise chaotic glut of visual culture. We are attempting to help our students create procedures of translation. Do You See What I See? State Street by Paul Davis OBJECTIVE: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the difference between looking and seeing and that their perception of a thing is skewed by its “cultural context”, by exploring the visual culture of their school, neighborhood, community to find visual messages that are neither intentionally there or obviously there and by using a still camera to photograph the “hidden” letters of the alphabet found in the more obvious cultural objects that surround us. STATE CORE LINKS: The third grade core in visual arts: Preceiving: Point out and discuss elements that artist have made dominant in their artwork. Expressing: Interpret possible meanings of some significant works of art. 2. Discover what symbols are and how artist have used them to express ideas in their art. 3. Create (discover) symbols in artworks that express student, class, or community interests. 4. Select student artworks based on a common theme, visual element, or principle and dis30 play them in the art museum. Contextualizing: Discuss how the meaning of an art work might change depending on how it is displayed. 2. Investigate why different cultures use different materials to create their unique arts and crafts. Materials Camera (this can be most any kind of camera, digital, optical, 35mm, point and shoot, disposable, digital camcoder with still picture mode and so forth.) The objective of this lesson is philosophical and cultural rather than only technical art production. If you would like to include technical, aesthetic, or production objectives in this lesson there is plenty of room and you should use the camera and other equipment that lends to that objective. If the “eye opening” objective is enough, then any kind of visual recording devise is sufficient. To finish this project as described, the students will need their photos to be printed as hard copies for exhibition purposes. Activity Have students look carefully at Paul Davis’ painting, State Street. Talk about the difference between “LOOKING” and “SEEING.” Looking is a thing you do by pointing your eyes at something. Seeing is what happens when you understand what you are looking at. One is done with the eyes,and the other with the brain. Do you SEE what I mean? Now have students look at Davis’ image and share what they see. Most students will only see “subject matter” initially (sidewalk, stores, lamp post, signs), but with a little coaxing and sharing and modeling, the students will come to the realization that what they are actually looking at is lines, shapes, values, colors, and textures that somehow remind one of the artist’s intended subject matter. Divide students into small working groups and give them a disposable point and shoot camera (or digital camera). Teach them enough to be able to make an exhibitable exposure. Personally, l use an optical 35mm camera with t-max 400 asa black and white film, or for color, we use a slow ecktocrome transparency film so we can use the slides as proofs before printing. For 35mm, find a good photo processing company in your area and establish a personal relationship so they will help you and your students. If you offer a little free advertising, most local businesses will be glad to cut you a break. The digital camera works very well because we can do the editing, cropping and printing ourselves. While the product with digital photography depends excessively on the weakest link in your desk top publishing equipment and is usually not very astute with the average classroom computer equipment, the accessibility of the editing and printing give digital photograph a very large learning window opportunity. So any way, we have groups and we have cameras...now we want to play “hidden alphabet” in our classroom. First have students see how many letters they can see in Paul Davis’ State Street or any other art images you would like to use. Next, challenge students to look around the room and find all the letters of the alphabet (try upper and lower case, also try cursive and try numbers) hidden in something else. If it works for you, make it into a competitive game. . . points for letters and all. The point here is to have students be able to see past the obvious subject matter of the visual stimulus with which they are surrounded. We are so overdosed with visual stimuli that we don’t seem to have to actually see what we are looking at. Looking for the visual elements of line, shape, value, color and texture instead of shallowly focusing on the obvious subject matter in the objects around us or buying into the “marketing” motive is the first step to understanding and W by Bridger, 3rd Grade 31 appreciating the nature and impact of visual culture. After students have played the game in class send them out into the school, remembering to be sensitive to the learning needs of the other students who are still in class and have them discover the “secret” letters scattered around the school in hidden shapes and lines. Hidden in plain sight. When enough pictures are collected print them up and have the students decide which are the best version of each letter. You may have to introduce some “critical criteria.” A by Seth, 3rd Grade That is just fancy art talk of way of judging. For example: you may want to use a technical criteria like; is it focused, is it exposed enough or over exposed? Is it cropped appropriately? Is the letter big enough in the picture to make it the thing the viewer will look at? Which one of these is best example of the letter “R”. [I have had Elementary students come back years later to show me a letter they had just recently found hidden in the pipes behind the drinking fountain] X by Thomas, 3rd Grade It might be o.k. to let students use letters found in signs as long as they find a different letter than the obvious one. An E on it side can look a lot like W or on the other side an M. This is the learning facilitators option. Assessment For young elementary students, self assessment is a very powerful tool to focus the students attention on his own work and the work of others. Using a group brain storming process have students determine what criteria for success we are looing for. List two or three criteria on the board. Equitably choose representative curators of an exhibition and have those student curators choose the D by Ashley, 3rd Grade “definitive” version of each letter, matt and frame the 32 work and hang in the hall with didactics explaining the process, objectives and expected intellectual outcomes. Sources Cameras and printers and software: Sony has a variety of fairly inexpensive digital cameras with large, 1 1/2 x 2 , viewing screen on the back. Books: If you choose to do this project with traditional optical cameras use a 35mm single lens reflex camera and try World Wide Photo Lab or Allens Photo in Provo to do your processing and printing. (see previous SWAP lesson packet on photography) Variations V by Jessica, 3rd Grade There are several useful variations on this lesson and this project. Obviously, we can look for other “hidden” symbols, or objects in our visual culture environment like numbers, shapes, faces, patterns, textures or have everyone look for one shape, letter, or number, and collect all of the variations. The “search area” can be extended or restricted to include only the classroom, the whole building, the building and the playground, or just the playground. We call the alphabet project that we do outside, “landscape closeups.” This is even a good project for a field trip. We have done it at the Zoo, BYU Sculpture Garden, and the American Fork Cemetery. If the photography project seems too technical, try using magazine photos and finding the hidden alphabet in there and then matting and displaying your findings. Extensions Use the suggested art print images in the state core to find the alphabet, numbers or shapes. Photograph the alphabet, numbers etc. hidden in the shapes of “Found Objects.” Book making as a way to house and exhibit the photos is an excellent extension to this project. (see previous SWAP lesson packet on book making) Vocabulary: visual culture, found objects, alphabet, symbols, culture. Bibliography: Anno’s Alphabet, by Thomas Y. Crowell; Alphabatics, by Suse MacDonald; The Letters Are Lost, by Lisa Campbell Ernst; The Story of “Z”, by Jeanne Modesitt and Lonni Sue Johnson. 33 ARTIST: TITLE: MEDIA: SIZE: Frank McEntire (1946– ) Salt Lake City, Utah Buddha in the Beehive 2000 mixed media 61” x 30” BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION Frank McEntire was born in Wichita Falls, Texas, in 1946. When he was nine, his family moved to Houston where he can remember “drawing” and “poking around old things piled in heaps in the corners of antique shops.” He also took art classes at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. After high school McEntire attended Lon Morris College, Jacksonville, Texas, and graduated with an associate’s degree with an emphasis in theater arts. His next move was to the University of Texas and then to Brigham Young University, where he finished his master’s degree in 1976. McEntire has a broad range of experiences in the arts. He has been coordinator and chair of various arts committees and projects, and has extensive experience as a scene painter and set designer, and has acted in several major and minor productions. His experiences with theater have perhaps carried over into his art in his frequent choice to involve the viewers of his art in more than just visual experiences, to have them be active participants in his 3-D sculptures and installations. Certainly McEntire’s interests in and involvement with various cultures and religions has had a very profound impact on his work as an artist. He is particularly interested in religious objects and instruments such as divining rods and seer stones. Time spent living with Northwest Indian tribes and as a Hare Krishna, introduced McEntire to the powerful cedar and root-knarled staffs used by the Northwest Indian shamen to divine and to whisper important knowledge, and to the Hare Krishna saffron-wrapped staffs that designate power and religious authority 34 to those who carry them. A Christian and Mormon background taught him about the Old Testament prophets Moses and Aaron, who have mystical staffs—divining rods and powers against the staffs of the Egyptian magicians. And about how early Book of Mormon prophets made use of both seer stones and also divining rods. Each of these groups’ beliefs in the power of religious objects centers on the objects’ ability to provide divine sight. This interest in divine ways of seeing has led McEntire to create mythic assemblages of odds and ends that gain meaning through ties to our deepest religious enactments and symbols. His art works ask us to examine our beliefs and understanding, not as detectors of error, but rather as participants in exploration and growth. “Pop” Culture OBJECTIVES: 1. Students will examine samples of symbols they encounter in their everyday lives. 2. Students will be quizzed on a group of unknown symbols to access how designs communicate meaning. 3. Students will design a personal symbol that they feel symbolizes who they are or who they want to be. 4. Students will create their own soda pop label that represents their own “pop” culture. STATE CORE LINKS 1. Standard 1 MAKING—Students will assemble and create works of art by experiencing a variety of art media and by learning the art elements and principles. 2. Standard 2 PERCEIVING—Students will find meaning by analyzing, criticizing, and evaluating works of art. 3. Standard 3 EXPRESSING—Students will create meaning in art. Materials Transparencies of artworks: Beehive Buddha, Over Three Billion Served, (or any other piece that deals with visual symbolism or emblems) 1. Mass media magazines 2. Advertising samples, such as clothing tags, posters, hangtags, wrappers, and so forth 3. Assorted labels from music CD’s, games, cereal boxes and the like 4. Clothing with designer labels or identification 5. Empty plastic two liter pop bottle for each student 6. Paper 7. Markers, colored pencils, or paint 8. Glue Activity 1. Assemble a “pop” quiz consisting of various labels, brand name icons, or logos that students would recognize. Discuss questions such as the following: What are symbols? Why are symbols important to these businesses? How do these symbols represent each of these organizations? How long have symbols existed? Discuss the impact of symbolism in everyday life and the practices of creating professional symbols. 2. Divide students into groups and have them formulate a list of brand names, organizations, or popular labels. Ask students to describe or draw the logo/icons that customarily accompany each of the brand names that they have chosen. Teachers may also choose to have students find magazine examples of these logos. 3. Invite students to identify and discuss the expressive qualities of various symbols, logos and typography found in magazines, on billboards, on wrappers, and other everyday items. How do these symbols/texts/logos communicate feelings, values, and meanings? 35 4. Discuss Beehive Buddha. What do these symbols represent? How is the Beehive Buddha statue a representation of culture? What did the artist place inside the beehive? Why do you think the artist chose to put these two icons together? What idea is the artist trying to portray in this statue? 5. Invite students to create a collection of pictures, icons, logos, and typography that will represent their personal culture. Remind them to look for styles and images that will help to identify and explain their personal identity. Students will glue the pictures and labels onto a paper in a collage format to be used as a resource to formulate ideas for the next studio project. 6. Invite students to critique their own collages. Are there any common themes present? Are there any strange combinations (like the Beehive Buddha)? How do the typefaces you have chosen represent you? How are the symbols similar? How are they different? Is there a message that you would like to portray with your collage? 7. Next, students will design a completely unique bottle of soda pop that will represent them personally. Using the collage as a springboard, students will create their own personal symbol or logo that will be integrated into the label of the soda bottle. Refer to the Pepsi symbol as an example. Ask questions such as the following: What do you think the Pepsi icon represents? How is Pepsi supposed to make you feel? What does the Pepsi icon remind you of? 8. Students must create a series of sketches to design their personal icon. These symbols may 36 be a mixture of a few of their favorite logos, or a completely original design. The logo will become a part of the soda label. Students may choose to re-name the soda, or they may integrate their logo into an existing soda brand. Students must also design the “ingredients” and the “contents” by using adjectives that describe them personally. For instance, Nutrition facts might read: ingenuity= 20% creativity=10% stubbornness=2% and so forth. Ingredients or contents might read: Brown hair, blue eyes, Gap jeans, braces, alternative music, piano lessons, cell phone, and the like. 9. Once their “pop culture” labels have been completed and attached, students will present their soda to the class in the form of a commercial. Their job is to “sell” the soda in a way t that will make people want to buy it. They may choose to work in groups, or individually. Assessment 1. Using a rubric, student artwork will be graded according to originality, creativity, craftsmanship and personal expression. 2. Student presentations will be graded on organization, communication, and completion. Sources 1. Communication Arts Online magazine: http://www.commarts.com/ 2. Pentagram Design, NYC: http://www.pentagram.com/ VARIATIONS 1. Teachers may choose to have students create additional posters or flyers to publicize or sell their soda. 2. Teachers may choose to have students research graphic designers such as Paul Rand, Herb Lubalin, and Neville Brody. 37 Swapping Culture Buddha in the Beehive by Frank McEntire OBJECTIVES • Students will recognize the artistic potential of everyday objects. • Students will collaborate with their peers. • Students will associate everyday objects with their own personal identity and broader culture. STATE CORE LINKS 3-6th Grade- Standard 3, Objective 2. Discuss, evaluate, and choose symbols, ideas, subject matter, meanings, and purposes for their own artworks. Materials Buddha in the Beehive transparency Other pictures of Buddha figures Each student needs to bring two everyday manmade objects that are representative of their culture (these objects should be easily painted) Primer, Paint String Electrical Tape Cardboard Glue, Hot Glue Activity Discussion Send home a note with each child the day before the activity asking them to bring two everyday man-made objects to class that are representative of the child as an individual or of his or her community. For example if a child is interested in art he or she could bring a paintbrush. These objects will be traded and painted so they should be things that the child will not want returned. The Amida Buddha at Kamakura, Japan Begin by showing the class four people.cornell.edu/pages/rr10/images/buddha.jpg everyday symbols without words: a red octagon, a no smoking sign, a handicap parking sign and the golden arches (McDonald’s). These are all symbols that the children should be able to recognize immediately even though there are no words. Ask the children if they recognize the symbols. Have them explain how they knew the symbols even though there was no written explanation. Explain that we use visual symbols to represent ideas, rules, and even businesses. Ask the children to think of some other symbols they might recognize. Now show the slide of Buddha in the Beehive. Ask the children to guess what the beehive represents. Explain that Utah is known as the Beehive State, and that the beehive was chosen as a symbol to represent Utah by the Mormon pioneers. Ask the children if they have ever heard 38 the phrase “busy as a bee.” Explain that the pioneers chose the beehive because they were hard working, and busy just like bees. Show the children some examples of beehives being used such as the Utah State Flag, the Beehive House in Salt Lake and the State highway markers. Next show the children a few pictures of Buddha. Explain that inside the beehive there is a small Buddha figurine. Ask the children to guess what the figure represents. After some discussion explain that the figure is also a symbol, just like the beehive. The figure represents the religious leader for a group of people called Buddhists. Discuss the idea that different symbols can represent different groups of people. Project Ask each child to take out the items that they brought to represent themselves. Have the children discuss the meaning of their items in small groups or as a class. Next each child will place one of his or her items in a bag or pile. One by one have each child choose a new item, that is not his or her own, from the bag or pile. Tell the children that now they have an item that represents them, and an item that represents someone else, just like Buddha in the Beehive. Now ask the children to use tape, glue, string, or hot glue (with supervision and assistance) to create a sculpture using the two items. Use the cardboard as a base for the student’s sculptures. Encourage children to position their items in several different ways before attaching them. Once the children have attached their items and secured them to the cardboard base they will paint them a single color. Make sure all the glue is dry before painting. It may be necessary to prime some of the items with spray gesso or other primer so that the colored paint adheres to the items. Painting the items a single color creates a unity between the items. In Beehive Buddha the beehive and the Buddha are both gold. Explain to the children that the paint will provide a common trait for the two items. Assessment At the end of the project, when the paint is dry, ask each student to write a paragraph about his or her sculpture. Each student should explain what both items in his or her sculpture represents. They should also write why they think their sculpture is art. Have students set 39 up their sculptures for display around the classroom with their paragraph. Allow students to walk around the class and look at their peer’s sculptures. Sources Learn about the beehive as a symbol at: http://www.utah.gov/about/symbols.html Learn about and find pictures of Buddha at: http://www.bighappybuddha.com/buedin.html Learn about assemblage art and artists at: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/nevelson_louise.html http://www.artchive.com/artchive/C/cornell.html VARIATIONS For younger students: Instead of having each child bring two items, have them bring one. Have the child explain to the class why they chose the item. Then as a class create one large assemblage sculpture that represents the whole class. It will be easier to paint the items before you put them together. At the end of the lesson have each student choose his or her favorite item in the sculpture and write about what he or she thinks it represents. EXTENSIONS Have the students study the importance of recycling in our community. Discuss how different artists recycle materials in order to make assemblage art. Have students brainstorm ways in which they can recycle materials they would normally throw away. See websites related to Louise Nevelson, Joseph Cornell, and John Chamberlain. Andrew P. Smith Times Up! 2003 metal assemblage, 44” high 40 ARTIST: TITLE: MEDIA: SIZE: Bruce Hixson Smith (1936– ) Springville, Utah Ode to Ad 1978 oil on canvas 48” x 42” BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION Bruce Hixson Smith, a graduate of both Brigham Young University and the University of Utah, teaches drawing and painting at BYU. He currently lives in Springville with his family. While attending college, he studied with both Doug Snow and Alvin Gittins. At that time, Bruce’s works leaned heavily toward non objective art; however, after several oftenfrustrating years spent exploring abstract art, Smith shifted his focus. Currently, he is pursuing the spiritual in a style he calls academic objective realism. Bruce Smith relies heavily on repetition, often painting objects two or three times on the same canvas. He begins his work in a relaxed, uninhibited manner. He draws and redraws contour lines, making no attempt to cover up the first lines. These lines create a sense of movement, as if the person had paused momentarily or the fabric might move in the breeze. Smith brushes colors on thinly and briskly. He then moves from general to specific, usually concentrating on one focal point, building up colors, textures, and details, but leaving some areas gestural. Although painting is a private experience for Smith-visitors to his studio will find his easel facing away from the door and objects, while seemingly randomly distributed, blocking the path-he deliberately leaves his paintings “open-ended, “ inviting viewers in. Smith’s use of symbols contributes to this open door sensation-the meanings of some of the symbols he uses are dis41 cernable but layered. Other symbols are obscure: a ribbon, a bottle of fruit, a piece of cloth. Smith says sometimes he doesn’t know the meaning of the symbols he uses. Not because he picks them randomly, but because he chooses the symbols intuitively, happy to let them remain undefined. He explains, “When they seem right, I put them in and purposely keep it a little bit vague, even to me; so they are not illustration, where everything is understandable. I want to have the possibility of going deeper-I prefer not to know exactly what they signify.” Ode to Ad has this ambiguous layering. The reference to Pop Art and its exploration of everyday culture is clear. But the piece is not really a Pop Art work, it is too painterly, too much an exhibition of one on a canvas, not made for replication. The arrangement of objects suggests an emptiness, symbolized by the dress, carelessly hung, and displayed next to a half-empty soda bottle and an STP can. We are left to question the meaning of the painting, which prompts us to explore our own relationship with advertising and the culture it helps create. Smith says all his paintings are about art, and art is in a constant state of flux. Modernism did away with the old attitudes and ideas about art, but now Modernism itself is over. Smith seeks to incorporate some of the older attitudes about art and still have his work retain some of the brand new things Modern Art tried to do, including being a means of “ditching” the old. Bruce has a strong allegiance to what art was prior to Modernism, which he believes is common. What he doesn’t think is common is also having a feeling for Modernism. He believes it is imperative that art before Modernism have value today, but that Modernism have elements of worth as well. The problem, he says, is to mix those qualities. The open-endedness of Smith’s works is certainly a Modernist trait; and conversely, over the last few years, Smith has configured many of his paintings in ways that harken back to Italian religious works of the Renaissance. Those early multipaneled altarpieces consist of a principal central panel with secondary side and/or top panels, and a predella. The predella is a small strip of paintings which forms the lower edge of the altarpiece and usually has narrative scenes from the lives of the Saints who are represented in the panels above, or a portrait of the person who commissioned the artwork. Some of Smith’s recent paintings have one smaller canvas below the main canvas, like an individual predella; others have a large central canvas with smaller ones above and below. And some are themselves a series of paintings with another group below. Whatever the exact configuration, the allusion to Renaissance art is clear: and, like the symbols he uses, this reference gives depth to the artworks. In addition, the very arrangement and variety of the sections creates added meaning. Bruce Smith is himself a complex man and his artworks invite viewers into that complexity and also stimulate them to explore and perhaps develop their own complexities, their own responses and ideas. Bruce H. Smith, Christin in the Predella (1986) www.slco.org/fi/slcoart/art/67.html 42 Art as a Cultural Critique Middle Level OBJECTIVES: 1. Students will become aware that visual culture can impact viewers by influencing how they think or feel. 2. Students will learn to connect meaning to visual images and will demonstrate that ability by discussing artworks and magazine ads and by making an artwork with meaning 3. Students will read about a problem in their culture and design a poster to affect viewers’ feelings about that problem. STATE CORE LINKS: Making—Objective A: Explore a variety of art media, techniques, and processes Perceiving—Objective B: Create expressive works of art using the principles of art to organize the elements Expressing—Objective A: Create content in works of art Background Information In 1997, a national test was given to eigth graders. One of the findings of the test was that students do not know how to identify or understand the meaning of visual images. Because we are constantly being bombarded with visual images, we need this skill not just in relationship to artworks, but also in relationship to our visual culture. This lesson is designed to help students develop skills in both identifying meaning and creating art with meaning. Materials Transparency of Ode to Ad Other transparencies from this packet Reproductions of other artworks that affect viewers’ ideas or feelings (see sources) Lessons 1. Show the class the transparencies of Ode to Ad, Over Three Billion Served, Marilyn, and Cows of Innocence.. Ask the students to discuss possible meanings of the artworks. Then ask which artworks provoke new ideas and which provoke feelings. Show the students an assortment of different artworks and again have the students identify ways the artworks could affect their ideas or feelings. Ask what other areas of our visual culture make use of visual images to change our ideas or feelings about a specific subject. Assign students to find one item of visual culture that is designed to affect their ideas or feel43 ings and bring it to class. Have the students share the items they brought in small groups and discuss the ways the visuals affect them or are intended to affect viewers. Assessment Assess students’ participation in the class discussion using a checklist. Give them credit for bringing an item of visual culture to class. Have students save what they grought in case they want to use or share it in the following section of the lesson. Sources for artworks and visual culture Käthe Kollwitz, The Survivors, 1923 www.dhm.de/museen/kollwitz/english/home.htm Sturm (Storm) search.famsf.org/4d.acgi$Search?list&=1&=kollwitz&=And&=Yes&=&=&=&=Yes&=Yes&=f James Christensen, Titania Waked and Loved an Ass www.lib.byu.edu/online.html Wayne Kimball, Properly Mounted Texas Longhorn Wayne Kimball www.lib.byu.edu/online.html Properly Mounted Texas Longhorn Photographs of the last century www.archives.gov/media_desk/press_kits/picturing_ the_century_kit.html The “True Colors of Benneton” ad www.dreamscape.com/tag77/twisted.html Some old, dishonest ads www.chickenhead.com/truth/ Some examples are included on the following page. Materials Transparency of Ode to Ad Magazine ads for clothing, soft drinks, and car products 2. Show the class the transparency of Ode to Ad. Ask students to identify possible meanings of the items depicted in the painting in relationship to ads. You may need to help students with questions such as the following: Why might a woman have bought the dress in the painting? What could the bottle with red liquid be? What reasons do you buy a specific kind of pop? What does STP oil treatment say it will do for your car? 44 What could the black square stand for? (Smith says he often includes a symbol that’s unclear 45 so that viewers can decide what it means.) After you get some responses from the students, show them some magazine ads and ask students to examine what the magazine ads are saying in addition to the factual information about the product. For example, the soft drink ads may indicate you’ll have more fun, be popular, if you drink a specific soft drink. Some ads associate the item being advertised with a person the target group is likely to admire or care about in some way such as a sports’ figure or a popular muscisn. Help the students understand what a target market is and have them identify the target market of several advertisments. Ask them to identify the purpose of specific ads such as to sell expensive clothing or a particular brand of clothing. Then have the students look back at the painting Ode to Ad and ask what additional or different thoughts they now have about the painting’s meaning. What is Bruce Smith saying to us about ads and our responses to them? Assessment For assessment, ask students to find an ad you have not talked about in class. Have the students write a paragraph about the meaning in the ad and how it relates or does not relate to the painting Ode to Ad.. Create a rubric for evaluating the paragraph. Use the specific guidelines for writing you have for your class as well as content related to the art lesson such as the following: For excellent work— Included new ideas, not just those already mentioned in class. Made insightful comments about the relationship of the ad to the artwork’s meaning. Making the Artwork Materials paper a variety of media including pencils, colored pencils, paints, pastels other media you have or the students collect After completing the earlier section of the lesson, divide students into small groups and have them brainstorm ideas for artworks that have meaning attached. Each student should list 10 ideas. As a group and then as individuals, the students should evaluate the ideas for workability and quality. When the students have chosen an idea, they should make at least four 46 sketches of the idea. After choosing the best idea, students will present a proposal of a sketch and a description of the artwork including media, to the teacher for approval. Then students will create the artworks. Assessment–Exhibition and Evaluation Students should organize and exhibit of the artworks. Students should also help the teacher establish the criteria for the assignment and critique their own artwork according to those criteria. Allowing students to help set the criteria increases their involvement and buy in to the criteria. 3. Students will read about a problem in their culture and design a poster to affect viewers’ feelings about that problem Materials transparency of Ode to Ad Newspapers or news magazines Examples of posters or ads about social problems large sheets of paper markers Activity If you have not discussed the possible meanings of Ode to Ad, do so. (see Lesson 1.) You may want to include the following quote as part of your discussion. “Advertising serves not so much to advertise products as to promote consumption as a way of life.” - Carl Lash 1978 Ask students whether they agree or disagree and how does the statement relate to Ode to Ad? Next, show the class some examples of artwork such as posters that respond in some way to social problems. You can also show the class examples from the Internet such as those on http://subvertise.org/theme.php?theme=NIKE Another site with information about sweatshops—http://www.ipjc.org/publications/ sweatshops.htm Another site to look at is http://www.eastsidemall.com/employachiid/employ.html This site is set up like a charitable site with photographs of children at work and information about the “Program.” “That is why when you donate money to help a starving child, you don’t just get a ‘thank you’ note in return. Instead, you recieve a thank you note, along with a steady supply of the hottest designer clothing.” You can also use anti-smoking or anti-drug use posters, posters in support of war or opposed 47 to war, etc. Have students identify the design features that make a poster successful. Then let them look through news magazines and papers to choose a cause to support or fight. Students should identify which segment of the population they want to affect and what feelings they want to produce in those viewers. Have students make preliminary sketches and then create the posters using the large paper and markers. Assessment Use the design features students identified as criteria for evaluating the posters. Be sure to include whether the poster is likely to appeal to the target audience. Have students display the posters at the front of the room and decide which ones best meet the criteria. Those posters should be displayed in a public section of the school and the rest can be displayed in the classroom. VARIATION A. Students will choose a magazine ad they feel has a hidden message or a message not congruent with the company’s actual philosophy or actions and remake the ad to reflect the hidden message or agenda. (See” The Real Colors of Benneton” in Lesson 1.) www.the-forum.com/posters/warpost3.htm 48 ARTIST: Andy Warhol (1928-1987) TITLE: Marilyn 1962 MEDIA: silkscreen SIZE: 36” x 36” Brigham Young University Museum of Art BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION As the modern art movement developed in the early decades of the twentieth century, it allowed artists more liberation. Rather than having to answer to the so-called established authorities on art known as the Academy, artists were free to experiment with abstraction and personal expression. Before long, however, certain groups of modern artists became a type of Academy themselves. In their view, art was not created for the average person to understand but only for an elite group capable of comprehending the deepest of artistic thoughts. In fact the only people deemed worthy of membership in this group were mostly the artists themselves. By the 1950s some modern artists began to rebel against the exclusivity of this view of art. They contended that art should be accessible and communicate to everyone, not just artists. Photograph by Greg Gorman Andy Warhol, a commercial artist born www.macdirectory.com/ntrvu/GGorman/ in Pittsburg, headed what came to be known as the Pop Art movement. Warhol and his cohorts believed that art ble to the public that he not only silkscreened should be widely distributed and marketed his works, but called his studio the Factory to the public and that its meaning should be and ran it like a mass-production industrial easily accessed. For his primary technique, firm. Warhol developed silkscreening, which Making prints available to people was involved transferring a photograph to a not enough to make art truly accessible; silk screen and inking it from the back. This meaning also had to be easily communicated. revolutionary method allowed artists to sell Rather than participating in the vocabulary hundreds of prints rather than just one origiof the elite, Warhol and other Pop artists nal and permitted Warhol to use the bright started to borrow easily recognized objects colors that typify his works. Warhol was so from mass-media culture. Images from comic committed to the idea of making art accessistrips, easily identified brands or products, 49 and images of Hollywood personalities were among those Warhol borrowed in order to make ordinary people aware of the intimate connection between art and daily life. For him, commercial illustration was art that mixed intimately with everydaylife and presented its message clearly, just as fine art should. He said, “If you want to know about Andy Warhol, just look at the surface: of my paintings and films and me, and there I am. There’s nothing behind it.” In other words, the meaning is the surface and nobody need read deeper than that. TAt the same time, it is difficult not to read into Warhol’s images. By presenting a large image of a 1960s sex symbol in flattened planes and vibrant colors, Warhol almost begs the viewer to interpret what he sees as a glorified goddess, society’s definition of the perfect woman. Bibliography 50 Clark, William. “Pop Art and Consumer Culture: American Super Market,” The Journal of American History, 79 no. 4 (1682-1683). “Depth of the Surface, or, What Rolf Dieter Brinkmann Learned from Andy Warhol,” The German Quarterly, 63 no. 3 (235-251). McConkie, Judith. “Icons and the Importance of Warhol’s Marilyn Series,” Provo: BYU Museum of Art, 1999. Tansey, Richard G. and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, 10th ed., Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1996. Film in Visual Culture and its Effects on Art and Life Film and 3-D Animation, Marilyn Monroe, Andy Warhol OBJECTIVES AH–Art History, A–Aesthetics, C–Criticism, P–Production Students will be able to: • examine a new artist, Andy Warhol, and his style of painting, AH • analyze a film based strictly on the cinematography, P • define the aesthetic experience and discover its place in everyday life, A • discover how film has had effect on art movements throughout this century, AH • create a 3-D model using the same steps as would be used in a 3-D animating computer program, P • express opinions of movie clips through basic criticism models. C STATE CORE LINKS Based on Foundations 1 (6th grade) Standard 1—Explore a variety of art media, techniques, and processes. Objective 1–-Simplify the beginning of a work of art, using start-up skills: e.g. blocking-in, gesture drawing, stick figures. Objective 2–Preplan the steps or tasks to achieve a desired image. Objective 3–Handle art material in a safe and responsible manner. Standard 2 Objective 2–Create the illusion of common patterns and textures by the repetition of dots, lines, shapes, tones, colors, and value contrasts. Improve accuracy of proportion. Standard 3 Objective 1–Determine the context by examining the subject matter, themes, symbols, ideas, and meanings in significant works of art. Objective 2–Explore video, film, CD –ROM, and computers as art tools and artworks. Describe and explore available technologies. Generate artworks and ways of learning about art or artist through these technologies. Standard 4 Objective 1–Describe what the artist’s intentions may have been at the time the art was created. Objective 2–Create a work of art that reflects a positive part of past or present American culture. 51 Materials • Andy Warhol’s and Bill Viola’s biographical information • Andy Warhol’s painting Marilyn Monroe • An example of one of Bill Viola’s video installations • Various different movie clips to compare cinematography • Example of a movie critique, preferably of a 3-D animated or computer altered film • Construction Paper • Pipe cleaners • Magazines Activity Definitions: Aesthetic Experience–Having an experience which is distanced from the ordinary world. Someone sees something ordinary in a new light. Deals with the beautiful. Genre painting–A painting that shows normal people doing typical day-to-day activities. Installation–Works of art installed in a space so viewers can walk around or inside them. Not sculpture and usually very conceptual in thought rather than just visual. These are often sitespecific works. Introduce the Andy Warhol artwork and discuss his painting style and subject matter. In his painting Marilyn Monroe, Warhol has shown one effect that film has had on society. Warhol chose to do a print of this famous actress Bill Viola The Crossing (detail), 1996 because she was such an American icon. Warhol Video/sound installation also wanted to show how this image is repeated like Collection of Pamela and Richard a print all through society because Marilyn Monroe Kramlich, Photo: Kira Perov was so widely known and influential in American www.psu.edu/dept/palmermuse culture. It’s icons like these that have made media um/past/viola/viola.ht and film so popular through the years. Ask students what role movies play in their own lives. How many movies have they seen in just the last month? Do these movies change the way they think or react to life around them? Discuss the idea of Visual Culture with the students and how images around us can affect the way we think or react in certain situations. Discuss the possibility of film being a large contributor to Visual Culture. How has film changed since times like seen in Frank Huff’s painting of a drive-in? Are actors better or worse? Have special effects taken over the importance of just plain good acting? Is a movie less successful if it doesn’t use 3-D animation for special effects? Art History–Discuss how film in our visual culture has affected art in the past century. Use Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe as a starting point. Since many artists paint Genre Scenes, activities from everyday life, our visual culture is often depicted in painting. Like the exam52 ple of Marilyn Monroe, how has film, as an area of visual culture, found its way into art? An example is the works of Bill Viola, the video installation artist. Explain what an installation is to the students, and then show a few examples of Viola’s installations. Discuss the influence of film on his work. The fact that he uses the actual medium of film for his installations is a good starting point. If an artist is using film to communicate certain ideas in his work, then the artist must believe the visual imagery in film is powerful. Discuss with students why film is so powerful and has such a big effect on people and society. Art Criticism–Use a basic criticism model to critique Andy Warhol’s work (Description, Analysis, Interpretation, and Judgement). Have students read various film critic reviews of some recent films, preferably a film which uses 3-D animation. Compare the styles of criticism between art and film. How are these two styles alike or different? Does a film critic touch upon the same points as an art critic? Try looking at some professional art critic reviews as well and compare again. Watch a short clip from a 3-D animated film and have students use the same pattern of critiquing in art to critique the film clip that was just seen. Aesthetics–Discuss the area of Aesthetics, the Aesthetic Experience. Describe what it means to have an Aesthetic Experience and have students share different times they believe they have had an experience like this. Many artists want the audience of their work to have an Aesthetic Experience while viewing the artwork. Ask students if perhaps filmmakers seek they same response through cinematography as the art form. Using the same movie clip used for criticism have students describe the clip through a poem. Turn the sound off so just the images are viewed. Encourage students to move beyond subject matter, remove themselves from the storyline of the clip and pay attention specifically to the cinematography and how they feel or what they are reminded of by the color, the motion, and artistic qualities of the movie clip. Can beauty be found in the movie clip, if so what makes it beautiful? Production–Present to the class the process of creating 3-D animation. This can be done with company demos usually available upon request from a local computer graphic company. For a more enriched experience ask a local 3-D animator to come and demo the process used to create in this field of art. Students will learn that a 3-D animator uses special computer programs to build its characters or objects. First, a wire like image is manipulated to create a base or skeleton of the image. Second, the artist will cover the wire image like skin. Third, the artist uses photos as texture maps to wrap around the images to create the final details. For example, a picture of a famous snowboarder will be manipulated and wrapped around the 3-D image to create a look-alike model of the snowboarder for a snowboarding video game. Have students use the same process to create 3-D models in the classroom without computers. For the skeleton pipe cleaners can be used. Have students place the cleaners in such a way that their character is in an action pose. Next have students thicken the wire by covering them with rolled-up construction paper acting as the skin layer. Lastly, have students skim through magazines to find images they would like to use as their texture maps. These should be cut out then wrapped around the 3-D models and the final details. Assessment • After discussion of film’s effects on Visual Culture, have each student write down two ways the student believes film is a strong part of our visual culture. This statement can be used as an informal assessment. 53 • The Aesthetics can also be used as an informal assessment. • Formal Assessment- After the students have finished their 3-D models, have them switch with their neighbors, and on a separate sheet of paper have them write a film critique using the same outline as an art critique. Grade the critique and artwork together. Grade this critique/3-d model on a 1-3 rubric based on, creativity, completion of all three steps of a 3-d model, and thoroughly following all the steps for critiquing (describing, analyzing, interpreting, judging). • Artworks can be added to portfolios and graded on an analytic rubric rating scale of 1-5. • The artworks and critiques can also be combined into one rubric as well. Sources for additional reading: Past evening for educator packets Barret, Terry. Criticizing Art. Mountain View. Mayfield Publishing Company. 1994. Townsend, Dabney. An Introduction to Aesthetics. Massachusetts. Blackwell Pub. 1997. Day, Michael & Al Hurwitz. Children and Their Art: Methods for the Elementary School. Texas. Harcourt Brace College Publishers. 1958. Beattie, Donna Kay. Assessment in Art Education. Massachusetts. Davis Pub. Inc.1997. VARIATIONS This lesson is based on an elementary skill level. Various areas can be altered to accommodate a secondary level learner. Since secondary students have most likely used a basic criticism model for the majority of their art education, they can use a more advanced and specific theory model to explore criticism through different directions and philosophies. A deeper exploration of film critic reviews can lead to a better comparison of the similarities of the criteria used in film and art. Secondary students could also explore the Aesthetic experience on a higher plane. Have the students study Bill Viola and a few other artists who use video in their installations. Students can then discuss the Aesthetic experience received from videos that were intended to be art rather than a narrative or entertainment for the masses. EXTENSION To extend the production activity, students could use the 3-D models made to produce an actual film with a storyline. Have students use a video camera to capture the models in movement complete with background images and secondary props. This can be done in small groups and when finished, the class can watch all the films together like a miniature film festival. Discuss the importance of a film festival and why film makers want to be included. Have students be critics of each others’ films and judge them on an entertainment and artistic level. Uptown Theatre, Kansas City, Missouri, summer of 1943. www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2000/00.06.07.htm 54 From Pipe Cleaner FIlms http://www.aberle.com/pcp/ http://www.aberle.com/pcp/ wfth/index.htm 55