Revisiting "Name that Style"

So I had mentioned this book last week as part of my Top Ten, and I said I'd post more about it when I got it. I received it in the mail last Thursday, and took twenty minutes to look it over.

Final consensus? I could launch a few lesson plans off this book. But that's about it. It's cute, it's concise, provides accurate and descriptive information, but it is as not as expansive as I like.

Let's talk about the things I like. For starters, the pictures.

The caption reads, "destroyed in 1945, formerly in the Dresden State Art Collection Gallery," now, think about the kinds of discussions you can have about that relating to WW2. Just sayin'.

I want art books that have good quality pictures. Everything is printed high-quality on nice paper. You can't look at art in black and white, or as tiny little pictures (I compressed this scan for your convenience). Kids need to see the painting for what it is. And I hate art history books that have tiny, black and white pictures. That actually impairs my ability to study the material. I'm serious.

With every artwork presented in the book, we're given a page that explains the style of the work, like so: 

Large print for your convenience; you're welcome. Presenting "who-what-where-when-why" information in a concise manner is very effective for easily defining the topic, in this case, Realism. I also think that the way things are framed lends to the ability for discovery. In the first paragraph, the author (Bob Raczka) explains, "artists typically painted scenes from the Bible, heroes from classical mythology, and portraits for the rich." Yeah, that's correct. But why? This can lead to discussions to the purpose of Baroque art in Rome, or the French Academy's perceptions of what the purpose of high art was meant to achieve. We can discuss how Realism also influenced literature, especially in post Civil War America, and how artists like Thomas Eakins and Winslow Homer began to depict real people in real life scenarios. Presenting other artists examples gives students a chance to research more art. I also like the words chosen to describe each work. "Gritty" is a good word to describe Courbet's The Stone Breakers, because the style as well as the subject manner is very real conveys hardship.

I'm not surprised if this painting was destroyed if it was in Nazi Germany; Hitler hated all art that contained some modern sentiment. And in 1849, Courbet's work marks the beginning of a modern age.

My only problem with this book is that it's rather limited. There's no mention of Dada, or Pop art. All works after Late Antiquity to Late Renaissance are lumped into "Naturalism" which I suppose is a style... but I've always seen naturalism as an alternative to Abstraction or non-representation. It's too broad. I would have liked to see a page on medieval art (which had its own style), or Baroque art (which had its own agenda in presenting Biblical narratives).

Occasional Paper: Trip to the Museum

This weekend I had the fortune of making a quick visit to the National Gallery in Washington DC. I was blown away with the amount of famous works our capital has in its collection. Many of them I’m familiar with because I have learned about them in various art history classes. Rococo works by Fragonard and Boucher displayed a sense of wantonness in pinks and blues. Thomas Cole captivated such beauty and detail in his allegorical Stages of Life series. Early works of Picasso showed his curiosity to break away from tradition by his descriptive use of line. Both his and Braque’s first experimentations with Cubism expressed a level of friendship and camaraderie between the two artists. Cassatt, our only American Impressionist, had the ability to display the love and affection between a mother and child like no other, except maybe Copley, a famous American colonial portraitist. 

Art tells a story. That’s always been a big thing in classic art, to tell a story, or teach a lesson. Poussin was a master painter, arranging his characters in an orderly setting, gave them gestures and expressions that told a story as if they were characters on a stage. His works were always based on some Biblical narrative or Greco-Roman history, as was the expectation of the time. These history paintings have always been a pleasure to unpack, but the history of the painting itself has always been more meaningful, in my opinion. I want to know the background of the artist, where they were living, what captivated them, what events were taking place during their lives, why they felt their subject matter was important. 

How paint is applied to the canvas is important to me too. Genius artists have learned how to take a tangible substance, pigment and oil, and make it mean something completely abstract. In the past, paint was only used to express color and light. The drawing was responsible for depicting form and depth. Now, artists experiment with how to take a static medium and create movement, weight, busyness. A Futurist painting is loaded with brushstrokes that convey a sense of briskness, energy, vibration, nervousness, to where the excitement of motion is palpable. With this quality is carried the sense of anticipation of a Machine Age, a common theme in the early 20^th century. 

I love to discuss these kinds of things while viewing art. These insights are what help to develop appreciation for a piece. But true appreciation is developed by seeing the work in person. I would love to give this to students.

Top Ten Kit: Non-Stop Writing

Lady Gaga has mentioned that the ideas of her songs are usually created in about fifteen minutes. It's like this vomiting up everything you have in you. I totally get this. But great art is not about the first fifteen minutes. It's about the revisions, the fine-tuning, building up, expansion, polishing, tearing things down and rearrangement. And most times, the final product is never what you first imagined it to be.

I see Nonstop Writing, mentioned on page 92 of our Content-Area Writing book, as a great way to take a mental dump. I actually use this, when I've got that jittery, restless feeling of, "gah, I gotta do something I GOTTA MAKE SOMETHING."

Within an art class, our prompts would be rather open-ended, and gives kids a very easy way to put down their thoughts in a short amount of time. It helps to get the brain revved up when "I don't know what to draw." So here are some prompts to work with:

• When was the last time someone made you mad? 
• What does joy look like? 
• What's your biggest concern for the future? 
• Write about a particularly vivid scene you read recently. 
• What do you see when you hear a favorite song?

I really liked the list given on page 94, of ideas for going back and really honing in the important bits of a writing. Underlining key sentences, circling really descriptive words, crossing out filler that doesn't relate to the main point.

It would be amazing to start new projects in this manner. Like the "draw a song" project. What formal elements visually describe this song? What colors and shapes set a tone? How do you use line and texture to indicate the tempo, or the severity of a bass line? What about the lyrical message of the song itself? What sort of representational images would you use to reflect the message of the song? How would you arrange these in the composition?

Everyone loves this project. I'm serious. And it makes kids feel so good about themselves, especially when they stand up to present the finished product and say, "my song was 'this and that' by 'so-and-so'" and all their peers make that "ohhhh" sound of "I totally see it." Because that's when you know that student has communicated something really well.

One problem with it is you don't want students to be recreating recognizable images. I think the Word Dump (that's what I'm calling it from now on) might be really good to combat that because you're really asking the students to describe what's in their heads. And they have to stick to that as their basis for the creative process.

I don't know; makes for a good experimental lesson plan.

Here's Gaga.

We miss you, Clarence.

Top Ten Kit: Drawing and Illustrating

This technique is described on page 48 in Content Area Writing. Okay, this really was a lead-in from my previous post. Of course, in an art class, this is the meat and potatoes of our learning. Visual learners are typically drawn to art because this is the majority of what we do. We look at stuff, and we learn the ins and outs of it by drawing it. We learn how light reflects differently on shiny surfaces compared to matte surfaces. We learn how draw things to scale, which requires us to take into account the space around objects. And we have to take value into account, because the hard edge of a shadow or the level of contrast within an object indicates the condition of the light. And then we take all this knowledge and turn it into something you've never seen before. Art develops visual perception, and it's a darn good mental booster.

And it's not just good for art making process either. I'd encourage my students to take art history notes in their sketchbooks. Draw the concepts, instead of just writing the definitions. If we're looking at Degas, do a thumbnail sketch of some of his ballet paintings while I'm prattling on through a ten minute PowerPoint.

Good for discussion on Impressionism, implied movement, positive versus negative space, color, impasto, among other things.

Degas is known for his early ballet paintings because of his attention to details like body mechanics, and light, and color. He studied his dancers, spent a lot of time in the theater and the dance studio. The dancer looks like she's in mid step, like this is a transition to another pose. We love this dynamism. Look at the white dress. Well, it's not really white; I'm seeing... blues, pale lavenders and muted yellow. And the contrast on the face and arms clearly indicate the light was coming from below, probably lamps situated around the front of the stage (which you can't see).

Who knows? Students may take this drawing note-taking approach and apply it to other disciplines. It's how I got through my science and math classes.

Top Ten Kit: K-W-L Chart. And an art lesson.

I love organizing information. When I saw this neat little process introduced in Chapter 6 of When Kids Can't Read (p. 80; yeah, I've been reading ahead), I immediately saw how versatile and multi-disciplinary this technique can be.

Essentially this chart allows you to build a web of information through class discussion. It is divided into three categories:

• What I Know
• What I Want to know 
• What I Learned 

Using this technique is based on the understanding that active readers use prior knowledge in order to make sense of new material. They will engage with a new book or resource before even turning to the first chapter and anticipate what they are likely to find. These kind of techniques do make one more receptive to new information, because you are building it on knowledge that is already firmly established.

Of course I saw this as a great activity for an art class. Let's say I was beginning a  new unit on Greek and Roman art. Students will have already developed a schema of what that is: marble statues, contrapposto, buildings with columns, Pompeii, Parthenon, pottery with figures. I appreciate a teaching strategy that acknowledges that students are coming into a classroom with prior knowledge. Also, this is a very student-oriented strategy. Someone may have heard "Greek and Roman statues of the late-classical period are presented in a natural, contrapposto pose," but that student may ask, "I know what it looks like, but what does 'contrapposto' mean? How do you make a figure look that way? What is the body doing when you shift your weight to one leg?" Good question! We can build a lesson plan on basic figure drawing just on that. Kids may be interested in that more than, say, a mosaic project.

Actually, most of what we know of Greek statues comes from Romans. This is a Roman copy of a Greek original. The Greeks didn't carve in marble; their statues were cast in bronze.

An art class lends another dimension of the learning process because we learn a lot by doing. My understanding of "contrapposto" was not learned out of a book. It was learned by studying the body, repeated drawing of it, and continuously fixing mistakes. And you notice the shift, when a live model finally stops standing so rigidly. All their weight shifts onto one leg, therefor the pelvis is tilted up on that weight-bearing side and to compensate for the imbalance, the upper torso and shoulders are tilted in the opposite direction. It's really strange and remarkable, how we can always manage to stand so much of ourselves on tiny little feet and not fall over on a constant basis. But there's a real science to it that has everything to do with the mechanics of balance and weight distribution.

An anatomy study of Michelangelo's David. Stand in this pose for a second. It's very easy. Now, raise your right shoulder. Feels a little lopsided, huh?

The biggest obstacle with this chart is getting kids to ask questions, which is essential to active learning. "Why are there three orders of Greek building? Why not five? Did they (ancient Greeks?) deviate from any of those prescribed orders? How are we still using these building techniques and styles? Do we still use them to communicate the purpose of the structure? In what ways?" It's always good to remember that questions arise out of what we already know. As a teacher, I am mindful that in order to get students talking, it's always best to bring up a subject they are familiar with. Chances are, they haven't mastered it.

Top Ten Tool Kit: Name That Style

Raczka, B. (2009). Name That Style: All about Isms in Art. Minneapolis: Lerner Publishing.

This simple yet informative book focus on different styles of Western Art, beginning from the Renaissance to the Modern era. The book is divided into chapters that focus on one particular style, when it was implemented, gives examples of artists and their works, and gives explanations of formal elements of each style. It is written for a middle school grade level but can be appreciated by anyone who is new to the world of art.

I do not have a copy of this book, but you best believe it's in my Amazon wish list. I think the title was what caught my interest, because it's true: in art, we have a lot of "isms," and I'm pretty sure that this book doesn't cover all of them. Regardless, it's a fantastic way to illustrate to art students the concept of naming different types of work. This is a resource that helps to build imagery and association to a type of vocabulary that is fundamental to art.

Many reviews I've read on this book have said that it is intended as a resource for children between grades 5-8. To that I say, "whatever." When I was in eighth grade I couldn't explain to you the difference between Pointillism and Fauvism, much less give you examples of artists who implemented these two styles. By the time I was in high school, I couldn't have explained the difference between late Renaissance and Baroque (more of a difference in ideology and subject matter, rather than style). My point is, even though I could draw you a pretty picture by the age of 18, I was artist-illiterate. I didn't have the vocabulary to describe the formal properties of a piece and how they aided in communicating a message. I had trouble with even reading the narrative of  a painting (even to this day I do; I bring my fiance to the art museums with me because he's the one who's well-versed in all the Biblical and Classical stories).

My one beef: when am I going to find an approachable resource that deals with non-Western art? 

My thought on it is, if crucial concepts are explained simply yet thoughtfully, it would be a benefit for anyone who's new to the information. I would like to do a followup on this book, after I receive it in the mail and read it over the next weekend. =D

Because Amazon is just so friggin' awesome. And I love how people give such thoughtful reviews.

Top Ten Tool Kit: Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion

The Guerrilla Girls. (1998). The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin Books.  

The theme of this book poses the question, "What role do women have in the history of Western art?" and further looks into issues of gender inequality from ancient to modern times. The art work featured and explained in this book are all produced by women and this message impresses upon the reader that women have also contributed a lot to our artistic traditions. Furthermore, this book brings up issues of race and sexuality and the inequalities that modern women have had to face in regards to their art work. 

I was first introduced to this book last year in my Foundations of Art Education class. I think it's a great book to have in a high school art class because it tackles some complex issues relating to social justice, subjects no doubt young adults should be discussing in their history, social studies, and English classes. I would be reluctant to bring this book into a middle school setting because there are some themes regarding rape, sexuality, and there's a lot of boobage in this book. I don't know how the parents would feel about all that. =/ But most kids can maturely handle these things by the age of 14.

In regards to Art, you can ask most kids, "name me some artists," and they can prattle off about half a dozen male artists; da Vinci (and the other Ren artists that inspired the names of the Ninja Turtles... if kids still remember that show), van Gogh, Matisse, Dali, Polluck. Female artists? Georgia O' Keefe is about all they can come up with. And most don't know she painted more than just her famous vagina-flowers. Most of the students you will find in a high school art class room are young women, because for whatever reason art has become a "girly subject" for all it's creative-feeling-perceiving aspects. It's empowering for girls to know who paved the way for them in the artistic traditions, because the fact of the matter is that few women were allowed to express themselves in any matter at all, much less given the opportunity to create art. 

In regards to the literacy component of this book, it is highly approachable. It is filled with art work, illustration, photography, and collage, so all these visual cues lend themselves to an active reading process. Important blurbs of information are highlighted in text boxes apart from the main body of text. Some stories are presented in the form of a comic or news article. You can pretty much flip to any page and start reading and get some kernel of information from it. It can be read from cover to cover, but I think it's more fun to hone in on one chapter or one artist in the book and open it for discussion.

My one discretion: how do you open the floor for a feminist-oriented topic that doesn't devolve into male-bashing? This is my one beef with the women studies undergrads, to tell the truth. We must keep in mind that we do not raise women up by putting down the men for all of society's past social injustices. Girls today are being raised by parents who tell them they can be pretty much anything they want. Boys are growing up with the understanding that girls are just as capable as they are. And I think it's important to dismiss this notion that just because a woman did it (wrote it, created it), doesn't mean it must be enjoyed exclusively by women. Young men can appreciate the creative work of women as well.

All images scanned by me.