Albany, New York

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    PRE / POST VISIT LESSONS

1) Icebreakers: Learning to Look Closely 

Have each student take off one shoe and place it on his or her desk.  Give students ten minutes to examine their own shoe closely, and encourage them to memorize all details that they think are important.  After this time has passed, allow students ten minutes to draw their shoes from memory.  When they have finished, hang the drawings up on the blackboard or in another area where all students can easily see them.  Instruct students to line their shoes up in random order underneath the drawings, and have the class work together to match each shoe to the appropriate drawing. Have students recalled and recorded enough information in their drawings to accomplish this task easily?

Play a few rounds of “I Spy” with your class. Post several large reproductions of highly detailed or “busy” artworks (such as those by Marc Chagall or Grandma Moses) and have students gather closely around them. Ask a student volunteer to select an item from one of the artworks; in order to make the game sufficiently challenging, instruct him or her to keep the name of the artwork secret so that the class must examine all of the artworks in order to identity the object that (s)he has chosen.  Allow students to proceed as in a typical game of “I Spy.”

At the close of both activities, help students to understand the value of taking time to look closely at an artwork.  Briefly point out how often people take artworks—and even their own surroundings—for granted and fail to recognize crucial details as a result.  

2) Art Debate

Have an “art debate” with your class. Acquire several large reproductions of art works of any style or time period, and hang them on a blackboard or in another area where all students can easily view them. 

Create index cards with strong opinion statements such as “This work took the longest to make”; “This work required the most skill to make”; “This work is the most colorful”; “This work expresses the most emotion,” etc.  Ask a student volunteer to assign one card to each reproduction, and emphasize that (s)he may not qualify the responses in any way. 

After the student volunteer has completed this task, ask remaining class members to agree or disagree with the choices (s)he has made.  Probe students to explain their answers.  If a student considers one work to be more fraught with emotion than another, ask what gives the student that impression.  Is it the intensity of the color?  Is it the line quality?  In some instances, the class may agree with the choices made by the student volunteer.  Even when this occurs, probe students to explain their responses further; perhaps students can point out additional aspects of the artwork that have not yet been discussed.

3) Artful Advertisements   

To help students become comfortable with the potentially new process of viewing and discussing art, begin by looking closely at an advertisement.  Select a magazine ad for a product with which your class will likely be familiar.  Make several color photocopies so that each group of three to five students will be able to view the image up close. 

Pose general questions about the ad, and allow students a few minutes to consider them in their groups (Ask students to identify the product being advertised.  Who would be likely to use this product?  Do students believe the ad represents the product accurately?  Do students trust ads in general?  Why or why not?).  After this time has passed, call on a member of each group to report responses. 

Pose the more difficult question of how this particular advertisement functions.  Allow students at least five to seven minutes to examine the image closely, and encourage them to take particular note of its formal qualities. Help students to recall the elements of art by writing some of them on the blackboard.  What visual elements of the ad help to present the product in a desirable light?  What about the ad makes it appeal to the target group that students identified earlier?  (Perhaps the ad is brightly colored and seeks to appeal to children. Perhaps the ad seeks to associate a product with wealth or the “high life,” and makes use of gold or precious stone imagery). Ask students to consider composition.  Does the advertisement draw the viewer’s eye to the featured product?  How? (Does an element of the composition “point” to the featured product?  Has the product been centered in the composition?  Is the product larger or more brightly colored than the rest of the image?).  Ask students to consider how text functions in the image (Where is it placed?  How large is the type set?  Is it computer printed, or does it look handwritten?   How would this affect the message the ad sends?). 

After students have completed their group discussions, bring students back together to compare their responses.  Though advertisements are generally placed in a category apart from the “high art” students will view at the Albany Institute, these two categories of visual art often function in similar ways, seeking to create visual appeal for the viewer and to convey a certain message or idea.

4) Parody a Portrait

Show students sample illustrations from Willy’s Pictures by Anthony Browne.  Browne pokes fun at well-known artworks by transforming humans to apes and inserting bizarre or unexpected details into otherwise traditional compositions. 

Post several reproductions of portraits on the blackboard or in another area where all students can easily see them; if possible, make enough small color photocopies of the images so that students can bring them to their desks and refer to them as they work. 

 Instruct students to choose the portrait to which they have the strongest emotional reaction, and have them examine this portrait closely in order to make a list of the details that they notice.  How old is the person pictured?  Does (s)he look severe or easygoing?  Happy or sad?  What type of clothing is (s)he wearing?  What objects are in the background?  Is (s)he holding anything?  What colors are used to portray the person and his or her surroundings?  What type of line quality or brush strokes? 

Allow students time to visit the school library, or provide a selection of art historical materials for them to use in your own classroom. Challenge students to locate as much factual information as possible about their chosen portrait.  Is the name of the person in the portrait known? What was his or her relationship to the artist?  When did (s)he live?  What might (s)he have done during a typical day?

After students have become familiar with the subject of their chosen portrait, have them create a caricature based on the original artwork and on their research. Show students examples of caricatures, and emphasize that this style of artwork relies on the exaggeration of one or two aspects of a subject’s physical appearance and/or personality. Ask students to choose a personality trait or characteristic that they believe the subject of their chosen portrait might have possessed. Students may add or remove compositional elements, shift proportions, or alter the color scheme of the original portrait in order to emphasize the personality that they imagine their subject had.  However, students must be able to explain their decisions with specific details from the original artwork and from their research.

5) Interview an Artist

Divide students into pairs or small groups, and assign each group a reproduction of an artwork.  Be sure to choose paintings about which there will be adequate information available; to make this activity more accessible to students, you might wish to use only artworks with representational subject matter.  List the elements and principles of art on the blackboard, and encourage students to consider the role that these concepts play in their assigned reproductions.  Allow students twenty minutes to investigate their reproductions and take note of all details that they consider to be important. 

After the allotted time has passed, ask students to shift the focus of their investigation.  If the artist responsible for the work were present, what questions would students ask him or her?  Encourage students to consider their own emotional responses to the artwork’s formal qualities.  Does the artwork in question seem to exude a particular feeling, such as anger, passion, or sorrow?  Why might the artist have chosen to represent his or her work in this way?  What was the artist’s relationship to his subject matter, if any? 

Have students pose more historically based questions.  Does the artwork depict a person wearing a period costume?  Does it suggest a particular social class?  What was daily life like during this time period? Does the artwork seem to relate to any major political or social happenings of the time period? Instruct groups to create brief questionnaires, and allow them time to conduct research and construct the responses that they believe the artist might have given.

Have students present their work in any number of ways: a short skit, a “press conference” during which “reporters” ask “artists” to comment on their works, or a more polished writing assignment.

Art & Critical Thinking

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