Pre-Visit Activity: Art Talk

Please view the two reproductions with your class and lead a discussion using the following questions as guidelines.  There are no “right” answers.  The questions are meant to guide the group discussion.
Students will revisit and discuss the original works at BAM.  The vocabulary in this packet will aid discussion.

Research and experience have shown that students feel more comfortable when they can connect with something familiar once they arrive at the Museum.  The students are excited to find “their” works of art while they are at BAM.  They enjoy sharing their insights from the classroom discussion with the docent and making valuable comparisons between the textbook-like reproductions and the original works of art.

Marsden Hartley:  American Modern, American Master

This tour centers on the single largest collection of art by the 20th century American Master Marsden Hartley. Hartley was a contemporary of Georgia O’Keefe and Alfred Stieglitz and lived from 1877-1943. Students will learn about the artist’s importance in the history of art, the sources of his inspiration, and will create their own works of art in the manner of Marsden Hartley.

Vocabulary

Abstract:       A term used to describe art that emphasizes lines, colors, and generalized or geometric forms over exact representations of reality.

Influence / Inspire:   Something which motivates the creation of or affects the development of a work of art.

Art Movement:  A title used to describe a period of time in which a group of artists worked with similar styles and motivations.

Medium: A specific kind of artistic technique or means of expression as determined by the materials used or the creative methods involved:  the medium of lithography.  The materials used in a specific artistic technique:  oils as a medium.

Media:  The plural of medium.

Curricular Connections
Building Memorable Curriculum with Marsden Hartley

• Marsden Hartley lived from 1877-1943.  Have students research a major historical event which occurred during this time, either in the United States or globally.  Have the students research the importance of these events and how they affected the world and the art world.  Students can present their ideas to the class.

• Many different artists and art movements inspired and influenced Marsden Hartley. Have students choose one of the following art movements/styles to research – Dadaism, Impressionism, Divisionism, Pointillism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Modernism.  Ask students to focus on the key ideas and motivations of and artists involved in the movement and the correlating events that occurred during the time. 
  
  
• Throughout history, artists have used their artwork to make political statements.  Have students pick different works of art which they feel represent specific political statements.  Have them research the political events specific to their pieces and write brief papers describing the events, the artist’s opinions as implied by the works of art, and the opposing opinions.

Technology

• Using Photoshop or a similar program, have students apply what they know about the functions of the program to turn personal landscape photographs into abstract works of art.
  
  
• Many man-made items, from works of art to everyday objects, are influenced/inspired by nature.   To illustrate the idea of influence/inspiration, have students create a PowerPoint presentation of works of art, technology, fashion, or architecture pictured next to its influence/inspiration.  For example, a VW Beetle next to a ladybug or a spiral staircase next to a cross-section of a nautilus shell.

Reading and Writing

• Marsden Hartley wrote poetry as well as creating works of visual art. Use this opportunity to have students read some of the great American poets and create their own poems inspired by the poems they read. Have the students use the same rhyming schemes or rhythms as the poems they read, for example: iambic pentameter, ABBA, etc.
  
  
• Marsden Hartley was influenced by the great American writers, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and William James. Practice creative and descriptive writing by asking students to create written descriptions of abstract works of art.  Students should use highly descriptive words and phrases, metaphors, and similes to describe not only the brushstrokes, colors, and shapes in the piece, but also their impressions and experiences of the piece.  Display images of the works without identifying which students wrote about which works.  Each student can then share their descriptions while the other students try to determine which abstract painting is being described.  

•  Working from photocopies, have students measure the different shapes and designs found in abstract works of art and record their measurements. 

• Abstraction is a process of selecting all or portions of observed objects into simple, often geometric, shapes.  Have students experiment with the concept of abstraction using rulers, compasses, and protractors to create geometric abstractions of famous images like the statue of liberty or a Coke-a-Cola can.
  
  
• Marsden Hartley often used geometric shapes in his paintings. Discuss rose windows and radial designs and then have the students create their own radial designs.  This online lesson plan has been adapted for various age levels: http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/Larry-radial.htm

Science, Earth Science

• The landscape inspired many of Marsden Hartley’s paintings. Discuss the diverse ecosystems and landscapes in the United States and explore the differences and similarities with those of other countries.

• Marsden Hartley’s landscapes show various seasons, from fall to spring. Have students explore different aspects and natural occurrences related to the four seasons. Use this opportunity to discuss why leaves change colors, what spurs new growth in spring, and how winter influences tree and plant growth.

• Have the students observe the same landscape throughout the school year, from fall to spring and early summer and have them report on plant and animal growth. Have students create graphs and charts to communicate and document their observations.

Visual Arts

• Various art movements and artists inspired the artwork of Marsden Hartley. Discuss the difference between copying a work of art and creating something that is inspired by it.  Let students determine the criteria for defining a copy.  Then, have students create their own works of art inspired by an art movement or an artist.
  
  
• Have students use the Rule of Thirds and theories of composition to create their own still life arrangements.  Students can create several drawings from their arrangements, changing the placement of the objects to create more successful, increasingly interesting compositions. 

Related Web Sites

For Teachers

http://www.vangoghgallery.com/artistbios/Marsden_Hartley.html - Biography. There are many Marsden Hartley websites that can be accessed by doing an internet search. 

http://www.ncartmuseum.org/artnc//lessonplans.php?themeid=3 – Lesson plans by North Carolina Museum of Art focuses on connections between art and American history.

http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1989/5/89.05.11.x.html - Music lesson plan, responding symphonic mood with colored ink and wash drawings. 

http://www.edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=618 – Reviews the term Modernism as it applies to poetry, and lesson plan on how to teach Modernist poetry. 

http://painting.about.com/od/abstractart/a/abstract_art.htm - An introduction to abstract art that explains what it is and how it developed.

http://www.bringinghistoryhome.org/downloads/Second/2_Env_LessonPlans.pdf - Lesson plan for second grade that introduces children to the history of environmental protection.

http://www.windowsintowonderland.org/art/teachers/plan4.htm - Lesson plan focused on American landscape artists. Lesson focuses on the connections among national parks, environmental history, and art history.

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/Larry-radial.htm - A lesson plan that incorporates math and art through radial designs, like those of Marsden Hartley.

http://www.cartermuseum.org/Inspiring_Visions/Hartley/hartley_activities.html - Lesson plan focused on a Marsden Hartley painting.

For Teachers and Kids

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/hartley_marsden.html - Links to works by artist, museum websites, and biography. 

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/artmuseum/exhibitions/archive/perfect/perfect.html - Marsden Hartley and other famous, American landscape painters.

http://www.cartermuseum.org/Inspiring_Visions/menu.html - Artists’ views of the American West.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/planets/earth/Seasons.shtml - Explanation of the seasons.

Post-Visit Activity: MAKE IT!

To extend the museum experience and connect the tour to your curriculum, please consider using or adapting this suggested lesson

Plein Air: Drawing and Painting From Nature

Like many artists, Marsden Hartley painted landscapes while outdoors – a process called plein air painting.  This Make-It Activity emulates this traditional artistic process by giving student the opportunity to paint or draw outside.

Materials

Paper
Pencils
Watercolor
Paint or Colored Pencils
Clip Boards

Instructions

1. Explain to students that artists and scientists throughout history have observed and recorded nature.
2. Share images of landscape paintings and drawings with students to demonstrate a variety of styles and approaches to plein air works.
3. Weather permitting, take students outside and ask them to find a place to sit where they have a clear view of something they would like to paint or draw.  Students can paint or draw a single tree or an entire landscape.  Buildings and structures can be included as part of their landscapes or cityscapes.
4. Students should begin with a lightly sketched drawing so that if the weather or time becomes a problem, the students can finish their works inside.

Applications and Extensions for Make-it Activity

Reading and Writing

• Display students’ artwork with poems or prose they write about their observations and experiences work in nature, en plein air.

• Have students keep journals of their observations from nature.  Students can write about the weather, seasons, plants, vacations, etc.

Math

• Practice geometry by having students identify basic shapes in objects from nature.  For example, a tree can be simplified into an oval on top of a rectangle.

• Explore perspective, foreshortening, and vanishing points and the mathematical formulas that are applied to accurately draw buildings and other three-dimensional objects.

• Students can learn about proportion and fractions by observing nature.  Ask students to look for ways that they can determine the height, length, or width of objects – trees, buildings, etc.  For example, from a distance, you can see that one tree is ½ the height of the tree next to it.  You know that the smaller tree is 5 feet.  How tall is the larger tree?

Science

• Have students measure and record observations about growing plants or changes in the landscape.

• Discuss the properties of light, specifically how it relates to observations of nature.  (Seasons, rotation of the earth, hemispheres, sunrises, sunsets, etc.)

• Have students create one painting outside in the morning and another painting in the afternoon, in the exact same location.  Students can discuss the changes in the colors, light, and shadows by examining their paintings.

• Discuss different outdoor environments (such as mountains, oceans, rivers, prairies, etc.) and have students create artworks to represent each one.

Geography and History

• Have students research the country of their choice, focusing on a description of the actual landscape.  Have students research a landscape painting from their chosen area and write a brief description of the painting, a biography of the artist, and a summary of the important historical events happening in the country when the work was created.  (Remember, many artists created paintings inspired by countries other than their own.  American artist Marsden Hartley painted many landscapes in France, Bavaria, Germany, etc.)  Finally, have students present their papers to the class and have them place a small image of the painting on the map that shows where the landscape image originated.

• Throughout history, many artists have created work of art inspired by nature.  Have students research and present information about past or present artists who worked (are working) from nature.

Bibliography

Teachers

• History through Art: The Pre-Modern Era.  Chicago, IL: Clearview/Eav, 1992.  (VHS)
• History Through Art: The Twentieth Century.  Chicago, IL: Clearview/Eav, 1992.  (VHS)
• Frank, Waldo David. America and Alfred Stieglitz: A Collective Portrait. Millerton, NY: Aperture, 1979.
• Froning, Hubertus. European Expressionism. Thornbury, Avon, England: Artline Editions, 1990.
• Gerhardus, Maly. Expressionism: From Artistic Commitment to the Beginning of a New Era. Oxford; Phaidon, 1979.
• McDonnell, Patricia. Marsden Hartley: American Modern. Catalog. Weisman Art Museum: University of Minnesota, 2007.
• Rosenthal, Mark. Abstraction in the Twentieth Century: Total Risk, Freedom, Discipline. New York: Guggenheim Museum: Distributed by Abrams, 1996.
• Smith, Terry.  Making the Modern: Industry Art and Design in America.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. 
• Wiggins, Colin. Post-Impressionism. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1993.

Preschool

• Hoban, Tana.  Dots, Spots, Speckles, & Stripes.  Greenwillow, 1987. 
• Hoban, Tana.  Of Colors and Things.  Harper Trophy, 1996. 

Pre-K to 3rd

• Blizzard, Gladys. Come Look With Me: Exploring Landscape Art with Children. Charlesbridge Publishing, 1996.
• Derolf, Sharon, and Michael Litzeg.  The Crayon Box that Talked.  New York: Random House Books for Young Readers, 1997. 
• Dodds, Dayle.  The Color Box.  Little, Brown, 1st ed., 1992.

• Falk, Peter.  Who was Who in American Art:  Compiled from the Original Thirty-Four Volumes of American Art Annual – Who’s Who in Art, Biographies of American Artists Active from 1898-1947.  Madison, CN: Sound View Press, 1985. 
• Gaff, Jackie. 1910-1920: The Birth of Abstract Art. Gareth Stevens Publishing; Illustrate Edition, 2001.
• Gherman, Beverly.  Georgia O’ Keeffe: The Wilderness and Wonder of Her World.  New York: Atheneum, 1986. 
• Lyons, Mary E.  Deep Blues: Bill Traylor, Self Taught Artist.  New York: C Schribner’s; Toronto: Maxwell Macmillan Canada; New York: Maxwell Macmillan International, 1994.
• Raimondo, Joyce. Express Yourself: Activities and Adventures in Expressionism. Watson-Guptill, 2005. 

• Greenberg, Jan.  The American Eye:  Eleven Artists of the Twentieth Century.  New York: Delacorte Press, 1995. 
• Meyer, Susan. 20 Landscape Painters and How They Work. From the Pages of American Artists.  New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1977. 

Young Adult/Adult

• Delano, Sterling F.  Brook Farm: The Dark Side of Utopia.  Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004. 
• Fineberg, Jonathan David.  Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being.  New York: HN Abrams, 1995. 
• Jensen, Joan M.  One Foot on the Rockies: Women and Creativity in the Modern American West.  Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995.   
• Wolff, Theodore F.  The Many Works of Modern Art.  Boston, MA: Books from the Christian Science Monitor, 1989.