Eileen M. DeMaio
Art is a fundamental human process. It is a way in which every person may express their inner thoughts and emotions. It is a means by which every society, from the most primitive through the most modern, has expressed its values and judgements. Through our art we learn about life—the world of our past, present, and future. As an art teacher, I am continuously thinking about new ways to bring the study of artists and their works into my lessons. Students can learn much from viewing, analyzing, and discussing artworks. After taking part in such learning experiences they delight in creating their own versions of what they have studied.
This unit is designed to introduce the Third through Fifth grade student to Early American Portrait Painting. We will first learn about the earliest known portrait painters, the Limners. By studying these anonymous works, we get a glimpse of how artists in this country first earned their living, traveling from village to village painting the portraits of the local townsfolk.
We will then observe the life and work of John Singleton Copley, one of our nation’s first and possibly finest portraitists. I have also included a study of the Western artist George Catlin, for I not only admire his skill as a painter, I also respect his purpose and motivation for depicting the American Indian. His desire to preserve the native traditions of the indigenous peoples of North America sets a fine example for my students of the importance and power of visual art, and the influence of art in the world.
Through the closer study of these American painters, students will learn about some of their society’s most prized values, such as freedom, individuality, inventiveness, and creativity. This unit is designed to stimulate and involve the “whole” student in their learning, introducing them to lessons which will expand emotional, intellectual, and creative abilities.
Students will be expected to:
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Study artworks from several different artists. Students will compare and contrast these works, and will learn about the historical background of the artist and his or her times.
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Develop the capacity to think critically and communicate their reactions effectively.
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Develop new ways of looking at and finding meaning in artworks, with emphasis on using what has been learned about the artist and the artist’s world to interpret the piece.
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Express their feelings and emotions about the artwork verbally and in written assignments.
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Create their own artworks based on knowledge gained in their studies.
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These lessons will help students to develop both internal and external capacities. They will learn to ask questions and find new solutions, to work independently and to collaborate with others, to assemble and to take apart, to imagine, dream, and fantasize about all aspects of their world.
This unit will be presented through four components of learning; Art History, Art Criticism, Art Production, and Aesthetics. These components or disciplines are borrowed from the Discipline Based Art Education (DBAE) program developed by the Getty Center for Education in the Arts. I see the DBAE program as an excellent comprehensive and effective approach to learning in the Arts, and have chosen to use it as a guideline to improve the quality and learning impact of this unit.
The Getty Center for Education in the Arts believes that visual art should be an essential part of every child’s education. Since its inception in 1982, the Center has done extensive research in the field of Art Education, working in collaboration with school systems across the country and developing an effective program by which art can become a more meaningful part of a general education. The center states “A substantive arts program should help children understand the historical and cultural contexts in which art has been created. It should help them to perceive aesthetic qualities in nature, in the manmade environment, and in works of art. It should provide them with the opportunities to create their own works and it should encourage them to describe, analyze, and interpret works of art. All of these components are necessary to achieve a more comprehensive, rigorous approach to the Arts in the schools.”
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The Getty Center realized the value and need for a strong, sequential art curriculum. If art is to be valued and take a higher position in our schools we must look for ways to increase the potential for aesthetic understanding in our students, therefore benefitting the whole of society. The Center developed a Discipline Based Art Education program which balances and integrates instruction in four areas “1) the skills of making art (production), 2) knowledge about the role of art in culture (art history), 3) the skills of appraising art (criticism), and 4) ideas about the nature of art (aesthetics)”
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Using this comprehensive approach to learning about the arts, students are given the opportunities to develop the proper frames of reference necessary to enjoy, interpret, and develop forms of beauty in the natural and manmade world. I will now examine each of these disciplines, stating why they are important to this unit.
Art Production,
or the making of artworks is important to any art program, not just for the obvious reason of giving children the opportunity to express themselves creatively, but also for the process that they go through. When children have the chance to give form to their ideas, images, and emotions, they develop important cognitive skills. First, they must conceptualize the kind of image they wish to make. Then they must use some material to give the image physical form. Children need to understand the relationship of the parts to the whole. They must learn to organize the forms in a way that satisfies the standards they hold for themselves. In doing this, the children learn to develop certain skills and techniques in using the material to obtain the imagined effect. They must learn to plan ahead for desired effects and also learn to be flexible and incorporate chance accidents into the final outcome of the finished product.
“Observation of a child engaged in Art activity provides some evidence of the quality of the inner process. The concentration with which he approaches his task, the perseverance with which he carries it to completion, and the fleeting look of approval he gives his creation as he sets it aside, reveal what is happening within him.”
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Finally, in the evaluation of the work, children must learn to be their own critics. They should learn to benefit from suggestions offered by others and be encouraged to invent and identify solutions to problems they encounter throughout the work. But above all, they must learn to be the final judge of their work. The making of visual art provides the students with opportunities to experience the pleasure and frustration of creation while developing many valuable complex cognitive skills.
Art Criticism
provides the children with the chance to learn, to see and describe the visual world in other ways. By looking at and studying works of art, children learn to examine closely how they and others perceive the world. As a result of spending more time looking at art, they naturally learn to see and appreciate more of the visual world. “They develop both the attitudes and the skills required to analyze, interpret, and describe the expressive qualities of visual form, qualities found not only in works of art, but alto in the forms we encounter in the environment at large.”
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Art History
is a discipline in which the students learn about the historical as well as the cultural background of the artworks they study. They should know that all art is influenced and shaped by the culture in which it was created. Students taking a closer look at art from a certain time, location, and people will see that the artwork can also have influences on the culture and how the people of that culture view themselves. Students will compare and contrast cultural differences and learn to recognize some similarities between different cultures. Students are also given the chance to learn about individual artists and their works. By studying biographical material about the artists’ lives, he or she is presented more as a real person with the same strengths, weaknesses, and problems we all have. Children enjoy learning about artist’s lives in story form. Presented in this way it is easier to remember the unique contributions the artist made to a certain culture or age.
Aesthetics
as the fourth discipline tries to encourage students to join in conversations about the nature and meaning of art. Everyone makes judgements about the artwork they see. It is useful for children to reflect on the reasons they value certain works of art over others. Some judgements are based on personal preference, and some may be based on what they see as holding the qualities of good art. Children must learn to recognize these qualities and appreciate good works of art on their own. A genuine appreciation of art is built by exposure to all kinds of artworks, good as well as bad. We must give our students ample opportunity to perceive and enjoy what is visually interesting and satisfying in our world—both manmade and natural. We must help to nurture the aesthetic sensibility of children by talking about form, color, and texture in artworks and pointing out contrasts and harmonies, and other interesting characteristics present in the world.
In a speech given at the National Invitational Conference sponsored by the Getty Center, Dr. Donald W. Crawford states that “by confronting questions about the basic concepts we use to describe art, aesthetics can sensitize us to the complexity of artworks, to the values we find in them, and to the place of art in our lives and cultures.”
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I have structured my unit using the above components in order to reveal to my students the great diversity of American Portait Painting, while providing a sense of history and strengthening art appreciation skills. The information derived from each of these components and their interrelationships contribute significantly to a fuller, richer understanding of art. My goal is to aid students in gaining technical competence in producing their own works of art, as well as help them to a deeper understanding and enjoyment of Portrait Painting. By taking the emphasis off of producing a certain amount of art projects, more time is left for the process of thinking, feeling, perceiving, and responding in an artistic manner. It is the process we go through in experiencing art and what we learn about ourselves while making art that is most important, not the quantity or quality of the product.