Activity One:
Objectives:
1. Students will think about the conception, planning, and skillful execution that went into each object, as well as their function.
2. The student will appreciate the design, pattern, shape, form, color, and materials used to create the object.
3. Students will be introduced to the methodology of Decribition, Deduction, and Speculation in relation to aesthetics.
4. Students will write critical observations of the artwork.
Resources that will be used include: books, journals, Yale Art Gallery, and slides of African artwork.
Motivation and Pre-Gallery Visit: Teacher will begin by introducing students to the Yoruba, Mende, and Temne cultures through the use of African art books and slides.
Teacher will show slides of African art from the Yale Art Gallery. Teacher will explain to students how the Yoruba twins came about, discuss the beliefs that surround the twins; discuss with students the process of Describing, Deducing and Speculating about artwork. Teacher will then discuss the aesthetics that surround these works. Teacher will also talk to students about the purpose of the Yale Art Gallery field trip.
Purpose: Students will learn about materials, techniques, aesthetics and functions of everyday African objects. Unit objects will be discussed with this purpose in mind.
Yale Art Gallery Activities:
1. Students will take a tour of the African Art collection at the Yale Art Gallery.
2. Students question worksheets will be completed.
3. Students will work in cooperative groups of four, with paired partners.
Vocabulary:
1. Aesthetics - the description and explanation artistic phenomena by means of psychology, sociology, ethnology or history; pertaining to beauty.
2. Oral aesthetics - the ability to verbally define aesthetics, creative processes, and cultural forms that derive from the African oral-life and cosmology.
3. Sculpture- a freestanding three-dimensional object.
4. Object - a material thing.
5. Artifact - an object designed and created by man, usually having a useful purpose.
6.Description - what can be observed in the object.
7. Deduction - the relationship between the object and the perceiver.
8. Speculation - the formulation of hypotheses.
9. Proportion - relationships of size or amounts of color, line, space, and shapes.
10. Symbol - an object or design used in art which signifies a particular meaning.
Activity:
1. Students will look at the slides and describe orally what they see. (Examine the colors, patterns, materials and detail of sculptures).
2. Students will study the sculptures in the slides and the Yale Art Gallery. After studying the sculptures, students will list the details that they can remember about the sculpture and draw them without looking. Discussion will take place.
Questions:
1. Describe what you see in these sculptures.
2. How many sections are each sculpture divided into?
3. What makes the sculptures seem balanced?
4. Describe each sculpture. What does it remind you of?
5. Which sculpture is more concerned with life and death?
6. How has distortion been exaggerated in of the sculptures?
7. Why would you guess that African sculptors do not portray the human body the way that it looks to us in human life?
8. Which sculpture is smoother in texture? Which has a rougher surface?
9. What do sculptures like these make you think of or deduce about them?
10. What can you speculate about these sculptures?
Lesson Two:
Aesthetic Comparison:
Materials:
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Slides (Yale Art Gallery), pencils, drawing paper.
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“Ibeji Twins” (20th c.); “Sowo Wui Helmet”: (20th c.); “Aron Etoma Mask” (20th c.).
Students will use pencil and paper during this activity.
Questions:
1. Think of the various ways these sculptures can be interpreted? Draw your own interpretation of these sculptures.
2. What makes these sculptures art?
3. What makes these sculptures alike?
4. What makes these sculptures different?
Lessons Three:
Aesthetic Experience:
Objectives:
Students will:
1. Define aesthetic experience and differentiate it from a practical experience.
2. Write about their aesthetic response to simple practical experiences from their everyday lives.
3. Write about their aesthetic response to a selected piece of artwork.