In this unit, art is used to enhance children’s understanding of Black History. Therefore, it is important for the teacher to develop a basic understanding of art before beginning this unit. When viewing a piece of art, many people believe the artist simply looked at something and then depicted it on canvas. While this may be true in some cases, a good artist will use a variety of techniques to enhance the quality and meanings of his/her painting. When viewing a piece, some important things to look for are lighting, visual doubling, lines that connect, facial features, objects, placement, horizon, and point of view.
An artist uses
lighting
to highlight individuals and/or depict the time of day.
Questions to ask when looking at lighting
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- Does the artist highlight a certain individual(s)? Why?
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- What makes the highlighted individual so important to the piece?
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- Who/what are the images in the shadows? Why are they there?
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- Does the lighting depict the time of day?
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- Why did the artist choose to portray that time of day?
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- Does the time of day affect the mood of the painting?
Visual doubling
is used to connect certain people and/or objects. A person’s triangular stance may mimic a church steeple off in the background, thus portraying the individual as Godlike.
Questions to ask when looking at visual doubling
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- Why has the artist connected these two objects/people?
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- What is the underlying message?
To connect certain individuals or objects, an artist may use
lines
. For instance, a thin strip of clouds on the horizon may connect a character in the foreground to something in the distant background.
Questions to ask when looking at lines
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- Why did the artist connect these people/objects?
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- How does my perception change knowing these people/objects are connected?
Facial features
allow the viewer to understand the mood of those in the painting.
Questions to ask when looking at facial features
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- How do you think this person is feeling?
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- Why do you think this person is feeling that way?
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- Where is the person looking?
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- What is the significance of the person’s gaze?
Objects
can be placed in a painting because of their significance.
Questions to ask when looking at objects
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- Why was this object placed here?
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- Was it important to the person or event depicted?
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- If the object had not been included, would it change the mood of the painting?
An artist generally
places
the most important characters in the center of the painting. Usually, these characters are the largest because they are towards the front of the painting.
Questions to ask when looking at placement
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- Why is the center figure there? What makes him/her important?
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- How do the other figures enhance the painting?
Looking at the
horizon
is a helpful tool for determining who is most important in a painting. Often, the artist will put characters with greater importance above the horizon and characters with lesser importance below the horizon.
Questions to ask when looking at the horizon
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- Who is above/below the horizon?
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- What makes the characters above the horizon more important?
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- What makes the characters below the horizon less important?
The artist may intentionally paint a specific
point of view.
Questions to ask when looking at point of view
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- Where is the viewer standing?
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- What is the meaning of that viewpoint?
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- What would we feel if we were in the scene?