Kristin M. Wetmore
Activity One
Students will visit the Yale University Art Gallery to view Lange's
Migrant Mother
. This work is not on permanent display, and an appointment must be made to view the photograph. The engraving of
Derby Day
, by Auguste Blanchard is at the Yale Center for British Art. This work is also not on display, and an appointment must be made for students to view the print.
Guernica
is under copyright, and students will have to see the image projected or in a book. Students should work in pairs or in groups of three to discuss the documents and artwork and then determine whether and how they reveal, criticize or correctly report the events that they respresent.
For each of the images, students should go through the Describe-Analyze-Interpret-Judge exercise.
1. Describe – What do you see? What are the subject matter, medium, art style, and size?
2. Analyze -- How is the work organized as a complete composition? Name the Elements and Principles of Design?
3. Interpret -- What is happening in the artwork? How does it make you feel? What does the artwork make you think of?
4. Judge -- What was the artist trying to explain? The student will make inferences about the message in the work, going beyond narration.
Activity Two
The art historian and philosopher Max Raphael states that Picasso created "a new form of the ancient, eternally changing tradition of historical painting."
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Students should compare
Guernica
with another painting that is a more traditional depiction of war such as
The Death of General Wolfe
by Benjamin West. Explain what Raphael means by his quote.
Compare
Guernica
with the photograph
A
Harvest of Death, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
, July, 1963 by Timothy Sullivan. Which artwork is more an accurate description of war? How does the artist project his own interpretation of events into the artwork?
Activity Three
Look at the series of photos taken by Dorothea Lange of Florence Thompson and her children. Why is the photo that we know as
Migrant Mother
so strong compositionally?
Does the retouching of the photograph change the historical accuracy of the photograph? How so?
Is photography a better recorder of history?
Activity Four:
All tenth grade students in Connecticut must pass the Connecticut Academic Proficiency Test (CAPT). One portion of this test is Reading for Information, which requires students to read three non-fiction articles and answer a combination of 12 multiple-choice and 6 open-ended questions. There are two types of open-ended questions: Developing and Interpretation and Demonstrating a Critical Stance. This activity will allow students to practice taking this type of test.
Students will read "Migrant Mother, 1936,"
Eyewitness to History
, http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/migrantmother.htm, 2005 and complete the following statements.
Demonstrating a Critical Stance:
1. The author assumes that the reader of this article already knows
a. who John Steinbeck was.
b. what the Great Depression was.
c. what a homing pigeon is.
d. all of the above.
2. Based on the information in the article, is it fair to assume that
a. the woman in the photo was grateful.
b. the children didn't like being photographed.
c. Lange was pleased she decided to take pictures that day.
d. Lange wished she had never taken the photo.
Developing an Interpretation
3. Which of the following best describes the central idea of the article?
a. Lange's most memorable photo happened by chance.
b. Seasonal agricultural workers have a hard time finding work.
c. John Steinbeck was influenced by Dorothea Lange.
d. Lange took a great deal of photographs.
4. The article implies that
a. pea pickers are lazy.
b. the photo helped the mother and children by getting them food.
c. Lange shouldn't have taken the photo.
d. the Farm Security Administration had a great deal of money.
Open-ended Questions
1. What is the reason that Dorothea Lange turned around and drove back to the camp?
2. Why does the author include the quotation, "The pea crop at Nipomo had frozen and there was no work for anybody. But I did not approach the tents and shelters of other stranded pea-pickers. It was not necessary; I knew I had recorded the essence of my assignment"?
Activity Five
Students will read "The Bombing of Guernica, 1937,"
Eyewitness to History
, http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/guernica.htm (2005) and complete the following statements:
Demonstrating a Critical Stance:
1. The author assumes that the reader of this article already knows
a. why the planes were flying low.
b. what the Luftwaffe is.
c. why Hitler supported Franco.
d. when World War II started.
2. The author of the article wants the reader to appreciate
a. the conviction of the Luftwaffe.
b. the effects of fascism.
c. the danger the reporter was in.
d. that unarmed women and children were killed.
Developing an Interpretation
3. Which of the following best describes the central idea of the article?
a. The bombing of this town was unjust.
b. The bombing of this town was part of the war effort.
c. The bombing of this town was necessary to secure the border.
d. The bombing of this town was the beginning of World War II
4. The article implies that
a. Picasso was outraged by the bombing.
b. Picasso supported Franco.
c. Picasso was in the town of Guernica at the time of the bombing.
d. Picasso was one of the volunteer fighters.
Open-ended Questions
1. Why does the author include the quote, "Unbeknownst to the residents of Guernica, they had been slated by their attackers to become guinea pigs in an experiment designed to determine just what it would take to bomb a city into oblivion"?
2. What evidence does the author provide that the bombing was unjust?
Activity 6
Students should look at the essay, "Composite Portraits" by Francis Galton which describe the process of combining many faces into one portrait: http://www.galton.org/essays/1870-1879/galton-1879-jaigi-composite-portraits.pdf Students should examine other online documents concerning physiognomy.
Working in pairs, students should examine these documents. Students should report to the class how class and race are represented in Frith's painting and on the accuracy of his characters.