Learning to Look - Grand Rapids Art Museum

Learning to Look
Gathering Meaning Through Observation
The following materials are intended to assist teachers in taking advantage of the unique learning
experiences provided by permanent collection at the Grand Rapids Art Museum.
Tour Overview
The Learning to Look tour and teacher packet material have been designed to provide
educators with resources that can be used to teach from the permanent collection at the
Grand Rapids Art Museum. Included with this packet are three images that have been
selected to demonstrate the versatility of GRAMs collection. Additionally, strategies for
viewing and discussing artwork are included along with general content ideas and
suggestions for pre and post-visit activities. This material has been compiled to offer a
starting point from which to introduce students to careful looking techniques and develop
their understanding of the visual arts.
Visual Literacy
A key to assisting beginning and mid-level viewers create meaning from art observations
is to encourage the development of their oral and written communication skills in relation
to the visual arts. Research has found that beginning viewers are “accountive viewers”
meaning that they are inherently narrative and search for stories in artwork. Teachers can
cultivate their students’ visual literacy by providing images which can be interpreted
narratively, by providing open-ended and developmentally appropriate questions, and by
allowing students to participate in group discussions within their peer group – thereby
encouraging the scaffolding of knowledge between and among students.
GRAM docents are trained to lead inquiry-based tours and will use specific questioning
techniques on the tour to encourage a personal response by the students. This will allow
students to participate in a guided group discussion while in the galleries. An inquirystyle, personal response approach to communicating about artwork can be useful in the
classroom as well.
Beginning a personal response assignment or discussion
is as simple as first choosing an image with a narrative
basis. Once the artwork has been chosen, students
should be directed to spend some time quietly looking at
the artwork. They can be directed to let their eyes and
mind wander as they take time to look closely at the
image. When they have spent a few minutes looking
intently, they should be directed to either complete a
written response or prompted to begin a class
discussion. A series of proposed questions is listed below:
Scene at Susten Pass, Switzerland
Asher B. Durand
What is going on in this picture? What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can you find?
What do you enjoy about this artwork? What do you see that makes you say that?
What do you dislike about this artwork? What do you see that makes you say that?
What does this artwork make you think of? What do you see that makes you say that?
If you had to describe this artwork to a friend – what would you say about it? Why?
What is the mood of this image? What do you see that makes you say that?
How do you feel about having to spend time with this artwork? Why do you say that?
Has your first impression changed now that you’ve spent time with it?
As you may notice, many of these questions have a follow up question, “What do you see
that makes you say that?” This question, though seemingly arbitrary, asks viewers to
begin to look at an image separate from their own past life experiences and to find
evidence for their response within the artwork itself - a key concept for beginning viewers
to understand and utilize to develop their critical thinking and communication skills.
Formal Elements
The ability to analyze the formal qualities of an artwork is
integral to a complete understanding of the art-making
process. Formal qualities can be identified as elements such
as composition, color, line, texture, scale, proportion,
balance, contrast, and rhythm. And although the three
example images are very different, the same elements of art
are used within all of them. For example, each work
contains a series of distinct shapes, which together form an
arrangement – or composition. These shapes may be basic,
like the square holes and circular knobs on Sitzmachine.
They may be perceived, like the overall composition made
from the adjoining parallelograms of color in Blue White. Or
they may be subtle, like the triangle shape suggested by the
mountain in Scene at Susten Pass, Switzerland.
Blue White
Ellsworth Kelly
By using formal elements of art to make observations, students can be presented with
questions that will help them to better understand the meaning of the piece. Some
general questions that could be asked are:
Shape/Composition - What shapes do you see? How do those shapes come together to
create the finished work? Are the shapes symmetrical or asymmetrical? How does the
configuration of shapes affect the artwork?
Line - What kinds of lines are used? Do the lines create a sense of motion? Depth?
Stillness? Are the lines distinct or hard to see?
Color - What colors do you see? Are they mostly light or mostly dark? How are the
colors organized? (Do they blend into one another, clash with each other etc.) Why do
you think the artist chose these colors? How do the colors make you feel?
Pattern/Texture - Do you see any patterns? What do you think the object would feel
like if you touched it? Does Sitzmachine look comfortable to sit in? If not, what would
you change about it to make it more comfortable?
Light - How does light affect the work? In the paintings, can you tell where the source
of light is coming from? Can you imagine what type of a shadow Sitzmachine would
cast?
Subject/Function - What is the subject of the work? Are there people depicted, and if
so, how? Do you feel like a part of the artwork or just an observer? Where do you think
this artwork was originally intended to be seen? If Sitzmachine were a painting of a chair
instead of an actual chair would you think about it differently?
Interpretation – Why do you think the artist created this work? What do you think he’s
trying to say with it? What do these works say to you? Do you feel certain emotions
associated with each artwork? What effect do you think the artist’s time period had on
his work? What does this artwork mean to you? Which of your formal observations
helped you to discern this meaning?
The answers to these questions combine to create a more defined idea of the artwork’s
meaning. For example, Josef Hoffmann designed Sitzmachine using elegant, simple
shapes and lines to create furniture that is functional yet just as beautiful as the “fine
arts.” Asher B. Durand painted his landscape with great detail to depict nature accurately
yet he made purposeful creative choices to idealize the scene in order to convey a specific
mood. He emphasized the grandeur of nature by making the mountains huge and
impressive while the fields and buildings below minute in comparison. Ellsworth Kelly
used these formal elements by abstracting the objects, shadows and architectural patterns
he witnessed in both nature and city-life to investigate and emphasize the power and
beauty of a simple color and shape.
Understanding the Artist
Another way to find meaning in a work of art is to understand the life and philosophy of
the artist. Knowing about the artist’s education, partnerships and ideas about art can help
the viewer to see a work with new insight and find new meaning that they may not have
gained by just focusing on the formal aspects. Learning about the artist is a key part of
learning to look.
Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kelly is among the most important American artist of the generation after
Alexander Calder. In Paris during the 1950’s, Kelly became a close friend of Calder,
whose influence on his art he has always acknowledged. Kelly’s abstract paintings,
sculptures, and works on paper explore the vision and relationships of pure color and
form. In the 1960’s, critics considered the artist a leading proponent of the new PostPainterly Abstraction movement. Now in his eighties, Ellsworth Kelly’s preeminent
status and achievement in American Art has long been internationally recognized.
In 1968, Kelly began to experiment with shaped canvases that extended the traditional
rectilinear format of western painting. One of the shaped canvases of 1968 was the
bisected parallelogram or “angled banner” as nicknamed by the artist. Kelly felt that this
format engaged the eye because the shapes and colors seemed held in “dynamic
equilibrium.” He produced only three large-scale oil paintings in this shape, each eight
feet in height. These three variations of the “banner” shape, Red Green, Red Blue, and
Green Black, were followed in 1970 by a fourth version in the lithograph Orange Green.
Blue White is the fifth and final variation on the “banner” theme. Monumental in scale, it
is both sculptural relief and painting.
In Blue White Kelly orchestrates the shapes and colors so that they are held in suspension.
The white and blue are adjusted in tone and saturation so that neither dominates the other;
the colors and angle of the shapes allows the work to float, without seeming to be bottom
or top heavy; and any movement suggested by the forward thrust of the work to the right
is held in check by the angle of the “banner.” Although bisected into two color panels,
Blue White is also read as a single shape. What appears simple is complex. The
declarative shape of its basic but deceptive geometry creates a dynamic equilibrium that
engages the eye. As an assertive form that glides like a heeling sailboat, it lyrically
evokes the colors, shapes, and movements of nature.
Josef Hoffmann
Rejecting the ostentatiousness of former periods, Josef
Hoffmann described his artistic philosophy: “Beauty is not
a question of wealth but of intention and character.” With
this in mind, Hoffmann created works of singular
simplicity and function but also of great design. Studying
under renowned architect Otto Wagner and taking
inspiration from the geometric forms of Greek temples
and buildings on the island of Capri, Hoffmann used
simple shapes and colors to create public structures,
private homes, furniture and various other items for the
home.
Sitzmachine
Joseph Hoffman
Hoffman, along with his mentor Wagner and other artists such as Gustav Klimt, formed
the Vienna Secession in 1897. The Secession was part of the Art Nouveau movement
and its goal was to bring more abstract, modern and pure forms into architecture and the
applied arts. In 1903, Hoffmann established the Wiener Werkstätte, a workshop that
would design and create in the Secession style. The goal of the Wiener Werkstätte was to
produce objects of superior quality and craftsmanship that formed a unified interior
space. Hoffmann believed that decoration should be minimal and that forms should be
simplified to their geometric state. He also believed that the applied arts (furniture,
utensils etc…) were just as important as the fine arts (painting, sculpture etc…). One of
the earliest commissions received by Wiener Werkstätte was the Purkersdorf Sanatorium
(1904), a hospital in Vienna dedicated to treating patients with respiratory illness.
Hoffmann was the architect for the building, and was also responsible for designing the
interior. The Sitzmachine is one of the many pieces of furniture and other decorative
objects that Hoffmann designed for the Purkersdorf Sanatorium.
Created by the J & J Kohn firm in 1905, the chair contains Hoffmann’s signature
geometric forms, simplified yet refined design, and a concern for function.
With its adjustable back, the Sitzmachine is among the first manually adjustable reclining
chairs in the history of design. This new technology allowed for greater functionality
when caring for patients. The chair remained in production by the J & J Kohn firm until
1916 in a number of versions that also included back and seat cushions. Even though the
Wiener Werkstätte closed in 1932 and Hoffmann died in 1956, his work was extremely
influential to the Art Deco movement and to architects like Le Courbusier.
Asher B. Durand
Asher B. Durand began his artistic career as an engraver in New Jersey. This early
training, especially his apprenticeship under Peter Maverick, gave him the precision and
formal technique he would need as a painter. Durand ventured into painting with
portraits and history subjects but after encouragement from his friend and landscape
painter Thomas Cole, Durand himself began to paint landscapes. Cole and Durand
formed the core of the group known as the Hudson River School; a group of artists whose
landscapes became the prevalent genre of nineteenth century American art. The Hudson
River School, though informed by English eighteenth century and Dutch seventeenth
century landscape traditions, sought to create a distinctly American art that incorporated
Transcendentalist themes. The landscapes were expansive and dramatic, emphasizing the
glory of creation and the smallness of the human presence. They featured rocky
landscapes, lush foliage, waterfalls, and the luminous light of the Hudson River Valley in
New York and the Adirondacks, Catskills, and White Mountains of New England. From
these landscapes, Durand garnered much success, gaining wealthy patrons and becoming
the president of the National Academy of Art and Design from 1845-1861.
Scene at Susten Pass, Switzerland was painted during Durand’s trip to Europe, which
lasted from 1840 to 1841. The purpose of the trip was to study the old masters,
especially Claude Lorraine, whose refined, idyllic landscapes greatly inspired Durand.
Lorraine’s poetic rendering of light playing across idyllic scenes is echoed in this work.
Scene at Susten Pass, Switzerland is one of the only paintings by Durand without an
American subject.
Durand described his landscape paintings as “inspired by the great happiness of standing
face to face with nature.” In his pieces, there is always a tension between the ideal and
the real. Durand’s landscapes are certainly realistic; in fact, they have been described as
“the closest possible approximation on canvas of the artist’s visual sensation.” The
individual compositional elements look very real; however the combination of these
elements gives an idealistic air to the scene. The perfect lighting, the balanced
composition, the humble farming village nestled beneath the majestic mountain are all
certainly idyllic elements.
When Thomas Cole died in 1848, Durand was recognized as the leading American
landscape painter. Durand lived to the age of ninety and died on his New Jersey family
farm in 1886.
Classroom Activities
The activities below offer ideas for making connections between the Learning to Look
tour and your classroom. You may need to alter the activities to fit the ages and abilities
of your students and your time constraints. We have indicated the State of Michigan
content standards addressed by the activities in these materials.
The Art of Design
Elementary-age students will enjoy making their own “fancy chair” after viewing the
Sitzmachine by Joseph Hoffman. After a class discussion about all of the different types
of chairs in our homes, schools and public places along with a talk about the different
functions of those chairs, students can be invited to create their own chairs using colored
paper and a variety of decorative materials. Students can be prompted by asking them to
create an “ideal” chair for themselves. Or you can make it even more interesting by
creating a series of cards with adjectives such as cheerful, outrageous, angry, etc. and ask
students to create a chair that represents that word. Students can present their chairs to
the class with an explanation of why they made their design choices. Particularly
successful materials include colored construction paper/card stock, craft sticks, pipe
cleaners, glue, decorative paper, stickers, magazine cutouts, etc.
Secondary students will benefit from learning the full-scope of design responsibilities
from concept to completion.
1. Challenge students to create a chair design inspired by a painting of their choice.
Students should begin with information sketching exercises to begin thinking
about the best ways to creatively solve this “problem”. After initial sketches are
produced, ask students to further elaborate on their design concept by considering
the following questions: What is the use of the chair? What is the size of the
chair? What is the shape of the chair? What material is the chair made from?
2. Following careful reflection of both structure and purpose, students can create a
more detailed drawing of the design. This design may then be transferred into 3dimensional maquette using a variety of media including wood, clay, wire, etc.
Once students have completed the maquette of the design they may further
evaluate their design using the following prompts: How has the chair been
constructed? Describe any moving parts. What are tasks that would be
performed in the chair? Where would it be used? Who might use it? What
improvements might you make? Sketch your improvements.
3. Once the chair has been designed encourage the students to think about who
would purchase their chair and how it might be marketed. Have the students
create an advertisement for their chair. While creating the advertising material
have them think about the following questions: Who is their target market? What
might be the best place to sell the chair? Where would it be advertised?
Kelly in Context
1. To better understand the modern art movement and the artists involved, each
student can choose an artist from the list below and create a biography of the
person and, if appropriate, their relationship to the work of Ellsworth Kelly.
Students may reference visual examples of the artists work and may choose to
submit a written document or present the biography orally.
Suggested modern artists:
Josef Albers
Carl Andre
Jean Arp
Constantin Brancusi
Alexander Calder
Dan Flavin
David Hockney
Jasper Johns
Donald Judd
Sol Lewitt
Roy Lichtenstein
Robert Mangold
Brice Marden
Agnes Martin
Robert Morris
Kenneth Noland
Robert Rauschenberg
Claes Oldenburg
Frank Stella
2. Ellsworth Kelly based his minimal, hard-edged paintings on observations of the
world around him including Blue White. He used fragments of various subjects to
create flat, clean paintings of simplified, geometric shapes. These painted forms
are based on smaller segments of individual shapes extracted from whole objects
such as bits of architecture, parts of the human figure, reflections on water,
particular shadows cast by trees, etc. As a group, students may discuss Blue
White and any other reproductions of Kelly’s abstracted forms. They can be
prompted to answer what they think the shapes could have been abstracted from:
a stream of light? a form in a doorway? a part of an automobile? Students can
then utilize images from magazines or photos, constructed still-lives or a scene
from their surrounding landscape (nature, classroom, school architecture, etc.) to
create their own abstract paintings or collages by sketching an arrangement or
cropping an image, then further simplifying the composition and finally using
acrylic paint to lay down thick areas of color on a blank canvas or board.
Curriculum Content Standards
Arts Education
• All students will analyze, describe and evaluate works of art
• All students will apply skills and knowledge to create in the arts
• All students will understand, analyze, and describe the arts in their historical,
social and cultural contexts.
• All students will recognize, analyze, and describe connections among the arts;
between the arts and other disciplines; and between the arts and everyday life.
• All students will apply skills and knowledge to create in the arts.
Language Arts
• All students will focus on meaning and communication as they listen, speak,
view, read and write in personal, social, occupational, and civic contexts.
• All students will use the English language effectively.
• All students will demonstrate, analyze and reflect upon the skills and processes
used to communicate through listening, speaking, viewing, reading and
writing.
• All students will apply knowledge, ideas, and issues drawn from texts to their
lives and the lives of others.
Social Studies
• All students will acquire information from books, maps, newspapers, data sets and
other sources, organize and present the information in maps, graphs, charts
and timelines, interpret the meaning and significance of information, and use a
variety of electronic technologies to assist in accessing, and managing
information.
Vocabulary
Line - An element of art which refers to the continuous mark made on some surface by a
moving point. Often it defines a space, and may create an outline or contour, define a
silhouette; create patterns, or movement, and the illusion of mass or volume. It may be
two-dimensional (as with pencil on paper) three-dimensional (as with wire) or implied
(the edge of a shape or form).
Color - Produced by light of various wavelengths, and when light strikes an object and
reflects back to the eyes. An element of art with three properties: (1) hue or tint, (2)
intensity; and (3) value.
Hue - The name of any color as found in its pure state in the spectrum or
rainbow.
Tint - A soft and light color — one to which white has been added. For example,
white added to green makes a lighter green tint. Tint can also refer to the name of
whatever hue is dominant in a color. Something is tinted when color is added.
Shade - A color to which black or another dark hue has been added to make it
darker, tending to make them neutral in color. For example, black added to green
makes it a darker shade of green.
Intensity - The brightness or dullness of a hue or color. For instance, the
intensity of the pure color blue is very bright. When a lighter or darker color is
added to blue, the intensity is less bright, or more subdued.
Value - An element of art that refers to luminance or luminosity -- the lightness
or darkness of a color. Value changes from pure hues are called shades and tints.
Shape - An enclosed space defined and determined by other art elements such as line,
color, value, and texture. In painting and drawing, shapes may take on the appearance of
solid three-dimensional object even though they are limited to two dimensions — length
and width. This two-dimensional character of shape distinguishes it from form, which has
depth as well as length and width.
Form - In its widest sense, total structure; a synthesis of all the visible aspects of that
structure and of the manner in which they are united to create its distinctive character.
The form of a work is what enables us to perceive it. Form also refers to an element of
art that is three-dimensional (height, width, and depth) and encloses volume. For
example, a triangle, which is two-dimensional, is a shape, but a pyramid, which is threedimensional, is a form.
Texture – The surface quality or "feel" of an object, its smoothness, roughness, softness,
etc. Textures may be actual or simulated. Actual textures can be felt with the fingers,
while simulated textures are suggested by an artist in the painting of different areas of a
picture. Words describing textures include: flat, smooth, shiny, glossy, glittery, velvety,
feathery, soft, wet, gooey, furry, sandy, leathery, crackled, prickly, abrasive, rough, furry,
bumpy, corrugated, puffy, rusty, and slimy.
Pattern - A consistent or recurrent conceptual element, or the repetition of anything —
shapes, lines, or colors — also called a motif, in a design; as such it is one of the
principles of design.
Landscape - A painting, photograph or other work of art which depicts scenery such as
mountains, valleys, trees, rivers and forests.
Design - A plan, or to plan. The organization or composition of a work; the skilled
arrangement of its parts. An effective design is one in which the elements of art and
principles of design have been combined to achieve an overall sense of unity.
Post-Painterly Abstraction – A term coined by art critic Clement Greenberg to describe
the art produced after Abstract Expressionism between 1958 and 1970. It is characterized
as the opposite of painterly but rather clear and unbroken with sharp definition.
Hudson River School - A group of American landscape painters of the mid-nineteenth
century, who took a Romantic approach to depicting the Hudson River Valley, and of the
Catskill, Berkshire, and White Mountains, as well as lands further west. As the American
frontier moved westward, the Hudson River painters' views of this expanding territory
found an enthusiastic audience. Their pictures were often brashly theatrical, embracing
moral or literary associations.
Wiener Werkstatte – The design firm and workshop founded by Josef Hoffmann in
1903 that created jewelry, ceramics, furniture, fashion, wallpaper and fabric patterns and
architectural designs. This organization believed that the decorative or applied arts
should be on the same level as fine arts.
Additional Resources
Asher Durand
Copplestone, Trewin. The Hudson River School. New York: Gramercy. 1999.
Howat, John K. The Hudson River and its Painters. New York: American Legacy Press.
1983.
Minks, Louise. The Hudson River School. New York: Knickerbocker Press. 1998.
Wilmerding, John. American Light: The Luminist Movement, 1850-1875. Washington
D.C.: National Gallery of Art. 1980.
Joseph Hoffman
Brandstätter, Christian. Vienna 1900: Art, Life, & Culture. New York: Vendome Press.
2006.
Branstätter, Christian. Wiener Werkstätte: Design in Vienna 1903-1932. New York:
Harry N. Abrams. 2003.
Fahr-Becker, Gabriele. Wiener Werkstätte, 1903-1932. Köln, Germany: Taschen. 1995.
Hoffman, Josef. Josef Hoffman Designs. Munich, Germany: Prestel, New York: Neues
Publishing Co. 1992.
Kallir, Jane. Viennese Design and the Wiener Werkstätte. New York: G. Braziller. 1986.
Ellsworth Kelly
Axsom, Richard H. Drawn from Nature: the Plant Lithographs of Ellsworth Kelly.
Michigan: Grand Rapids Art Museum, New Haven: Yale University Press. 2005.
Axson, Richard H. The Prints of Ellsworth Kelly: a Catalgue Raisonne, 1945-1985. New
York, Hudson Hills Press, 1987.
Kelly, Ellsworth. Ellsworth Kelly: a retrosptective. New York: Guggenheim Museum,
H.N. Abrams. 1996.
Varnedoe, Kirk. Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art since Pollock. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press. 2006.
Upright, Diane. Ellsworth Kelly: Works on Paper. New York: H.N. Abrams, in
association with Fort Worth Art Museum. 1987.
Web resources
www.artlex.com
www.artcyclopedia.com
www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_72.html
www.wiener-werkstaette.com
Learning to Look
Gathering Meaning Through Observation
Evaluation Form
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