Nature Revealed - Grand Rapids Art Museum

Nature Revealed
Exploring the relationship between Nature and
Creativity
The Harvest
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
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 Nature Revealed teacher packet material has 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 relationship between nature and creativity within 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.
The Nature Revealed tour has been designed to teach students the relationship between
nature and the visual arts as well as the observation skills needed to interpret and find
meaning in artwork. Three pieces have been chosen to demonstrate how nature has
inspired artists to create. Art often reveals a human response to nature whether it is awe,
fear, control, wonder, domination, curiosity, or some other response. Through careful
observation, students will discuss how artists have depicted nature and what emotions or
ideas they evoke.
The tour also provides a good starting point from which to teach students about how to
impact our environment in a positive way. Nature has been an important theme and
inspiration throughout the history of art. Because of this, GRAM is committed to being a
good steward of the environment so that we may preserve natural habitats for future
artistic inspiration. GRAM is the first LEED certified art museum in the world and has
made specific choices in building the museum in order to conserve art and the
environment for future generations to learn from and enjoy. Students will learn some of
the environmentally friendly aspects of GRAM during their tour.
LEED Certification
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, building construction and operation use one
third of our total energy consumption, two-thirds of our electricity, and one-eighth of our
water.1 Building construction also produces 136 million tons of construction and
demolition waste in the U.S.2. That is approximately 2.8 lbs per person per day.
GRAM worked to design a LEED certified museum to significantly reduce or eliminates
the negative impact of its building on the environment. Leadership in Energy &
Environmental Design, or LEED, is a rating system designed by the U.S. Green Building
Council, which provides a standard of measurement to define what is meant by “green”
building. The LEED certification system is divided into six categories that span all
aspects of the building from architectural design and construction to operation. These
categories are: Sustainable Sites, Materials & Resources, Water Efficiency, Energy &
Atmosphere, Indoor Environmental Quality, and Innovation & Design. Buildings earn
points within each category that lead to one of four levels of certification when totaled:
1
U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, March 2001, Monthly
Energy Review
2
U.S. EPA 1998, “Characterization of Building-Related Construction and Demolition
Debris in the United States”
certified, silver, gold, or platinum. GRAM has earned a high level certification and has
become the first newly constructed, LEED certified art museum in the world.
A large portion of the sustainable sites category is the building location. GRAM has
chosen to build on a previously developed site to reduce the environmental impact of its
location. The location of the building also promotes the use of alternative transportation
with its close proximity to many Rapid public bus lines and its inclusion of bicycle
accommodations.
The materials and resources used to construct the art museum were carefully selected for
their sustainable content and their ability to be recycled. Over 10% of construction
materials have either post consumer or post industrial recycled content. To reduce the
amount of transportation related pollution produced by acquiring construction materials,
GRAM used local manufacturers to provide over 20% of its materials. While 50% of the
raw materials used were extracted from the region. This also supported the local
economy. Alterations in construction standard practice insured that over 75% of the
building construction, demolition and land clearing debris was diverted from landfills by
reuse and recycling. Large dumpsters were used to sort metal, wood, plastic, and trash
throughout the construction process. GRAM has also instituted a recycling policy that
separates metal, plastic, glass, and paper from trash on a daily basis.
The building has many distinctive water systems designed to conserve water usage while
providing beautiful retreats within the museum. An innovative water collection system
gathers rainwater from the roof and stores it in large underground cisterns to be reused in
the irrigation of the museum courtyards and landscaped areas and in restrooms. The
rainwater is collected from the roof and is stored in one of two separate cistern systems.
The first set of cisterns store water for restroom use. Located under the building, these
cisterns are each three stories tall and will be filled with rainwater by the end of the
spring. The second set of cisterns, beneath the pocket park, stores water to be used by the
water wall and landscape irrigation. By reusing collected rainwater in this way, GRAM
will reduce its demand for city treated water by 20%.
The Energy & Atmosphere category tracks the energy used to light and heat or cool the
building. To create an atmosphere of comfort both for the visitor and the art, the museum
is equipped with monitoring systems that continuously meter lighting, heating & cooling,
and humidity. Seventy percent of the museum is naturally lit providing visitors with
multiple outdoor views and allowing for less energy to be used for artificial light.
Window glass throughout the entire museum is UV rated, filtering out damaging
ultraviolet rays. Motion sensors control artificial lighting in the office area and education
center to reduce energy usage as well.
The building is also equipped with efficient heating and cooling systems that monitor
temperature and humidity. This system is integrated with carbon dioxide monitoring
sensors that detect the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. When the sensor detects low
levels of carbon dioxide in the air due to low occupancy of the room, it adjusts the
amount of ventilated air. This conserves energy used to heat and cool the building.
Similar to the Energy & Atmosphere category, the Indoor Environmental Quality
category looks at aspects of the building that affect its interior conditions such as
temperature and the amount of daylight entering the museum. However, it also takes into
account chemical emissions that affect air quality. Materials such as wood, carpet, paint,
adhesives, and sealants emit VOC’s or Volatile Organic Compounds, which can be
detrimental to air quality and occupant health. GRAM has used low VOC emitting
materials in its construction to ensure the best air quality possible for occupants and
artwork. The museum is also a non-smoking facility.
The Innovation & Design category accounts for any features that go above and beyond
the requirements set by the LEED Rating System. The carbon dioxide monitoring system
discussed earlier is one example of the innovations built into the museum. GRAM has
instituted a Green housekeeping and maintenance program as well, which uses recycled
and biodegradable products in the maintenance of the building including soaps and paper
products. We have also produced educational materials to educate the public about
Green building and the importance of sustaining art and the planet.
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:
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.
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?
Light - How does light affect the work? In the paintings, can you tell where the source
of light is coming from?
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?
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?
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. Below you will find short overviews of three
artists and the artwork they will see on their tour.
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
Scene at Susten Pass, Switzerland
the Hudson River School; a group of artists
Asher B. Durand
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.
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
One of the founding members of the group Die Brücke, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff was a
pioneer of the Expressionism movement. Schmidt-Rottluff, along with Fritz Bleyl, Erick
Heckel and Ernst Ludwig Kircher, formed Die Brücke after meeting at architecture
school in 1905. The Dresden-based group sought to bring the ideas of Art Nouveau and
Neo-Impressionism to Germany acting as the bridge (or die brücke in German) between
Germany and the rest of Europe. The group disbanded in 1913 largely because of
Kirchner’s “Chronik der Brücke,” a summary of the group’s formation and work. The
“Chronik” was considered one-sided and written without the consent of the rest of the
group; so after its publication, the members went their separate ways.
The Harvest
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
Schmidt-Rottluff and the other Expressionists found
inspiration in the saturated color and strident
brushstrokes of Neo-Impressionists like Cezanne and
Van Gogh. They also valued the “primitive” art of
Africa and Oceania for its geometric forms and its deep
connection to the most elemental aspects of man and
nature. The Expressionists used bright colors, often
juxtaposed with dissonant hues that created tension and
the illusion of perspective. They believed that every
strong feeling could and must be expressed in art.
Therefore, each bold swatch of color was the visual
depiction of a deep emotion or feeling.
The Harvest’s color and composition are in line with the Expressionists’ ideas about
emotion, but also their beliefs about nature and humanity. Landscape was an important
subject for the artist and his Die Brücke colleagues. They saw nature as pure, consoling,
and an antidote to the alienating aspects of modern urban life. The city, especially at the
industrial turn of the century, was an oppressive, immoral place. In response to this,
Schmidt-Rottluff spent a great deal of time sketching and painting in small villages on the
North Sea. In The Harvest, he depicts a rural scene of men doing honest, hard work, far
away from the corruption of the city. His harvesters use pre-modern tools to cut and
bundle wheat, suggesting ancient practices. Saturated oranges, yellows, and blues with
green accents evoke the colorations of folk art and overwhelm the eye. Used for
expressive effect rather than descriptive purposes, color and simplified, sketch-like
shapes celebrate a seasonal and primal ritual of the countryside. Schmidt-Rottuff’s
primitive forms echo each other and hint at affinities among figures, tools, and the strands
of wheat. The sum effect of Schmidt-Rottluff’s expressive handling of color and form is
a poetic tribute to the unity of nature, man, and work.
Gerrit Albertus Beneker
Provincetown Pier, Winter, 1918
Provincetown Pier, Summer, 1916
The artist, Gerrit Beneker, was born in Grand Rapids in 1882 to a family of Dutch
immigrants. His art of the early 20th century was viewed as a response to the changes he
witnessed as a result of the Industrial Revolution in America. He depicted the hope and
the energy of the period. Beneker, whose work included paintings, prints, drawings, and
graphic illustrations, started his career as an illustrator in New York City in 1905. His
early work for magazine covers, showed men working in harmony with the new
technology and he became known as America’s “foremost painter of industry.” He
valued working men and women and their contribution to society as they worked
alongside of the rapidly changing technology.
After initially training at the Chicago Art Institute, Beneker received a scholarship to
study at the Art Students League in New York City. He returned to Grand Rapids at one
point to marry his high school sweetheart. The couple made New York their home where
he continued to work as an illustrator. Interested in learning more about light and color,
Beneker decided to move to the quaint fishing village of Provincetown, Massachusetts in
1913, to study with Charles Hawthorne and the Cape Cod School of Art. His desire was
to someday paint for his own pleasure instead of for the art editors of the magazines.
While studying plein air techniques with Charles Hawthorne, Beneker’s palette softened
as he experimented with free brushstrokes and less rigid forms. While living with his
young family in Provincetown, Beneker painted seascapes, wharf scenes and fishermen.
Provincetown, Winter, 1918 and Provincetown, Summer, 1916 show how the artist took
advantage of the changing seasons, living at the tip of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. He
depicted one of his favorite motifs, the wharf, at various times of the year. Beneker’s
pair of Provincetown Pier paintings describes the wharf at two very different seasons. He
especially enjoyed summer time at the Cape and was not emotionally affected when an
especially hard winter hit in 1918. Ice floes blocked the harbor, pushing boards against
one another and destroying wharves, making it difficult to buy necessary supplies for
living. Beneker took it in stride though saying, “But why worry? We are rich in our love
and our children, which is something all the money in the world cannot buy.”
Classroom Activities
Nature Inspires
This lesson can challenge students to think critically and discover ways that artists and
artwork can communicate with and inspire viewers by featuring natural subjects.
Teachers may choose to facilitate classroom or small group discussions, assign oral
presentations or creative writing projects. Students can be asked to use critical thinking
skills to examine how images of nature can communicate with viewers, reveal emotions,
signify the importance of our landscapes and persuade people to preserve the Earth and
our natural environments.
1. Students can be asked to find an image whether from a source such as the
National Geographic, a reproduction of a famous artwork, a postcard or a personal
photo. If the class is studying a specific region – Michigan, the Rocky Mountains
or another country – encouraging students to search out images from this region
can more closely relate the project to your current classroom activities.
2. Teachers may also choose to bring in their own images featuring natural subjects
– including Scene at Susten Pass, Switzerland by Asher Durand.
3. Students may also be assigned to create their own image that makes an important
statement about their surrounding landscape as a subject.
Valuable and Sizeable Landscapes
Elementary students will enjoy learning the basic concept of perspective with the
following project:
1. Students will think of a landscape and draw several horizontal lines across the
paper. These lines may be curvy hills, zig-zag mountains or any other inventive
lines.
2. Next, students will choose one color plus white for their paint tray. They will mix
one small brush load of that of that color to the white paint and paint this very
light color on the top section.
3. Students will add more color to the white paint and continue to paint each section
more colorful than the previous area. Sections should be slightly darker in color,
as they are lower on the paper. Let dry.
4. Next, students should draw an object on construction paper that will fit into their
landscape. This object should be drawn three times in large, medium and small
sizes.
5. Once the paint is dry, students should glue their objects onto their painting,
placing the largest one closest to the bottom, the medium size in the middle area
and the smallest object near the top.
The goals of this lesson are to teach children about value perspective and the effects of
diminishing size. Value perspective shows colors up close as bright and vivid, while
those farther away are lighter and not as bright. Diminishing size shows the same object
in different sizes according to how close or far they are from the viewer.
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
Temperature – The relative warmth or coolness of colors.
Cool colors – blue, green or violet. Psychologically, they tend to be calming.
appear to recede.
Warm colors –red, orange, yellow. Psychologically, they tend to be exciting.
generally seem to advance or project.
Optically, they
Optically, they
Expressionism – Term in art history and criticism applied to art in which traditional ideas of naturalism are
abandoned in favor of distortions and exaggerations of shape or color that urgently express the artist’s
emotion.
Die Brucke – (The Bridge) Group of German Expressionist artists founded in 1905 by Kirchner, SchmidtRottluff, Heckel, and Fritz Bleyl. The name was chosen by Schmidt-Rottluff and indicated their faith in the
art of the future, towards which their own work was to serve as a bridge. They wanted to achieve “freedom
of life and action against established and older forces”. In practice they turned against Realism and
Impressionism and under the influence of Munch and Hodler created an intense and sometimes angstridden version of Expressionism, which stemmed from Van Gogh, Gauguin, the Nabis, and the Fauves.
Environmentalism – The study of and concern for environmental problems, advocating or working to
protect the air, water, animals, plants and other natural resources from pollution or its effects.
Landscape - A painting, photograph or other work of art which depicts scenery such as mountains, valleys,
trees, rivers and forests.
Hudson River School – During the mid-nineteenth century a groupo of American landscape painters 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.
LEED – An acronym standing for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It is a system of
certification designed by the U.S. Green Building Council to rate the sustainability of buildings.
Sustainable – The ability to support, hold, or bare up
Environmentalism – The study of and concern for environmental problems, advocating or working to
protect the air, water, animals, plants, and other natural resources from pollution or its effects.
Wharf – A structure build along the shore of navigable waters so that ships may lie alongside to receive
and discharge cargo and passengers
Horizon Line – The line across the picture where the land or sea and the sky come together.
Perspective – How the artist creates the illusion of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface.
Linear Perspective – Lines create a feeling of distance when the meet at the “vanishing point”,
which is placed on the horizon line.
Aerial Perspective – A technique used to show deep space accomplished in the following way:
softened lines, less contrast in value and the temperature of colors are cooler.
Value – The degree of lightness or darkness of a color
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.
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
Elger, Dietmar. Expressionism: A Revolution in German Art. London: Taschen. 2007.
Herbert, Barry. German Expressionism: Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter. New York:
Hippocrene Books. 1983.
Lloyd, Jill. German Expressionism: Primitivism and Modernity. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press. 1991.
Weller, Shane. German Expressionist Woodcuts. New York: Dover. 1994.
Gerrit A. Benek er
Beneker, Garret A. Gerrit A. Beneker (1882-1934): Painter of American Industry. Boston,
MA:
Vose Galleries. 1981.
Katrina Bneker. Moments in Time, Gerrit A. Beneker, A Retrospective. Provincetown, MA:
Provincetwon Art Assocition and Museum. 2003
Topal, Cathy Weisman. Children and Painting. Worcester, MA: David Publications, Inc.
1992
W eb resources
www.usgbc.org
www.artlex.com
www.artcyclopedia.com
http://www.lirosgallery.com/amer27.html
www.bruecke-museum.de/english.htm
http://www.askart.com/askart/artist.aspx?artist=23901
Nature Revealed
The Relationship between Nature and Creativity
Evaluation Form
Please complete and return this evaluation via fax, mail, or when you arrive for your tour. Your feedback
is greatly appreciated and will be used to guide the development of future teacher packets and educational
resources.
Teacher Name:
School and District:
Grade Level and Subjects Taught:
Which parts of this teacher packet did you find to be most useful?
What information would have made this teacher packet more useful to you?
Additional comments:
Thank you for your time.
Please return this evaluation to:
GRAM Education Department
101 Monroe Center
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
or
Fax: 616-242-5034