Lesson Plan #3: The Modern Palette:
Discovering Contemporary Strokes

Instructional Objectives:

Students will:

1.   Imagine they are entering the Guggenheim Museum and walking through the spiral ramps to locate the permanent collection to browse and select one painting they admire.

2.   View the Guggenheim’s permanent collection online, and will respond in their notebooks to a class slide show presentation.

Time Required: One 40-minute period

Advanced Preparation: Teacher exploration of Guggenheim Museum web site: http://www.guggenheim.org

Teacher will view slides from the collection at the Guggenheim and chose four that will excite and motivate students. They will analyze and respond critically to these slides of paintings from the permanent collection.

Materials: notebooks, pens, pencils, sketchpads

Vocabulary:

1. Modernism – a stylistic break with classical traditions of the past that responded to cultural and scientific changes of the 19^th and 20^th centuries

 2. Abstract Expression  - using gestures and colors to explore the subconscious

 3. Conceptual Art  - the process of art making, emphasizing ideas over art objects

 4. Impressionism – a 19th century art movement concerned with the impression and quality of light on a subject

 5. Post-Impressionism – symbolic elements, bright colors and expressive brush strokes

 6. Surrealism – dream interpretations used to question existing ideas about reality

Procedure: Students will respond in their notebooks to a class slide show presentation. Class discussion will focus on strategic questioning skills to elicit well-informed responses.  Teacher will avoid asking questions with yes/no responses or with answers in the questions.  Students will be able to respond and incorporate sensory modes, integrate factual information, compare/contrast, categorize, summarize, predict, and speculate.

     - To become acquainted with the Guggenheim Museum, students will use computer technology to view the renowned permanent collection in New York City, as well as seeing a slide presentation in class.

     - Students will respond critically to a variety of works in the museum’s collection, connecting the individual work to other works and to other aspects of human endeavor and thought. (NYS Learning Standard for the Arts #3)

     - Employing, analyzing, and communicating their newly found information, students will sketch their own interpretation of one painting found in the permanent collection.

Students will have the opportunity to visit the Guggenheim’s permanent collection online, in addition to participate in a teacher created slide presentation and follow up discussion. Using teacher led visual literacy questioning strategies, students will tap into their critical thinking skills, to spark interest and curiosity about selected paintings in the art museum and begin to have their reactions move from personal opinion to informed judgments.

The following paintings have been selected to be viewed and discussed:

Pierre Auguste Renoir - Woman with Parrot
http://www.renoir.org.yu/ - Renoir art gallery and biography

Edouard Vuillard – Place Ventimille
http://www.nga.gov/feature/artnation/vuillard  - National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Franz Marc – Yellow Cow
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/marc – Web Museum, Paris    

Marc Chagall – Green Violinist
http://guggenheim.corporateecards.com/details.asp?IID=29&CCID=5  - Guggenheim E-Cards page

Students will be given the following homework assignment, and may review the slides discussed in class, as well as be given time in the computer lab.

Homework/Evaluation: Degree and level of comprehension to teacher posed questions throughout the lesson.

Sample student responses would look like this:

Describe what you see in each painting?

(A Woman with Yellow Hair by Pablo Picasso, who appears to be resting on a couch.)

Why do you think the artist choose this subject to paint? Explain.

(He may have known this woman and admired her beauty, or even loved her.)

What is unique about the painting style these artists have used? Describe.

(Picasso uses bright bold colors in an unnatural way.  Her skin color is a light purple. He uses lines that create a vertical and horizontal movement.)

How do we know these artists loved color?  Explain.

(The artist loves to use bright powerful colors, which really stand out and capture your attention.)

Which paintings do you like best? Why?

(I really would like to paint Picasso’s painting because I like the colors, and the girl is very pretty and relaxed.  I don’t think it would be too hard for me to do.)