American Modernists in Wyoming: George McNeil, Ilya ... · Page 2 American Modernists in Wyoming:...

Create: Students will be given time to practice sketching and drawing, and may create their own paintings in the style of one of the three artists.

American Modernists in Wyoming: George McNeil, Ilya Bolotowsky, and Leon Kelly

OBserve:Students will observe the art work of George McNeil, Ilya Bolotowksy and Leon Kelly. They will notice the similarities and differences in their work: the colors used; the shapes of the paintings; subject matter; style and techniques.

QuestION:Students will have an opportunity to read, write, sketch, listen to teachers and museum educators, and then, to come up with questions about the work they see, and the concepts behind the art work and the artists who created it. Students will question the materials and techniques used and their own responses to the art work in the exhibition.

PurPOse Of thIs PaCKet:To provide K-12 teachers with background information on the exhibition and suggested age appropriate applications for exploring the concepts, meaning, and artistic intent of the work exhibited, before, during, and after the museum visit.

exPLOre:Students will explore the background of the artists and how that contributes to their art work. They will be encouraged to research vocabulary words and related aspects of the exhibit.

CurrICuLar uNIt tOPIC: This unit examines the ideas, styles and techniques of three American Modernists whose paths crossed in Wyoming in 1948. The focus of this educational packet and curricular unit is to observe, question, explore, create and reflect.

refLeCt:Students will evaluate their final art products with other students from their classes and with teachers and museum educators. They will be given feedback on the art work and the concepts behind the making of the art work. After this process, each person may write an essay about their process of making art.

uNIversIty Of WyOMING art MuseuM 2009

George McNeil (american, 1909-1995), Tharsus,

1960, oil on canvas, 48 in x 40 in, Lent by aCMe fine

art Gallery


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INtrOduCtION In this museum visit students will view the work of the American Modernists in Wyoming: George McNeil, Ilya Bolotowsky and Leon Kelly, three artists whose paths crossed at the University of Wyoming in 1948. It was during this time that American artists began discarding the conventions and traditions of the past in search of something “new.” Personal expression and individualism were embraced as artists forged new visual vocabularies. Each of these artists found their own unique voice within the Modernist dialogue, and together they demonstrate key elements of major artistic movements of the time - Abstract Expressionism, Geometric Abstraction, and Surrealism.

hIstOryThe year was 1948. The War had ended. Warner Brothers produced the first color newsreel of the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl. The Winter Olympics were in St. Mortiz, Switzerland. The U.S. Supreme Courts ruled that religious instruction in

tOP: Installation view of Leon Kelly (american, 1901-1982), An Ancient Priest Examining Himself, 1949, oil on canvas, 16 in x 14 in, Lent by Gratz GalleryBOttOM: Leon Kelly (american, 1901-1982), Bather Emering from the Sea, 1952, oil on canvas on baord, 36 in x 26 in, Lent by Gratz Gallery


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public schools violates the Constitution. The Hells Angels were founded in California. T. S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Harry S. Truman was elected President.

During the first half of the 20th century in Europe, Modernism had taken hold in the art circles. Its premise was one of “newness;” that individualism and uniqueness of personal expression were essential if one was “modern.” American artists traveled to Europe to study, an essential requirement in order to be successful. With the shift in political power following WWII, Modernism began to take hold in the U.S. during the 1940s. It would set the stage for the development of America’s first artistic genre, Abstract Expressionism.

Three artists, who would later contribute to the development of the Modernist dialogue in America, came to Wyoming during this time to teach at the University of Wyoming. George McNeil (American, 1908-1995), Ilya Bolotowsky (American/Russian, 1907-1981), and Leon Kelly (American/French, 1901-1982) were mid-career artists at the time and each was exploring a different form of abstraction. Together, they demonstrate key elements of major artistic movements of the time – Abstract Expressionism, Geometric Abstraction, and Surrealism; however, each considered their work individualistic, unique, and outside such larger groups or movements.

artIst stateMeNtsGeorge McNeil worked in the abstract expressionist style, creating nonrepresentational work with broad swaths of color, texture and depth. In this form of abstraction, the essential aspects of the medium are more fully exposed and acknowledged. McNeil’s work emphasized spontaneous and subconscious creation. He combined the theories of the Abstract Expressionists with the emotional intensity of the German Expressionists and the anti-figural

aesthetic of Futurism and Cubism. McNeil taught at UW for two years, 1946-1948, before moving to New York City to teach at the Pratt Institute.

I am so biased in terms of what you might call modernist values that I don’t know how you can create art if it isn’t based on very simple premises, like the reactions of an individual to the world around him or to his own ideas or to his own imagination and to the essencing of all this and, in the main, what your feelings for truth are. I don’t know how you can develop your own subjective truth if it isn’t on the basis of this absolute sense of authenticity, of the inner spirit.

- George McNeil in an interview with Robert Berlind, Brooklyn, New York, May 30, 1990 in Art Journal, Spring 1994, Volume 53, Issue 1.

Ilya Bolotowsky was a geometric abstractionist who took the purely optical premise from the Cubist tradition to create the illusion of depth by

George McNeil (american, 1909-1995), Estuary, 1957, oil on paper on plywood, 28 in x 22 in, Lent by aCMe fine art Gallery


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eliminating the use of the figure altogether and solely using the juxtaposition and location of different planes of color. This approach sought to carry the abstract beyond what is depicted, to the underlying sense of emotional charge. Bolotowsky later became known for his tondos, or large, circular canvases of delineated color and shape, which he first created while in Wyoming. In addition to teaching art at the University, Bolotowsky also taught local ranchers who gifted him several large wagon wheels. He removed the spokes and used the circular frames as stretchers for his canvases. He found that the form created an interesting composition as the straight lines became affected by the circular shape of the canvas. Bolotowsky was at UW from 1948 to 1957.

Symbolism in my style is not at all important and actually to be avoided. Because it means that a painting is not what it is, but represents something else.

The communication would be the creation of an ideal, balanced harmony. Something that in actual,

biological existence is not given to man. And this is the Platonic ideal, the absolute, the ideal harmonious balance, which is not still, not symmetrical, but dynamic.

- Ilya Bolotowsky in an interview with Louise Averill Svendsen and Mimi Poser, 1974, Catalogue, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Leon Kelly was a leading American surrealist who was stylistically influenced by some of the major contributors to the European surrealist movement, including Salvador Dalí and Yves Tanguy. Kelly worked within a new canon of Modernist painting, elaborating on the precedent of the collage, and using novel forms of montage to create works that combined themes central to the Surrealist movement from Europe and new forms of American abstraction. After studying art in Paris, Kelly worked and exhibited largely in New York. However, in 1947 he and his family moved to Wyoming so he could teach in the Art Department. Although he stayed at UW only two years, he took the opportunity to study Native American

Left:Ilya Bolotowsky (russian/american, 1907-1981), Vibrant Tondo, 1968, acrylic on canvas, 31 1/2 in diameter, Lent by rehs GalleryrIGht:Ilya Bolotowsky (russian/american, 1907-1981), untitled, 1952, Oil on canvas on board, 25 3/4 in x 34 in, Lent by rehs Gallery


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art, traveling to study petroglyphs and meet with contemporary potters.

In a 1958 letter to his friend and supporter, Julien Levy, Kelly says:

You have seen my work go through several stages from insects to fish, birds and figures that took on the qualities of insects, birds, etc. as life in transition of flight in one tick of eternity...I guess that people associate visual appearances more than inner psychological vistas with painting. Yet I try to make the two vistas kaleidoscopic without the burden of properties, as Dali would do...Often viewers feel that I am engaged in torturing a human form, but I am intensely concerned with the dynamo of life and its poetry as I feel it within the human case, shell, capsule or whatever totes it around...Perhaps it is like a group of transparencies put together and held against the light, one of an amoeba, one of vegetation, one of insect, one of man, and they all hop in some way but the form or case they are being in is in rapid transition. The vision within me [is] of this transition of form, or this strange cosmic flight of particles called man.

- Leon Kelly in the Catalogue for Leon Kelly: An American Surrealist, Francis M. Naumann Fine Art, LLC, 2008. Essay by Martica Sawin.

LessON OvervIeWStudents will learn about the work of three of the American Modernists who taught at the University of Wyoming in the 1940’s and 1950’s. They will explore the underpinnings of abstract expressionism, geometric abstraction and surrealism. Students will look to see what new and original ideas came out of painters, considering the concepts behind the art work, and how they fit into the idea of a new modern American art.

In the Shelton Studio students will be given the opportunity to complete an acrylic painting modeled after any one of the modernist painting styles, the idea being that each student will try, in his or her own way, to create something new. The modeling will be done after some of techniques used in producing a painting, but not in the ideas, or subject matter that each student will bring to the project.

Installation view of George McNeil (american, 1909-1995), Edge, 1951, oil on canvas,

14 in x 19 in, Lent by aCMe fine art Gallery


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Students and teachers may research and engage in conversations about the American Modernists’ work before arriving at the art museum, researching the artists on-line to explore ideas. While here they will spend time in the galleries closely observing the work, discussing it, writing about it, and even sketching it. They will begin conversations about the theories behind the work which will lay the groundwork for future opportunities to pursue these ideas in their home classrooms and schools.

esseNtIaL QuestIONs

Grades K-6What is art?•What is modern art?•When we speak of original art work, what •does that mean?How do you know when viewing art work •whether it is the same or traditional or if it is created in some way new or original? Or how can a viewer recognize a “new idea/concept/ style” in art just by observing it?How do the paintings you view in this exhibit •express new ideas?

Grades 7-12What do we mean by style when we speak of •art?What do we mean when we say art work is •traditional or classical?Can you name various techniques used in •these paintings to show that they are striving for a new modern art in a different style?Do these works present the culture, and the •social and the political climate of the late mid-twentieth century? How so?How are the American modernists similar •and different from the European modernists?How are the modernists different than the •romantics, classicists, etc.?

art QuestIONs tO CONsIderGrades K-6

What do you see?•Describe the kinds and types of marks the •painters have made.What shapes and forms do you see?•What colors do you see?•What and who are the subjects of the •paintings and the prints?How are these prints and paintings the same •and how are they different?

Grades 7-12How many ‘isms’ in art can you name that •would go under the heading of modernism?What techniques can you name in the •paintings and prints?How can the same techniques be used to •make something new in art?

Pre-vIsIt aCtIvItIesIn order to prepare students for their museum

visit and extend learning possibilities, we suggest

Installation view of Leon Kelly (american, 1901-1982), The Reclining Moor, 1953, oil on canvas, 32 in x 19 3/4 in, Lent by Gratz Gallery


education Packet

that teachers and students consider the following activities.

Students will read and research about the •American Modernists in art magazines, books, and on the web.Students will research information on any of •the individual artists included in this exhibit.Students will explore different artists’ •techniques in creating their works.Students will explore relationships from •modernism in art to modernism in literature, poetry and jazz.Students will explore different ways to use •color, shape and form to create original art.Students might explore different textures and •how texture can be used to create different effects in art.

MuseuM aCtIvItIesThese activities are suggestions. Museum educators will work with teachers to carefully tailor all classes to their students’ needs, in support of classroom goals and district and state education standards.

Part 1 tIMe fraMe: 30 - 45 MINutes (IN the GaLLerIes)

Students will closely observe the works of the •American Modernists on exhibit in the art museum.They will identify lines, shapes, forms, •patterns, repetition, color, light and shadow, technique and style in the existing work.Students will discuss what they see with •museum educators.They will explore the artists’ paintings in •relationship to the idea of modernism and creating something new.They will explore the concepts behind the art •work in the exhibit.

Using worksheets, students will respond in •writing or drawing to the work they see by recording their observations and their own thoughts about the work.Students will answer questions on a museum •worksheet.Students will engage in discussions about their •observations and their answers and sketches with one another and with the teachers.

Part 2 tIMe fraMe: 45 - 60 MINutes (IN the sheLtON studIO)The following projects may be considered individually, or combined, or museum educators will work with teachers to develop specific projects which support ongoing classroom work.

Students will explore the concepts of •modernism in art by painting in the style of one of the artists.Students will try to make something new.•Students will explore techniques of painting.•

POst vIsIt aCtIvItIesMuseum staff will work with teachers to ensure that all projects are age and skills appropriate. At the very minimum:

Students discuss or write about their museum •experiences, reviewing what they learned, what has special meaning for them, how they will use new information and skills.Students continue to research the works of •American Modernists and the concepts of modernism in America (an essay, art work, research paper).Students create their own modernist drawings •and paintings to explore new ideas.

PrereQuIsIte sKILLs/KNOWLedGeStudents should have some familiarity with •


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sketching and drawing objects.Students should be able to identify shapes and •colors.Students should be familiar with the concepts •behind modernism.

suGGested CurrICuLuM useThe study of the American Modernists’ works,

plus the historical knowledge gained from studying the work and time frame of these works from the late 19th C to the early 20th C ties to multiple curricular areas including art, history, social studies, writing, reading, geography, and philosophy. Museum staff will work with teachers to address specific Wyoming Teaching Standards and to align museum projects and studies with ongoing classroom curricular units.

sOMe reCOMMeNded resOurCesThese are just a few of the many resources available. We welcome other suggestions that teachers and students find helpful which can be added to this list.

UW Art Museum website: www.uwyo.edu/•artmuseumExhibition descriptive materials (contact •the museum education program for more information) Research on the internet about the American •Modernists, modernism, and American modernism in art.Ilya Bolotowsky• , Catalogue for the exhibition, 1974, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.Leon Kelly: An American Surrealist, c• atalogue for the exhibition, 2008, Francis M. Naumann, Fine Art, LCC, New York. • Modernism: Designing a New World, by Ian Christie, Mark Benton, Christopher Wilk, and

Mark Jones, 2006 • Modernism by Richard Weston, 2001 • Modernism by Peter Childs, 2000 • The Cambridge Companion to Modernism, 1999 • Modernism: An Anthology, S. Rainey, 2005

MaterIaLs tO Be suPPLIed tO eaCh studeNtMaterials for selected Shelton Studio projects are provided by the art museum.

assessMeNt & dOCuMeNtatIONIn order to ensure that our museum tour program is meeting the needs of teachers and students, we may ask that participants help us assess the activities and learning that take place. Examples of evaluation tools include:

Students will self-assess using a quick survey 1. that asks them to consider their response to the gallery discussions and explorations, and their studio experience,Teachers will assess the overall visit by 2. completing a quick-survey that asks for their observation and assessment of students’ experiences, as well as assessment of the overall process of the museum visit.Museum educators will record their 3. observations and assessments.When studio time permits, we will ask 4. students to briefly discuss their art completed in the Shelton Studio.Museum staff may take photographs of 5. students and teachers to document the learning taking place and the work produced during a museum visit. These are available to teachers upon written request for use in teaching and student portfolios.

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