Big Ideas

What’s the Big Idea? Uncovering, Connecting and Creating Meaning in and through the Arts

Dr. Pamela G. Taylor, Chair and Associate Professor

Department of Art Education

Virginia Commonwealth University

[email protected] and www.people.vcu.edu/~pgtaylor

What comes first?

The Art - The “Big Idea” - The Theme - The SOLs - Art Experiences - Lessons

Raphael, The School of Athens, 1509-11, Fresco, 26 x 18 ft. Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican Palace, Rome

Faith Ringgold, Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles, 1991Acrylic on canvas, tie-dyed, pieced fabric border74 x 80”. From the Series: The French Collection Part I; #4Private Collection

What is a big idea?How do big ideas inform

multiple disciplines?

Identity Power Sustainability Love Family Sharing Fantasy Reality Meaning Alienation Loneliness Reflection Emotions Nature Culture Idealism Memory Intersections Invisibility Risk Courage Satire Self Perception Perspective Storytelling Endurance Subconscious Introspection Safety Memorializing Honoring Community Traditions Consumerism Public Private Inventing Reinventing Satire Home Prophecy Whole/part Communication Music Dreams Materialism Persuasion Human condition Ritual Endurance Utopia Complacency Transcendence Fortitude Urban Human Emotions Heroes Social world Food/nutrition Self Environment Life cycles Interdependence Aging Life and death Conflict Spirituality Celebration Uncertainty Relationships Environment Suffering Human Diversity

Some Big Ideas

Perspective

Geometry Culture Philosophy

TechniqueValue AestheticsTheorems Scale

Math - Social Studies - Visual Art

Choosing the Art

-Narratively complex - Challenging- Provide possibilities for connections

- Easily accessible - Much has been written about it- Contains visible signs, symbols, and metaphors relevant to

students’ lives

What is the big idea?

Faith Ringgold, Sunflower Quilting Bee at Arles, 1991Acrylic on canvas, tie-dyed, pieced fabric border74 x 80”. From the Series: The French Collection Part I; #4

Private Collection


Discovering the

“Big Idea”

1. Construct interpretations based on your frame of reference and sets of knowledge as well as from information you glean in your research. (Look for contextual information both from a world view and the artist’s view).

2. Revisit questions, themes and information revealed through your interpretations of the work.

Read what others have written about the art and

artist.

"In autumn 1508, shortly after summoning Michelangelo to Rome, Julius II also sent for Raphael. A suite of papal rooms was to be decorated on the basis of a theologically-determined concetto. In contrast to the multiple small components typical of Early Renaissance frescoes, such as those by Fra Angelico in the Vatican and by Gentile da Fabriano in the Lateran (now lost), a freer, more generous style, appropriate to the might and breadth of the Roman papacy, was now the order of the day.

He commenced work at the beginning of 1509, and developed an expansive style of composition which presented itself as a homogeneous and easily intelligible whole. In large, arched frescoes Raphael brought to life the subjects he had been instructed to paint: The School of Athens, portraying the secular sciences of philosophy.

Aristotle and Plato are seen in conversation at the centre of the picture. just as one might imagine a scholarly discourse taking place in Ancient Greece, they are walking - in true Peripatetic manner - through a lofty lyceum. The gesture which Plato is making with his upward-pointing finger is symbolic in meaning: he is pointing to the source of higher inspiration, the realm of ideas. Aristotle, on the other hand, is gesturing downwards, towards the starting-point of all the natural sciences.

Like Michelangelo in the Sistine Ceiling, Raphael also incorporates a number of his contemporaries into his fresco. This Plato is probably a portrait of Leonardo, while Archimedes, bending down to draw on a slate tablet with a pair of dividers, may be recognized as Bramante. The figure immediately behind and slightly above is that of Federico Gonzaga. In addition to these and many others whose identities are now lost to us, Raphael also included himself: together with Sodoma, he looks out towards the viewer from beside the pillar at the extreme right-hand edge of the picture.

Faith Ringgold is an African-American artist and author who was born in 1930 in Harlem, New York City, and who is best known for her large, painted story quilts. As a child, she was taught to sew fabrics creatively by her mother, a professional fashion designer; and to make quilts by her great-great-grandmother. Ringgold's great-great-great grandmother had been a slave in her younger years, and made quilts for her white masters. There has been a strong African-American quilt-making tradition, influenced by the weaving done by the men in Africa, and brought to America with the slaves, where women continued the tradition. Quilts in the African-American slave community served various purposes: warmth, preserving memories and events, storytelling, and even as "message boards" for the Underground Railroad to guide slaves on their way north to freedom. Some techniques common to African-American quilts included patchwork, applique and 'crazy' quilt; some characteristics included asymmetrical designs, bright colors and bold geometric shapes, which were spiritual symbols.

In this colorful painted quilt image, a group of African-American women proudly display their sunflower quilt, in a field of sunflowers, with Van Gogh standing quietly in the background, holding a vase of his beloved sunflowers. The buildings of the village of Arles are shown in the background, painted with the bright yellows and blues that Van Gogh loved to use in his paintings.

In the early 1980's, her work often contained a grid format; this combined the 20th century use of a grid of squares as a device to organize a composition, with the traditional use of grids (squares) in the craft of quilt-making.

Possible Big Ideas

Perspective - Knowledge - Influence

Culture - Interior/Exterior

-Value


Private Collection


Activity #1

1. Look at the work of art on your table.

2. Conduct research about the art and the artist using the books and resource materials

on your table. (make notes along with the page numbers, authors and title of the book).

3. Write 1-3 “big ideas” that you think this work is about along with an explanation on

your handout.

Developing the Theme or Key Concept

What is it about the “big idea” that the artist is addressing?

What is it about the big idea that you want your students to address?

What is significant about the big idea?

Concepts: What is significant about the big idea?

Perspective is the illusion of depth on a flat surface as well as the way we see things.

Knowledge is both the acquisition of information and the ability to discern and question.

Human beings are influenced by a variety of outside and inside forces.

Culture has multiple definitions and multiple values and beliefs.

Interior and exterior refers to physical spaces, feelings, thoughts, and ideas.

Although there are some basic human values, value systems may be very different according to perspective,

knowledge, culture, and influence.

Essential Questions related to the arts, the big idea and the

key concepts.

How does perspective affect our values and how do our values affect our perspective?

What and whose knowledge is important to know?

How can we recognize and choose what influences us?

How is my culture different yet similar to yours?

How do values affect our interpretation of art, of how we live, of how we think and know?

Activity #2

Based on the work of art and the big ideas that you gleaned:

1. Create at least 3 key concepts: What is significant about the big idea?

2. Formulate at least 6 Essential Questions related to the arts, the big idea and the key concepts.

Activity #3: Relate the big idea, key concepts, and essential questions to

learning experiences.

How does perspective affect our values and how do our values affect our perspective?

What and whose knowledge is important to know?

How can we recognize and choose what influences us?

How is my culture different yet similar to yours?

How do values affect our interpretation of art, of how we live, of how we think and know?

Perspective devices in art

Research of philosophers, Timeline Activity

Narratives of personal influence

Faith Ringgold’s Sunflower Quilt

Creation of own School of Thought

What “exactly” do you want your students to know and

be able to do when they complete this unit of

instruction?

Multiple Perspectival Thinking: Understanding Depth in Art and Culture

The students will observe, research, report on, and critically apply the

multiple methods of using perspective as an art technique, as well as a point of

view that is influenced by time, place, culture, and beliefs.

Create lessons that will help them meet those goals

Relating ideas, concepts and questions to artmaking

experiences

Multiple Perspectives

(Values, Ways of thinking and looking, Philosophy, Music, Art, and Aesthetics)

Lessons that link these ideas to standards

M-GEO.9-12.1 Analyze characteristics and properties of two- and three-dimensional geometric shapes and develop mathematical arguments about geometric relationships

NM-GEO.9-12.4 Use visualization, spatial reasoning, and geometric modeling to solve problems

NSS-WH.5-12.6 ERA 6: THE EMERGENCE OF THE FIRST GLOBAL AGE, 1450-1770

NSS-G.K-12.1 THE WORLD IN SPATIAL TERMS

NSS-G.K-12.2 PLACES AND REGIONS

NSS-G.K-12.4 HUMAN SYSTEMS

NSS-G.K-12.6 THE USES OF GEOGRAPHY

NS.9-12.1 SCIENCE AS INQUIRY

NS.9-12.6 PERSONAL AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES

NS.9-12.7 HISTORY AND NATURE OF SCIENCE

NL-ENG.K-12.1 READING FOR PERSPECTIVE

NL-ENG.K-12.11 PARTICIPATING IN SOCIETY

NL-ENG.K-12.12 APPLYING LANGUAGE SKILLS

NL-ENG.K-12.2 UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE

NL-ENG.K-12.3 EVALUATION STRATEGIES

NL-ENG.K-12.4 COMMUNICATION SKILLS

NL-ENG.K-12.6 APPLYING KNOWLEDGE

NL-ENG.K-12.8 DEVELOPING RESEARCH SKILLS

NL-ENG.K-12.9 MULTICULTURAL UNDERSTANDING

NT.K-12.5 TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH TOOLS

Activity #4

Narrow your key concepts to four or less and coordinate them with the SOLs of one or more disciplines.

These standards give some ideas for “meaning” and

conceptual direction of the art experiences.

______________________

Now, the art teacher must make the artmaking and learning

experiences ART-FULL and link to art concepts and techniques.

Now what kind of art activities can we do that will emphasize

And…what will demonstrate this knowledge?

So the art teacher covers the art standards in an activity that promotes

issues of multiple perspectives:

The visual art teacher formulates art learning and art making ideas about

perspective.

1. Interpretation exercise

2. Critical research exercise

3. Perspective exercises

4. Figure drawing (gesture, proportion, perspective)

5. Narrative of personal influences

6. Construction of “School of Thought”

What does it look like?What does it mean?How does it mean?How do you know?

?What is this?

Is this a painting? Who are these people?

Where are they?Are they inside or outside?

How can you tell?Is this like an area outside of your home, of this school?

What is different? What is the same?What is going on?

Who are the most important people in this work?How can you tell?

Who is the least important person in this work?Why do you think the artist created this work?

Perspective and architecture--The perspectival arrangement allows for the fact that the painting is situated above head height (see the top of the door frame on the lower left). The architectural setting is imaginary, but its scale, magnificence, and harmony represent the ideals of the High Renaissance, which sought to express superhuman rather than human values. When this was painted, Julius II was planning the rebuilding of St. Peter's with the architect Bramante. In 1514 Raphael was appointed Papal Architect on the death of Bramante. Raphael's design here, with the use of the sober Doric order, is a handsome acknowledgment of his admiration for Bramante's style and achievements.

Research Activities

1. Look up information about the work that critics, historians, and/or what the artist or other artist's had said about his/her work.

2. Tell what was going on during the time that the art was created, some examples to go by are (history, economics, geographic, religious, politics, culture, etc.

3. Look at all parts of the work created by the artist and see if the work has any links, hints, or ideas to the artist's mode of working. Also look at photographs of the artist!

4. Look at the work through another point of view (feminist, semiotic, culture, etc.)

5. Tell about how your perspective effects your thoughts of the work. For example: your background, upbringing, politics, parents, religion, race, and/or your own perspective and philosophy on life.

After your team has conducted this research, you should look back at your perspective of the work, and ask yourself does it make sense now, does it fit with your other research, are your conclusions supported, credible, etc? Why or why not and how will you change your interpretation as a result of this work?

Criticism Postcard Activity

Student objective: The students will discern different approaches to perspective in other works of art. Resources: Postcards of works of art, enough for students to choose.

Student materials: Writing materials.Procedure: In groups of three, from the postcards on your table, choose one. Discuss with your group the different approaches that you feel the artist has used to create the illusion of depth. Look for ways that the artist has caused you the viewer to look at one figure, space, object, or area first or longer. What kind of philosophical perspective is evidenced in the work your group is discussing. Each member of the group will report on one facet of your discussion.Ending the lesson: We have looked at the different ways that artists represent perspective. And we have looked at how perspective can be both ways of looking at things philosophically as well as ways to create the illusion of depth on a flat surface. As some of the postcards demonstrate there are ways for creating the illusion of depth in figure drawing as well. In our next lesson we will be experiencing different ways of drawing the figure.Assessment: Did the students find different approaches to perspective? Did they also see different philosophical perspectives? Were they able to compare the two? Were they able to compare these differing perspectives with their own?

Students and Teachers as Co-learners

Interactive Timelines in the Classroom

Interactive Bulletin Boards

Research of Figures in Painting

Work directly on the art (with clear overlay or use a computer!)

1 point perspective: Show the students how other artists have used one point perspective including Salvador Dali, Leonardo daVinci, and the ways that Versailles reveals how one-point perspective is used as propaganda.

This is a modeling activity. Either using a chalkboard or a large sheet of paper, have the students follow as several 1 point perspective boxes are drawn.

1. Make a mark in the center of your paper.2. With your ruler draw several lines radiating from that center point.3. Using absolute vertical and horizontal lines, draw a square that begins and ends at one of the radiating lines. 4. Then follow the radiating line that connects the two inner corners of the square and draw a vertical and horizontal line to reveal the farthest side of the box.5. Continue by drawing two more boxes in the space and then assign the students to draw five more boxes using these perspective methods: overlapping, size, placement, color, detail (they may add patterns, shading, etc.)6. While the students are working, go around and assist individually.7. Evaluation: Have the students used the radiating. Are their other lines on the boxes vertical and horizontal? (Watch for diagonals that do not come form the point). Have the students used effectively the other perspective techniques?8. Ending the lesson: We have practiced as Raphael did various ways of showing perspective or depth in a work of art. Tomorrow we will begin research that will reveal the ways that perspective can be our philosophical point of view as well.

Vocabulary Terms

Perspective-creating the illusion of depth on a flat surface AND the way we

look at things

http://un2sg4.unige.ch/athena/raphael/raf_ath4.html

Birds eye view

Palace of Versailles, 1669-85, Louis le Vau and Jules Hardouin-Mansart

Worm’s (or ant’s) eye view

Looking up at Auguste Rodin, the Gates of Hell, Plaster then Bronze, 1917, Musee Rodin, Paris, Rodin Museum, Philadephia

Human Eye level

Raphael, The School of Athens, 1510-11, Fresco Vatican, Stanza della Segnatura, Rome

What is your perspective?

Young, old, middle, female, male, culture, ethnicity, home, place,

histories, family, values, health (How are your likes and dislikes affected by

your perspective?)

Is your perspective being altered in this class?

Jud Nelson, Hefty 2-Ply

Frida Kahlo

Self Portrait Between the Borderline of Mexico and the United States Date: 1932, Size: 11 3/4" X 13 1/2" Medium:

oil painting on tin Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Manuel Reyero

Lascaux Cave Paintings, Lascaux, France, circa. 15,000-10,000 B.C. (Prehistoric Pd)

Van Gogh, The Potato Eaters, Oil on canvas, 82.0 x 114.0 cm. , Nuenen: April, 1885

Faith Ringgold, Tar Beach, 1988

Acrylic on canvas, tie-dyed, pieced fabric border 74 x 69 " Solomon R.

Guggenheim Museum, New York

Hokusai, Great Wave of Kannagawa

What happened before?

What happens next?Act out the paintingHow did the artist make this?

Size-the larger an object,etc. is the closer it appears

Placement--the lower on the picture plane an object, etc. is, the closer it appears.

This was one of a series of

four Norman Rockwell paintings,

The Four Freedoms, inspired by

Franklin D.

Roosevelt's 1941 State of the Union

Address.

Color-the brighter the color-the closer it appears.

Detail-the more detail an object, etc. has, the closer it appears. The less in-focus it is the farther away it appears.

Claude Monet, Stacks of wheat, 1890-91, Impressionism

1 point perspective--all lines converge on one point.

Van Gogh, Wheatfield with Crows, 1890, Postimpressionism (some say expressionism)

2 point-all lines converge toward two points.

Vanishing point- one or several points in a drawing at which objects appear to disappear.

Dürer, Albrecht

During 1513 and 1514 Dürer created the greatest of his copperplate engravings: the Knight, St. Jerome in His Study, and Melencolia I--all of approximately the same size, about 24.5 by 19.1 cm (9.5 by 7.5 inches). The extensive, complex, and often contradictory literature concerning these three engravings deals largely with their enigmatic, allusive, iconographic details. Although repeatedly contested, it probably must be accepted that the engravings were intended to be interpreted together. There is general agreement, however, that Dürer, in these three master engravings, wished to raise his artistic intensity to the highest level, which he succeeded in doing. Finished form and richness of conception and mood merge into a whole of

classical perfection.

St. Jerome dans sa cellule 1514 (200 Kb); Engraving

Tansey, Mark, The Bricoleur's Daughter1987, Oil on canvas, 68 x 67 in. Collection Emily Fisher Landau, New York

http://www.olejarz.com/arted/perspective/

Review of Some Art Terms

Perspective-creating the illusion of depth on a flat surface AND the way we look at things

Birds eye view- looking down on an area

Worm’s (or ant’s) eye view- looking up at an area

Human’s eye view or level-area is straight in front of eyes

Overlapping in perspective - when one object is in front of the other it is closer.Size in perspective -the larger an object, etc. is the closer it appears

Placement in perspective --the lower on the picture plane an object, etc. is, the closer it appears.

Color in perspective -the brighter the color-the closer it appears.

Detail in perspective -the more detail an object, etc. has, the closer it appears. The less in-focus it is the farther away it appears.

1 point perspective--all lines converge on one point

2 point persepctive-all lines converge toward two points. Vanishing point in perspective - one or several points in a drawing at which objects appear to disappear.

• M-GEO.9-12.1 Analyze characteristics and properties of two- and three-dimensional geometric shapes and develop mathematical arguments about geometric relationships

• NM-GEO.9-12.4 Use visualization, spatial reasoning, and geometric modeling to solve problems

• NSS-WH.5-12.6 ERA 6: THE EMERGENCE OF THE FIRST GLOBAL AGE, 1450-1770

• NSS-G.K-12.1 THE WORLD IN SPATIAL TERMS

• NSS-G.K-12.2 PLACES AND REGIONS

• NSS-G.K-12.4 HUMAN SYSTEMS

• NSS-G.K-12.6 THE USES OF GEOGRAPHY

• NS.9-12.1 SCIENCE AS INQUIRY

• NS.9-12.6 PERSONAL AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES

• NS.9-12.7 HISTORY AND NATURE OF SCIENCE

Lessons and standards

-Pythagorus

-Map exercise

-Looking at other works of art

-Perspective drawing

-Research

-Figure drawing

•NL-ENG.K-12.1 READING FOR PERSPECTIVE •NL-ENG.K-12.11 PARTICIPATING IN SOCIETY •NL-ENG.K-12.12 APPLYING LANGUAGE SKILLS •NL-ENG.K-12.2 UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE •NL-ENG.K-12.3 EVALUATION STRATEGIES •NL-ENG.K-12.4 COMMUNICATION SKILLS •NL-ENG.K-12.6 APPLYING KNOWLEDGE •NL-ENG.K-12.8 DEVELOPING RESEARCH SKILLS •NL-ENG.K-12.9 MULTICULTURAL UNDERSTANDING •NT.K-12.5 TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH TOOLS

Lessons and standards-Research and reading about figures in paintings

-Assessment web

-Oral and written presentation of research

-Inspiration, Storyspace, Tinderbox, internet research

ART

Multiple Perspectives• Art standards: • NA-VA.9-12.1 UNDERSTANDING AND

APPLYING MEDIA, TECHNIQUES, AND PROCESSES

• NA-VA.9-12.2 USING KNOWLEDGE OF STRUCTURES AND FUNCTIONS

• NA-VA.9-12.3 CHOOSING AND EVALUATING A RANGE OF SUBJECT MATTER, SYMBOLS, AND IDEAS

• NA-VA.9-12.4 UNDERSTANDING THE VISUAL ARTS IN RELATION TO HISTORY AND CULTURES

• NA-VA.9-12.5 REFLECTING UPON AND ASSESSING THE CHARACTERISTICS AND MERITS OF THEIR WORK AND THE WORK OF OTHERS

• NA-VA.9-12.6 MAKING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN VISUAL ARTS AND OTHER DISCIPLINES

• Perspective exercise

• Interpretation

• Research• Looking at other

works of art

• Criticism• Timeline activity• Final art

Activity #5

What visual arts SOLs can be linked with your lesson ideas?

Assessment


Private Collection


Activity #6Assessment is an extremely important aspect of any teaching. In the

example shown to you today, Individual evaluation was done based on

rubrics associated with each lesson plan as well as the overall unit plan.

Brainstorm with your group and list at least 3 artFULL ideas for assessing the unit that you are

beginning to formulate.

Summary-What comes first? (That is up to you and your

goals - Just make sure you know what you want your students to know and be able to do before you

begin planning your lessons).-- Link meaningfully with works of art (ALL UNITS

SHOULD INCLUDE WORKS OF ART!)-- Know your SOLS and link to them.

-- Remember that skills, facts, technique and media should be taught but as methods toward

understanding and relating to the “Big Idea”--Create examples to use

--Refer back to your unit goals and objectives and create authentic assessment evaluation and criteria

Big Ideas

Education

Transcript of Big Ideas