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Portraiture:Self
Perception and Definition
Summary
Individual
students examine themselves and their place in nature through
self-portraiture. Interaction occurs when the class shares their
work. In groups, direct students to consider ways to integrate
their self-portrait into a natural environment. Students may also
study the history of portraiture. Students then create their own
environmentally integrated portrait through drawings, painting,
or sculpture. Finally students will create a sculpture using found
objects or materials which came from their environment.
Program
Area
This studio
activity is ideal as part of a Grade 9 or Grade 10 unit dealing
with issues of self perception and self-expression in the Arts
curriculum. The activity is also appropriate to an upper level
unit on drawing, painting, or even sculpture.
Learning
Outcomes
Teaching,
learning, and evaluation will focus on the student's ability to:
- Discuss
different aspects of portraiture, especially those of sociological,
political and economic nature;
- Reflect
upon and express self-perception and a personal relationship
to environment;
- Reflect,
in their painting, on the importance of both the self and the
environment as sources of artistic inspiration;
- Demonstrate
interpretive and translation skills (through drawing, sculpting);
- Comment
upon portraiture in the medium of found objects and assess the
importance and implications of such materials in a work of art;
- Gain
insight into psychological implications of the great differences
when comparing portraiture of the same individual by different
artists and different individuals by the same artist.
Materials
Required
A variety
of drawing materials is required. It is up to the student to gather
found objects as sculpture materials. The process of obtaining
such objects could become an intimate part the portraiture.
Slides which
would be useful include published self-portraits of Albrecht Durer,
Matisse, Michael Snow, Joyce Weiland, James Ensor, Leonardo Da
Vinci, Gustav Klimt, Kathe Kolluitz.
Background
Chuck Close,
an artist working in Los Angeles, curated a show held a the museum
of Modern Art in 1991. In this show comparisons were set up between
the portraiture by different artists of the same person.
Classroom
Development
- Art
History
- Teachers
may wish to include a short presentation on portraiture,
concluding with a discussion on the sociological implications
of portraiture. One topic might be to compare the commissioned
portraiture to portraits that were done freely by artists.
Another might focus on what can be read from a portrait:
time, environment, purpose, attitude of the artist. A third
might be to compare self-portraits with portrait of other
individuals.
- Class
Dynamics
- For
a new class, a few ice breakers may need to precede the
sharing of self-portraiture. Therefore, to put the class
at ease and build up trust, activities which get students
to know one another should be made part of the warm-up exercise.
- Challenge
- Encourage
students to find some challenge associated with the theme
of self-portraiture. They are to express this as a theme,
and search for connections between themselves and their
environment.
- Inquiry
- Direct
students to approach this task as a form of inquiry. This
activity is an investigation into expressing ideas associated
with the theme of self-portraiture and the artist's connection
with the environment. Students should be investigating formal
concepts and design principles.
- Personal
Expression
- Students
are to express original and/or personal sentiments.
- Standard
Safety Message
- Just
before students do any studio work remind them of the safety
precautions which are relevant to this particular activity.
Also explicitly refer to the introductory discussion/activity
on safety procedures from the beginning of the term/semester.
- Art
Studio
- Students
are to create their own environmentally integrative portraits
through various mediums using found objects or materials
from their local environment.
- Discussion
- Students
should be encouraged to present and discuss their portraits
in terms of the composition, execution, and perception by
others.
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