black history month · black history month african american artists one of the most important...
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VISUAL ARTISTS
Black History Month
African American Artists
VOCABULARYexpressionism, narrative, collage, migration, Jim Crow laws,graffiti, Antebellum, silhouette, racial identity, gender issues,elements of art, principles of art: balance, rhythm, pattern,proportion
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONSWhy can we learn from focusing on the AfricanAmerican experience? What can we learn from AfricanAmerican artists? How is their experience similar anddifferent from our own? Of the examples shown, whichartist do you find the most interesting? Why?
Black History Month
African American Artists
VOCABULARY
expressionism, narrative, collage, migration, Jim Crow laws, graffiti,Antebellum, silhouette, racial identity, gender issues, elements ofart, principles of art: balance, rhythm, pattern, proportion
Jacob Lawrence Ideas:
Vocabulary:
o Traditional
o Expressionistic
o Modern
o ________
o ________
o ________
WORKSHEET
Black History Month
African American Artists
Jacob Lawrence Romare Bearden Jean-Michel Basquiat
Kara Walker
Black History Month
African American Artists
One of the most important artists of the 20thcentury, was born in 1917 and is best known forhis series of narrative paintings depictingimportant moments in African American history.Lawrence was introduced to art when in his earlyteens, Lawrence's mother enrolled him in UtopiaChildren's Center, which provided an after-schoolart program in Harlem. By the mid-1930s, he wasregularly participating in art programs at theHarlem Art Workshop and the Harlem CommunityArt Center where he was exposed to leadingAfrican American artists of the time.
Jacob Lawrence
Black History Month
African American Artists
On the Migration Series:
“I did plenty of research in books and
pamphlets written during the migration,
and afterward…I took notes. Sometimes I
would make ten or twenty sketches for
one incident…By the time I started work
on the (Migration Series), I was more
conscious of what I wanted to do. I was
looking consciously at things and for
things.”
Jacob LawrenceOnline video
What elements and principles of art terms would you use to describe these works?
Black History Month
Romare Bearden
African American Artists
Many artists and art historians considerRomare Bearden one of America's mostimportant and inventive artists. But he'shardly a household name. Bearden is thesubject of the National Gallery of Art’s firstmajor retrospective of an African-Americanartist.
About 1914, his family joined the Great Migration of southern blacks to pointsnorth and west. In the early twentieth century, Jim Crow laws kept many blacksfrom voting and from equal access to jobs, education, health care, business, land,and more. Like many southern black families, the Bearden's settled in the Harlemsection of New York City. Romare would call New York home for the rest of his life.
Black History Month
Romare BeardenOnline video
African American Artists
Bearden's primary medium was the collage, fusingpainting, magazine clippings, old paper and fabric,like a jigsaw puzzle in upheaval. But unlike a puzzle,each piece of a Bearden collage has a meaning andhistory all its own. Bearden said working withfragments of the past brought them into the now.
What elements and principles of art terms would you use to describe these works?
Black History Month
Jean-Michel Basquiat
African American Artists
The son of middle-class Brooklyn parents, he had a precocious success with hispaintings from the start. The key was not that they were "primitive," but thatthey were so arty. Having no art training, he never tried to deal with the realworld through drawing; he could only scribble and jot, rehearsing his ownstereotypes, his pictorial nouns for "face" or "body" over and over again.
Basquiat's career was incubated by the short-lived graffiti movement, which started on thestreets and subway cars in New York City in theearly 1970s, peaked, fell out of view, began allover again in the 1980s, peaked again, and finallyreceded, leaving Basquiat and Keith Haring as itsonly memorable exponents. Unlike Haring,however, Basquiat never tagged the subways
Black History MonthJean-Michel BasquiatOnline video
African American Artists
A major reference source used by Basquiat throughout hiscareer was the book Gray's Anatomy, which his mother gaveto him. It remained influential in his depictions of internalhuman anatomy, and in its mixture of image and text. Othermajor sources were Dreyfuss' Symbol Sourcebook, LeonardoDa Vinci’s notebooks, and Brentjes African Rock Art.
Basquiat often incorporatedwords into his paintings. Earlyhe produced punk-inspiredpostcards for sale on thestreet, and become known forthe political – poetical graffiti.
What elements and principles of art terms would you use to describe these works?
Black History Month
Kara Walker
African American Artists
Kara Walker was born in Stockton,California. She received a BFA from theAtlanta College of Art in 1991 and anMFA from the Rhode Island School ofDesign in 1994. The artist is bestknown for exploring the rawintersection of race, gender, andsexuality through her iconic,silhouetted figures.
Walker unleashes the traditionally proper Victorian medium of the silhouettedirectly onto the walls of the gallery, creating a theatrical space in which herunruly cut-paper characters interact, often inflicting violence on one another.
Black History MonthKara WalkerOnline video
Walker's silhouette images workto bridge unfinished folklore inthe Antebellum South, raisingracial identity and gender issuesfor African American women.
African American Artists
Because of her direct approach to the topic, Walker'sartwork is reminiscent of Andy Warhol's Pop Art duringthe 1960s (she adored Warhol growing up as a child).Her nightmarish and fantastical images incorporate acinematic feel. Walker uses images from historicaltextbooks to show how African American slaves weredepicted during the Antebellum South.
What elements and principles of art terms would you use to describe these works?
Black History Month
African American Artists
VOCABULARYexpressionism, narrative, collage, migration, Jim Crow laws,graffiti, Antebellum, silhouette, racial identity, gender issues,elements of art, principles of art: balance, rhythm, pattern,proportion
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONSWhy can we learn from focusing on the AfricanAmerican experience? What can we learn from AfricanAmerican artists? How is their experience similar anddifferent from our own? Of the examples shown, whichartist do you find the most interesting? Why?
Black History Month
African American Artists
What words and ideas do
you associate with each
artist?
Black History Month
African American Artists
Jacob Lawrence Romare Bearden Jean-Michel Basquiat
Kara Walker
Why should we focus on the African American experience? What can we learnfrom African American artists? How is their experience similar and different fromour own? Of the examples shown, which African American artist do you find themost interesting? Why?
Black History Month
African American Artists
Which African American artist do you find the most interesting? Why?Use vocabulary terms when you write about your artist.