instructional resources: roles and reality: people in art

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National Art Education Association Instructional Resources: Roles and Reality: People in Art Author(s): Bay Hallowell, Ellen Broderick, Claudia James and Marilyn Miller Russell Source: Art Education, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Mar., 1991), pp. 23-32 Published by: National Art Education Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193302 . Accessed: 14/06/2014 10:15 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . National Art Education Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Art Education. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 91.229.229.13 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 10:15:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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National Art Education Association

Instructional Resources: Roles and Reality: People in ArtAuthor(s): Bay Hallowell, Ellen Broderick, Claudia James and Marilyn Miller RussellSource: Art Education, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Mar., 1991), pp. 23-32Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3193302 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 10:15

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

National Art Education Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to ArtEducation.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.13 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 10:15:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES

Roles and Reality: People in Art

Bay Hallowell with Ellen Broderick, Claudia James, and Marilyn Miller Russell, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Like people watching, looking at portraits can be endlessly fascinating. Portraits invite us to enterworlds very different from our own and to meet people we might never encounter in our daily lives. They allow us to have conversations with men and women who lived long ago and far away as well as those who may live today in neighboring cities. Portraits represent par- ticular people, yet how an artist chooses to create their likenesses varies according to when and where both the subject and the artist lived, why the portraits were created, and where they would hang, as well as the artist's own particular temperment, background, and skills.

When we first look at a portrait we can begin to understand at whom we are looking by noting the subject's pose and body language, facial expression, and clothes, as well as the setting and any attributes or objects included in the picture. As we ponder a portrait over time, we may discover both a public persona and a private personality and in this process come to feel as though the subject depicted is no longer a stranger. And we may also arrive at an awareness of the artist and of his or her relationship with the subject since we are seeing the subject through the artist's eyes. We may wonder at how the artist has interpreted the person depicted. Would we do it the same way? We will undoubtedly experience ways of representing people that are familiar to us as well as ways which are not.

These four portraits were selected for their quality, their diversity, and because they invite comparisons. They call into question our notions of what is real, our assumptions about the roles people play in society, and the role of art in our lives. Each reproduction is accompanied by a series of questions designed to

encourage students to look closely and to share their responses. These are followed by background infor- mation on the artist, the historical context, and visual analysis which can be incorporated into discussions or provided as reading assignments for older stu- dents. Vocabulary and related activities adaptable to all ages are also included.

While each artwork is fascinating when viewed individually, looking at all four pictures together can be an effective way of introducing, or concluding, a unit on portraits. Start out with a popularity contest - have students choose the person they would most like to get to know and write his or her name on a slip of paper. Ask students to place the portraits in chrono- logical order and explain why. Have them try to determine what media were used and point out the evidence leading to that conclusion. Which are male and which are female? Which person is the closest to us, the viewers? Which is farthest away? What angles have the artists chosen for their subjects? Which pictures seem flat, and which look three-dimensional? Where were they made? Which one was made by a woman? Which depict people who are professional actors? Is there a self-portrait in the bunch? Which portraits were made by a single artist, and which were made collaboratively?

Working with pairs of paintings is another possibil- ity. Comparing the woodblock print by Kunisada and the acrylic painting by David Hockney reveals star- tling similarities and differences of subject matter, visual elements, movement, mood, and persona. The portrait of Louise de Penancoet placed next to Cindy Sherman's photograph will stimulate some striking observations vis-a-vis the role of women as well as the use of chiaroscuro. Parallels in ways of achieving

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dramatic effects in different cultures emerge when Kunisada's actor print and Sherman's disguised self- portrait are Studied side by side. Whatever approach is taken, this paradoxically personal and public art form can be appreciated on many levels.

Sir Peter Lely Louise de Penancoet,

Duchess of Portsmouth Oil on canvas

50 x 72 in. Gift of Mrs. George Leary

Let's Look How was this painting made? What kind of paint did the artist use?

What kind of clothes is Louise wearing? Where is she sitting?

If this painting were not in a museum, where would it live?

At whom is Louise looking? What is she holding? Do you think Louise is sitting naturally? Is she

posing for the artist? Why did the artist paint a portrait of Louise de

Penancoet?

Profile Sir Peter Lely became the court painter of King Charles II of England during the 1600's. Originally from Holland, as a young man he carefully studied the style of the great Flemish master, Van Dyck, who had been the court portraitist to King Charles I. Then he quickly became the most popular portrait painter in all of England and remained so for more than thirty years. A good business man, Lely directed a large studio in London with many assistants and artists who painted the backgrounds, drapery, flowers, etc. in his many commissioned portraits of wealthy nobles. He also collected many valuable old master paintings and drawings which sold for spectacular prices after his death.

Louise de Penancoet was about twenty years old when this portrait was painted. She had recently been summoned from France by King Charles to become maid-of-honor to his wife and Queen, Henrietta Ma- ria. The daughter of noble parents in Brittany, the charming Louise rapidly became the King's favorite. Charles wooed her with gifts such as the orange tree on the left, which is planted in a large, stone vase carved with cherubs. Louise's rounded, sensuous features, direct gaze, and aristocratic bearing indi- cate her calm confidence in her ability to please the King as well as to deal with the political complexities of court life. Her advancement in England was indeed swift. Louise became a Baroness, a Countess, then a Duchess and for many years was acknowledged as Charles' mistress and Queen, although she never actually received this title.

Dressed in a loose, strawberry gown which was the fashion at the court of Versailles at that time, she

offers us, the viewers, a single orange blossom, a symbol of pure love still included in bridal bouquets today. The light tones used in her skin, her flawless neck and shoulders, her intelligent yet sensual face, and her graceful hands contrast with the rich, dark tones of the background and the soft drapery of her dress and shawl to create the illusion of space and depth around her figure. This use of chiaroscuro creates a gentle, circular motion in the lighter areas which flow from her soft, dignified face down to her curving wrist and hand, up along her right forearm to her hand delicately grasping the orange blossom whose angle leads our eyes back to her face. Seated at the entrance to a garden, Louise seems perfectly posed and poised for her emerging role in the royal court of England.

England during the 1600s was divided into distinct social classes:the clergy, the nobles, the gentry, and the commoners. The nobles were a relatively small group, numbering several hundred and consisting of families which intermarried often, insuring the pos- session of land and property, notably the classical country houses whose walls were hung with ances- tral portraits. Although British society appeared to be organized and dominated by men, an underlying matriarchy existed because marriages were usually arranged by women. Women also arranged portraits of both the lady and the gentleman to be married. This portrait of Louise de Penancoet shows us a different sort of woman power, that of a young, well-bred foreigner who made her way in England by using her natural, physical attractiveness, as well as her wits, to her own best advantage.

Vocabulary Ancestry - The people from whom a person is

descended; line of descent, usually honorable, noble, or aristocratic.

Aristocracy - A governing body or upper class usually made up of an hereditary nobility.

Chiaroscuro - A technique introduced in the Ren- aissance of rendering forms and creating the illusion of depth and space around figures through a bal- anced contrast of light and dark areas.

Activities Ask students to imagine, then write, a dialogue be- tween Louise and King Charles, remembering that she was French and he was English. The dialogues can be in English or French, or a combination of both.

Introduce students to additional reproductions of pictures of kings and queens and ask them to imagine what it would be like if they were to become a royal person. Discuss facial proportions, then provide paper with precut eyeholes on which to create self-portraits. When the portraits are completed, students can form a living portrait gallery by holding their artwork in front of their faces and looking around at one another.

Discuss chiaroscuro in this reproduction and in several other examples. Have students make gray scales and color scales ranging from light to dark

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Sir Peter Lely, Louise de Pennancoet, Duchess of Portsmouth. Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 in. Gift of Mrs. George Leary, 56.51. The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. Photo credit: Richard Stoner.

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using old magazines, oil pastels, and/or tempera paint. Then ask students to make collages, drawings, or paintings of someone they like or admire using light and dark tones and concentrating on making the tones move the eye through the composition.

Recommended Children's Book The King's Day: Louis XIV of France written and illustrated by Aliki. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1989.

This well-illustrated book follows the legendary Sun King through one entire day at Versailles - from his elaborate getting-up ritual, spectacular meals, council meetings, hunting expeditions, outings, and concerts until his going-to-bed ceremony. Full of amusing, factual details, this book offers a wonderful look at the real life of French royalty in the 17th century.

Bibliography The British Face, A View of Portraiture 1625-1850. London:

Colnaghi, 1986 Giles Waterfield. Faces, in the series Looking atArt. McElderry/

Atheneum, 1982.

Utagawa Kunisada Japanese, 1786-1865

Nakamura Shikan IV in the Role of Jirosaku of Naniwa, 1861

color woodblock print Bequest of Dr. James B. Austin, 89.28.884

Let's Look What do you notice first about this picture? What is this person doing?

What parts of his face are made up? Why are some lines in the face heavy and some thin? Is his face in profile, three-quarters view, or full face? Why do you think the actor's eyes are crossed?

Describe the position of his body. How close to you is it? How do these aspects of the picture make you feel? Name the colors used, starting with the one that is used the most. How do they make you feel?

Is this picture a painting, a drawing, a photograph, or a print? How can you tell?

Does this picture look flat or three-dimensional?

Profile Utagawa Kunisada lived in Japan during the 1800's and studied under a famous artist named Toyokuni who made "ukiyo-e," or pictures of the floating world. "Ukiyo-e" artists depicted the lively, everyday world of courtesans and actors in the Yoshiwara entertain- ment section of the city Edo, known today as Tokyo. Their pictures were polychrome woodblock prints made collaboratively with engravers, printers, and publishers, rather than by a single artist working

alone. The artist was responsible only for the original drawing which was then transferred to a block of cherry wood and carved by the engraver. Each color used in the final print required a separate block. The printer applied color to the blocks, often as many as twelve, and printed the final image. The entire proc- ess, including distribution of the prints, was coordi- nated by the publisher. Ukiyo-e prints were sold inex- pensively in the streets, much as movie magazines and posters are sold in newsstands in American cities today.

Japanese society at this time was rigidly controlled by the Tokugawa shoguns, or military rulers, who did not allow any foreigners into the country and ap- proved or censored all the art produced. The small, circular seal in the upper right cornerof this print is the seal of approval of the government censor. As a result, well-known ukiyo-e artists like Hokusai and Hiroshige began to create more images of nature - such as a variety of unusual views of Mt. Fuji - than of people.

This print portrays an actor named Nakamura Shikan IV at the most exciting moment in a Kabuki play. As Japan changed from a feudal society, the numbers of middle-class people living in Edo in- creased, and they had more leisure time. They loved this type of dramatic entertainment. Actors dressed in elaborate costumes and make-up entered the theater on a runway that ran right through the audience. Drums and musical instruments created a loud din at the entrance of an important actor. Everyone went to see their favorite "stars" and bought prints of them afterwards as souvenirs. Kunisada's actor prints were so popular that they were praised in songs of the day, and a writer noted that at this time "the word ukiyo-e meant only one thing: Kunisada."

The actor Nakamura Shikan IV was well-known for his dancing prowess and for playing the role of the vigorous hero, comparable to the tough guys typical of American television. At the climax of the play, a Kabuki actor like Nakamura was able to slowly open his eyes wide and cross one pupil in the direction he wanted the audience to look, then freeze his facial expression and body into a dramatic pose, or "mie." His eyes are outlined in red, a colorwhich symbolized forcefulness and strength and was worn by actors playing male roles. (Only men were allowed by the Shogun to become actors, which meant that some men had to play the roles of women.) The single, slightly curving, black line of his mouth conveys his grim determination, while his eyebrows, also thick black lines, signal intense concentration. His side whiskers are worn in "arrow feather" style, another symbol of power in the Kabuki theatre. Shoulders hunched, back rounded and hands tightly clenched on his sword, Nakamura appears ready to jump out of the picture and fight to the finish!

Simple yet expressive lines echo one another and contrast with large, flat, clearly defined shapes through- out this dramatic composition. Both lines and shapes contrast and are complemented by small areas of pattern around the sleeves and in the striped sash

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and the larger pattern on the back of his kimono. Each element is simplified and exaggerated almost to the point of caricature, as in comic book illustrations, which, incidentally, are extremely popular in Japan today. Pictures of women by Kunisada and other ukiyo-e artists depicted courtesans performing house- hold tasks and were more idealized and more lyri- cal than the actor prints.

Vocabulary Censorship - The practice of censoring or super-

vising publications or films for objectionable material, or material considered harmful or immoral.

Polychrome - Decorated in several colors; multi- colored.

Caricature - A picture in which the subject's physical characteristics are simplified, distorted, and exaggerated; a comic imitation.

Activities Invite a local actor or mime to come to class and demonstrate a variety of poses, theatrical make-up techniques, and facial expressions which students can easily identify. Compare traditional Western and Eastern approaches to theatre. Encourage students to make up their faces and experiment with different poses and expressions in front of mirrors, then inside a large picture frame held up in front of the class.

Compare magazine photos of people in dramatic poses and facial expressions with Nakamura Shikan IV. Discuss what makes a picture exciting - close- up views, exaggeration, dramatic angles, etc.

Have students make portrait collages of them- selves dressed as actors or actresses playing their favorite roles. Provide colored paper (including lots of black) and carefully selected wallpaper scraps. Demonstrate cuttinq out bold, colorful shapes and black lines without drawing them first, and encourage students to try out their shapes and lines before gluing them.

Recommended Children's Book The Boy of the Three Year Nap by Dianne Snyder, illustrated by Allen Say. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1988.

The plot of this humorous story, which is adapted from a traditional Japanese folktale told by itinerant storytellers, revolves around a lazy but clever boy's ability to assume a fierce pose. The striking illustra- tions are done in the style of ukiyo-e prints and will extend students' understanding of the important vis- ual qualities of floating world prints as well as of traditional Japanese life.

Bibliography Eight Hundred Years of Japanese Printmaking. Museum of

Art, Carnegie Institute, 1976. Sherman E. Lee. Japanese Decorative Style. The Cleveland

Museum of Art, 1961. Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute Collection Handbook, Pitts-

burgh, 1985. Williams, Marjorie L.Japanese Prints: Realities of the "Floating

World". The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1983.

David Hockney Divine, 1979 Acrylic on canvas

60 x 59-7/8 in. Museum purchase: gift of Richard M. Scaife

Let's Look How would you describe the expression on this

person's face? What is the body language saying? Who is this person?

Look closely at the clothes. Are these "at home" clothes, or clothes to go out in?

Notice the different types of colors and in what different ways the acrylic paint has been applied. Where are the brightest, most saturated hues? Where are the colors thin and muted? Are there any areas of bare canvas? Can you find the charcoal lines of the underdrawing? What mood do the colors convey?

How does the background contrast with the per- son? How is it similar?

Do you think the artist knows Divine, the person he has painted, or was David Hockney commissioned to do an "official" portrait?

Profile David Hockney is a contemporary British artist who has chosen to live in Los Angeles, California. At- tracted by the clear, unchanging, brilliant sunlight of southern California which is so different from the cloudy, variable climate in England, Hockney has painted many "portraits" of his adopted city. These paintings include a series of swimming pools, as well as landscapes depicting the canyons outside of Los Angeles where his studio is located. Considered to be one of the best portrait painters alive, Hockney almost never accepts commissions, preferring to paint his own friends. His portraits are typically informal and often satirical, revealing aspects of his subjects' lives while achieving striking resemblances.

In his paintings of both people and of places, Hockney uses bright colors and decorative motifs loosely applied in broad, flat areas with visible brush- strokes. The overall effect is reminiscent of Matisse and typical of the quality of light and the colorful lifestyles of Los Angeles and Hollywood. The subject of this painting is Divine, an entertainer and transves- tite originally from Baltimore, who was famous for playing outrageous female roles in films by John Waters, including the underground classics Pink Flamingos, Polyester, and more recently, Hairspray. Considered a freak by many, in this painting Divine is portrayed without his "glamorous" public persona, flamboyant dresses, make-up, and wigs. Instead, we see a large, seated figure with a massive body and a quiet, guarded expression on his face, seated in front of a field of riotous color, calmly and confidently staring out at us. Only his shaved head, dramatically arched eyebrow, and the gaudy red and blue-gray shadows on the side of his face hint at his roles as a film star.

The field of vibrant red squiggles on an intense

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Utagawa Kunisada, The Actor Nakamura Shikan IV in the Role of Jirosaku of Naniwa, 1861. Color woodblock print. Bequest of Dr. James B. Austin, 89.28.884. The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. Photo Credit: Richard Stoner.

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.13 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 10:15:32 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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David Hockney, Divine, 1979. Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 in. Museum purchase: Gift of Richard M. Scaife. The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. ? David Hockney.

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blue background echo the theatrical aspects of Di- vine's persona while contrasting with the quieter tones of his clothing. Skillfully brushed in with thin paint, they indicate the weight of the figure as well as his relaxed pose and serious, straightforward mood. Hockney has painted a poignant portrait of a bizarre, off-beat public figure, one which reveals the humanity of the real person behind the public mask.

Vocabulary Persona - The Latin name for masks worn by

actors, persona now refers to an individual's social facade or front.

Commission - In art, a commission is a formal written agreement to an artist to create a work of art, for example, a portrait or a mural.

Transvestite - A person who adopts the dress and often the behavior of the opposite sex.

Activities Have students "interview" Divine and David Hockney for the local newspaper or TV station, asking ques- tions and imagining their responses. This can be done either orally or in writing. Discuss the public persona vs. the private individual in relation to each. Brainstorm poses and backgrounds for various public figures familiar to the students. Why do they choose certain colors and positions? How would they depict themselves?

Have students create full length portraits of public figures (of their choice) placed against decorative backgrounds which relate to the persons' personali- ties and poses. Each student will start by selecting a magazine photograph of a public figure and making several enlarged charcoal sketches based on it. The sketches are then cut out and placed on a decorative background (provide wallpaper samples, gift wrap- ping paper, etc. for ideas). Encourage students to try their sketches against different backgrounds before choosing the right combination to translate into an oil pastel composition.

Recommended Children's Book The Trip written and illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1978.

When Louie moves to a new neighborhood he turns to his imagination for companionship, making a shadow box and taking a fantasy trip back to see his old friends. At first he meets some frightening charac- ters, then he realizes they are his friends, dressed up for Halloween! The colorful, expressive illustrations combine drawing, painting, and collage, and contain figures against a variety of backgrounds which echo the mood of the story and Louie's personality. Bibliography

"Working with Narrative Art: David Hockney." Art and Man, April/May, 1990, Vol. 20, No. 6.

Henry Adams. "An Interview with David Hockney." Carnegie Magazine. March/April, 1983, Vol. 56, No. 8.

John Calidwell. "David Hockney." Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute Collection Handbook. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1985.

David Hockney, A Retrospective. Los Angeles County Mu- seum of Art, 1988.

Cindy Sherman No. 147, 1985 Color Photograph

48 x 72 in. Pamela Z. Bryan Fund

Let's Look Is this picture a painting or a photograph? How can you tell?

Is this a man or a woman? Where is s/he looking? Look carefully at this person's nose. Is it a real

nose? How about the hair? The eyebrows? What is behind the person? Is this a close-up, a

long shot, or somewhere in the middle? Where is the light coming from? Do you see a glint

in the person's eye? Do you think the light is natural or artificial? Where

was this photograph taken? Are we looking at a real person, or a character in a

story? Why? What kind of a story? What kind of a real person?

What do you think has just happened? What will happen next?

How does this picture make you feel? Why does Cindy Sherman let us see parts of her

disguise? Do photographs always show what is real?

Profile "Even beauty, which was so often in the past a sign

of goodness or heroism in art can now be presumed to be no more than a brilliant mask." (Jed Perl)

"The new art world is a great movie set." (Jed Perl)

Cindy Sherman, believe it or not, had a very normal childhood. She grew up in a comfortable, middle- class neighborhood on Long Island, then attended the State University of New York at Buffalo where she met fellow art student Robert Longo, decided that painting was dead, and studied photography. Shortly after graduating in 1976 she received a Guggenheim fellowship and moved to New York with Longo. In just six years she acquired an international reputation, and her photographs were purchased for the collec- tions of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Tate Gallery in London.

Although Sherman's black and white photos in the late '70s, called "Untitled Film Stills," were reminis- cent of old movies, by the mid-eighties she was using color film and increasingly larger formats. The photo- graph reproduced here is from a series which began as an assignment from Vanity Fair magazine to illustrate fairy tales. Using weird lighting, a variety of wigs, turbans, and fake body parts from novelty shops, and sometimes spraying herself with water to look like sweat or smearing herself with sand, Sher- man created life-size photographs (4' x 6') depicting strange, monstrous characters inhabiting shadowy worlds which exude violence and mystery. These characters are ambiguous - we're not sure if they are male or female, victims or aggressors, tormented

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or merely thoughtful -as are the settings which consist of anonymous yet evocative landscapes and interiors. While Sherman's use of color and chiaro- scuro is painterly, similar to Rembrandt, Caravaggio, and de la Tour, her photographs simultaneously echo late-night horror flicks on TV.

Often shocking, Sherman's work looks both high- brow and popular, commercial and mythic, perhaps because she appropriates visual effects and scenes from a variety of sources - Old Master paintings in European art museums (which she visited in 1982), The Arabian Nights, fairy tales, Hollywood films, and the collective unconscious. Her non-traditional way of working starts with several hours in her Soho loft playing in front of a mirror, trying out various clothes and lighting, and listening to music. Sherman be- comes the director, the lighting technician, costumer, and makeup artist as well as the entire cast of char- acters in her oddly cinematic still photographs. She uses a Polaroid attachment on her camera to test the results before setting the auto-winder and shooting a roll of film. And before removing her costume, she develops color slides herself, then sends them out to be printed commercially. Paradoxically, Sherman is both completely and literally "in" her work and com- pletely outside of it: "Once I'm set up, the camera starts clicking, then I just start to move and watch how I move in the mirror ... I don't feel that I am that person. I may be thinking about a certain story or situation, but I don't become her. There's this dis- tance. The image in the mirror becomes her - the image the camera gets on the film. And the one thing I've always known is that the camera lies."

Vocabulary Ambiguous - Capable of being understood in two

or more possible senses. Mythic --Based on or described in a myth, a

traditional story created by a people which explains a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon.

Collective unconscious - The deep unconscious that is peculiar to humanity in general rather than made up of personal elements.

Activities Have students outline the areas of dark, light, and

medium tones in No. 147 on tracing paper several

times, then try different color combinations on each tracing using colored pencils and/or markers. Dis- cuss with them how new colors and tones change the effect and the meaning of the image.

Students choose favorite characters from familiar fairy tales and create costume/disguises for them- selves. Encourage them to trade props, clothing, make-up, etc. with their friends. If possible, have a party which everyone comes to dressed as their characters and someone takes Polaroid pictures. Give them a "quiz," asking: Do you feel as detached as Cindy Sherman? Is the Polaroid picture really you, or really your character? Who will you be next time?

Provide strips of paper (8" x 24") and have students fold them into four equal sections. In the first section they will create a self-portrait (just head and shoul- ders), drawing themselves as realistically and accu- rately as possible. In the next two sections they will add fake parts and exaggerate aspects of their faces, transforming themselves into someone scary. The fourth section will contain portraits of themselves turned into terrible monsters.

Recommended Children's Book Grandpa's Face written by Eloise Greenfield and illustrated by Floyd Cooper. New York: Philomel Books, 1988.

A young girl loves her grandfather, who is an actor, a great deal but is frightened when she sees him rehearsing at home. Looking in the mirror, he slowly changes his usual face into a strange, unloving one with a tight mouth and cold eyes. Gradually Tamika learns that Grandpa loves her despite his ability to transform how he looks. Both the full color, realistic, close-up illustrations of faces and the story effectively explore the process of self-transformation. Bibliography

Vicky A. Clark, "Cindy's Shermanettes," Carnegie Magazine (Jan./Feb., 1985, pp. 6-10)

Andy Grundberg, "Cindy Sherman's Dark Fantasies Evoke a Primitive Past," The New York Times (Oct. 20, 1985, Section 2.).

Gerald Marzorati, "Imitation of Life," Art News, (September, 1983, pp. 79-87).

Jed Perl, "Starring Cindy Sherman: Notes on the New Art World," The New Criterion (January, 1986, pp. 14-25).

Lisa Phillips. "Cindy Sherman's Cindy Shermans," Cindy Sher- man, The Whitney Museum of Art, 1987.

Mark Power, "Cindy Sherman's Multiple Exposures," The Washington Post (July 14, 1986, Section C4).

Bay Hallowell is Assistant Curator of Education, Children's Programs, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Art Education/March 1991 31

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32 Art EducationlMarch 1991

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