Art for a Change: Social Realism and The Works Progress Act, Part II

Concept: Students will focus on the relationship between art and societal values as expressed in the works of during the WPA.

Objective: Students will focus on the relationship between art and societal values during the WPA.

Key concepts include:
(Please see detailed National Standards embedded above.)

a)    Art is experience.

b)    “Art is not value-free, nor is art education. Both must be considered within the social, political, economic, and cultural contexts that necessarily define and condition the production and reception of art” (Levin, 199).

c)    Art and artist have a relationship to the world as part of the social,

cultural, political, and economic contexts that they influence.

Measurable objective: 100% of learners will connect to anchor standards listed in the lesson plan evidenced by completion of
collaborative art piece and academic vocabulary/defense of learning during presentation and reflection.

Language Objective:

            Key vocabulary includes:

·      Social Realism

·      Abstract Expressionism

·      Stylization

·      Posterization

·      Color Field Painting

·      Experience

·      Principles of Design
(unity, balance, rhythm and movement, emphasis, pattern, variety, proportion)

·      Painting technique vocabulary (dry brush, scumble, wet into wet, impasto)

Motivation/Anticipatory Set: Is art experience?

Assessment:

Formative

Informal and ongoing during brainstorming/collaboration, hands-on in task in groups and individually.

Summative

Using contrast and comparison models, presentation of learning (P.O.L.) and reflective paragraph writing using “See, Wonder, Think, Relate” model.

Materials:

• Laptop with digital projector
            • Mixed media depending on the assignment included within this Unit of Study. 

Including:

Activity 1: Gorky and Rodchenko’s Constructivist/Abstract Expressionism inspired exhibit poster. 

Rodchenko's graphic posters inspired many artists of the era.

Students will create a poster in the style of Rodchenko and Gorky to promote a poster for an exhibit
on Social Realism and the Works Progress Act.

Ashile Gorky working on Activities on the Field, one of the panels for his mural Aviation at Newark Airport,
for the Federal Art Project, 1936

REVIEW: One of the greatest success stories during the early years of the FAP was that of Arshile Gorky. In November 1935, head of the Mural Division, Burgoyne Diller, assigned Gorky to draw some sketches for the Administration Building of Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, NY for a mural devoted to aviation. The stipulations for the mural, dictated by the FAP's regional director, stated that it should incorporate "early legends and stories of man's aspiration to fly in a romantic period ... [portraying] the first attempts to build flying machines, through a combination of painted and photo murals." Having never traveled in an airplane, and appalled by the notion of realistically depicting aeronautic history, Gorky wanted to give viewers a sense of flying rather than simply depicting people in airplanes. 
(“Federal Art Project Of The Works Progress Administration”, 2015)

o   Interesting facts: Geometric tendencies such as Cubism, Constructivism, and Neoplasticism had constituted an important source of art inspiration in New York during the 1930’s, but were soon being supplanted by a more spontaneous, expressionistic aesthetic. New York art began looking to color inspired gesture of Kandinsky, with non-objective themes and a new generation of exiled European radicals soon took center stage.(Tintero, Mintz Messinger, & Rosenthal, 2007, p. 54)

o   Question addressing art criticism using The Analytic Model
THINK and FEEL organically: Constantly making sensitive connections among description, interpretation, and evaluation.
CONSIDER: Take the time and energy to look sensitively and deeply, and the work will lead you.

o   Critical thinking questions
HOW did Ashile Gorky convey the feeling of flight in his composition?

WHAT role did the Industrial Revolution and/or Constructivism play in this mural?

o   Student activity related to Ashile Gorky and Constructivist/Abstract Expressionism:

OPEN: The Constructivists produced some of their most innovative work in graphic design. Rodchenko, for example, conceived striking layouts and covers for avant-garde magazines such as Kino-fot (1922), Lef (1923–5) and Novy Lef (1927–8), for cinema posters and magazines and for advertising images of wider circulation, such as his poster Books for Every Field of Knowledge (1925; Moscow, Rodchenko Archv). These were often photomontages, combining bold typography and abstract design with cut-out photographic elements. As the product of a mechanical process, the photograph complemented the Constructivists’ commitment to technology, while conforming to the Communist Party’s stated preference for realistic and legible images accessible to the masses. (Oxford University Press, 2015)

HANDS-ON: Using examples of Rodchenko’s work design an aviation inspired poster to promote this exhibit “Art for a Change: Social Realism and The Works Progress Act Exhibit”. (Time: 1 hour, this may be offered at the exhibit follow the tour)

Tools: Tracing paper, layout paper, colored Canson paper, scissors, glue sticks, geometric templates, ruler, T-square, pencil, markers, font alphabets in various sizes, and 9” x 12” Bristol board.

Steps:

1.     Using the Rodchenko design below fro inspiration, decide where to place your headline and what colors to use.

2.     Design a thumbnail sketch. Extension: Indicate type and color to relate to the graphic shapes if desired.

3.     First, outline your shapes onto the colored Canson paper in pencil very lightly using templates and rulers as needed. Next, cut the shapes out. Decide on placement by moving the shapes around as you design your layout onto your Bristol board.

4.     Glue the shapes into place using a glue stick. Fill some areas in with markers if desired.
*Alternate solution: Use pen and ink to create lines and shapes on Bristol board.

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Activity 2: Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, 1936. Using these images redesign them as a photo montage that tells narrative from your understanding.

Social realist photography reached a culmination in the work of Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Ben Shahn, and others for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) project, from 1935 to 1943.

REVIEW: After World War I the booming U.S. farm economy collapsed from overproduction, falling prices, unfavorable weather, and increased mechanization. Many farm laborers were out of work and many small farming operations were forced into debt. Debt-ridden farms were foreclosed by the thousands, and sharecroppers and tenant farmers were turned from the land. When Franklin D. Roosevelt entered office in 1932, almost two million farm families lived in poverty, and millions of acres of farm land had been ruined from soil erosion and poor farming practices.

The FSA was a New Deal agency designed to combat rural poverty during this period. The agency hired photographers to provide visual evidence that there was a need, and that FSA programs were meeting that need. Ultimately this mission accounted for over 80,000 black and white images, and is now considered one of the most famous documentary photography projects ever. (Wikipedia, 2015)

o   Interesting facts: In March 1936, after picking beets in the Imperial Valley, Thompson and her family were traveling on U.S. Highway 101 towards Watsonville “where they had hoped to find work in the lettuce fields of the Pajaro Valley.” On the road, the car timing chain snapped and they coasted to a stop just inside a pea-picker's camp on Nipomo Mesa. They were shocked to find so many people camping there – as many as 2,500 to 3,500.
A notice had been sent out for pickers, but the crops had been destroyed by freezing rain, leaving them without work or pay. Years later Florence told an interviewer that when she cooked food for her children that day little children appeared from the pea picker's camp asking, “Can I have a bite?”

While Jim Hill, her husband, and two of Thompson's sons went into town to get the car's damaged radiator repaired, Thompson and some of the children set up a temporary camp. As Thompson waited, Dorothea Lange, working for the Resettlement Administration, drove up and started taking photos of Florence and her family. She took 6 images in the course of 10 minutes. ("Florence Owens Thompson", 2015)

o   Question addressing art criticism using The Analytic Model
REACTION TO THE WORK

CONSIDER: What is your first response? How does this make you FEEL?
What does this make you think of, or remind you of?

o   Critical thinking question for each piece.
WHY did the photographer choose this subject?

o   Student activity related to Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, 1936
OPEN: The struggles and strife of this migrant mother were captured by photographer Dorothea Lange. What does this image say to you? Could you image another way to use this image in a compelling way to communicate what you feel from this image?

o   HANDS-ON: Using prints provided create a photo montage that tells of the migrant mother’s struggles. (Time: 1 hour, this may be offered at the exhibit following the tour.)

o   Tools: Prints, scissors, glue sticks, geometric templates, ruler, T-square, pencil, photo tinting paint, brush, and 9” x 12” Bristol board.

o   Steps:

1.     Using the four prints of this portrait provided design a montage that focuses on the struggle of this migrant mother.

2.     Design a thumbnail sketch. Indicate how the graphic shapes express your point.

3.     First, outline your shapes onto the prints in pencil very lightly using templates and rulers if desired. Next, cut the shapes out. Decide on placement by moving the shapes around as you design your layout onto your Bristol board.

4.     Glue the shapes into place using a glue stick. Fill some areas in with photo tinting paint if desired.

Possible design solution, Separation Anxiety, by Diana Stein

homage to Migrant Mother, by Dorothea Lange

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Activity 3: Angel’s Trumpet, acrylic paint on 6” x 9” canvas, by Diana Stein. Students will stylize and paint a singular Angel  

 Trumpet flower in the style of John Augustus Walker, City Hall Murals (detail), 1936.

REVIEW: Forced at an early age to become the family breadwinner, Walker worked from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m. daily for the Mobile & Ohio Freight Department, limiting his sleep so that he could devote more waking hours to the study of drawing and painting. Walker’s exquisitely delicate handling of line and color were once said to be an outpouring of his poetic spirit in which he saw beauty everywhere. His art gave challenge the point of view as life as anything but banal.

(Wikipedia, 2015)

John Augustus Walker, City Hall Murals (detail), 1936, Mobile, Alabama

Interesting facts: Social Realism, an international art movement, refers to the work of painters, printmakers, photographers and filmmakers who draw attention to the everyday conditions of the working classes and the poor, and who are critical of the social structures that maintain these conditions. While the movement's artistic styles vary from nation to nation, it almost always utilizes a form of descriptive or critical realism. (“Social Realism”, n.d.)

A company-ordered transfer to St. Louis proved fortuitous for Walker, enabling him to enroll in the St. Louis School of Fine Arts, where he studied under the direction of Victor Holm, Edmund Werpel and Frederick Greene Carpenter. After six years of study, he spent several years studying art in museums in New York and Chicago. Walker also was deeply influenced by the famed painter, illustrator and muralist Frank Brangwyn. (Wikipedia, 2015)

According to a biography submitted to the University of Alabama in 1935, Walker exhibited his work at the fourteenth annual St. Louis Artists Guild Exhibition in 1926, followed by a “two-man” exhibition in Mobile in 1929 and a “one-man” exhibition at the Woman’s Club in Mobile in 1933. Both Mobile exhibitions were sponsored by Allied Arts Guild of Mobile. The Woman’s Club exhibition earned the following positive review in the Mobile Press-Register:

The water colors of John Augustus Walker on exhibition at the Woman’s Club House are among the most beautiful ever seen in Mobile. Exquisitely delicate in handling and coloring, they are an outpouring of the sensitivity and poetic spirit in which John Walker reacts to a beauty which is everywhere – a beauty from which so many now choose to turn away, seeking instead a sordid viewpoint. After all, it is with the spirit with which one sees – and in these water colors John Walker translates transcendent beauty.

o   Question addressing art criticism using The Analytic Model
DESCRIPTION: How does the work look?
(e.g., images, themes, composition, embedded ideas
and emotions) and its place in society (personal functions, history, and circumstances)

CONSIDER: IMAGES, colors, shapes, textures, values, medium, clues to point of view? Looking closer, what else do you see? Why do you THINK so?

o   Critical thinking question for each piece.
WHY did Thomas Hart Benton arrange the subject this way?

o   Student activity related to John Augustus Walker’s City Hall Murals, 1936
Stylized value study of an Angel Trumpet flower in acrylic paint on canvas.

HANDS-ON: Using prints provided create a photo montage that tells of the migrant mother’s struggles. (Time: 8 hours, this may be offered at school over successive sessions following the tour)

o   Tools: Print of image in black and white and also in color, pencil, acrylic paint, brushes, and 6” x 9” canvas, and gloss medium.

o   Steps:

1. Using the print of an Angel Trumpet flower, use color to show value changes in the petals the way that Walker did with his figures in his paintings.

2. Design a thumbnail sketch. Indicate how the graphic shapes of the petals could be stylized the way that Benton stylized his forms using line, shape, and color. Decide on placement and size by completing three quick thumbnails

before you move onto your 6” x 9” canvas.

3. First, outline your shapes onto the canvas in pencil very lightly using a 2B pencil. Next, gently erase the lines so that hey are barely visible.

4. Using acrylic paint begin to paint the lighter tones within the flower petals. Gradually add darker values found within the petals while the paint is still wet. Be certain to follow the direction of the plant veins as you add your strokes.
As you add shadows and highlights be aware of the direction of the light source.

5. Add the background using a contrasting color. Break up the color the way that Benton did using overlapping strokes in similar tones of the same color.

*

Activity 4: Study of Breadline, detail, life size, bronze. Sculpt a clay head portrait using geometric shapes. 
Simplify the facial features to make the figure more anonymous. Add a hat if you'd like to.

Sculpting Geometric

DVD Trailer: Techniques of Sculpture: Geometry in the Clay Portrait.
http://philippefaraut.com/ Additional technical info at http://philippefaraut.com/faqs.html 

(Faraut, 2011)

“Breadline” sculpture by George Segal in the FDR Memorial in Washington, DC.  ("The Great Depression Videos: FDR: A Voice Of Hope", 2015)

Social Realism and the Works Progress Act

REVIEW:

•     On May 6, 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order creating the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA was just one of many Great Depression relief programs created under the auspices of the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act, which Roosevelt had signed the month before. The WPA and other federal assistance programs put unemployed Americans to work in return for temporary financial assistance. Out of the 10 million jobless men in the United States in 1935, 3 million were helped by WPA jobs alone. ("Federal Art Project Of The Works Progress Administration", 2015)

OPTIONAL: Cue these links prior to presentation and play now if time permits. Follow these links to build interest and connect with background knowledge:

The Ballad of Roosevelt (3 min) TV-14

Danny Glover performs a Langston Hughes poem inspired by unfulfilled promises to the poor.

http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/george-washington/videos/the-ballad-of-roosevelt

FDR: A Voice of Hope (5 min) TV-PG

Elected in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt was a reassuring presence for many Americans through the trials of the Great Depression. http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/videos

•       “Of all of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, the WPA was the most famous because it affected so many people’s lives. The WPA was the largest New Deal agency and was designed to provide work to the unemployed. Roosevelt’s vision of a work relief program employed more than 8.5 million people. For an average of $41.57 a month, WPA employees built bridges, roads, public buildings, public parks and airports” ("The Works Progress Administration", n.d). 

•       During its years of operation, the government-funded Federal Art Project of the WPA also hired hundreds of artists who collectively created more than 100,000 paintings and murals and over 18,000 sculptures. The Project was part of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal during the Great Depression (1929-1943). 

o   Interesting facts:

o   Many of the artists employed under the WPA are associated with Social Realism.

o   Social Realism became an important art movement during the Great Depression in the United States in the 1930’s.

o   Many artists who subscribed to Social Realism were painters with socialist (but not necessarily Marxist) political views.

o   The movement therefore has some commonalities with the Socialist Realism used in the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, but the two are not identical.

o   Social Realism is not an official art, and allows space for subjectivity.

o   Question addressing art criticism using The Analytic Model 

EVALUATION: What is the work worth?

(e.g., personal experience, aesthetic judgment, contextual judgment/human problem or need?)
CONSIDER: Is the work clear? Does it move you? Is it WORTH examining?

o   Critical thinking question 

WHY is this sculpture still significant today?

o   Student activity related to Segal’s Breadline

Sculpt a clay head portrait using geometric shapes. 

Simplify the facial features to make the figure more anonymous.

o   HANDS-ON: Portraiture in clay. Advanced lesson. (Time: 8 hours, this may be offered at school over successive sessions following the tour)

o   Tools: Clay, support for creating a bust, and clay sculpting tools, and glaze.

*

Activity 5: California Agriculture Tablet, ceramic, 8” x 10”

*See: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wrtg/hd_wrtg.htm
for examples of Mesopotamian proto-cuneiform writing on clay tablets. 

REVIEW: Muralism in public spaces proved to be an unequaled platform to share artistic expressionism and voice the struggles and the triumphs of the people. Muralism around the world flourished during this time of great reconstruction following World War I.

Maxine Albro, California Agriculture (mural), 1934, Coit Tower, San Francisco

o   Interesting facts: Murals of the Depression Era depict visions of everyday life in the 1930’s, hope for the future, and in some cases radical political visions in content.
The opening of the Coit Tower and its display of murals was delayed by several months because of the controversial content of some of the paintings.

For example, the detail from John Langley Howard’s mural California Industrial Scene (below) contrasts the economic situation of unemployed tent dwellers with that of wealthy Americans.

John Langley Howard’s mural California Industrial Scene, 1934

California Agriculture, a mural by Maxine Albro depicts farming tasks associated with the four seasons. The NRA and eagle symbol on the crates workers are filling with oranges refers to the National Recovery Administration and the Blue Eagle Drive.The Blue Eagle Drive was the name given to a moral propaganda campaign to convince business to "do their part" and adhere to self governmental codes to hasten recovery from the depression. (Nelson, 2015)

o   Question addressing art criticism using The Analytic Model
INTERPRETATION: What does the work mean?
(e.g., subject matter, qualities, and character)

CONSIDER: What does this make you FEEL?

o   Critical thinking question
WHEN was this work created? Consider the current events and what the significance of the piece might mean.

o   Student activity related to John Augustus Walker’s City Hall Murals, 1936.
The project is inspired by this mural is to create a clay tablet using the layout from Albro’s California Agriculture. 

o   HANDS-ON: Clay tablet. Using the 8” x 10” color print of California Agriculture by Maxine Albro and a piece of tracing paper, carefully outline the figure and the main lines of the composition. *Alternate idea: Watercolor illustration of detail or whole mural of California Agriculture.

(Time:  Approximately 10 hours,not including curing time for clay. This may be completed at school over several weeks following the exhibit tour.)

o   Tools: Low fire clay, 8” x 10” color print of image, tracing paper, dull and sharp pencils, a bamboo skewer, quilter’s T-pins, and clay glazes.

o   Steps:

1. Using the 8” x 10” color print of California Agriculture by Maxine Albro and a piece of tracing paper, carefully outline the figure and the main lines of the composition. The black and white negative and positives of this image will help you to see the composition more clearly as you design the layout onto the tracing paper. Notice the strong diagonal divisions of the picture plane, and the placement and sizes of the figures. How is the illusion of depth depicted in this graphic representation of agriculture life in California in the 1930’s?

2. Next, form a flat 8” x 10” slab of clay tablet that is approximately ½” thick.Add two hole in the top to thread a piece of rope or leather cord to hang the tablet once it is complete.

3. Then, use the tracing and overlay it onto the prepared wet clay tablet.Use a dull pencil to press into the tracing paper to form indentations onto the clay. 

4. Remove the tracing paper. You will see indentations of the main lines of the layout. Using the color print to guide you, add more details using a sharp point (e.g., a pencil, a quilter’s T-pin, or a bamboo skewer). Build up relief using additional clay (additive method), and also by taking some clay away (subtractive method).

5. Allow the clay to dry completely. This will take several days.

6. Paint with glazes of desired colors. Fire in kiln. Thread rope or leather cord through the holes and hang up your artwork to share and enjoy!

*

Activity 6: Going West, Thomas Hart Benton. Charcoal and conté stick illustration on Canson paper.

REVIEW:

Thomas Hart Benton (April 15, 1889 – January 19, 1975) was an American painter and muralist.

Benton broke through to the mainstream in 1932. A relative unknown, he won a commission to paint the murals of Indiana life planned by the state in the 1933 Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago. The Indiana Murals stirred controversy; Benton painted everyday people, and included a portrayal of events in the state’s history that some people did not want publicized.

Thomas Hart Benton, People of Chilmark, 1920

o   Interesting facts:
Thomas Hart Benton was an American painter and muralist of the Regionalist art movement. Benton was born in Neosho, Missouri to a family of politicians and powerbrokers. Benton was named after his great-uncle Thomas Hart Bent, one of the first United States Senators from Missouri.

Though Benton's family home was in Missouri, the family spent much time in Washington DC. Benton rebelled against his family's wishes fro him to follow a political career path and chose to follow his dreams of becoming an artist. Benton's first exposure to art was through his job as a cartoonist for the Joplin American newspaper in Missouri.

In 1907 Benton left Missouri and enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago. After two years of study in Chicago Benton moved to Europe to study at the reputable Académie Julian in Paris. At the Académie Julian, Benton befriended artists from the United States and Mexico, including Diego Rivera and Stanton Macdonals-Wright, who heavily influenced Benton's style.

In 1913 Benton returned to New York City until being called to serve in the US Navy during World War I. Benton was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia as a wartime artist. Benton's task was to draw camouflaged ships, making sure that the camouflage patterns were adequately applied.

During the 1920s Benton returned to New York City to resume working as a fine art artist. Benton defined himself as an "enemy of modernism" and promoted the Regionalist movement. Benton received several commissions, including his El Greco-inspired murals for the New School for Social Research in New York City.

In 1932 Benton painted murals depicting life in the state of Indiana for the 1933 Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago, Illinois. The Indiana Murals created a great amount of controversy for including Ku Klux Klan members in full dress. The mural panels are currently displayed at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana.

("Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975)", 2015)

o   Question addressing art criticism using The Analytic Model
CONNECT: What do you connect with on a HUMAN LEVEL?

CONSIDER: What does this work tell you about the artist?

o   Critical thinking question for each piece.
WHAT did Thomas Hart Benton communicate about society within his paintings?

o   Question addressing art criticism using The Analytic Model
INTERPRETATION: What does the work mean?
(e.g., subject matter, qualities, and character)

CONSIDER: What does this make you FEEL?

o   Student activity related to Thomas Hart Benton’s, People of Chilmark, 1920
Add here

o   HANDS-ON: Charcoal drawing of Thomas Hart Benton’s Going West. Recreate this drawing using charcoal pencils and conté sticks on tinted Canson paper.
(Time: 5 hours, this may be offered at the exhibit follow the tour.)

o   Tools: Print of the drawing done by Benton, tracing paper, pencil, charcoal, conté sticks, Canson paper. Extension: Recreate this image as a large scale mural using the grid to scale the size up by 400%.

o   Steps:

1.Using tracing paper, draw a 2” x 2” grid in pencil the same size as the print that you are drawing from.

2.Place the tracing paper with grid over the printout. Draw the basic lines of the illustration onto your tracing paper. This will be used to transfer the drawing, square by square, onto the Canson paper of the same size.

3. Using very faint pencil lines draw the 2” x 2” grid onto the Canson paper without denting the paper.

4. Next, draw the basic lines of the image of the train moving west on the railroad tracks. Consider how the movement is exaggerated by the plumes of smoke and the swirling clouds. Examine the value changes and the contrast between the organic and the geometric shapes. Consider how Benton stylized the shapes to add rhythm and movement to his compositions. Use a variety of erasers (e.g., kneaded, pink pearl, etc.) to remove excess tones and keep a wide range of shadows, midtones, and highlights. Work patiently and slowly from light to darker values.

5. After the basic lines are in place you will erase the grid lines and begin filling in the drawing using charcoal and conté sticks. Blend softly to graduate the value changes gracefully. Take care not to smudge your work by using a separate piece of scratch paper between your hands and your art as a protective shield. This is a good practice to develop in order to keep your work pristine and unblemished.

6.Use spray fixative or aerosol hairspray to firmly affix your charcoal rendering to the Canson paper.