Qsilv

Baldur! That IS it! I'm doubly stunned... first that it has morphed so much in my memory (there's a whole lot more going on there than I had kept in my mental picture, so much so that I'm afraid I'm going to have to build something more like my own vision now, tho' I do still love that overall veil-wrap and the smoooothness) ...and second that you managed to find it!
Thank you tons. I hope you had fun in the sleuthing. ;>

chelydra

I could be here all day and all night responding to this, but to simplify things I'll just say that many many years ago I realized that if something is supposed to be "great" - or rather "the greatest" - it probably is. And if you don't see why right away (I often don't), keep looking (or listening, or reading) until you "get it". Late Beethoven, Bach choral works, the Messiah, Wagner's Ring, Wilhelm Furtwangler, the Mona Lisa, the best of Vincent VG's last year or so, Cezanne, Picasso, Rembrandt, Titian, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Winged Victory, Greek vases, Lascaux, Tolstoy, Emily Bronte, Hegel, etc., etc., have staying power, never getting stale, always growing and deepening and evolving.

I have other loves, less conventional. But my other loves (Carlo Crivelli, Sebastiano del Piombo, Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish, Beckmann, Kokoschka, John Marin, Jacques Villon (the painter), Charles Burchfield, Albert P. Ryder, Clyfford Still, Andy Wyeth, Ed Munch, anything Egyptian, Mahler, Bruckner, Verdi, Sergio Celibidache, Ruth Rendell, Hermann Hesse, Dostoyesky, Nietzsche, Wilhelm Reich, etc., etc.) have weaknesses and limitations; they may offer life-changing revelations even more intense than the universal "greatests", but other times I just want to run the other way. Most fade a bit over time, and recede into the past, sometimes completely in a few weeks (Still), sometimes only slightly and only after decades (Mahler). All on this list have been true loves, even head-over-heels loves, with unforgettable experiences together still resonating, but they turned not out to be my first choices of who I want to wake up every morning with, or grow old with.

The visual arts I study, pick apart, put back together, analyze and judge - usually harshly, dismissively. My relationship with music (which I don't understand at all; it's magic) is merely receptive but emotionally deeper, and that includes every imaginable genre, from the trashiest pop to the weirdest blues or chants.

One art form no one has mentioned yet might be the most significant of all: oratory. Malcolm X ("You are afraid to bleed"), Martin Luther King ("Why I am opposed to the war in Vietnam") still have the power to shock and awaken, as well as the much-underrated artistic virtue of connecting directly to the real world, and although what they were talking about fifty years ago may not be directly relevant to today's "issues" their unique voices are as vivid, uncompromisingly honest, and sorely needed as ever. Both are on Youtube; set aside 42 minutes for the King talk, and listen alone in a locked and darkened room. (I might put Robin Morgan's written essays - with her white-hot fury over the fate of her gender - in the same category, but I'm not sure her power will age as well.) Their lessons, and their examples, can be applied in any creative work, "topical" or otherwise. Aside from knowing what you're doing (skill, experience, structured thinking), you need to know whereof you speak and have the guts to come right out with it; honesty is what counts in any kind of art.

bugoy1

Thanks for the response, Chelydra! I appreciate everyone's input.

Sorry that I haven't been around much lately. I've been working on the college board syllabus for AP Art History. The standards are changing and I have to update things. The other AP teachers have mentioned that they had to submit and re-submit their plans a half dozen times. The board is very persnickety. So I sent my plan in and within an hour it was accepted! That's a huge load off my mind.

Because of that great news, I decided to check in with my friends here on ThinkDraw. It has been a while. It will probably still be a while before I draw anything. There is still so much work to be done.

This summer I will be teaching Art at summer camp. So I won't be around then either. If all works out right, I should be back and drawing in August.

Side note; what happened to ArtDillon?

chelydra

I hope you can share with us some of what you're doing with the art history stuff, I mean the substance of it, and maybe a little about how and why the standards changed, what we're supposed to know that we didn't before. If you don't mind, and haven't totally overdosed on the subject.

bugoy1

Sure. I will try to keep it brief though. I could go on and on and on...

One of the biggest changes is that instead of students hoping that they study the right works and know the titles, there will be a list of about 250 works. Those will be the ones that titles, artists and such are expected. Anything else is to build their knowledge base.

The new test will have less of the, "What are the titles of the two slides projected?" and more, "Give two examples of gender roles in Art. One example should be prior to 1500 and one after." So students will have to come up with more on their own but will not be expected to know as many titles as before.

Another change is that Art from Africa, the Americas, India, China, and Japan will be a bigger portion of the test. Also, students will be doing more of the "compare and contrast" using European Art and Non-European stuff.

Besides putting together all of the Power Point presentations of each unit, I have notes pages to produce, reviews to make and upload to my blog, and tests to create. In addition, I would love to use my review day before each test to play games. If you've watched the TV show "Hollywood Game Night", I'd like to do something like that using Art History. In fact, I could use the community's help.

One of the games they play is called, "Mash-ups". In the game they mingle two faces of celebrities that share a name. The last name of one is the first name of the other. For instance, Meg Ryan and Ryan Gosling would be "Meg RYAN Gosling". I have 6 ideas for Art mash-ups, but if I have 40 kids in class, I will likely have to break them into about 8 groups of 5. I wouldn't even have one example per team. (Yes, 40 is normal in Utah. The unofficial education motto is, "Stack 'em deep, teach 'em cheap!")

Here are the 6 I have:
1- "Birth of VENUS of Willendorf" (Botticelli & Paleolithic)
2- "Stary NIGHT Watch" (Van Gogh & Rembrandt)
3- "Blue BOY with a Top" (Gainsborough & Chardin)
4- "Arnolfini WEDDING feast" (Van Eyck & Breughel)
5- "Creation of ADAM and Eve" (Michelangelo & Durer)
6- "Raft of the MEDUSA Pediment (Gericault & Archaic Greek)

So if any of you have more ideas, please share!

Baldur

'The peasant wedding feast at Cana' (Pieter Bruegel the Elder/Paolo Veronese)
'Girl at Mirror with Pearl Earring' (Norman Rockwell/Vermeer)

Qsilv

The Andalusian Dog x Dog on a Leash --Banuel/Dali 1929 film; Balla 1912 oil painting

I don't know that your kids would be ready for it (tho' imnsho, these days --yes!) but an interesting discussion could come of comparing the whole concept of movement... ephemeral memory and 2-D imagery... attempts at showing change and evoking resonant response.

From that same era came the literary works of Proust, dealing with arguably similar effects. It was all new. Which brings up the question of what are we spearheading currently? Can we tell?

;>

Baldur

Baldur is having technical difficulties and just is here to test his posting abilities