Pop Art

Scholars Making Art Pop Art Unit

This unit we began learning about the pop art revolution that began in the early 60's and still continues today. The word 'POP' was first coined in 1954, by the British art critic Lawrence Alloway to describe a new type of art that was inspired by the imagery of popular culture. They often included flashy colors and designs and were understandable to the average citizen. We studied a variety of pop artists in class including Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Shepherd Fairey. Each of these artists made signature additions to the pop art movement. Andy Warhol was famous for repeating multiple images through graphic print while Jasper Johns focused more on familiar things such as flags, numbers, and letters. Shepard Fairey used a selective color palette while highlighting celebrity faces. Watch the video below for an in-depth look at the history of pop art. 

We made our own pop art creations inspired by these artists and their signature artistic elements. We first brainstormed ideas about modern culture that we wanted to incorporate into our projects. Then, each group turned their message about popular culture into a work of art. 

Meg & Shackeema 

Above, you can see adaptations of Jasper John's iconic style of using flags in his artwork.

The group below took Shepard Fairey's OBEY Giant and created their own modernized version using the image of Miley Cyrus. 

Chase & Emily

Our class cumulatively churned out lots of works of pop art. Andy Warhol would be proud!

Luke, JR, Hayden, and Chris

Tom/Mike, John, Rachel, and Quinn

Ms. K takes a photo

Helen, Catherine, Megan, and Ella

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Looking to learn more?

Check out these links below

20 Things You Didn't Know About Pop Art

Classic vs. Modern Pop Art

Artists Profile: Andy Warhol

Artists Profile: Shepard Fairey

Values Artwork

In SMART, earlier this month we learned about Dutch Baroque paintings. During the Dutch Baroque period, artists expressed their society’s values through their art. As a newly found republic, they had a strong appreciation for the everyday man. They believed that every person played an important role in society. They were also Calvinists, a strict branch of protestant, which believed in the importance of charity and being a kind person while they are on Earth because material items do not last past life on Earth. Dutch Baroque is still seen today, but typically in more subtle ways. An example of this is Johnny Cash’s music video for his cover of the song “Hurt”.

To relate this to our lives, as a class, we created a list of values that we believe our society finds important. Some of these included communication, happiness, individuality, equality, and ambition.

Kaylyn, Regina, Becca, and Alex decided they wanted to express communication and happiness through their collage by showing how communication and happiness, representing the bright and sunny objects and colors, interrelate through young children. We can see the children building a city using their childhood blocks, symbolizing the new generation replacing the old and developing their own opinions and values.

Individuality was another theme that groups could pick for their project. Both groups that chose individuality used animals to display their message. Animals, unlike humans, are not afraid to express themselves and be different. Both the zebra in the field of horses and the parrot in the flock of crows symbolizes the reward and excitement that comes from standing out. One group used the famous quote by Doctor Seuss: “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You”. This quote works perfectly with this work of art, demonstrating the power of individuality in a society focused on conformity. Bright colors and large images create visual separation from the other components of the composition. This is to create metaphorical and literal representation of standing out.

One group took many picture of people with their arms out and palms open. They printed out the pictures of all different kinds of smiling individuals. Glued together in a paper doll fashion, the students display communication, happiness, and friendship.   

Andrew, Grant, and Eric’s values were happiness and they were trying to portray this by putting pictures together into a shape of a smiley face.

The Dutch Baroque period was an extremely unique period in history that produced many works of art. To learn more about this fascinating period in art history, click the links below!

http://academics.smcvt.edu/awerbel/Survey%20of%20Art%20History%20II/Baroque.htm

http://www.essential-humanities.net/western-art/painting/baroque/

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/1600-1700-the-Baroque.html

SMART Earth Art

Today in SMART we finalized our discussion about Earth art. And, we were able to go outside and in groups try to make our own rendition of Earth art. Earth art  an art form that is created in nature, using natural materials such as soil, rock (bed rock, boulders, stones), organic media (logs, branches, leaves), and water with introduced materials such as concrete, metal, asphalt, or mineral pigments.  Sculptures are not placed in the landscape, rather, the landscape is the means of their creation. I was impressed with just how easy it was to make art using merely the world that we live. 

Here are a few pictures of what the different groups were able to come up with.......

SMART Pictograms

Today in SMART all groups were busy finalizing each of there pictograms. Most groups were putting the finishing touches on their projects while others were working steadfast to finish. From the looks of each group, all pictograms seem to look stellar and resemble a clear understanding by just taking a glance at there projects.

Here are a few pictures of the hard work we accomplished!

We will pic up our next SMART class with presenting our final projects to the class; while finishing our PowerPoint on Pre-Historic Art. 

Today in class all of the groups were working on their projects. Some are painting, and some are drawing. Looking around it seems like there are going to be a lot of cool presentations when we're all done!

Paleolithic Painting PowerPoint and Pictogram Project Planning

Today in lunch block SMArt, we finished up our Powerpoint on Paleolithic Paintings and began Planning our Pictogram Projects! (I'm having fun with this alliteration.) We reviewed the three main caves: Chauvet (France), Lascaux (France), and Altamira (Spain), and talked about some of the paintings found inside.

This painting (above) is the only painting in Lascaux Cave that depicts a human. We spent some time trying to figure out why the human isn't depicted in nearly as much detail as the bison (and why there's a bird on a stick). Although we can't know for sure, we think that humans simply weren't as important to the painter as animals, and also that the painter most likely didn't see many humans because of the secluded lifestyle during that time. As for the bird on the stick - we've settled on the "Paleolithic Lawn Flamingo Theory."

We discussed the main theme of this unit further: Why did these people create art? Because we can't know the answer for sure, we came up with lots of plausible answers. Perhaps they created art to teach lessons, or to tell stories. Maybe they were filling free time, since tools like the atlatl made it so they weren't spending all day hunting. It's possible that they were decorating the caves, trying to impress others with their ability to hunt, or using the paintings as target practice. Or maybe, they were just creating art for the sake of creating art - something that we can relate to thousands and thousands of years later!

We watched a great video about pictograms (above) and made some connections to the Paleolithic Art we had just been studying. Afterwards, we began planning out own projects: a series of pictograms that tell how to do something! My group was making instructions for a banana split. I can't wait to see the final products!

SMART Day 1

In our first lesson of Scholars Making Art, we went back to prehistoric time and learned about cave art. Cave art comes from the paleolithic and neolithic eras of prehistory. We looked at everything from sculptures such as the Venus of Willendorf to the more commonly known cave paintings. We discussed the subject matter of the paintings; they would often include scenes of animals and nature, a reflection of their interests and the world around them.

We used the Venus of Willendorf to explore the idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or in this case, the society. Though today she would probably be written off as morbidly obese, at the time of her creation the Venus of Willendorf epitomized the ideal prehistoric woman. Finally, we dove into why prehistoric man created art. Even the experts don't know why exactly this happened, but we explored a lot of possibilities. One such possibility was that they created art simply because it was personally rewarding, fun, and something to pass the time. Another was that perhaps they used art to teach their children about the world they live in. There are so many possible reasons that we'll probably never know exactly why it was created.