Focus Questions:
Link to JASON Project curriculum: The People Who Explore
Procedures:
Observe
1. Introduce the students to the image, Fureur me Traite comme la Tristesse #7. Conduct an initial discussion of the students' observations of this artwork. Ask them to describe the shapes, colors, lines, and textures, and content that they see.
Analyze
4. Ask the students to begin to analyze what they are seeing:
5. Proceed to a discussion of the importance of perspective, that is, of being aware of the position from which one sees and experiences the world. Explain that perspective is affected by where one is standing and looking, and that this is often also called vantage point. Explain that vantage point and perspective are affected by one's surroundings and by one's culture. Some examples would be a)trying to look out a window that is very dirty, or, b) trying to look out a window if everyone around us believes that what is outside the window is very scary. Explain that we are influenced by the context from which we make observations. Remind the students of the significant changes in perspectives about the world that were caused by scientific observers like Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Kepler. Tell them that thinking about their vantage point when looking at art can give them some clues to what the artist is trying to communicate.
Interpret
6. Engage the students in a discussion of the possibility that this is a view of celestial bodies such as moons or suns or planets. Help the students reflect on the possibility of an eclipse of one body by another.
Glossary:
perspective: 1)creation of an illusion of depth on a two-dimensional surface; a visual method of drawing objects as they appear to the eye; 2)to mentally view a subject or its parts; 3)to look at something with the eyes from a particular view point
vantage point, point of view: the position from which the viewer sees an object
unconscious: the part of the psychic apparatus that does not ordinarily enter the individual's awareness; not marked by conscious thought, sensation, or feeling
eclipse: the total or partial obscuring of one celestial body by another
Biographical Information
Max Ernst is known for innovations in the development of Surrealism, an art movement aimed at transferring dreams and unconscious thoughts into artworks. Surrealist artists used some of the techniques Max Ernst developed, like making rubbings from pieces of wood or other objects and looking for hidden images. He also liked to "force inspiration" by juxtaposing unusual combinations of images cut from magazines and pasted into collages. Ernst was born in Germany and moved to Paris, where he was several times held captive during World War II. He moved to the United States after the war and continued to be a very inventive and influential artist. Another method Ernst used to create artworks was printmaking, and he was a member of the famous printmaking studio Atelier 17, started in Paris by Stanley Hayter and moved to New York in 1940. At Atelier 17 Ernst participated with a lively group of artists, many young Americans and numerous famous European artists who had emigrated to the United States after the war. Their mutual influence in New York in the 1940's helped the United States to emerge as the new world center of modern art.
Max Ernst is known for his belief in the symbolic power of images, and he was knowledgeable about cultural signs and systems of symbols. His works invite the viewer's unconscious reactions to the symbols they contain.
Lesson 2: Getting Our Bearings by Knowing Our Dreams
Max Ernst, (Germany, 1891-1976)
Fureur me Traite comme la Tristesse #7
color lithograph
18 1/2" x 15 1/4"
Madison Art Center Purchase
Premise: Exploration may be directed to worlds "outside" and "inside".
1. In what ways are artist explorers like scientific explorers? What realms do artists explore?
2. What is the significance of perspective and vantage point to exploration?
Preparation:
1. Historical context: Read the biographical information at the end of the lesson plan.
2. Language: Look at the Glossary at the end of the lesson plan to become familiar with terms to use in talking about this artwork.
3. Classification system-This artwork is a print. Prints are multiple impressions made from plates or stones or screens onto paper. This print is a lithograph. Traditionally, lithographs are made by inking a special lithography stone and pressing it onto sheets of paper. Each print becomes an original work of art.
4. Equipment-The tools that are necessary for discovering this object are eyes, emotions, spatial awareness, textural awareness, and information about dreams as being unconscious or outside our conscious awareness; b) information about changes in worldview or perspective brought about by the explorations of scientific explorers like Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler; c) information about fears of and stories about eclipses in earlier civilizations.
2. Ask the students to notice what is familiar and what is unfamiliar and what arouses their curiosity. Talk with them about the importance, when exploring, of becoming grounded in what is familiar as a basis for moving into investigating the unfamiliar.
3. Then, ask the students to formulate some questions. Write their questions on a blackboard or notepad for reference during the discussion.
How is the picture divided into different parts?
Does any part seem to be nearer or farther away?
From what perspective do they seem to be viewing this image? What clues are they using? What might they see if their vantage point were closer or further away, farther above or below?
7. Discuss this image as a window. Is it a "real" window, that is, does it look out at some aspect of the real world? Or, might it be a window into something else? Tell the students about the artist, Max Ernst. Explain that he wanted to explore his dreams and his unconscious mind in his art. Suggest that this image may be a window into the artist's mind. Discuss the concept of exploration from the standpoint of "going inward" to understand oneself in order to know and encounter the universe "outside."
8. Engage the students in a discussion of possible meanings of this image. Ernst tried to show some of his inner self by using symbols that have familiar meanings, such as the circles and the wall. Ask the students about possible meanings of the circles as symbols, perhaps of the universe and infinity. Then, explore possible meanings of the relation of the circles to the brick wall and consider suggestions of barriers and boundaries. Remind them of earlier discussion of eclipse and ask them to relate eclipse to "inner exploration." Connect this discussion to ideas about limits and possibilities when explorers dream of regions to explore.
9. Tell the students that the French title of the print is Fureur me traite comme la Tristesse #7, and that this German artist lived in Paris and spoke French during World War II. Translated, the title means "Passion (or fury) treats me like sadness." Discuss some possible meanings of this title.
10. Ask the students to develop some hypotheses about what the artist may have been expressing through this image. Remind them of the earlier discussion of context and perspective, and that what we see and experience is influenced by what is happening around us. Enlarge on the notion of an eclipse and engage the students in considering historical efforts to block exploration or subvert knowledge that has emerged from scientific investigations.
Lesson Plan 1: Getting Our Bearings by Knowing Our Origins
Lesson Plan 3: Getting Our Bearings by Knowing Our Universe
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