PART 1/3: Paint Collages Inspired by Jack Whitten

Name of Project: Paint Collages inspired by Jack Whitten: PART 1/3

Teacher:  Lula

 Age or Grade Level: Prepared for 3rd grade

 Visual Arts Content / Standards

MN Arts Standard 3501.0820 

Subpart 1a - Foundations:

The student will use foundational knowledge and skills while responding to, creating, and presenting artistic work.

Subpart 5b - Connect:

The student will understand that artistic works influence and are influenced by personal, societal, cultural, and historical contexts, including the contributions of Minnesota American Indian tribes and communities. 

National Core Arts Standard:

Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural and historical context to deepen understanding.

Overview of Project

This will be the first part of a 3-part lesson series investigating the life and work of renowned painter Jack Whitten. We will explore his involvement in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, his work as an artist in New York City, and his famous break from traditional painting techniques to collage work using hardened paint. 

This week, in Lesson 1, I will present a slideshow to students about Whitten’s life and work, from his childhood to his Black Monolith series. We will look at his works and discuss what emotions we feel when we look at them. We will discuss what larger forms we see, then zoom in and observe what small shapes collage together to comprise the whole painting. We will compare a photograph of Muhammad Ali with Whitten’s portrait of Muhammad Ali to introduce the idea of representation vs. abstraction.

We will create an acrylic pour painting, which will harden over the next two weeks. We will notice the colors we have chosen and how they look next to each other.

“Big Ideas”/ Essential Question(s)

• How can small shapes make up a big picture? Why do we look for smaller shapes?

• How is Jack Whitten’s work influenced by his experience fighting for Civil Rights in the 1960s? 

• What emotions do we feel when seeing and making political work?

• What happens when we combine colors? How can we create a color-unified composition?

• What is abstraction? Why do we use it?

Student Outcome Objectives 

Students will:

1. Learn about Jack Whitten’s life and work

2. Be able to explain the difference between abstract work and representational work, and demonstrate understanding of why artists use abstraction.

Prior Knowledge

Students recently were taught about the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. This will allow us to utilize language like civil rights, racism, segregation, protest and activism to contextualize Jack Whitten’s involvement in the movement and how his work was influenced by growing up in segregated Alabama.

Examples of Artwork

Here is my slideshow with Whitten’s work included, feel free to download and use it:

Assessment

Ask questions like, “What do you feel when you’re making this?” “Where is your mind wandering to while you’re pouring this paint?” “How do these colors make you feel?” to confirm the goal of abstraction as expressing emotions/ideas through art. We will compare Whitten’s abstract work to photographs and students will explain the difference between abstract and representational.

Materials

Large paper for pouring paint onto

Paint ingredients (paint must be prepped ahead of time to marble when it’s poured):

3 parts Acrylic paint, tempera can work too

1 part Elmers Liquid Glue

Isopropyl alcohol to thin the mixture

Cups & Sticks to stir

Teacher Reflection

Word of advice to future educators of this lesson: the paint pour takes longer than expected (I had planned 10 minutes of pouring but it took us almost 30) and you will need more paint mixture than you expect, about a dixie cup full for each child. This is a no-brush painting activity!!! Kids move the paper around to guide the paint. Make sure to have wet wipes ready & ask children to roll up sleeves first.

Students manuvering the paint around their papers by tilting the paper up and down, side to side.

PART 2/3: Paint Collages Inspired by Jack Whitten

Planning Backwards Model 

Name of Project: PART 2/3: Paint Collages Inspired by Jack Whitten

 Teacher:  Lula McConnell

 Age or Grade Level: Prepared for 3rd grade

 Visual Arts Content / Standards

MN Arts Standard 3501.0820 

Subpart 1a - Foundations:

The student will use foundational knowledge and skills while responding to, creating, and presenting artistic work.

Subpart 5b - Connect:

The student will understand that artistic works influence and are influenced by personal, societal, cultural, and historical contexts, including the contributions of Minnesota American Indian tribes and communities. 

National Core Arts Standard:

Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural and historical context to deepen understanding.

Overview of Project

This will be the second part of a 3-part lesson series on the life and work of renowned painter Jack Whitten. We will explore his involvement in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s*, his work as an artist in New York City, and his famous break from traditional painting techniques to collage work using hardened paint. 

This week, in Lesson 2, I will present a shorter slideshow to students to refresh their knowledge about Jack Whitten’s life and work. I will use questions about what we remember from last week to recap important points: What is abstraction? Who is Jack Whitten? Why do artists use abstraction? How did Jack Whitten paint? We will study geometric shapes by naming them and observing them within Whitten’s painting 9-11-01 (2006). We will talk about tessellations to introduce the geometric term. 

We will use geometric templates to trace shapes onto the back of our painted pages from last week. We will then cut them out and collage them with glue sticks to make tessellations on small canvases.

“Big Ideas”/ EssentialQuestion(s)

• How can small shapes make up a big picture? Why do we look for smaller shapes?

• What emotions do we feel when seeing and making political work?

• What is abstraction? Why do we use it?

Student Outcome Objectives 

Students will:

1. Observe how Jack Whitten uses small geometric shapes to create large organic forms

2. Create work in the style of Jack Whitten

3. Learn rudimentary geometry terms

Prior Knowledge

Students have previously learned about figure drawing by combining simple shapes to draw more complex forms. This is an important foundational drawing skill, and will help them understand how to observe a large work with the intention of finding smaller shapes within it.

Students recently were taught about the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, and learned about Jack Whitten’s life and work in the context of his experiences in the segregated South. 

Students learned about how Jack Whitten paints in a unique style, by pouring paint, breaking it up into dried chips, and then collaging them together.

Students learned about what abstraction is and why artists use it to express strong emotions.

Examples of Artwork

I have attached my slideshow here: with images for this week

Assessment

Notice shapes the children have used and ask “what is the name of this shape?” to gauge whether they responded to the geometry portion of the lesson. Ask questions about feelings and wandering thoughts while working. Ask if they see any images in their abstract work because of the way they have combined the shapes.

 Materials

• Paint pours from last week

• Sturdy watercolor paper

• Glue sticks

• Scissors

Teacher Reflection

Provide glue sticks/strong liquid glue and brushes if possible. We used the glue sticks each kid had in their desk. Some worked well and others peeled off the next day. I ended up spending an hour gluing lost pieces back onto their canvases, use strong glue to avoid this :)

PART 3/3: Paint Collages Inspired by Jack Whitten

Planning Backwards Model 

Name of Project: PART 3/3: Paint Collages Inspired by Jack Whitten

 Teacher:  Lula McConnell

 Age or Grade Level: Prepared for 3rd grade

 Visual Arts Content / Standards

MN Arts Standard 3501.0820 

Subpart 1a - Foundations:

The student will use foundational knowledge and skills while responding to, creating, and presenting artistic work.

Subpart 5b - Connect:

The student will understand that artistic works influence and are influenced by personal, societal, cultural, and historical contexts, including the contributions of Minnesota American Indian tribes and communities. 

National Core Arts Standard:

Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural and historical context to deepen understanding.

Overview of Project

This will be the third part of a 3-part lesson series based on the life and work of renowned painter Jack Whitten. We will explore his involvement in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s*, his work as an artist in New York City, and his famous break from traditional painting techniques to collage work using hardened paint. 

This week, in Lesson 3, I will present a shorter slideshow reviewing content from the previous two lessons: Who is Jack Whitten? How does he paint? What is abstraction? Why do we use abstraction? What is a tesselation?

I will introduce the concept of background/foreground. We will use examples from Jack Whitten’s work as well as Faith Ringgold’s story quilts to differentiate the background from the foregeound in both abstract (Whitten) and representational (rRnggold) works. We will then add an acrylic wash background to our collages from the past two lessons. The watercolor paint bonds to the watercolor paper, but not to the acrylic paint. This provides a good opportunity to briefly discuss how paint is made and why different bases make paint work differently.

“Big Ideas”/ EssentialQuestion(s)

• What emotions do we feel when seeing and making political work?

• What is abstraction? Why do we use it?

• How do two artists’ work in different styles relate to each other foundationally?

Student Outcome Objectives 

Students will:

1. Identify foregeound and backgoround in abstract and representational work

2. Create work in the style of Jack Whitten

3. Experiment with latering different paint types

Prior Knowledge

Students have now spent two weeks learning about abstraction, innovating painting techniques, and the work of Jack Whitten.

In the past, I taught a lesson on how to make paint by mixing pigment with a base, so the kids have some background knowledge of differences between paints.

Students previously completed a lesson with a fellow teaching artist based on Faith Ringgold’s story quilts.

Examples of Artwork

See (and feel free to use) attached slideshow:

Assessment

This will be our final lesson in the style of Jack Whitten. Observe final compositions, how students choose to combine colors. Do students notice that the watercolor bonds with the blank watercolor paper but not the acrylic paint chips? Can the students tell me which part of their work is the background and which is the foreground? Can students connect their emotions to the work they are creating?

Materials

• Paint pours collages from last week

• watercolor sets, 1 per child

• paintbrushes

• cups w/ water for rinsing & paper towels for drying

Teacher Reflection

Some demo on how to clean watercolor brushes would have been helpful. I started demoing the watercolors and a lot of kids were like “we know how to use watercolors!” I should have continued to demo, because it was clear that many kids did not, but I stopped. Definitely demo these skills so you don’t end up with a bunch of all brown watercolor pallettes.