high school visual arts curriculum - heard museum

High School Visual Arts Curriculum

Analyzing Art - Lesson Plan | 2

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Table of ContentsI. Analyzing Art – Lesson Plan 1

II. Analyzing Art (student activity)

III. Art Images

IV. Student Text

V. Venn Diagram (student activity)

VI. Matisse-Inspired Portrait – Lesson Plan 2

VII. Matisse-Inspired Portrait Assignment (student activity)

Cover:Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954)

Esquimau (Eskimo), ca. 1947

Lithograph

Plate I from Une Fête en Cimmérie by Georges Duthuit, 1963

8 3/4 x 6 3/4 in. (22.1 x 17.1 cm)

Musée départemental Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France, Gift of Barbara and Claude Duthuit, 2010

© 2018 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York


Analyzing Art – Lesson Plan 1High School; Grades 9-12

ARIZONA VISUAL ARTS STANDARDVA.RE.8.HS1Interpret an artwork or collection of works, supported by relevant and sufficient evidence (such as subject matter, media, elements and principles of modern art, artistic norms of diverse cultures, social issues in contemporary art) found in the work and its various contexts (artists’ life and times, for example).

VA.PR.6.HS2Make, explain, and justify connections between artists or artwork and social, cultural, and political history.

DESCRIPTIONStudents investigate the drawings of artist Henri Matisse and the masks of Central Yup’ik artists through observation, analysis, and discussion.

TIME FRAME1 to 2 class periods

MATERIALSComputer (optional)

Projector (optional)

PowerPoint presentation of images (optional)

Art images

Analyzing Art (student handout)

Venn Diagram (student handout)

Student text

INSTRUCTIONEXPLAIN: Tell students they are going to learn about various forms of art through an exercise of careful observation, which is a useful tool for many artists.

OBSERVE: Have students observe one image at a time, then give them an opportunity to respond to each question written under the bottom of each image. You can project each image individually and/or hand out one color image at a time to each student pair. Have students write their observations on the handout provided.

SHARE: Once students have had an opportunity to study each image and develop their thoughts, have them take a few minutes to share their responses with their neighbor (shoulder partner). Encourage students to write additional things that their partners noticed that they may have missed.

ASK: Ask pairs to share one of their observations with the class (no repeats). This will require that students listen carefully to the responses that each pair gives. After pairs have shared out, ask students for any other observations they might like to add or any questions they might have about the artwork and/or artists.


Go a step further…To deepen analysis of work, ask students to look at the images and consider the following questions:

• What elements of art and/or principles of design are used?

• How do you think the artist created this work?

• Why do you think the artist chose this subject matter and/or medium/s?

• What does it remind you of?

• What more do you want to know?

• What intrigues you about this work of art?

• What would you title this?

• Are the artworks created by the same artist?

READ: Have students learn more about images and artists by reading the student text provided.

ASSESSMENT: Have students use knowledge they’ve learned through their observations and reading to complete the Venn Diagram. Use the following questions to guide student thinking:

1. What were the sources of inspiration for the different artists?

2. Where did/do the different artists live?

3. For what purpose were the works of art created?

4. What do the artists have in common?

If needed, you can model each section for your students (i.e., Matisse 1D, shared representation of Arctic culture, Yup’ik 3D).

Go a step further…To deepen analysis of work, ask students to consider the following question and have them write a response to it:

Like Henri Matisse, many artists continue to be influenced by cultures outside of their own. List examples of artists, musicians and dancers whose work is influenced by a culture outside of their own. Pick one example to elaborate on.

CONCLUDE: You can wrap up this activity by facilitating another class share-out to review additional knowledge students learned and summarize important details. Ask students how Henri Matisse and the Yup’ik masks are connected. At this point you can also reveal additional image details.

Analyzing Art – Lesson Plan 1


Analyzing Art Image Details

Image 1Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954)

Esquimau (Eskimo) [after Rasmussen, Qingaruvdliaq]

Lithograph, ca. 1947

Plate XIX from Georges Duthuit’s Une Fête en Cimmérie, 1963

8 3/4 x 6 3/4 in. (22.3 x 17.1 cm)

Musée départemental Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France. Gift of Barbara and Claude Duthuit, 2010, 2010-1-6 (14-1)


Image 2Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954)

Esquimau (Eskimo), ca. 1947

Lithograph

Plate I from Une Fête en Cimmérie by Georges Duthuit, 1963

8 3/4 x 6 3/4 in. (22.1 x 17.1 cm)

Musée départemental Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France, Gift of Barbara and Claude Duthuit, 2010


Image 4Central Yup’ik, Napaskiaq Village, Kuskokwim River, Alaska

Dance mask representing Quicillgam Yua (Sandhill crane spirit)

ca. 1900

Wood, feathers, pigment, vegetal fibers

39 3/8 × 28 × 13 3/8 in. (100 × 71 × 34 cm)

National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, 9/3417

Image 3Central Yup’ik, Napaskiaq Village, Kuskokwim River, Alaska

Dance mask representing Qucillgam Yua (Sandhill crane spirit)

ca. 1900


43 ½ x 25 x 15 in. (110.5 x 63.5 x 38 cm)

Fenimore Art Museum, Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection, T0651

Ex-collection Kay Sage Tanguy.

Ex-collection Museum of the American Indian 9/3416

These two masks represent an example of the dozens of pairs that will be reunited.


Student ActivityAnalyzing Art - Lesson Plan 1


Take a moment to observe each image carefully, noticing every detail. Respond to each question thoroughly in the space provided.

Image 1: _________________________________________________

Describe: ____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Analyze: _____________________________________________________________________________________

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_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Image 2: ________________________________________________

Interpret: ____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Evaluate: ____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Analyzing Art Name: _____________________________________


Image 3: ________________________________________________

Describe: ____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Analyze: _____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Image 4: ________________________________________________

Interpret: ____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Evaluate: ____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Analyzing Art Name: _____________________________________


Describe: Describe what you see in this artwork. What mediums did the artist use to make this?

Analyze: Why do you think the artist chose to create this?

Analyzing Art Image 1


Interpret: What is the artist trying to say? What do you think it represents?

Evaluate: How do you feel about this artwork? Do you like it? Why or why not?



Describe: Describe what you see in this artwork. What mediums did the artist use to make this?

Analyze: Why do you think the artist chose to create this?



Interpret: What is the artist trying to say? What do you think it represents?

Evaluate: How do you feel about this artwork? Do you like it? Why or why not?



Student TextLesson Plan 1


Yua: Henri Matisse and the Inner Arctic Spirit is an exhibition that explores the surprising and little-known story of how Indigenous people and culture of the Arctic inspired one of the 20th century’s most influential artists, Henri Matisse. Included in the exhibition are works by Matisse that have not been publicly shown in the United States. The exhibition also reunites dozens of stunning Yup’ik (Native Alaskan) mask sets that have been separated for more than a century.

WHAT IS YUA?Yua is a Yup’ik word that represents the spiritual interconnectedness of all living things that is essential to maintaining balance and order in the Arctic way of life. It relates to popular notions of reincarnation. The Yup’ik are Native Alaskans, and their name translates to “the Real People.”

Student Text | Lesson Plan 1

Henri Matisse (French, 1869-1954)

Masque blanc sur fond noir (White mask on black background)

ca. 1951-52

Aquatint on paper, 9/25

12 3/8 x 9 5/8 in. (31.5 x 24.5 cm)

Private collection

© 2018 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York


HENRI MATISSEHenri Matisse

(French, 1869-1954) was a Post-Impressionist artist known for the bold use of color in his paintings. Toward the end of his career, Matisse created collages

out of patterns cut from paper and arranged in lively assemblages. In 1948, Matisse also designed a Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, France, for his former nurse and friend, Monique Bourgeois, known as Sister Jacques-Marie after she became a nun.

Matisse remained in France during World War II, where he and a few other artists were allowed to create art. Following the war, he was reunited with his daughter, Marguerite, who had been active in the French Resistance. Matisse was asked by his daughter and son-in-law, Georges Duthuit, to illustrate a book of poems that Georges was writing with images of Inuit people. Although Matisse lived in Morocco for several months and traveled to other countries, he had never been to Alaska or the Canadian Arctic. In Georges and Marguerite’s home, he had an opportunity to see Yup’ik masks and other Indigenous artworks that Georges had collected.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF THE ARCTICThe modern indigenous people of the Arctic and

sub-Arctic regions historically called “Eskimo” are not a uniform culture or ethnicity. They are part of a complex chain of heritages spreading across vast territories. Arctic peoples belong to one of four main branches: the Central Yup’ik of Southwestern Alaska; the Siberian Yupik of Kamchatka, Siberia, and St. Lawrence Island; the Iñupiat of Northern Alaska; and the Inuit of Canada and Greenland. There is a modicum of linguistic continuity among the Inuit across all regions, yet the Yup’iit speak four distinct languages, depending upon the region. The Chukchi people, as Yup’iit (or Yuit) living in Siberia are known, have additional language variants and dialects. Understandably, there are widely differing attitudes within these native Arctic communities as to the collective name “Eskimo.”

It is becoming common practice to simply replace the term “Eskimo” with “Inuit,” but there is no consensus on an acceptable autonym to define all ancestral Arctic peoples. To most Inuit, “Eskimo” is perceived as derogatory, and the word is no longer in common use in Canada or Greenland. To the Yup’ik, however, there is no such association, and for them to call themselves “Inuit” would be factually incorrect. As such, “Eskimo” remains in moderately common use in the United States and Russia, although the word has fallen out of favor among Euro-Americans who wish to avoid offending the Inuit. We should keep in mind, though, that not everyone who were once called Eskimo are Inuit.

Naturally, as everywhere, Inuit, Yup’ik, and Iñupiat groups self-identify more specifically than with these broad terms. Arctic peoples generally define themselves by village rather than by tribe. Therefore, there are thousands of identity subgroups across the region.


Autoportrait (Self-portrait)

1941

Conté crayon on paper

19 x 14 3/4 in. (48.2 x 37.5 cm)

Private collection



Henri Matisse in his studio at the Regina Hotel, France, 1952.

Photo by Lydia Delectorskaya

Henri Matisse Archives, France



Q: WHAT IS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE FRENCH ARTIST HENRI MATISSE AND YUP’IK MASKS?

Sean: The foundation of our exhibition is the family connection between Henri Matisse and his daughter, Marguerite. She was married to the writer and historian Georges Duthuit, who was closely associated with the Surrealist circle of artists and intellectuals in Europe. Duthuit, like others in that group, had studied and collected a variety of ethnographic art. Of especial interest to them were the arts of Alaska, and the Arctic in general. In 1946, Duthuit returned from New York with a collection of masks he had acquired there and wrote a prose poem called Une Fête en Cimmérie, an elegiac fantasy celebrating Inuit people. He and Marguerite proposed that Matisse make three illustrations for the book that Duthuit wished to make from this poem. Matisse ultimately made dozens of drawings, using as models photos of Inuit people as well as some of the masks themselves.

Curators play an important role in putting exhibitions together. Learn more about Yua: Henri Matisse and the Inner Arctic Spirit through this unique opportunity to hear from the exhibition’s co-curators, Sean Mooney and Chuna McIntyre. We’ll start o¡ by hearing from co-curator Sean Mooney in this interview.


Q&A with the Curators

See the front cover of Une Fête en Cimmérie and two of the drawings Matisse made from photographs on the next page.

James Doyel 2018, pictured left to right: Caitlin Mahony, Assistant Conservator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art with co-curators Chuna McIntyre & Sean Mooney behind Yup'ik Masks.



COVER DESIGN FOR UNE FÊTE EN CIMMÉRIEHenri Matisse (French, 1869-1954)

Cover of Une Fête en Cimmérie by Georges Duthuit

1964

Offset lithograph

10 1/8 × 8 in. (25.6 × 20.4 cm)

Musée départemental Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France

Gift of Barbara and Claude Duthuit, 2010, 2010-1-5


Many of the images that were created by Matisse for Une Fête en Cimmérie were inspired by photographs that were published by anthropologist Knud Rasmussen in his travels to the Arctic.


Esquimau (Eskimo) [after Rasmussen, Native of Pelly Bay]

ca. 1947

Lithograph

Plate XI from Georges Duthuit’s Une Fête en Cimmérie, 1963

8 3/4 x 6 3/4 in. (22.2 x 17.2 cm)

Musée départemental Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France.

Gift of Barbara and Claude Duthuit, 2010, 2010-1-6 (8-3)



Esquimau (Eskimo) [after Rasmussen, Qanigaq]

ca. 1947

Lithograph

Plate XIII from Georges Duthuit’s Une Fête en Cimmérie, 1963

8 3/4 x 6 3/4 in. (22.2 x 17.2 cm)

Musée départemental Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France.

Gift of Barbara and Claude Duthuit, 2010, 2010-1-6 (9-2)


Native of Pelly Bay

Photograph by Leo Hansen published in Knud Rasmussen’s Across Arctic America: Narrative of the Fifth Thule Expedition, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1927, page 164

Our host, Qanigaq...

Photograph by Leo Hansen published in Knud Rasmussen’s Across Arctic America: Narrative of the Fifth Thule Expedition, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1927, page 219


Q: CAN YOU ELABORATE ON THE SPIRITUAL INTERCONNECTEDNESS BETWEEN MATISSE, THE YUP’IK MASKS AND EVEN BROADER ARTISTIC MOVEMENTS?

Sean: At the same time Matisse was asked to make drawings for Une Fête en Cimmérie, he was also developing his new paper cut-out technique as well as working on designs for the Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, France. He was living in Vence, near Nice in the south of France, during World War II, recovering from cancer surgery that had almost ended his life in 1941. His work on the Vence Chapel was done partly in dedication to his friend, Sister Jacques-Marie, a nun who had been his nurse for a short time and was then his model and assistant before entering the convent. So, the concept of grace and gratitude was very much on Matisse’s mind as he developed these bodies of work in the very last decade of his life—years he considered “extra time” given to him, like a gift.

Yup’ik masks, by tradition, are made for ceremonies of gratitude, in a sense. They are part of ceremonial dance performances typically held in late winter, when the people are preparing for hunting in the coming spring. The point of these festivals is to implore the spirit world—the yua of all the animals, birds and fish—to return these essential beings to the village hunters. The dances are part of a process of prayer, in a way, to the animals and to the spirits who guide them, to ask for them to come back so that the village may survive. This act is an expression of gratitude toward all life itself.


Maquette for poisson a l’etoile window, Chapel of the Rosary, Vence, France

1950

Pencil, gouache and ink on paper

88 x 27 9/16 in. (233.5 x 70 cm)

Private collection



To say that the role of the curator is instrumental is an understatement. In addition to the scholarly work that has been done to bring together these masks that have been separated through time and space, Sean Mooney and Chuna McIntyre have helped make significant contributions to the identification of several of the masks’ origins and their makers. As a result, these once-anonymous artists and communities will now be credited for their significant contributions to the art world.


Q: TALK ABOUT YOUR JOURNEY TO LOCATE MASK PAIRS AND BRING THEM TOGETHER. WHAT SEPARATED THEM ORIGINALLY?

Sean: By tradition, Yup’ik masks were often created in pairs or groups of related masks. The Yup’ik term ilakelriit describes a group of masks which are related for the same purpose and story. Yup’ik song and dance structure is very formal, with a number of verses and movements, and often these are presented in a balanced way where one answers the other. The grouping of masks relates to this, and the narrative of the dance is played out as each mask yua is called upon.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the masks were first collected for museums, collectors were not informed about or sensitive to these distinctions. To their untrained eyes, many of these masks appeared to be duplicates of one other, rather than integral members of pairs or groups. As a result, paired masks were often separated. Some went to museums and others made their way into private hands.

In 2003 I began working on an exhibition that brought a number of these masks together. This was first presented at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, then reinstalled at the Menil Collection, Houston. In both exhibitions, we reunited only a small number of mask pairs that had been separated for more than 100 years.

This pair of masks, representing a wolf and a caribou, were permanently reunited and exhibited at the Menil Collection for the first time since they became separated.

Pair of masked dancers performing in Qissunaq, during the filming of Alaskan Eskimo, Qissunaq, Alaska, 1946.

Photograph by Alfred Milotte

Collection Alaska State Museum, Juneau

Central Yup’ik, Napaskiaq Village, Kuskokwim River, Alaska

Dance mask representing Tuntupiam Yua(Caribou spirit)

ca. 1900

Wood, feathers, pigment

19 3/4 × 14 × 10 in. (50.1 × 35.6 × 25.4 cm)

Collection Adelaide de Menil and Edmund Carpenter, A2014.01. Courtesy of the Menil Collection, Houston.

Ex-collection Museum of the American Indian, 9/3408


Dance mask representing Keglunem Yua(Wolf spirit)

ca. 1900

Wood, feathers, pigment

17 1/2 × 9 7/16 × 6 3/4 in. (44.5 × 24 × 16.2 cm)

Collection Adelaide de Menil and Edmund Carpenter, A7624. Courtesy of the Menil Collection, Houston.

Ex-collection Museum of the American Indian, 9/3407



The Yup’ik masks featured, represent the values of the Yup’ik speaking people who created them. They are carved and danced with in ceremony as forms of prayer, giving thanks to the elements that provide life for the people. Many of the Yup’ik masks are created with natural materials found in the surrounding environment, including wood, feathers and pigments. The masks can vary in size and weight from, a few inches big to very large, light, or, incredibly heavy. Each mask reflects the unique community and family that it was created by. The tradition of Yup’ik mask making is a family tradition which is passed down through generations. Learn more about these incredible masks through co-curator, Chuna McIntyre, who is also a traditional Yup’ik dancer and singer from the village of Eek, in Southwest Alaska.

More about the masks, from Chuna


Attributed to Ikamrailnguq


Dance mask representing Qugyuum Yua (Swan spirit)

ca. 1900


33 1/8 x 23 5/8 x 22 3/8 in. (84 x 60 x 57 cm)

Musée du quai Branly, 70.1999.1.1.1-3

Ex-collection Museum of the American Indian, 9/3410. Also once owned by André Breton, this mask is now installed as an artifact of French art history in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Attributed to Ikamrailnguq


Dance mask representing Tunutellgem Yua (Arctic loon spirit)

ca. 1900


33 1/8 x 23 5/8 x 22 5/8 in. (84 x 60 x 57 cm)

Private Collection.

Ex-collection Museum of the American Indian, 9/3409. This mask was collected by Georges Duthuit in New York, and is among the masks shown to Henri Matisse by his daughter, Marguerite Duthuit.

QUGYUUM YUA, SWAN SPIRIT AND TUNUTELLGEM YUA, ARCTIC LOON SPIRIT


These two masks, made by Ikamrailnguq in Napaskiaq in the late nineteenth century, are among the most iconic and highly regarded works of art of their kind. Both were collected around 1906 in the village by A. H. Twitchell, who recorded them as: “mask representing a swan, who drives the white whale to the hunters in winter.” This is how George Heye, who owned the masks, transcribed Twitchell’s notes. This description, however, does not distinguish the differences between them, as Heye did not understand that the two were not identical. While the masks appear to be almost mirror images of each other, this is not the case. Rather, this very special pair of masks is an example of a specific typology, called in Yup’ik mumignerra.

Mumignerra means “the complement, the flip side,” but also suggests “the translation,” as if turning one meaning into another. It does not mean something oppositional, but rather something that is an integral part of its opposite. It is front and back at once, the symbiotic halves of one whole. Like a flayed skin torn open, the mumignerra pair exposes and reveals their core inner being. This complementary pair forms a unity, and we see in them symbolic iconography in which each is amplified by the presence of the other half. The pair, on closer examination, does not represent merely a swan or a whale but, in fact, a number of entities. While the mask at left indeed has the head of a swan emerging from the corner of the mouth of the main plaque of the mask, the mask at right has an Arctic loon in the corresponding position. This is significant, as it reinforces the symbolism of each mask. Twitchell was correct in stating that the swan in the mask represents winter activities, and there are a number of other elements present on this mask which reinforce this interpretation. But following the form and logic of mumignerra, the presence of the Arctic loon symbolizes the spring, and in a rather special way. The Arctic loon is the largest of the species, and regarded for its beautiful voice. It is not a bird of prey, but one of song. We see representations of the loon’s spirit on many masks as agents of song-making, and here the bird’s beak is presented open, as if in mid-song. A mask with a loon’s yua is an embodiment of music itself, symbolic of singing, which is the activity engaged in to celebrate the coming spring season, the return of warmth and life.


To begin, then, we must immediately rename these masks. They should be called (L): Qugyuum Yua, Swan spirit mask and (R): Tunutellgem Yua, Arctic loon spirit mask, the latter after tunutellek, Arctic loon.

These highly dynamic masks also include a host of iconographic symbols, important for the interpretation of the narrative of their original context as components of a dance. The main body or face of each mask is represented with a curving form, which could be the “white whale” described by Twitchell, but might also be the form of a kayak in which the hunter pursues the whale. We may refer to this main form as qayam nuga, after kayak, as it is similarly concave and in motion. The qayam nuga also suggests the river itself, and the many animals that travel upon and within it. Its curving shape mimics the turning bends of the Kuskokwim, and the mouths represented on them are qimumalutek (curved), suggestive of the movement of the celestial bodies in the universe.

There is a myth about an angalkuq who sees a soft glowing illumination in the distance at night. Being a shaman, he is curious to discover the source of this mysterious light. He approaches in the dark, and finds a small lake; he looks down and sees the moon reflected in its surface. Being in the far north, the celestial bodies reflected in the water appear to rotate, twisting around the axis of the earth. Thus (just as we see on so many mask representations), the image of the moon seen by the shaman also turns, rotating, distorted. This is one traditional interpretation of the form of the twisted mouth, like the smiling mouths on this Swan and Loon mask pair. So, the curving mouth is like the river itself, into which the birds dive and swim. On its surface, the river also reflects the heavenly bodies, as well as the snow.

QUGYUUM YUA, SWAN SPIRIT AND TUNUTELLGEM YUA, ARCTIC LOON SPIRIT


In the painted spots on each mask, we see both stars (ag’yat) and snowflakes (qanuut). The colors employed are significant also, in that they each have their own symbolism, and are compositionally opposing. The predominant colors of the swan on the left are red on the inside and white on the outside; and on the right, on the loon in the inverse positions, are white and blue. The swan mask is light, or tankiq, whereas the loon is darkness, or tangaq. One may also say they are Day (erneq) and Night (unuk). The red signifies our blood, the life of the Yup’ik people in the material world; the white is winter and snow and daylight. The blue represents the night and darkness, all that is mysterious and unknown, our life in the ethereal world. It is also the moon and the stars, expressive of our expanding universe. We have names for each of these colors and the material with which to make them: our


red earth pigment, from an iron oxide-rich clay, is called uiterraq. The white is called urassqaq, which is a more generic term for clay, but white is also considered neutral, both in color and in meaning. The black is derived from charcoal, or kangipluk. And the dark blue is a special color from a rare clay, called qiugliq.

Each mask’s kayak-shaped body (qayam nuga) has a deeply carved groove along its center, from which the eye emerges. This groove is like the vein of life flowing through it, called taqeq. Just as blood is carried through our veins to sustain our lives, the river itself is a vein, full of life, to sustain us and help us travel. This vein, taqeq, of the river, flows into the sea, carrying with it the fish and sea creatures that feed us, and each other, in both directions, in each season.

See Chuna McIntyre share more about his traditions in this YouTube video.

https://youtu.be/GgkIlYVRGPk


Student ActivityVenn Diagram - Lesson Plan 1


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Matisse Inspired Portrait | 25

Student ActivityMatisse Inspired Portrait - Lesson Plan 2


Matisse-Inspired Portrait – Lesson 2High School; Grades 9-12

DESCRIPTIONStudents create a Matisse-inspired portrait after having examined his work in relation to the Indigenous people of the Arctic from whom he took inspiration.

TIME FRAME1 to 2 class periods

MATERIALSMatisse-Inspired Portrait Assignment (student handout)

Paper

Pencil or charcoal

Eraser

Stock images (optional)

INSTRUCTIONEXPLAIN: Tell students that they will have an opportunity to create their own Matisse-inspired portraits.

READ: Have students read through the handout, then give them instructions on how you would like them to proceed. You’ll want to predetermine and plan accordingly as to whether you’ll want students to draw from photographs or real life, and whether you’d like them to do this task at home or in the classroom. Support materials may vary, depending on your course of action.

ACTIVITY: Have students choose one of the following options to create a drawing:

Option A: As you’ve learned, Matisse spent some time drawing portraits of Indigenous people of the Arctic. Draw a portrait of someone who represents a culture other than your own (i.e., you can explore various cultures such as skating, ballet, hip-hop, etc.). Make sure to include indicators that would help the viewer identify the culture they are representing.

Option B: Take a moment to think about how Matisse depicts himself in his self-portraits. How would you portray yourself (happy, serious, with head gear, etc.)? Create a line drawing of yourself.

Option C: Matisse also created several portraits of his daughter Marguerite. Choose a family member with whom you have a close relationship and create a drawing of that person.

WRITE: Students can use their portraits to write a short paragraph about who they chose to create a portrait of and why.

SHARE: The portraits can then be presented to the class and displayed with their descriptions in a common area.


Option A: As you’ve learned, Matisse created portraits of Indigenous people of the Arctic from photographs. Draw a portrait from a photo of someone who represents a culture other than your own (i.e., you can explore various cultures such as skating, ballet, hip-hop, etc.). Make sure to include indicators that would help the viewer identify the culture they are representing.

Option B: Take a moment to think about how Matisse depicts himself in his self-portraits. How would you portray yourself (happy, serious, with head gear, etc.)? Create a line drawing of yourself.

Drawing Exercise

Notice the usage of line in Henri Matisse’s portraits below. Is it heavy, light, dark, thick, thin, simple, detailed? Have you ever drawn something a number of times to get it just right? Henri Matisse often drew multiple renditions of the same piece, simplifying it to its most basic forms and shapes. Choose one of the following options below to create a portrait using some of the same elements of line that Matisse utilized.


Autoportrait (Self-portrait)

1937

Charcoal on paper

10 x 8 in. (25.2 x 20.2 cm)

Private collection


Matisse-Inspired Portrait Assignment


Matisse-Inspired Portrait Assignment Option C: Matisse also created several portraits of his daughter, Marguerite. Choose a family member with whom you have a close relationship and create a drawing of that person.


Marguerite VI

1945

Lithograph

19 3/4 x 12 3/4 in. (50 x 32.5 cm)

Musée départemental Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France

Gift of Marie Matisse in 1982, 1982-22



Masque mélancolique (Melancholy Mask)

1947

Aquatint print on paper, 2/25

13 5/8 x 10 7/8 in. (34.7 x 27.6 cm)

Private collection


high school visual arts curriculum - heard museum

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