October 2013
Take Another Look: People in Pictures An Art Reach Traveling Exhibition from the
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
is a publication of Kalamazoo RESA’s Education for the Arts, Aesthetic Education Program
Editor
Nick Mahmat
Research Nick Mahmat
Contributors
The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Hilary Anthony Nancy Husk Angie Melvin Tara Sytsma Michele VanderBeek Mary Whalen
STRATEGIES f or using the Window on the Work
Purpose
The purpose of the Window on the Work is to provide educators and teaching artists with contextual information pertaining to the focus works presented by the Education for the Arts Aesthetic Education Program. This information can fuel the educational process between educators and teaching artists in developing lesson plans and can offer additional pathways (windows) into the repertory and possible connections to existing school curriculum. In the planning process, use the Window on the Work: • • •
Design Nick Mahmat
Education for the Arts Director
Bryan Zocher
• • •
Director’s Secretary Kris DeRyder
Coordinator
Deb Strickland
Aesthetic Education Program Coordinator
To brainstorm themes for study development As a reference tool as questions and interests develop in the planning session To elaborate and expand the instructional focus that has developed out of the planning process To learn more about the work of art To consider possible responses to the question pages as the Window is read To discover connections to other work by the same artists and to other works in the same genre
During the unit of study, use the Window on the Work: • •
To expand on a lesson idea As a reference to respond to students’ questions
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To keep the discussion about the work alive in the classroom For source material such as artist quotes or background information that may be utilized when incorporating contextual information experientially into a workshop. To discover additional connections
After the unit of study, use the Window on the Work: • • • •
To continue discussion about the work To compare to other works of art the class may study in the future To expand curriculum study in the classroom on a particular culture, period in history, etc. As a jumping-off point to make connections with other classroom activities, personal connections, and courses of study
Nick Mahmat
Alternative & Special Education Arts Initiative Program Coordinator Angie Melvin
Comments or questions about this publication may be directed to Nick Mahmat, Aesthetic Education Program Coordinator at 488-6267 or nmahmat@kresa.org
Education for the Arts, Window on the Work publications are proudly printed at Kalamazoo RESA’s, REMC12 Media Center.
The Work The Work
Pictures of people have always been one of the most popular subjects in art. Today, almost everyone takes and shares photographs of their family and friends with cameras or cell phones. But what makes an artist’s portrait different than our snapshots? Explore this question with Take Another Look: People in Pictures. Currated by the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, the six distinctive works in Take Another Look: People in Pictures interpret people in a variety of styles and through various mediums including oil pastels, painting, and printmaking techniques.
The following section contains information on the traveling exhibition Take Another Look: People in Pictures. Please consider the following questions as you view and read about the work. They may also serve as helpful discussion questions with students during workshops or after viewing the exhibit. •
What do you notice? Describe the detail you see when looking at the work.
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What stands out to you?
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This exhibit was currated through the lens of different ways artists choose to represent people. What are some of the different choices the artists have made in representing individuals?
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What are the effects of some of those choices?
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How do these artists tell a “story of who” within each individual work?
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The artists in this exhibit all choose to represent the subject of people. Given that we as viewers are people, how can these works tell us something about ourselves or the experience of being a person? How can a portrait speak to what it means to be human?
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1 “Portrait of the Artist Passing” Joanna Medioli Color lithograph
3 “The Skeptic” Mary Hatch Oil on canvas
2 “The Sarajaven” Harvey Breverman Color intaglio
4 “Falling Through A Black Hole” Bruce Doughty Color lithograph
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“Sweet Tater” James Watkins Oil on canvas board
“Fatch” Jill Waskowsky Oil pastel
The Artists
The Artists The following section contains information about select artists whose work is featured in Take Another Look: People in Pictures. You may wish to consider the following questions as you read along. •
Who are the artists whose work is displayed in Take Another Look: People in Pictures?
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What are their backgrounds and experiences as artists?
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What is their creative process or how do they approach their work?
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How do these artists describe their work or working process?
York Distinguished Professor of Art and a master printer who works in several media and whose work is recognized internationally. Harvey Breverman was hired to teach at the University at Buffalo in 1961. After reinvigorating their drawing program and creating an impressive printmaking department he was promoted to Full Professor in 1969. Breverman later received the rank of State University of New York Distinguished Professor in 1999. He states, “Although retired from formal teaching in 2005, my artistic enterprise continues to be based in Western New York. Breverman’s work is included in the permanent collections of more than 150 museums and galleries, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. He has had more than 70 visiting artist positions and more than 80 solo exhibitions. Breverman has participated in international print biennials around the world and received grants from, among others, the Tiffany Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts; he received two awards from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. In his Artist Statement, Harvey Breverman describes the human drama as a primary source for his paintings, drawings, and printmaking - that drama "particularized by the figure in all its frailty and grandeur."
The Artists
Harvey Breverman is an emeritus State University of New
“The Sarajaven” Harvey Breverman Color intaglio
“It’s almost as if I’m trying to grab that fleeting moment that won’t ever play itself out again in the same way, and fix it for all time. That’s part of the challenge -to get an essential moment and to arrest it. I love doing that.” “I don’t do portraits. I think that word is almost fixed in the viewer’s mind as conventional portraiture, which is supposed to be the model sitting on the chair all ‘dandied’ up. I’ve never accepted a portrait commission. I want to make my kind of likeness rather than have to get paid to satisfy someone.”
James M. Watkins is a painter, illustrator and portrait artist.
A resident of Kalamazoo, James studied fine arts at Western Michigan University where he received a Bachelor of Science degree. His work has appeared in numerous shows and galleries throughout the state and Midwest region including the Kalamazoo Area Art show, the Flint Area Art Show, West Michigan Area show, and the Carnegie Regional Art Completion. Watkins’ work is included in the collections of the Kalamazoo Institute of Art, Black Arts and Cultural Center, Western Michigan University, The Art Center of Battle Creek and the Kalamazoo Foundation. “Through my art work, it is my hope that the viewer gains a sense of self. In a truthful and honest dedication of the human condition, I attempt to achieve this by way of symbols and iconography and employing multi-media processes. In terms of genres I consider myself a social realist.”
“Sweet Tater” James Watkins Oil on canvas board
Mary Hatch is a Kalamazoo artist. A painter and printmaker, her work
has been shown in over 30 one-person exhibits and has been included in more than 300 public and private collections throughout the US and Canada. Her work showcases exceptional use of color, mood, and subtlety. “When figures become storytellers the slightest nuance of position or movement is significant - speaking with a silent but clear voice that is simultaneously revealing and mysterious.”
“The Skeptic” Mary Hatch Oil on canvas
“My work begins with little fragments of life unintentionally stored away Tiny bits of memory - much too insignificant to notice Until oddly they come together forming narratives Familiar As if they have always existed The big things have a way of staying separate and need no further explanation The small things we take for granted, finally emerge intuitively And paste themselves together.”
Jill Waskowsky is a well known
member of the Kalamazoo community. She is an artist, educator, and often recognized gardener. Originally from Chicago, Jill has made Kalamazoo her home. She often works in portraiture. For a number of years Waskowsky has been painting students from photographs she takes in the classroom. “Each student, in his or her own way, has integrity and dignity.” She says. “Sometimes it’s something in the quality of the face that I’m trying to get. I want something that reveals human experience.” Jill currently teaches at Portage Central High school.
“Fatch” Jill Waskowsky Oil pastel
“The subject of the oil pastel Fatch is one of my former students, Fatch Chapeyama. He was originally from Malawi, and I found him interesting both for his artwork and as a young person who was working out moving between two different cultures. Currently he is designing flip tabs for beverages in Seattle, Washington.”
The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Currated by the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts,Take Another Look: People in Pictures features six original works on loan from area artists or pulled from the KIA’s permanent collection. The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts is an 88-year old art museum and school that serves a nine county region of small cities, towns, and rural areas of Southwest Michigan. Every year, it attracts upwards of 125,000 regional residents and visitors. The KIA is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and exhibiting art to promote both an appreciation of art, and to support artist development. Currently, the KIA hosts six to eight traveling exhibitions a year, many of which usually only visit museums in large cities. The museum is dedicated to providing a variety of programming that includes education programs for all ages, a fine arts library, and a curriculum-based art school. Unique and varied programming is also possible with the KIA’s permanent collection.
The Craft The Craft What is an artists craft? How does one describe their artistic process, approach, or the purpose of their work? The following section explores questions that relate to the craft of the works featured in Take Another Look: People in Pictures. You may wish to consider the following questions as you read. • What mediums appear in the exhibit? • What are some possible artistic objectives that are specific to the field of portraiture or figurative works? • What techniques or artistic approaches relate to portrait painting or the rendering and individual? • How do the different techniques or mediums used to create a portrait effect the look and style of the finished work?
The Craft
H
ow does an artist’s choice in medium effect the ways in which they render their chosen subject?
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WORKS, MANY MEDIUMS
The traveling exhibition, Take Another Look: People in Pictures, consists of six original works by area artists. Though united by a desire to represent people these six artists utilize different mediums and techniques to portray humans beings.
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Oil Painting
All paint consists of the three basic components, binder, solvent, and pigment. The binder, commonly called the vehicle, is the film-forming component of paint. Binder holds the pigment together. Solvent is the material that dilutes the binder for application. It changes the viscosity allowing paint be spread onto a surface. Pigment is the solid granules in paint that give it color and opacity. Often times, as is the case with oil paint, a paint is named after the binder used. In the case of most oil paint, pigment is suspended in a linseed oil binder. Because of the oil binder it has an extended drying time, allowing the paint to remain workable for quite long periods of time. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varnish may be added to increase the glossiness of the dried oil paint film. Oil paints have been used in Europe since the 12th century for simple decoration, but were not widely adopted as an artistic medium until the early 15th century.
drawing medium with characteristics similar to pastels and wax crayons. Unlike “soft” or “French” pastel sticks, which are made with a gum or methyl cellulose binder, oil pastels consist of pigment mixed with a nondrying oil and wax binder. The surface of an oil pastel painting is therefore less powdery, but more difficult to protect with a fixative. Oil pastels provide a harder edge than “soft” or “French” pastels but are more difficult to blend.
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Intaglio
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Lithography As opposed to intaglio and relief printing
processes in which the design is cut into the printing block, lithography is printed using a flat print surface and is based on the chemical repellence of oil and water. Designs are drawn or painted with greasy ink or crayons on specially prepared limestone. The stone is moistened with water, which the stone accepts in areas not covered by the crayon. An oily ink, applied with a roller, adheres only to the drawing and is repelled by the wet parts of the stone. The print is then made by pressing paper against the inked drawing. “Falling Through A Black Hole” by Bruce Doughty is an example of color lithography.
Intaglio (pronounced in-TAL-ee-oh) originates from the Italian word intagliare, meaning “to cut in.” As such, intaglio is a family of printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface. In contrast to relief printing it is the incisions that will print the final image rather than the flat uncarved surface. This printing plate can be made from many materials, however, copper or zinc plates are the most commonly used. To print an intaglio plate, ink is applied to the surface and forced into the recessed areas. The surface is then rubbed with tarlatan cloth to remove most of the excess ink. The final smooth wipe is often done with newspaper or old public phone book pages, leaving ink only in the incisions. A damp piece of paper is placed on top and the plate and paper are run through a printing press that, through pressure, transfers the ink from the recesses of the plate to the paper. There are several methods for incising into a plate, each of which results in a different appearance.
What are some of the methods of cutting into a printing plate when working in intaglio? There are several methods for incising into a plate, each of which results in a different appearance. Here are three of the most common. Drypoint: The image is incised directly into a plate manually by using a hard-tipped needle of metal or diamond tip. The artist is essentially scratching the image into the plate through a process similar to drawing. Drypoint prints tend to be feathery, with lines that are denser, softer, and more blurred because the metal is displaced, rather than being completely removed. This leaves behind burrs which collect ink and prevent sharp clean etched edges. Engraving: The image is incised directly into a plate by cutting grooves into it. Engravers use a hardened steel tool called a burin to cut the design into the surface. The burin produces a unique and recognizable quality of line that is characterized by its steady, deliberate appearance and clean edges. This is different from drypoint in that the metal is being cut out and removed rather than simply displaced. Etching: Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design or image. The plate is first covered with a waxy, acid-resistant surface. The artist can than incise the image into that surface to expose the metal plate beneath. The plate is then dipped into an acid bath where the acid is able to eat away at the exposed metal beneath. This results in a sunken mark on the plate. The plate is removed from the acid bath, and the remaining resist can be removed. The plate is then printed as normal. Of the intaglio printing methods, etching is one of the most important and commonly used. It results in smooth deliberate lines with clean edges. This technique also grants the artists great control in the creation of their plate.
The Craft
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Oil Pastel (also called wax oil crayon) is a painting and
WHAT MAKES A PORTRAIT? “There are only two styles of portrait painting: the serious and the smirk.” -Charles Dickens
A
portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer. In a traditional sense portrait paintings were often important state and family records, as well as remembrances. Historically, portrait paintings have primarily memorialized the rich and powerful. Over time, however, it became more common for middle-class patrons to commission portraits of their families and colleagues. Today, portrait painting is still commissioned by governments, corporations, groups, clubs, and individuals. A portrait is expected to show the ‘inner essence’ of the subject from the artist’s point of view or a flattering representation, not just a literal likeness. In most cases, formal portrait painting results in a serious closed lip stare, with anything beyond a slight smile being rather rare historically. In the immortal words of Charles Dickens, “There are only two styles of portrait painting: the serious and the smirk.” Even given these limitations, much of
the facial expression is created through the eyes and eyebrows. The artist may choose a particular style—like striving for photo-realism, or an impressionistic feel—but the artist generally works toward a representative portrayal. Contemporary artists have pushed the boundaries of portraiture, and we now see great variation in the style and realism of a portrait. In some cases the notion of rendering an actual subject are even abandoned and the work is of a fictitious figure created from the mind of the artist. Creating a portrait can take considerable time; especially in the case of traditional portraiture in which the subject is present as model because the artist needs to manage the sitter’s expectations and mood. Skillful portraitists reveal a mastery of human anatomy. There are subtle differences that require knowledge of the underlying structure of the face to make a convincing portrait. Self-portraits are usually produced with the help of a mirror, and the finished result is a mirror-image portrait, a reversal of what occurs in a normal portrait when sitter and artist are opposite each other. In a self-portrait, a righted handed artist would appear to be holding a brush in the left hand, unless the artist deliberately corrects the image or uses a second reversing mirror while painting.
The Origins
The Origins The following section contains brief information pertaining to the historical context of the work featured in Take Another Look: People in Pictures. You may wish to consider the following questions as you read.
• Why are we as humans drawn to images of people? How and why has the subject of a person withstood the test of time? • When do we see figurative or portrait work begin? • How have the techniques in creating portrait art evolved over time? • How have the ways artists portrayed people changed over time? • What were some of the purposes for depicting people in art?
The Origins myMagazine
MUSING ON
A depiction of Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose IV exhibits the highly stylized rendering and profile pose common in figural representations of ancient times.
THE FACE What is it about images of other people and, in particular, their faces, that makes looking at them so compelling? And why has the human face been such a prevalent theme throughout the history of art?
Poets and artists have often referred to the human face as a mirror of one’s soul or spirit. The 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said, “A man’s face…is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man’s thoughts and aspirations.” Faces serve as an important means of recognition and identification. They are the first things to which newborn infants respond, having learned to recognize their mother’s faces intuitively, without language or conscious thought. Faces are also the primary subject seen in the earliest drawings of young children. During the pre-schematic stage of development, when three- to four-year-olds recognize that a drawn symbol can stand for the real thing, their first attempts will begin with a circle for a head, later adding two vertical lines for feet. Faces allow humans to communicate in a way that verbal language cannot. As humans we are often guilty of judging someone’s personality or character based purely on facial features. Facial expressions are often the basis on which we form impressions of such characteristics as friendliness, hostility, trustworthiness, arrogance, and status, which, in some instances, can be crucial to survival. The face also enables humans to perceive or imagine another individual’s emotional state of mind. Most importantly, the face is a key component
of identity. Along with one’s unique given name, one’s social function, and one’s relationship to others, faces make one person distinctive from another. Of these components, only the face is visible to the world; the rest is conceptual and must be expressed symbolically. When we “know” someone, we tend to envision his or her face. Thus, portraits, with their emphasis on the face, invite us to “know” others in a unique and vivid way, even if these individuals lived in another era or across the globe. It has been said that true portraits are unique among other types of art because they depict a real person. However, capturing a convincing likeness is and was not always the artist’s goal.
Ancient Societies and Portraiture
In the ancient world within the civilizations of the fertile crescent depictions of rulers and gods abound. However, most of these were done in a highly stylized fashion often in profile with little emphasis placed on likeness. While hardly following the traditional portrait conventions one may think of today, these depictions were an attempt to capture an individual for posterity. Almost all ancient civilizations devised some means of portraying specific individuals. Some ancient societies used caricatures of the individual’s face, or accentuated a distinctive anatomical feature to facilitate identification. But most ancient images were comprised of generic depictions of a
phys·i·og·no·my (fiz-ee-og-nuh-mee) 1. The art of judging human character from facial features.
Illustration in a 19th-century book about physiognomy.
The popularity of physiognomy grew throughout the 18th century and into the 19th century, and it was discussed seriously by academics, who saw a lot of potential in it. There is no clear evidence that physiognomy works though recent studies have suggested that facial expressions do “contain a kernel of truth” about a person’s personality.
person who was similar in age and gender to the subject. The addition of symbolic details or accompanying text enabled the viewer to identify the specific individual. Artists of these ancient civilizations were concerned with technical mastery and symbolic iconography, rather than representing an accurate physical likeness of the person portrayed. Literary evidence informs us that ancient Greek painting included portraiture that was deemed as highly accurate. Some examples of sculpted heads of rulers and famous personalities such as Socrates still survive today. Roman portraiture adopted traditions from both the Etruscans and Greeks, and developed a very strong tradition of creating portraits. Much the largest group of painted portraits are the funeral paintings that survived in the dry climate of Egypt’s Fayum district dating from the 2nd to 4th century AD. These are almost the only paintings of the Roman period that have survived, aside from frescos. While free-standing portrait painting diminished in Rome, the art of the portrait flourished in Roman sculptures, where sitters demanded realism, even if unflattering. During the 4th century, the sculpted portrait dominated, with a retreat in favor of an idealized symbol of what that person looked like.
greatest artists (Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael) were considered “geniuses”, rising far above the tradesman status to valued servants of the court and the church. Many innovations in the various forms of portraiture evolved during the Renaissance period. The tradition of the portrait miniature began- a trade that developed out of the skills of painters of the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts. Profile portraits, inspired by ancient medallions, were particularly popular in Italy between 1450 and 1500. However artists also expanded beyond simple profile portraits and started producing portraits with realistic volume and perspective. Additionally, Renaissance artists would achieve a mastery of rendering facial expressions to accompany many different emotions.
Baroque and Rococo
Paul Cézanne , Madam Cézanne in a Red Armchair
Pablo Picasso, Weeping Woman
During the Baroque and Rococo periods (17th and 18th centuries, respectively), portraits became even more important records of status and position. In a society dominated increasingly by secular leaders in powerful courts, images of opulently attired figures were a means to affirm the authority of important individuals
19th Century
Romantic artists who worked during the first half of the 19th century painted portraits of inspiring leaders, beautiful women, and agitated subjects, using lively brush strokes and dramatic, and sometimes moody, lighting.
The Renaissance
The Renaissance marked a turning point in the history of portraiture. With an increased interest in the natural world the classical cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, portraits—both painted and sculpted—were given an important role in Renaissance society. Portraits were both valued as objects, and as depictions of earthly success and status. Painting in general reached a new level of balance, harmony, and insight, and the
The Realists mostly gave way to the Impressionists by the 1870s. Impressionists often relied on family and friends to model for them, and they painted intimate groups and single figures in either outdoors or in light-filled interiors. Noted for their shimmering surfaces and rich dabs of paint, Impressionist portraits are often disarmingly intimate and appealing.
Eugène Delacroix - La liberté guidant le peuple
The realist artists of the 19th century, such as Gustave Courbet, created objective portraits depicting lower and middle-class people.
Gustav Klimt - Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer
The 20th Century
Henri Matisse, Portrait of Madame Matisse
The 20th- century gave way to a expanded repertoire in the world of portraiture. Artists explored and pushed the subject in new directions. Fauvists such as Henri Matisse produced powerful portraits using non-realistic, even garish colors for skin tones. Cézanne relied on highly simplified forms in his portraits, avoiding detail while emphasizing color juxtapositions. Austrian Gustav Klimt’s unique style applied Byzantine motifs and gold paint to his memorable portraits. Pablo Picasso painted many portraits, several of which a cubist style distorting and rearranging the basic components of we know as a face.
Education for the Arts Offices: Service Center Office: 1819 East Milham Avenue Portage, MI 49002-3035 Epic Center Office: Epic Center Suite 201 359 South Kalamazoo Mall Kalamazoo, MI 49007 Tel: 269.488.6267 www.kresa.org/efa
Kalamazoo Resa, Education for the Arts | Take Another Look: People in Pictures | 2013-2014