Artist of the Week for Kids

Norman Rockwell (1894- 1978)

2009-09-04T09:25:00.000-07:00

Rockwell his best known for his over 300 cover illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post which brought his images and namesake into the homes and hearts of the American public week after week.

Though he has become an American icon, he came from very humble beginnings. He was born into a poor and rough New York neighborhood. He was the "skinny" kid who wasn't any good at sports like his older brother, but he used his art skills as a way to connect to the social hierarchy around him. Growing up he would illustrate the stories as his father read to the family each night and at the tender age of 16 went off to art school.

The art school he attended was a pet project of well-known illustrator and author Howard Pyle, well known for his many classic re-tellings in word and picture of the likes of Robin Hood and Ivanhoe. These were the same stories Norman grew up hearing and reading. Pyle was a great inspiration and influence on Rockwell, as were other notables of the Golden Age of Illustration; Frederic Remington, Charles Dan Gibson, and J.C. Leyendecker. He was also greatly influenced by the Dutch Masters, Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Bruegel.

Though he was never considered a "real artist" by the art community of his day, that didn't stop the public from adoring him anyway. Rockwell chose to depict life the way he would want to see it lived. Exploring not only the lighter side of life with humor but trying to portray the inherent good in people, even if it wasn't really there. Like the true illustrator he was, Rockwell's work always told a story and every time one looked at it, some new detail or chapter would emerge.

Rockwell left us a visual heritage, one that as an American, I am very proud to claim ownership of.

To learn more, try these links

Norman Rockwell Museum

Picturing America lesson plan on Freedom of Speech

Amazon.com Widgets

Emanuel Leutze 1816-1868

2009-07-29T14:39:00.000-07:00

Washington Crossing the Delaware, c.1851

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (LOIT suh) was born in Germany. He studied art in Philadelphia, and in 1859 he moved to New York to live. He became famous for his paintings of American historical scenes. The featured painting on this page is the one for which he is remembered.The painting itself is quite large, 12 feet high and 21 feet long.

He painted Washington Crossing the Delaware, in Germany and used the Rhine River as his model for the Delaware River. He had visited America many times and had studied paintings of Washington and had looked at his uniform in the museum.

Other famous people crossed the river that night. Among them were James Madison and James Monroe. James Monroe is the man in the boat who is holding the flag. However, that particular design, the Betsy Ross flag with 13 stars and 13 stripes was actually created six months later according to the account at American Revolution.org. From Garden of Praise.

You can also learn more at Wikipedia.

Grant Wood (1891-1942)

2009-07-23T14:19:00.000-07:00

Grant Wood is best known for his iconic painting, American Gothic, arguably America's version of the Mona Lisa in terms of its recognizability, popularity, and object of parody. My friend Jessica at ArtSmarts4Kids has a wonderful post all about this artist so I will direct you there to learn more. Grant Wood- ArtSmarts4Kids.

In particular, it is interesting to look at Wood's Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, once thought to be mocking in its intentions. The scene is based on Longfellow's legendary poem. Though we now know much of the poem to be historically inaccurate, Wood's intentions were anything but satirical.

"Wood was enchanted by the notion of a local hero bearing urgent news, raising the alarm, and consequentially attaining immortality...His aim, he said, was to save those
'bits of American folklore that are too good to lose."
- Picturing America, teachers resource book, Nation Endowment for the Humanities.

There is a storybook quality to the painting. A dreamy bedtime story of heroes, villains and happy endings. The unnatural illumination of Revere's path as he rides, the uber-bright windows of the homes, and the rocking horse quality of Revere's mount, all combine to illustrate Longfellow's tale.

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1807-1882

Written April 19, 1860; first published in 1863 as part of "Tales of a Wayside Inn"

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."

Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street
Wanders and watches, with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade,--
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town
And the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay,--
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns.

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer's dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.

It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon.

It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,---
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;=
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,---
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

Wayne Thiebaud( 1920- present)

2009-06-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

Thiebaud is pronounced "TEE-BO" and is best known for his realistic portrayals of food, from desserts to junk food. He is considered to be a member of "The Pop Art Movement" along with the likes of Andy Warhol, though some of his "Pop" pieces predate the group. Due to copyright issues, I will not show examples of his work here, but direct you to links where his work can be viewed and to projects that will help you explore his work further.

Art Projects For Kids
Art Smarts4Kids
Oodles of Art
Miss Forest's Art Page
Miss Julie's Place
Frosted Fractions at National Gallery of Art
Wikipedia
Artchive- Image Gallery
Kinderart

Amedeo Modigliani (1884- 1920)

2009-06-03T18:20:00.000-07:00

Modigliani was born in Italy. His Jewish grandmother had emigrated there to avoid religious persecution. He was born into a very poor family and was not a healthy child.

He contracted tuberculosis at the age of sixteen and later at the age of thirty -five succumbed to it. Though his career was short, there were times of immense productivity which sometimes resulted in more than a hundred sketches a day. Many of these were later destroyed by the artist himself or given to friends who did not keep them.

He was heavily influenced by the cubists and by post-impressionist Toulouse-Lautrec.
He developed a rather flat style of paintings characterized by elongated figures, soulful colors and empty eyes.

He spent much of his life trying to explore the seedier side of what life had to offer, believing that one could only further the boundaries of artistic expression and expand one's intelligence by rebelling against the conventions of society and traditional thoughts and morality. This fast living helped to contribute to his early decline in health. Though he did not see success in his lifetime, he is remembered for creating a style that defied categorization.

You can learn more about this artist by checking out these links...

Wikipedia Article

Modigliani Art Project

Laurel Birch(1945- 2007)

2009-05-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

Laurel Burch is perhaps one of my favorite artists, if not for her work but for the attitude with which she embraced life.
The following is a quote by evangelist preacher Chuck Swindoll and whether you are a Christian or not is a great standard to live by, and the standard portrayed not only in Burch's life but also in her work.

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company...a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90 % how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our Attitudes."

Laurel was most definitely in charge of her attitude and we should definitely take a lesson.

Franz Marc (1880- 1916)

2009-05-18T18:51:00.000-07:00

Franz Marc was a German artist interested in using color in new and exciting ways. His paintings are somewhat cubist in nature, but are realistic at the same time except for their bold and powerful use of color. He was part of the Expressionist movement of Pre- World War I Germany. In addition to his use of color to express emotion, he also believed that animals held great spirit, grace, and power. It was the combination of these that led to his pieces filled with vividly colored animals such as bright blue horses and yellow cows. Marc's career was a short one, as he was unfortunatley killed in action during World War I at the young age of 36.

The Large Blue Horses, 1911

Blue Horse I

The Fox, 1913

Two Cats

Gelbe Kuh, c.1911

Leonardo daVinci

2009-04-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

Leonardo da Vinci
(1452-1514)

Leonardo da Vinci is arguably the world's most famous artist. His paintings and life have become the basis of much myth, legend, and speculation. He was born in the town of Vinci near Florence in 1452. He later took the name of his birthplace as his own. Though his father never married his mother, Leonardo was the son of an important man. It was this illegitimate relation that would deny him access to the universities and professions of his father's family which in turn caused him to be apprenticed to a famous artist , Andrea del Verrocchio.

Leonardo was not satisfied to simply be a painter however and he helped to further the cause of science, invention, engineering, and architecture as well. His autopsies of cadavers could have caused him to be excommunicated from the church, but his detailed drawings and notes actually increased the knowledge of the workings of the human body well beyond the knowledge of the day. Deciphering his notes often required a mirror. Many believed he was trying to protect his discoveries. In truth, he was left handed and writing backwards was easier for him, though when he truly wanted to keep something secret he wrote in code.

He is of course best known for his paintings of The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Though we know he painted many, many paintings, only 17 survive to this day. On May 2nd, 1514, Leonardo died, supposedly in the arms of the King of France.

Links

Monna Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci

National Gallery of Art NGAkids Leonardo da Vinci, , Ginevra de' Benci

Leonardo's Mystery Machines

Museum of Science, Boston | Virtual Exhibits | Leonardo

The interactive Mona Lisa - Mona Lips-synch - Exhibition Images in Paris - Cité des Sciences, France
A Lifetime of Color - Leonardo's Workshop

Book Recommendations

Amazon.com Widgets

Frank Stella (1936-...)

2009-04-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

Frank Stella was born in 1936 in Massachusetts. He attended Princeton University. He has become a major force in American art, helping turn the tide from extreme abstract expressionism painted solely as a means transforming emotion into visual representation back to a more controlled and classical approach to abstraction.

The creation of the object was the intent of his painting and not what the object might represent.

His work has changed through the years, first as a series of black canvases with simple design patterns to full scale shaped canvases exploding with color. In his later years he has moved into a painting technique that is more akin to sculpture in it's three dimensionality but still retaining it's painting elements of foreground, middleground, and background.

Stella considers this technique to be "maximalist", a painting within space which is almost in direct opposition to his first paintings which were trying to achieve an extreme flatness.

Your Lips Are Blue, c.1958

West Broadway, c.1958

Sinerli Variations Squared Colored Groun

Lincoln Center Festival, 1967

More Links

ArtSmarts4Kids
Stella Guessing Game at NGA Kids
Modern Art4Kids

Louis Nevelson- 1900-1988

2009-04-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

Louise Nevelson was born in Kiev, Russia but her father moved their family to Rockland, Maine when she was just 5 years old. Not speaking English and cultural differences led to Louise feeling very out of place during her early school career. She found solace, however in after school painting, piano, voice, and dance lessons. School was not easy for her and learning to read was slow and arduous. Her only real interests in school lay in the arts.

She married her high school sweetheart and had a son with him. Later they moved to New York, but family life proved beyond her grasp as it interfered too much with her artistic passion. She divorced her husband after 11 years and sent her son to live with her parents while she went to Germany to study cubism.

Nevelson became noted for her sculptures of "assemblage art". This was art created from odds and ends that were pieced together and painted one color- usually white or black. When a piece did not sell, she often dismantled the pieces and reused them in a new sculpture.

Through the years she worked as an apprentice to Diego Rivera and was also supported by Karl Nierendorf- New York's preeminent art dealer at the time. After his death she began making lithographs of her work and was exposed to a greater and broader audience who could not have afforded or had space to house her large sculptures. Many of her larger sculptures were dismantled, but photographs remain that are evidence of her unique style.

Links
Art Projects for Kids

Fernand Leger (1881- 1955)

2009-04-08T19:40:00.000-07:00

Fernand Leger Standing Beside His Design Contribution to Exhibition "Modern Art in Advertising"

He was born in France and originally trained to become an architect. He did not begin to paint seriously until the age of 25. He was heavily influenced by meeting with such artists as Marc Chagall and Robert Delauney and later Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso

At this time, his work was defined by critics as "Tubism" rather than cubism as he had chose to emphasize cylindrical forms as opposed to the boxes of cubism.
His experiences as a soldier in World War I deeply affected him and he went through a period of very "mechanical' works and eventually developed a love for film making.

His work did gradually turn back towards the organic and during his US residency at the time of World War II, he found inspiration in garbage dumps and landfills.

He spent the later parts of his life teaching and died in France in 1955.

Le Cycliste, 1948

La Femme au Miroir, 1920

Contraste de Formes

Links

Wikipedia

Edvard Munch (1863-1944)

2009-03-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

Considered his country of Norway's greatest artist, Munch's works were very influential in the shaping of modern art. He is best know for his painting called "The Scream". It is a visual representation of an anxiety attack suffered by the artist. It is interesting to note that the blood red sky that seemed to trigger the attack was probably a result of atmospheric changes caused by the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa.
Most of Munch's work revolve around very dark and highly emotional subjects. He lost his mother when he was only five to tuberculosis and then watched the same disease claim the life of his favorite older sister nine years later. Later he also experienced the deaths of his brother, father and grandfather. In his own life, he spent more time sick than well so it is no wonder that the artist grew up constantly feeling the shadow of death upon his shoulders. His father's hyper-religiosity did not help matters either.
Much was by no means an instant success. For many years the public decried his work as shocking and even closed down an exhibit in the public interest. Eventually he did win some recognition and won a scholarship to study art in Paris. It took many more years for him to achieve financial security. His sanity was always on the brink and he entered a sanitarium to try to balance his erratic personality which was often exacerbated by heavy drinking. He never married.
Munch retained a great many of his paintings, refusing to sell them and labeling them as "his children". During the German occupation of Norway in World War II he was constantly in fear of Nazi confiscation. It is very ironic that when he died, he was given a funeral procession by the Nazi regime. His painting were bequeathed to the city of Oslo where there is now a museum which boasts 1100 paintings, 4500 drawings, and 18,000 prints-
the world's largest collection of his work.
Though Munch did not teach , he was highly influential in the
German expressionist movement which prized the emotive qualities
of art beyond the simple appearance or visual representation.

Scream

Anxiety, 1894

The Murderer, 1910

Dance of Life, 1900

Links

KinderArt- Things that make us want to scream

Art Smarts 4 Kids

Color the Scream online at Enchanted Learning

Color with Leo- Artist Info

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream- An Art Lesson and Unit study based on The Scream by Edvard Munch

Henri Rousseau

2009-03-26T08:36:00.000-07:00

Henri Rousseau is considered to be a "primitive" painter. What this means is that he never received any formal

Self Portrait, from L'Ile Saint-Louis, 1890

training and taught himself to draw and paint. He was born in Laval, France in 1844. He worked most of his life as a customs officer.

When he retired he received a small pension which allowed him to devote himself entirely to the hobby he had taken up years before- drawing and painting. He also taught drawing and violin to help make ends meet.

Sleeping Gypsy, 1897

He is best known for his jungle scenes, though he never actually visited any real jungles.

All the images he saw came from books or visits from the local botanical gardens.

Surprised! Storm in the Forest

The Monkeys, 1906

Though he was recognized for his talent by other artists, his work was not favorably received by the public,

leaving Rousseau to live and die in poverty in 1910. He was buried in a paupers grave.

During his life, he met and was influenced by Picasso, who considered Rousseau to be a truly original artist. The art community in general thought Rousseau to be untrained and ignorant. When his work was once compared to the beauty of Giotto's paintings, he replied "Who's Giotto?"

Links to explore(Some require adobe flash or shockwave)

Art and Science Integration

Build you own Rousseau Jungle a NGA

Art Smarts 4 Kids

Rousseau Gallery

Georgia O'Keefe

2009-03-19T08:46:00.000-07:00

Georgia O'Keefe

November 15, 1887 to March 6, 1986

She is best known for her large and extreme close-ups of flowers, which dared the viewer to notice minute details which would have gone unnoticed before, but at the same time caused a distorted abstraction of the subject making it nearly unrecognizable.

She was born in Wisconsin to parents of mixed Irish and Hungarian background. She studied at first to become an art teacher believing there to be few opportunities for woman to become successful in the art world of the day. Though she did serve as an assistant to art professors at a college in Texas, she was discovered by Alfred Stieglitz, the owner of the New York Gallery 291. It was Stieglitz and this gallery who had introduced such European artists as Cezanne, Rodin, and Picasso to America.

She later married Stieglitz, but due in part to marital difficulties with him, she divided much of her time between New York and New Mexico.

She bought a house on a ranch in New Mexico in 1940. In 1946, Stieglitz died but she did not move permanently to New Mexico full-time until 1949. She continued to live there until her death at the age of 98, becoming one of New Mexico's most notable citizens.

She is thought to be one of the greatest and most successful female artists of the 20th century.

Petunia, 1925

White Rose W/ Lakspur No.2

Oriental Poppies, 1928

Links

Art Smarts 4 Kids: Georgia O'Keeffe

Abstract Flowers Inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe - Art History - KinderArt

Flowers Galore - Georgia O'Keeffe - Art History - KinderArt

Light Iris by Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O'Keefe - ARTISTS - FREE Presentations in PowerPoint format, Free Interactives & Games

scoop-okeeffe.pdf (application/pdf Object)

KidzArt.org where education is Art!

Video of her work