Art of the Americas

Art of the Americas A Resource Guide for Visiting LACMA _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ About this Guide About LACMA School Tours This guide contains information and activities that Student experiences in the museum are grounded will help you prepare for your students’ visit to the in close looking, inference, and inquiry. By closely Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). This guide examining works of art and inferring what is depicted includes: based on observation, students construct their own understandings about works of art. LACMA docents • Information about your tour and about LACMA are trained to facilitate discussion rather than lecture about facts and dates, allowing students the • Selected works of art with information, opportunity to share what they notice and therefore, questions, and prompts: These examples what they are naturally interested in discussing. represent the types of art, method of discussion, Docents will guide students to come to their own and activities that your students will experience in conclusions and use visual evidence to support their the galleries. The artworks profiled in this guide may opinions. In this method of learning, rather than not be on view in the galleries during your tour. determining whether answers are “right” or “wrong,” students discover the satisfaction of constructing Pre-visit Activities: In preparation for your trip, • meaning with their peers. you may wish to use the featured works and discussion questions in conjunction with the activities listed in the “Before Your Visit to the Introduction to the Tour Museum” section below. This tour surveys the artistic development of the Americas from ancient times to the present. Students • Post-visit Activities: After your trip, extend compare and contrast art from different historical learning with the activities suggested in the section periods of the Americas, which can include North “After Your Visit to the Museum.” (specifically 19th century California), Central, and South America, and modern and contemporary art • Related California Standards: All LACMA tours for from this area of the world. Students will look closely students address Common Core State Standards for at works of art from the Americas and explore its English Language Arts and other California state richness and diversity and the cultures that produced standards. it. This guide explores the following big idea question that relates to the tour theme – How can art • Further Resources: Use these resources in your communicate the diversity and richness of the culture lesson planning or share them with your students, of the Americas? as appropriate, to provide additional information and background. This tour is aligned with state content standards for history/social science for grades 7 and 11, visual arts About the Museum standards for all grades, and Common Core English LACMA is the largest encyclopedic museum in the Language Arts standards for English Language arts western United States with more than 100,000 works for grades 4–12. of art. Through its extensive collections, the museum is both a resource to and a reflection of the many cultural communities and heritages in Southern California. The collection includes artworks from various cultures from prehistoric to the present. Before Your Visit to the Museum After Your Visit to the Museum ___________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ To prepare students for the Art of the Americas tour, Extend your students’ learning after their visit to the you may wish to complete the following activities: museum with the following activities: Defining “the Americas” One America/Many Americas Prepare students for learning about the art and culture Have students reflect on what they learned about the of the Americas by helping them define and locate the diversity of art and culture of the Americas. Instruct Americas. Show students a map of North, Central, students to choose the artwork that was most and South America. Split the class into three groups memorable and have them think about the following: associated with each region of the Americas. Have each group conduct Internet research on the religions, • In what region of the Americas was the government, and population of their respective region object/artwork made? and present a brief oral report to the class, making sure to include at least one artwork in their research • Does the location in which it was made influence and oral presentation. how it looks? If yes, how so? • In what time period was the object/artwork made? Old America vs. New America Inform students that contemporary artists looked • How does the time in which it was made influence to the non-representational art of ancient Meso- how it looks? American artists for inspiration—creating something “new” from the “old.” Have students choose an object Have students conduct further research on the object or artifact from a native society from the Americas. using the LACMA website, placing it in context with Taking one element, decoration, or figure from the information they learned from hearing or presenting object as inspiration, have students create a about the three regions of the Americas in the contemporary work of art. “Defining ‘the Americas’” activity they completed before their visit to LACMA. Ask students to reflect on Capturing Los Angeles the following: Lead a class discussion about what words or images come to mind when describing Los Angeles. Keep a • Is the object they saw at the museum similar or list of student responses on the board. Have students different to the artwork discussed during student review the list and discuss how those images came to presentation? be; how have they been manifested as the image of Los Angeles? If you’d like, you can expose students • If similar, what are those similarities? How do the to Angel’s Flight in this guide to show an image of similarities speak to the universalities of the peoples one artist’s view of Los Angeles. of the Americas? If different, how are those differences manifested? Have students take a walk in their neighborhood. • How do the differences reflect the cultural diversity Have them write a list of words that describe their of the Americas? neighborhood. Have them compare the list from the class discussion about Los Angeles to the list they wrote about where they live. If they live in a community within Los Angeles, how is the image of the city reflected within their own neighborhoods? If it does not, why? Have the class share their images and discuss the diversity and richness of Los Angeles. Vessel with Glyphic Text Guatemala, Petén, Maya, 400–550 Furnishings; Serviceware, ceramic with red, cream, and black slip 7 x 8½ in. (17.78 x 21.59 cm). Museum Acquisition Fund (AC1992.129.1) http://collections.lacma.org/node/221629 Vessel with Glyphic Text ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ About the Work of Art Discussion Questions and Prompts The writing on the surface of this Mayan vessel states Discuss the artwork using the following prompts and that it was used for drinking cacao, a drink like hot questions: chocolate that was made by grinding cocoa beans. The text also names the vessel’s owner and his royal • Look closely at this object. What details or symbols parents. The hieroglyphs appear in reverse order in do you see? the vertical panels on the body of the vessel, flanking What colors do you see? the head of an underworld supernatural creature in • the center. • What shapes do you see? The Maya were a Mesoamerican civilization that • Describe the different decorative elements on the extended from modern-day southern Mexico through vessel. Central America. At the height of their achievement, during the Classic period (c. AD 250 to 900), the Maya • How does the shape of the vessel help inform us numbered into the millions, controlling a vast about how this object was used? geographical area of city-states. The city-states were controlled through a substantial network of trade and Inform students that there is writing on this Mayan alliances. The reasons for their collapse in the eighth vessel that states that it was used for drinking a drink similar to hot chocolate; and it also names the bowl’s and ninth centuries is still being studied and debated owner and his royal parents. by Mayan scholars. This vessel, dating to the Classical period of Mayan Using Crayola©Model Magic© have students civilization, was created using the coil method rather create their own vessel. Ask students to than thrown on a potter’s wheel. Coils of clay were consider the following: wrapped around and around, and then smoothed over to make the walls of the vessel. The vessels were set • What shape will your vessel be? out to dry and then painted or inscribed. Many colors of pigment were used; however, one of the most • What will your vessel be used for? popular painting techniques involved limiting the color palette to black, red, and cream. This style, which was • What is the best shape for the vessel’s intended used on this vessel, was called the “Codex” style since use? (Think about its form and function.) it was similar to the aesthetics of decorations on pre- Will you include writing on the vessel? If so, what Columbian books. After decorating, the vessels were • will it say? Will you describe its function and name fired in a kiln. the owner, similar to the writings on this bowl? Resources • What colors will you use to decorate the vessel? Miller, Mary Ellen (1999) Maya Art and Architecture, Thames and Why are those colors important to you? Hudson: New York. Reents-Budet, Dorie, et al. (1994) Painting the Maya Universe: • How will you decorate the surface? What types of Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period, Duke University Press: shapes or symbols will you use? Durham, NC and London.

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