University of Wyoming Art Museum 2009
American Modernists in Wyoming: George McNeil, Ilya Bolotowsky, and Leon Kelly
Purpose of this packet: Explore: To provide K-12 teachers with background Students will explore the background of the artists and information on the exhibition and suggested age how that contributes to their art work. They will be appropriate applications for exploring the concepts, encouraged to research vocabulary words and related meaning, and artistic intent of the work exhibited, aspects of the exhibit. before, during, and after the museum visit. Create: Curricular Unit Topic: Students will be given time to practice sketching and drawing, and may create their own paintings in the This unit examines the ideas, styles and techniques of style of one of the three artists. three American Modernists whose paths crossed in Wyoming in 1948. The focus of this educational packet and curricular unit is to observe, question, explore, Reflect: create and reflect. Students will evaluate their final art products with other students from their classes and with teachers and museum educators. They will be given feedback on the Observe: art work and the concepts behind the making of the Students will observe the art work of George McNeil, art work. After this process, each person may write an Ilya Bolotowksy and Leon Kelly. They will notice the essay about their process of making art. similarities and differences in their work: the colors used; the shapes of the paintings; subject matter; style and techniques.
Question: Students will have an opportunity to read, write, sketch, listen to teachers and museum educators, and then, to come up with questions about the work they see, and the concepts behind the art work and George McNeil (American, the artists who created it. Students will question the 1909-1995), Tharsus, 1960, oil on canvas, 48 in materials and techniques used and their own responses x 40 in, Lent by ACME Fine Art Gallery to the art work in the exhibition. American Modernists in Wyoming: George McNeil, Ilya Bolotowsky, and Leon Kelly
Introduction In this museum visit students will view the work of the American Modernists in Wyoming: George McNeil, Ilya Bolotowsky and Leon Kelly, three artists whose paths crossed at the University of Wyoming in 1948. It was during this time that American artists began discarding the conventions and traditions of the past in search of something “new.” Personal expression and individualism were embraced as artists forged new visual vocabularies. Each of these artists found their own unique voice within the Modernist dialogue, and together they demonstrate key elements of major artistic movements of the time - Abstract Expressionism, Geometric Abstraction, and Surrealism.
History The year was 1948. The War had ended. Warner Brothers produced the first color newsreel of the
TOP: Installation view of Leon Kelly (American, 1901-1982), An Ancient Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl. The Priest Examining Himself, 1949, oil on canvas, 16 in x 14 in, Lent by Winter Olympics were in St. Mortiz, Switzerland. The Gratz Gallery BOTTOM: Leon Kelly (American, 1901-1982), Bather Emering from the U.S. Supreme Courts ruled that religious instruction in Sea, 1952, oil on canvas on baord, 36 in x 26 in, Lent by Gratz Gallery
Page 2 Education Packet American Modernists in Wyoming: George McNeil, Ilya Bolotowsky, and Leon Kelly public schools violates the Constitution. The Hells Angels were founded in California. T. S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Harry S. Truman was elected President. During the first half of the 20th century in Europe, Modernism had taken hold in the art circles. Its premise was one of “newness;” that individualism and uniqueness of personal expression were essential if one was “modern.” American artists traveled to Europe to study, an essential requirement in order to be successful. With the shift in political power following WWII, Modernism began to take hold in the U.S. during the 1940s. It would set the stage for the development of America’s first artistic genre, Abstract Expressionism. Three artists, who would later contribute to the development of the Modernist dialogue in America, came to Wyoming during this time to teach at the University of Wyoming. George George McNeil (American, 1909-1995), Estuary, 1957, oil on paper on McNeil (American, 1908-1995), Ilya Bolotowsky plywood, 28 in x 22 in, Lent by ACME Fine Art Gallery (American/Russian, 1907-1981), and Leon Kelly (American/French, 1901-1982) were mid-career aesthetic of Futurism and Cubism. McNeil taught artists at the time and each was exploring a different at UW for two years, 1946-1948, before moving to form of abstraction. Together, they demonstrate key New York City to teach at the Pratt Institute. elements of major artistic movements of the time I am so biased in terms of what you might call – Abstract Expressionism, Geometric Abstraction, modernist values that I don’t know how you can and Surrealism; however, each considered their create art if it isn’t based on very simple premises, work individualistic, unique, and outside such larger like the reactions of an individual to the world groups or movements. around him or to his own ideas or to his own imagination and to the essencing of all this and, in ARtist Statements the main, what your feelings for truth are. I don’t know how you can develop your own subjective George McNeil worked in the abstract expressionist truth if it isn’t on the basis of this absolute sense of style, creating nonrepresentational work with broad authenticity, of the inner spirit. swaths of color, texture and depth. In this form of - George McNeil in an interview with Robert abstraction, the essential aspects of the medium are Berlind, Brooklyn, New York, May 30, 1990 in Art more fully exposed and acknowledged. McNeil’s Journal, Spring 1994, Volume 53, Issue 1. work emphasized spontaneous and subconscious creation. He combined the theories of the Abstract Ilya Bolotowsky was a geometric abstractionist Expressionists with the emotional intensity of who took the purely optical premise from the the German Expressionists and the anti-figural Cubist tradition to create the illusion of depth by
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LEFT:Ilya Bolotowsky (Russian/American, 1907-1981), Vibrant Tondo, 1968, Acrylic on canvas, 31 1/2 in diameter, Lent by Rehs Gallery RIGHT:Ilya Bolotowsky (Russian/American, 1907-1981), Untitled, 1952, Oil on canvas on board, 25 3/4 in x 34 in, Lent by Rehs Gallery
eliminating the use of the figure altogether and biological existence is not given to man. And this is solely using the juxtaposition and location of the Platonic ideal, the absolute, the ideal harmonious different planes of color. This approach sought balance, which is not still, not symmetrical, but to carry the abstract beyond what is depicted, dynamic. to the underlying sense of emotional charge. Bolotowsky later became known for his tondos, - Ilya Bolotowsky in an interview with Louise or large, circular canvases of delineated color and Averill Svendsen and Mimi Poser, 1974, Catalogue, shape, which he first created while in Wyoming. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York In addition to teaching art at the University, Bolotowsky also taught local ranchers who gifted Leon Kelly was a leading American surrealist him several large wagon wheels. He removed the who was stylistically influenced by some of the spokes and used the circular frames as stretchers major contributors to the European surrealist for his canvases. He found that the form created movement, including Salvador Dalí and Yves an interesting composition as the straight lines Tanguy. Kelly worked within a new canon of became affected by the circular shape of the canvas. Modernist painting, elaborating on the precedent Bolotowsky was at UW from 1948 to 1957. of the collage, and using novel forms of montage to create works that combined themes central to Symbolism in my style is not at all important the Surrealist movement from Europe and new and actually to be avoided. Because it means that a forms of American abstraction. After studying art painting is not what it is, but represents something in Paris, Kelly worked and exhibited largely in New else. York. However, in 1947 he and his family moved to Wyoming so he could teach in the Art Department. The communication would be the creation of an Although he stayed at UW only two years, he ideal, balanced harmony. Something that in actual, took the opportunity to study Native American
Page 4 Education Packet American Modernists in Wyoming: George McNeil, Ilya Bolotowsky, and Leon Kelly art, traveling to study petroglyphs and meet with contemporary potters. - Leon Kelly in the Catalogue for Leon Kelly: An American Surrealist, Francis M. Naumann Fine Art, In a 1958 letter to his friend and supporter, Julien LLC, 2008. Essay by Martica Sawin. Levy, Kelly says:
You have seen my work go through several stages Lesson Overview from insects to fish, birds and figures that took on Students will learn about the work of three of the qualities of insects, birds, etc. as life in transition the American Modernists who taught at the of flight in one tick of eternity...I guess that people University of Wyoming in the 1940’s and 1950’s. associate visual appearances more than inner They will explore the underpinnings of abstract psychological vistas with painting. Yet I try to make expressionism, geometric abstraction and the two vistas kaleidoscopic without the burden of surrealism. Students will look to see what new and properties, as Dali would do...Often viewers feel that original ideas came out of painters, considering the I am engaged in torturing a human form, but I am concepts behind the art work, and how they fit into intensely concerned with the dynamo of life and the idea of a new modern American art. its poetry as I feel it within the human case, shell, In the Shelton Studio students will be given capsule or whatever totes it around...Perhaps it is the opportunity to complete an acrylic painting like a group of transparencies put together and held modeled after any one of the modernist painting against the light, one of an amoeba, one of vegetation, styles, the idea being that each student will try, in one of insect, one of man, and they all hop in some his or her own way, to create something new. The way but the form or case they are being in is in rapid modeling will be done after some of techniques transition. The vision within me [is] of this transition used in producing a painting, but not in the ideas, of form, or this strange cosmic flight of particles called or subject matter that each student will bring to the man. project.
Installation view of George McNeil (American, 1909-1995), Edge, 1951, oil on canvas, 14 in x 19 in, Lent by ACME Fine Art Gallery
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Grades 7-12 • What do we mean by style when we speak of art? • What do we mean when we say art work is traditional or classical? • Can you name various techniques used in these paintings to show that they are striving for a new modern art in a different style? • Do these works present the culture, and the social and the political climate of the late mid- twentieth century? How so? • How are the American modernists similar and different from the European modernists? Installation view of Leon Kelly (American, 1901-1982), The Reclining Moor, 1953, oil on canvas, 32 in x 19 3/4 in, Lent by Gratz Gallery • How are the modernists different than the romantics, classicists, etc.? Students and teachers may research and engage in conversations about the American Modernists’ art questions to consider work before arriving at the art museum, researching Grades K-6 the artists on-line to explore ideas. While here they • What do you see? will spend time in the galleries closely observing • Describe the kinds and types of marks the the work, discussing it, writing about it, and even painters have made. sketching it. They will begin conversations about • What shapes and forms do you see? the theories behind the work which will lay the • What colors do you see? groundwork for future opportunities to pursue these • What and who are the subjects of the ideas in their home classrooms and schools. paintings and the prints? • How are these prints and paintings the same Essential Questions and how are they different?
Grades K-6 Grades 7-12 • What is art? • How many ‘isms’ in art can you name that • What is modern art? would go under the heading of modernism? • When we speak of original art work, what • What techniques can you name in the does that mean? paintings and prints? • How do you know when viewing art work • How can the same techniques be used to whether it is the same or traditional or if it is make something new in art? created in some way new or original? Or how can a viewer recognize a “new idea/concept/ Pre-visit activities style” in art just by observing it? In order to prepare students for their museum • How do the paintings you view in this exhibit visit and extend learning possibilities, we suggest express new ideas?
Page 6 Education Packet American Modernists in Wyoming: George McNeil, Ilya Bolotowsky, and Leon Kelly that teachers and students consider the following • Using worksheets, students will respond in activities. writing or drawing to the work they see by • Students will read and research about the recording their observations and their own American Modernists in art magazines, thoughts about the work. books, and on the web. • Students will answer questions on a museum • Students will research information on any of worksheet. the individual artists included in this exhibit. • Students will engage in discussions about their • Students will explore different artists’ observations and their answers and sketches techniques in creating their works. with one another and with the teachers. • Students will explore relationships from modernism in art to modernism in literature, Part 2 poetry and jazz. Time frame: 45 - 60 minutes • Students will explore different ways to use (in the Shelton Studio) color, shape and form to create original art. The following projects may be considered • Students might explore different textures and individually, or combined, or museum educators how texture can be used to create different will work with teachers to develop specific projects effects in art. which support ongoing classroom work. • Students will explore the concepts of modernism in art by painting in the style of Museum activities one of the artists. • Students will try to make something new. These activities are suggestions. Museum educators • Students will explore techniques of painting. will work with teachers to carefully tailor all classes to their students’ needs, in support of classroom goals and district and state education standards. Post visit activities Museum staff will work with teachers to ensure that Part 1 all projects are age and skills appropriate. At the very Time frame: 30 - 45 minutes minimum: (in the galleries) • Students discuss or write about their museum • Students will closely observe the works of the experiences, reviewing what they learned, American Modernists on exhibit in the art what has special meaning for them, how they museum. will use new information and skills. • They will identify lines, shapes, forms, • Students continue to research the works of patterns, repetition, color, light and shadow, American Modernists and the concepts of technique and style in the existing work. modernism in America (an essay, art work, • Students will discuss what they see with research paper). museum educators. • Students create their own modernist drawings • They will explore the artists’ paintings in and paintings to explore new ideas. relationship to the idea of modernism and creating something new. Prerequisite skills/knowledge • They will explore the concepts behind the art • Students should have some familiarity with work in the exhibit.
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sketching and drawing objects. Mark Jones, 2006 • Students should be able to identify shapes and • Modernism by Richard Weston, 2001 colors. • Modernism by Peter Childs, 2000 • Students should be familiar with the concepts • The Cambridge Companion to Modernism, behind modernism. 1999 • Modernism: An Anthology, S. Rainey, 2005 Suggested curriculum use The study of the American Modernists’ works, Materials to be supplied plus the historical knowledge gained from studying to each student the work and time frame of these works from the Materials for selected Shelton Studio projects are late 19th C to the early 20th C ties to multiple provided by the art museum. curricular areas including art, history, social studies, writing, reading, geography, and philosophy. Assessment & documentation Museum staff will work with teachers to address In order to ensure that our museum tour program specific Wyoming Teaching Standards and to is meeting the needs of teachers and students, we align museum projects and studies with ongoing may ask that participants help us assess the activities classroom curricular units. and learning that take place. Examples of evaluation tools include: Some recommended resources 1. Students will self-assess using a quick survey These are just a few of the many resources available. that asks them to consider their response to We welcome other suggestions that teachers and the gallery discussions and explorations, and students find helpful which can be added to this list. their studio experience, • UW Art Museum website: www.uwyo.edu/ 2. Teachers will assess the overall visit by artmuseum completing a quick-survey that asks for their • Exhibition descriptive materials (contact observation and assessment of students’ the museum education program for more experiences, as well as assessment of the information) overall process of the museum visit. • Research on the internet about the American 3. Museum educators will record their Modernists, modernism, and American observations and assessments. modernism in art. 4. When studio time permits, we will ask • Ilya Bolotowsky, Catalogue for the exhibition, students to briefly discuss their art completed 1974, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, in the Shelton Studio. New York. 5. Museum staff may take photographs of • Leon Kelly: An American Surrealist, catalogue students and teachers to document the for the exhibition, 2008, Francis M. Naumann, learning taking place and the work produced Fine Art, LCC, New York. during a museum visit. These are available • Modernism: Designing a New World, by Ian to teachers upon written request for use in Christie, Mark Benton, Christopher Wilk, and teaching and student portfolios.
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