Reinterpretations of Paintings by Artists of the Past

A Lesson by Ben Borman

GRADE LEVEL and DURATION
12th grade; 1 week

LESSON THEME
Spectatorship

GENERAL UNIT GOALS
It is important for the student to understand the work of Ken Aptekar. Aptekar "recycles" old masterpieces, bolting glass with sandblasted words to his own painted interpretations of artistic icons works by old masters such as Rembrandt and Raphael in order to reevaluate some of our most potent presumptions about the nature of authorship. For his project at the Corcoran, his first solo museum exhibition, Aptekar proposes to create a body of work that results from interacting with the Gallery’s permanent collection, the staff, and the museum audience, making new paintings specifically in dialogue with selected works from the collection. Using the intersection of language and visual image he explores, and attempts to decode, those attributes that cause us to consider certain works of art masterpieces. His edited and rearticulated texts pose elusive questions and forge mysterious connections between fleeting thoughts and the very precise, and decidedly solid image.

GENERAL LESSON OBJECTIVES
Students will interpret the work of Ken Aptekar by revealing content

1. that arises from his use of paintings and text
2. arising from the work’s relationship to art history
3. arising from the attitudinal gestures that appear in his work

MATERIALS

TEACHER MATERIALS
1. Reproductions of paintings by the masters, i.e. Raphael
2. Slides of Ken Aptekar’s work with slide projector
3. Paper and pencil for the motivational activity

STUDENT MATERIALS
1. Canvasses for Tempera paint
2. Tempera paint
3. Brushes
4. Palettes
6. Water containers
7. Sandpaper: Fine, Medium, and Coarse
8. 1 inch lettering stencils
Each student will receive one whole alphabet of stencils
9. 2 24-packs of magic markers

VOCABULARY
Spectatorship : Spectator: An observer of an event; eyewitness; onlooker. Ship: the art or functioning of, for example, penmanship or leadership)
"The duty of spectatorship given to the student let him use his acute observation skills to the utmost."

Terra incognita : In a nonofficial capacity or under a name or title intended to elude public notice. "The way that art enters into the subjectivity of ordinary viewers remains for the most part terra incognita."

Ashen impassivity : devoid of emotion. "Rembrandt, Vigee-Lebrun, Pisarro, all were transcribed with the same ashen impassivity."

Idiosyncrasy: a behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group. "Talking to Pictures"(Aptekar’s show) mounted an all-out attack on personal idiosyncrasies, a massive cleansing and purging of self-expressive resources of art; at the same time it performed the exact opposite, insisting on the primacy of autobiography, on the idiosyncrasies of personal response as the true ground of viewing practice."

Sandblast: A blast of air or steam carrying sand at high velocity to etch glass.

SPECIFIC LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. After the motivational activity, students will learn about the work of Ken Aptekar. They will learn that their opinions, impressions, and criticisms are important in this lesson.

2. After the lecture about the art of Ken Aptekar, students will create paintings in tempera that are copies of their favorite paintings done by the old masters such as Rembrandt. The criteria for their paintings is that they have to be devoid of emotion. The expectations are that the reproductions of the Rembrandts will be impassive enough to solicit opinions, impressions, and criticisms from the class.

3. After making the painting, students will write their opinions, impressions, and criticisms that are similar to those of Ken Aptekar. They will do this on top of their painting using a magic marker and stencils.

4. Each student will write a one page written critique of another student’s work and hand it in on the final day. Each student will read his/her critique to the class. The criteria for this assignment are that the student will have acquired enough sufficient vocabulary to make thoughtful and acute comments about the content of his/her classmate’s text.

STANDARDS OF LEARNING

ADVANCED ORGANIZER
The following must be accomplished before each day of the lesson begins: Day 1:Each student will be given a handout of a list of words such as wit, irony, sarcasm and their definitions. This list will help them formulate their thoughts. Day 2:slides of Ken Aptekar must be gathered and the slide projector set up. Day 3:at least 10 reproductions of the masters’ paintings must be gathered; paint, water containers, brushes, and canvasses are to be gathered. Day 4:an adequate supply of magic markers will be brought to class; one alphabet of stencils per student will be brought to class.

MOTIVATIONAL ACTIVITY
Each student, after looking an 18x24in. reproduction of a famous work, i.e. Raphael’s School of Athens pinned to the bulletin board, will be given a sheet of paper and a pencil to write some of their thoughts about the painting. Next, each student will read to the class what they wrote. The themes of censorship and spectatorship and the phrase "ashen impassivity" will be discussed. The students will be given 10 minutes to look at the work of art. They will have 20 minutes to write their thoughts and they may have no more than 1 paragraph with 5 sentences. The remaining 20 minutes of the 50 minute period will be for discussion about their writings.

LESSON SEQUENCE
5 50-minute Days
1. First Day: motivational activity
2. Second Day: learning about the work of Ken Aptekar
3. Third Day: creating paintings with themes by the masters
4. Fourth Day: stenciling thoughts and messages over paintings
5. Fifth Day: critiques

CLOSURE
On the third day, three students will be in charge of taking up the water containers and emptying them, cleaning the palettes and the brushes in the sink, and taking up the tempera paints and putting them away. On the fourth day two students will be in charge of putting away the markers and the stencils.

TRANSITION
In this lesson we explored what spectatorship is. How revealing is it of the artist’s inner life, what is considered an appropiate viewer’s response, and is spectatorship a decline of contemporary painting standards were all explored.

EVALUATION
Students will be evaluated according to (1) how diligently they worked while formulating their thoughts (2) how neat they kept themselves when painting with tempera (3) how well they abstained from using slang in their messages with magic markers (4) if they chose to read their 1 page critiques in front of the class

REFERENCES, BIBLIOGRAPHY, RESOURCES
William Morris, Ed. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1981.)

http://arts.endow.gov/explore/Gallery/Aptekar7.html

http://www.mbergerart.com/aptekar/marry.htm

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1248/2_87/53868151/p1/article.jhtml

http://www.art-contemporain.eu.org/base/chronologie/1077.html

http://www.library.upenn.edu/cjs/exhib2001/toc.html


REPRODUCTIONS
Works from the Red Read Suite:
Primary Works:
I’ve always had a hard time reading
Secondary Works:
When I announce my plans to marry
Where’d you get the red hair?
Dad is showing me how to develop
Years ago I’d See Red

Works from the NEA Gallery:
Primary Works:
A Man With a Problem
Secondary Works:
What Would You Say To Me?
Heavy Equipment
Redblk Rmbrndt
Jack and Murray
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