Art Links for Homeschoolers: May

Each month I preview art resources from around the world to bring you, Art Links for Homeschoolers. I think you'll find these links useful in your homeschool for Art History, Art Appreciation or Picture Study. Looking for something in particular? Try a blog search (that little Blogger search box in the top navigation bar - above my banner). Want to see what resources I've reviewed so far? Click on the label "Enjoying the Arts".

This month's Art Links for Homeschoolers are all from the 20th and 21st century - from Georgia Okeefe's abstracts and surrealist paintings, to the Wyeth family's realism, to David Hockney's Pop art.


- Modern -


Kalamazoo Institute of Arts presents Georgia O'Keefe and Her Times











The Montclair Art Museum in Montclair, NJ offers an exhibition of three generations of Wyeth painters now through July 19th. See their online exhibition complete with biographies of each of the family painters.












David Hockney has traded in his paintbrushes for printer cartridges. Well, maybe only temporarily. This is a fascinating exhibit showcasing the artistic applications of modern technology.


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Art Links for Homeschoolers: April 2009

After a long hiatus, Art Links for Homeschoolers is back! I preview resources from around the world and present you the ones I think you'll find the most useful for Art History, Art Appreciation or Picture Study in your homeschool. Each month check in to see what great resources I've found for you! Looking for something in particular? Do a blog search (that little Blogger search box in the top navigation bar - above my banner)! Want to see what resources I've reviewed so far? Click on the label "Enjoying the Arts".

Here are the resources I've collected for April:


--Baroque Period--

The Baroque period (17th and 18th centuries) encompassed architecture, painting, sculpture, and music. It was also a style that crossed cultural barriers from the British Isles to the Philippine Islands. This spring the Victoria and Albert Museum is presenting an exhibition of 200 items "to examine the flourishing of the Baroque style during the era that saw the establishment of great European and colonial empires ruled by absolute monarchs and the continuing power of the Roman Catholic Church." In conjunction with this exhibit, the museum is featuring and online Interactive Global Baroque "exhibit" (it even has a Baroque music player in the lower right column). Below the image-linked map you'll find the full selection of Baroque images from around the world. And finally, you can add your own images of Baroque-style using flickr!



--Depression Era Photography, Walker Evans--

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is exhibiting a collection of postcards with images by Walker Evans (famous Depression-Era photographer). From the exhibition homepage: a collection of 9,000 picture postcards amassed and classified by the American photographer Walker Evans (1903–1975), now part of the Metropolitan’s Walker Evans Archive. The picture postcard represented a powerful strain of indigenous American realism that directly influenced Evans’s artistic development. The Met has this entire exhibit in an online exhibition collection!



--American Abstract Art (Pollock, de Kooning)

The Albright-Knox Museum offers an exhibit assembled by The Jewish Museum in modern American Art: Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art: 1940-1976. The Jewish Museum has put together an excellent series of teaching resources all internet-based including: an Image Gallery, a cultural timeline, and more.



This post was submitted to the Carnival of Education. And the Carnival of Homeschooling at The Common Room.

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Art Resources for Homeschoolers - November 2008

While the Newark Museum does not have the entire collection online for this exhibit (Paths to Impressionism), they still have some good examples and they have a series of short essays on the themes of Impressionism in America, particularly the precursor, The Barbizon School of painting.

Museum of Modern Art offers an online, searchable database of their collection. An excellent resource when you are looking for examples of modern era artworks.

J. Paul Getty Museum is presenting an exhibition of Les Belles Heures of the Duke of Berry, a fantanstic medieval illuminated manuscript. Online you can find nine images from Les Belles Heures with enlargements, zoom capability, and audio discussion, as well as 2 educational videos. If you are in the area (Los Angelos) there are a number of lectures, talks and performances that you can attend (oh how I wish I was there!). Want to learn more? Check out the suggested booklist.








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Art History for Homeschoolers - September 2008

Frida Kahlo exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

George Eastman House has some fantastic online photographic collections.

Artists respond to Genesis: "In the Beginning..." from the Contemporary Jewish Museum.

A "zoomable" and searchable online collection from The Frick Collection. The zoom gets close enough to show your the brushmarks! Pieces in the online collection also feature a short essay discussing historical, artistic, and thematic aspects.


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Art History Links for Homeschoolers - August 2008

What are Art History Links for Homeschoolers?
Well, as homeschoolers, we love to learn...and it needs to be cheap and easily accessible (ie. local or ONLINE). I look for online exhibits, resources, reading lists, videos, and activity ideas for major art historical themes. Many of these resources are offered in conjunction with local exhibits, so if you are lucky enough to be in that vacinity, take advantage of it.

How can you help?
Know of a great resource online or a great exhibit in your area? Email me or leave a comment. I'll incorporate your finds into a future month's listing. And if you take advantage of any of the resources...or attend an exhibit mentioned here, let me know what you think! Your feedback helps me provide better listings.


In conjunction with the Beijing Olympics, I've found two Chinese art resources:

Ancient Chinese Sculpture
From the Art Knowledge Newsletter:
The script is familiar but irresistible. A cache of art is stored, unexamined, in the bowels of an esteemed institution. Scholars become intrigued. Cataloging begins. The quality is unexpectedly high, and soon an exhibition materializes, accompanied by a catalog that illuminates the tale of neglect, renewed interest and diligent scholarship as well as the splendors of the art. That is the plot for “Treasures Rediscovered: Chinese Stone Sculpture From the Sackler Collections at Columbia University,” an eye-opening show at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Gallery at Columbia University.

Anatomy of a Masterpiece: How to Read Chinese Paintings
Another excellent online exhibit, this time of Chinese paintings and calligraphy. If you'd like to share some images of masterpieces of Chinese painting and calligraphy with your kids, this is a great resource. The works span 1,000 years of Chinese art history.

Create a custom art history timeline
As you put the finishing touches on your lessons for the year, you might want to consider using this excellent resource from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It will make adding art to your lessons easy as pie!

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An Art History Carnival

Look-y what I found - an ART HISTORY CARNIVAL. I know I'm a geek to get so excited about that, but what can I say. Margaret is hosting this carnival at her blog The Earthly Paradise. She is a grad student and a former homeschooler.

If you enjoy reading about art...or looking at art, you'll find something worthwhile in this carnival. I've got a wee little submission in there, too.

The posts include:

• Art History essays (Mondrian, Whistler's Mother, a mystery/history lesson),
• Art News and Exhibits (online exhibits, free or reduced fee museum days),
• Philosopy of Art (creativity origins, Neolithic art), and
• Reviews (Indian architecture).

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Art History Links for Homeschoolers - July 2008

I'm consolidating the art resource links to a once a month posting. Here are July's art resource finds:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a wonderful exhibit of Turner. Lots of online images and background information on this British landscape painter.





Starting July 15th and running until November 16th, the Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield, Massachussetts is hosting: The New Reality: The Frontier of Realism in the 21st Century. The exhibit compares realism from the history of art (Vermeer, with realism in the 21st century




The Art Institute of Chicago has a fantastic exhibition of the art of Benin (an historic kingdom located in present-day Nigeria) running from July 10 - September 21. The quality of the artwork is truly wonderful. If you are in the Chicago area, I'd say this is a do not miss. (If you are in the area, be sure to check out the "Passport to Africa" a series of free evening events sponsored by Target.) But, if not, their online resources are excellent: excellent essays on major exhibition themes, nearly 40 online images from the exhibit, and a thorough reading list.

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Art Resource: Roman Artifacts from the Louvre on tour

Roman artifacts from the Louvre will be in Oklahoma City for their final stop in the states from June 19th - Oct 12th. Even if you can't attend the website has some good educational downloads, online info, videos, and 40 or so of the 184 pieces for you to view online.

Art Resource: Master Photographers

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is featuring two photography exhibits this summer:


Framing a Century: Master Photographers 1840-1940 now through Sept. 1st and Photography on Photography: Reflections on the Medium since 1960 now through Oct. 1st. Both exhibits offer images for online vieweing.


You might also enjoy some of the links the Met suggests for photography. Here are some I found particularly interesting:

• Smithsonian 's online collections of American Photography.


• National Archives' online gallery from their exhibit, Picturing a Century.


• The Getty's exhibit, Photographers of Genius has an excellent online preview of some of the pieces. Each image is coupled with great background on the artist and image.

Art Resource: My Lesson Plan for French Impressionism

Would you like to have a ready-made lesson plan to study French Impressionism in your homeschool? I put this together using the National Gallery of Art's FREE Loaner: "Picturing France", an educator's resource packet. (Scroll down that page to order the entire packet including prints, slides, a CD and the book - it is free, you only have to pay for the return postage.)


Here's a photo of my daughter enjoying the first day of Unit 1 from my French Impressionism lesson plan. She decided she wanted to try drawing a picture like Pissaro's:










From the lesson plan, we talked about how point of view can change a scene. We experimented with this using our dining room:

We also talked about the details of the painting, the color and lighting, how we'd change the picture to make it look like afternoon, how the street might look different if it were painted from a diferent angle, and what would be different if the painting was done today.

Let me know if you download the lesson plan...and what you think of it! (If you have any trouble downloading, leave me a comment and I'll be happy to email it to you.)

Art Resource: Online Art History Timeline

Here is a very useful tool to help you bring Art History into your homeschool from the Metropolitan Museum of Art - a Timeline of Art History. This website is SO much more than just a timeline, however. You'll find:

• A great map which shows the progression of art across the world. At a glance, you can see what types of art was being produced in across the continents and centuries.
• Pages showing the art of a particular time period and across cultures. (ie. you can see all the types of art being produced in the 16th century from Asia to Africa)
• As well as pages showing the art of a particular culture across the centuries.
• Thematic essays on subjects from "Chinese Hand Scrolls" to "The Labors of Hercules" to "The Bauhaus".

This website would make a great research resource for the older student as well as you, the teacher!

Art Appreciation Resource: Online Tour - Frescoes

The National Gallery of Art has an online tour this month of the ONLY examples of Italian Renaissance frescoes in America. If you can't get there to see them, here's the next best thing!Each frescoe has an accompanying narrative (the set is a series telling the story of Cephalus and Procris from Greek mythology) as well as other background information.

Interested in a different online tour? Here's their list of available tours.

The NGA website is an absolute goldmine of resources. Spend some time digging around and you'll be amazed at what you find!

Art Resource: Inspiring Impressionism

Left: Mrs. Duffee Seated on a Striped Sofa, Reading, 1876, Mary Cassatt.

Right: A Young Girl Reading, about 1776, Jean-Honoré Fragonard.

The Denver Art Museum has recently extended the hours during the last two weeks of a popular exhibit, "Inspiring Impressionism". This exhibit examines how the Impressionist artists were inspired and influenced by the "Old Masters" of previous generations:

Even the most revolutionary artistic movements are grounded in older traditions. Although the Impressionists’ work seemed a daring rejection of what came before, they did find inspiration in artists from the Renaissance to the eighteenth century. Some revered those Old Masters, some rejected the traditions of the past, and others took their lessons and re-invented them to reflect modern life.

Not near Denver? Me neither, but I was excited to see that they have:

• a small online exhibit of some of these works compared with their old master inspiration!


• a huge teacher resource list (websites: general info, artist bio, lesson ideas; videos and books).


• an interactive timeline.

Are you near Denver? You can still get tickets to the show, aren't you lucky! If you go, come back and tell me how it was. (If you do live there, you might be interested in checking out the "Learn and Play" link! They have some great tours offered for teachers and families.)

Enjoy!

This post is part of the Carnival of Homeschooling at Po Moyemu-In My Opinion - check it out!

Art Smart!

There is really something important about the fine arts and brain development. Recent research shows how fine arts (from music to drama) can help develop the brain and thinking power. This article just whet my appetite to read more!

Having the fine arts as a part of our lifestyle has always been important to me. My eldest son has long enjoyed taking part in drama classes and plays. My middle son took cello lessons for a year and would like to take up another instrument. My daughter takes ballet. They all enjoy drawing and creating on an almost daily basis. We listen to lots of music: classical, folk, fun. I don't do as much picture study as I'd like, but we do some and that is better than none.

How do you incorporate fine arts into your children's education or life?

HT: the evangelical outpost's "Thirty-three things"

Before the Impressionists....

were the "en plein air" artists. In some ways, I prefer these artists to the Impressionists, certainly to some of the later styles coming out of Impressionism(especially Pointilism, which is fascinating, but not beautiful, in my opinion).

The National Gallery of Art is hosting an exhibition of over 100 works by these artists (including an early photographer whose work I'd LOVE to see) through June 8th - In the Forest of Fontainbleau: Painters and Photographs from Corot to Monet. They are offering a "Family Weekend" April 19th and 20th - with many activities (drop in - no fee, no registration) to go along with this exhibition, too. Consider ordering a "Loan Packet" (scroll down)- FREE again - with reproductions, slides, teacher guide, maps, timelines, and more. (More infor on the Loan Packet program on this page.)

Want to make this into a complete learning adventure? How about downloading NGA's education package (FREE) for this exhibit: Picturing France- 1830-1900. From the website:

"... learning resource intended primarily for middle and upper grade levels. It takes a multifaceted look at nineteenth-century painting in France, as well as the culture that both produced and is reflected by that art. Organized by region, it provides a quick glance at the setting, history, and cultural life of Paris, the Île-de-France, the mountain areas of Franche-Comté and Auvergne, Normandy, Brittany, and Provence, in addition to a more in-depth examination of more than 50 works of art. We hope that this resource will be useful to teachers and students in many disciplines, including social studies, history, and French language. "

Are you in the DC area? I'm not, but might have to make a trip up to see this exhibition! If you are going, leave a comment...and come back and share your thoughts!

(if you enjoy this art resource post, let me know and I'll be sure to do more!)