Historic Messages and Modern Mixes: Prompts for Extended Thinking

Using our imaginations when looking at art can spark curiosity and stimulate creative responses to our own life experiences. Recall your Evans Distance Learning session in which students considered two contemporary artists who reference and integrate historical imagery into their own work to open new conversations.

Ask students to try the following with one or more of these American artworks:

Spend some time looking closely at the artwork. Identify aspects or elements that could offer avenues to new conversations about the American experience, both personal and shared. Consider both what you see and don’t see. What ideas, curiosities, or critiques about our own time does this work stimulate for you? Use the following prompts to consider the artwork:

• I recognize …
• This element or aspect reminds me of…
• And it makes me more aware of…

Use these three simple statements to establish a focus idea or concept for a new work of art.  Propose a plan for developing your idea as an artist.  What medium would you try? Why? With what audience would you most wish to share this work? What message, if any, would you hope to convey with this artwork?

During your Evans Distance Learning visit, students practiced looking carefully to interpret the ways artists reference or integrate ideas from the past in their work.  Ask students to look carefully at two more works of modern and contemporary art (choose from the images below) to build on their ideas.  Use the Looking to Learn: See Think Wonder strategy to frame student inquiry.  Click on each image to learn more about each piece and how each artist considers past ideas and concepts in their work.