Curriculum Materials: Art in America
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Image 25 Grace Hartigan Questions: |
Think Questions
1. Grace Hartigan's Billboard is an EXPRESSIONIST painting. List five words that express the mood or feeling of this painting.
2. What does ABSTRACT mean? What does "expression" mean? What does it mean to express oneself or one's views? The style of this painting is called ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM. Do you think this is a good name for this type of painting? Why or why not? Some artists prefer to call this type of painting "action painting" or "gesture painting." Why might they prefer these names? Based on Hartigan's Billboard, which name do you think is most appropriate? Why? What name would you give to this style? Why?
3. This painting is called Billboard. What is a billboard? What does this painting have in common with billboards that you have seen? Is Hartigan showing a billboard, many billboards, or the idea of a billboard? How do you think Hartigan felt about billboards? What about the painting makes you think so?
4. This painting bridges ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM and POP ART. Pop art was an American art movement characterized by subjects drawn from the world of advertising. Hartigan selected the various images that she ABSTRACTED in this painting from magazine advertisements from the late 1950s. Look carefully at the images. What products may they have been promoting? Do we still have images like any of these today? Where can you find such images nowadays? Based on the images in this painting, what do you think the term "pop art" means?
5. Do you consider the images or the technique more important in this painting? Why?
6. Compare and contrast Hartigan's modern image of consumerism with Jasper Cropsey's Catskill Mountain House LANDSCAPE. How does each address consumerism in the time it was made? How does each show the effect of consumerism in the transformation of the American landscape in its own time? How do they differ stylistically? Compare and contrast color, COMPOSITION, and degree of NATURALISM vs. ABSTRACTION. Which painting do you like more? Why?
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