Curriculum Materials: Art in America
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Image 28 George Morrison Questions: |
Think Questions
1. George Morrison found a lot of the wood for Collage IX: Landscape on the shore of Lake Superior in northern Minnesota. Why might he have wanted this particular wood for this work of art? Have you ever picked up wood on a shore? What did it feel like?
2. Why do you suppose George Morrison used wood pieces of so many colors? Do you think he painted the red and blue pieces himself, or did he find them colored this way? Why do you think so?
3. Do you think Morrison was interested in recording a view of nature exactly as he saw it? Why or why not? What do you think he was interested in? From looking at this ABSTRACT LANDSCAPE, can you tell how Morrison feels about nature?
4. Why might Morrison consider this a "painting in wood"? Can a wooden COLLAGE be a painting? What if the artist says it is?
5. When we are outside and we look into the distance, we see the horizon. What is the horizon? We call the point at which sky and land seem to meet visually the HORIZON LINE. Does the sky really touch the earth at this point? Why do you think that the horizon was so interesting to George Morrison? He calls the horizon an "enigma." Look that word up in the dictionary, or discuss what it means. What aspects of the natural world might you consider enigmas?
6. Think of one of your favorite places in nature. If you were going to make a work of art about that place, would it be abstract or NATURALISTIC? Would it have a lot of color or not? Would it be a painting or a sculpture? Would you try to show things like wind or cold? Movement? Light?
7. Compare and contrast Morrison's Collage IX: Landscape to Grace Hartigan's painting Billboard. Both artists lived in New York during the 1950s and were influenced by many of the same things. How are their paintings alike? How are they different? What would account for the different approaches that artists take to making their art?
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