Grace Hartigan's Billboard
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Grace Hartigan Introduction |
Explore - Questions
(Teacher's Key)
- Imagine you can hear this painting. What sounds do
you hear? Where are they coming from? Are they loud?
soft? harmonious? Do you hear a single sound? many sounds
at once? Discuss why the painting "sounds" the way it
does.
- Grace Hartigan believes that "you should be able to
enter a painting like a promenade--that you should be
able to walk in anywhere and walk out anywhere."
Imagine that you can walk around in this painting. Where would you go? Why?
Now pretend that you can only walk on the blue sections. Which parts of the painting could you travel to? How does it feel there? Is it warm? cool? moist? hard? soft? Discuss cool colors and warm colors.
- Grace Hartigan said: "I am assaulted, as we all are,
by images. One cannot eradicate those images as one walks
through time and life."
How do images seen in the course of everyday life affect you? Did you ever want to buy something because of an advertisement? What was so persuasive about the ad? Where did you see the ad? Who were you with? What were you doing? How do all those factors affect how we see?
There are many different types of images we are exposed to every day through newspapers, magazines, signs, television, computers, etc. How would life be different without those images? Did a billboard or sign ever make you laugh, or make you angry? What was the image or message that made you respond that way?
- Grace Hartigan said: "I do not wish to describe my
subject matter, or reflect upon it--I want to distill it
until I have its essence."
Discuss the meaning of the word essence. What qualities cause a thing to be itself? Discuss the essence of a chair. What makes it a chair? What can you take away from it without taking away its essence? How has Grace Hartigan conveyed the essence of New York City in her painting Billboard?