Myth, meaning and mystery - art Across the Curriculum

Arts & Activities, Jan, 2003 by Tara Cady Sartorius

For Grades: 7-12.

LANGUAGE ARTS & SOCIAL STUDIES

Project: What's in a Title?

Key Skill: Analyzing the meaning of art through titles.

Materials: Various works of art with interesting titles.

Procedure: Clark, in titling his work, The King's Temptress, has been described as appearing "racist, sexist, and unknowing of the qualities of Asian art" by Ilene Fort, curator of American art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Examine the biases of this criticism and decide if it is deserved. How de artists further explain or make their art confusing by the titles they give?

For Grades: 11-12.

Beethoven, Darwin and Hugo Grotius.

Assign ouch student in your class one of the figures, tell students these people are applying for the job of being sculpted for the library building, but you must only select one. Have students present the reasons they believe he or she is the most worthy character for the job. Have them write their findings in a one-page letter of support. (This activity could also he done in a debate format.)

For Grades: 5-12.

(1) Thomson, Mary Stacy; Tacoma News Tribune, Nov. 28, 1928 "... in Siam at Angkor, ancient capitol of Cambodia. Clark created there King's Temptress and others of the Oriental spirit."

(2) Fort, Ilene Susan. The Figure in American Sculpture: A Question of Modernity. Los Angeles Museum of Art in association with University of Washington Press, 1995, p. 128 "The Massive temple city of Angkor in Cambodia with its extensive sculptural decorations fascinated him; with their three-pointed jeweled diadems, the figures of celestial dancers seen throughout the temple complex surely served as an inspiration for (;lark's seductress."

(3) Ibid. see illustration p. 131.

(4) Tacoma Daily Ledger, Dec. 2, 1928.

INTERNET RESOURCES

Angkor Wot

* http://www.angkorwat.org/

* http://www.hass.usu.edu/~spyke/AngkorWat/summary.html

Cambodian Dance

* http://www.folkloreproject.org/educators/dancer/dance.shtml

* http://www.phnompenhdaily.com/apsara.htm

* http://www.vais.net/~tapang/k_journey96/chapter1.html

Churning of the Sea of Milk

* http://www.veloasia.com/buckley/churning_milk.html

Tara Cady Sartorius is Curator of Education at the Montgomery (Ala.) Museum of Fine Arts. Prior to receiving her master's degree in sculpture and art criticism, she taught art for 10 years in public elementary schools in California.