fame 6.1• Grant Wood American Gothic • Aaron Copland Hoedown

(Put materials on desks before beginning the lesson. Place paintings/posters facing backwards on whiteboard.)

Introduce ARTSY rules before the lesson using posterboard from black file.

Welcome to your first FAME lesson for this year. (Ask all students except TK-K) Raise your hand if you had FAME last

year. Keep them raised if you enjoyed FAME! We had a great year last year: you created stretched pastel portraits in

the style of Amedeo Modigliani; painted a frame-worthy seascape inspired by Winslow Homer; painted swirls and

waves like Vincent Van Gogh; made collage self-portraits as colorful as Frida Kahlo; sculpted horses as majestic

as Frederic Remington’s; and used Georges Seurat’s pointillist techniques to create a breathtaking sunset! If you

thought last year was fun you’re in for a treat! We have six NEW artist and six NEW composers to share with you and

six NEW art projects for you to create. Let’s get started!

Our first artist, Grant Wood was born and raised on a small Iowa farm in 1892 and went to

school in a one room school house. (You can add FUN FACTS to the biography or share

one of the brief videos on the fame website depending on your time and grade level).

Wood studied a variety of art techniques including copper and wood working, jewelry

making, life drawing and architecture. He created stage sets for his school plays, drew

pictures for yearbook and even painted camouflage on army tanks! Like many artists of this

period he traveled in Europe and was exposed to the art scene there where he saw the

Impressionists and studied the great Flemish masters (remember Jan Van Eyck?) and

understood his true calling as an artist. “I spent 20 years wandering around the world

hunting ‘arty’ subjects to paint. I came back,” he explained, “and the first thing I noticed

was the cross-stitched embroidery of my mother’s kitchen apron.” That moment changed

him. Armed with new technique, and a new appreciation for the mundane, Wood no longer

needed to travel. What he needed was right there, in Iowa.

Grant Wood considered himself a Regionalist. This style was popular during the 1930s.

Regionalists painted pictures of land and of people. As the Great Depression bore down on

the country, Americans yearned for positive depictions of themselves, and Wood’s work

provided reassuring images of the American Heartland.

OBJECTIVES:

Introduce ELEMENTS of

Art COMPOSITION

through Grant Wood’s

American Gothic.

Teach LINE and use of

foreground,

midground and

background for depth.

Introduce RHYTHM in

Aaron Copland’s

Hoedown.

“I spent 20 years wandering around the world hunting ‘arty’ subjects to paint. I came back ... and the

first thing I noticed was the cross-stitched embroidery of my mother’s kitchen apron.” —Grant Wood

INTRODUCTION:

ARTSY

Review FAME 5

ARTIST: American

Painter Grant Wood

(1891-1942)

Grew up in

rural Iowa

Traveled in

Europe and saw

the great art

masters

American

REGIONALIST

VISIT: SMITHFAME.WEBS.COM

FOR LESSON SCRIPT AND ART

PROCESS AND FEATURED AUDIO AND

VIDEO CONTENT!

VIDEOS ON GRANT WOOD:

Grades K-3: “The Dude Visits American Gothic” Grades 3-5: “How American Gothic became an Icon” All Grades: “AVP Grant Wood” Just Volunteers: Kahn Academy on American Gothic

SEE WEBSITE FOR ADDITIONAL

DETAILS AND TO PREVIEW BEFORE

YOUR LESSON!

Let’s look at Wood’s most well-known painting called American Gothic. You may even recognize the figures in this

painting as it has been copied and reinterpreted in so many ways since its first showing at the Art Institute of Chicago

in 1930—with everyone from the Muppets to Star Wars characters posing in front of the farmhouse! The two figures in

the painting represent hard-working, practical people that Wood felt formed the backbone of American life. Do you

remember last lesson we asked you to be ART DETECTIVES during FAME last year? As art detectives, we look closely at

the COMPOSITION or the way an artist arranges items in a work of art and ask questions about the ART ELEMENTS.

Let’s start by looking at these people. Do you think these figures look real? Where do you think these two people live?

What can we tell about their story by looking at their faces, clothes and the setting? Allow for reasonable answers and

guide them to point out that everything including the mail-order house and the clothes that they’re wearing look as if

they were made by hand. Grant Wood explained: “these are types of people I have known all my life. I tried to

characterize them truthfully—to make them more like themselves than they were in actual life.” So

why is it called American Gothic? The window in the house is in an architectural style called

“gothic.” Let’s look closely at the window and think about the art element LINE. Where else do you

see vertical (up and down) LINES? In the pitchfork (also reflected in the farmer’s overalls), jacket

lines, siding on the house, as well as the lighting rod on the roof. Where do you see softer, curved

LINES? The arc in the window, the bottom of the pitchfork, the heads of the figures, the stray curl

in the woman’s hair, the cameo. What about other repeating elements? The pattern of the dress in

the curtain etc. Great work!

There’s something else I want to show you about Wood’s painting. Do you notice that there

seems to be several layers to the painting? Wood used the art concept of FOREGROUND,

MIDGROUND and BACKGROUND to give a realistic representation of depth. Use the American

Gothic Puzzle teaching examples to show the different layers: pointing out what is in the front:

foreground; middle: midground; back: background. For our art project today you are going to

draw yourself with a friend or family member standing in front of a place holding a memorable

object. The place will be in the background. You will be in the midground. The object you’re

holding will be in the foreground. You will be able to display your layered composition at home as

you will add magnets and a frame!

*While we create our art piece today we are going to be listening to a piece of music by the

American Composer Aaron Copland. The piece is called “Hoedown” and it is from the ballet

Rodeo. A hoe down is a dance party where everyone in the town is invited to come. As we listen

to the music, focus on the RHYTHMS or patterns of beats that you hear. Do you hear fast beats?

Do the beats slow down? You can figure this out by clapping to the beats and see how it changes

from a fast beat to a slow beat. There is something else fun about this musical piece: the musical

“conversations” that happen. Listen for the trumpets that play and then the violins that answer!

Let’s get started! *If there is time after the lesson you may have students participate in the

hoedown following the video on smithfame.webs.com. You may also choose to open with this and play the orchestra

youtube video playing the hoedown as students walk in or as you set up for the lesson.

PAINTING: American

Gothic (1930)

Be ART

DETECTIVES

COMPOSITION

ART ELEMENTS

Realistic

figures

“Gothic”

Window

LINE

Use of

FOREGROUND,

MIDGROUND

and

BACKGROUND

for depth

Use “American

Gothic Puzzle”

to teach layers

ART PROJECT: Framed

magnetic portrait in

colored pencil with a

layered composition

COMPOSER: American

Aaron Copland

(1685-1759)

Hoedown

from RODEO

Listen for

RHYTHM