1. Art Analysis Group Work
Introduction and Rationale for Students
Great art makes us think in new ways—and understand our world from unusual perspectives. The ability to analyze artistic form and content is not only an invaluable skill for students entering visually oriented fields, but it also sharpens the critical thinking skills of students entering all disciplines.
Assignment 1) I’m going to show you some art photographs and tell you a little bit about each one. 2) Your group will decide which photo you would like to analyze to let us know what some of the visual elements are communicating.
3) You’ll have minutest to discuss the work, and then you’ll report your findings to the class. , and you will work in a group to describe, analyze, interpret, compare and contrast them. Then your group will report your findings.
Reason for the Assignment (Rationale) The critical thinking skills you acquire in this lesson will enable you to 1) successfully interpret the art we see in the museum field trip and 2) write their first paper involving high-level interpretation of visual media.

2. Andy Warhol’s Race Riot 1964
Andy Warhol, Race Riot, 1963 Acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, four panels, 20 x 33 each. This work depicts events in Birmingham, Alabama on May 1963, when police commissioner Bill Connor ordered attack dogs and fire hoses be used to stop civil rights demonstrators led by Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. King would assemble peaceful demonstrations, which would have been legal if he had bee white, but black people had no civil rights, so it was illegal. They could not get a permit to demonstrate, etc. So, he would announce that he was going to do this, and the police would be there with fire hoses and dogs—you’ve probably seen the footage. It was that footage that America saw that brought about change.
I have received perhaps 23 different interpretations of this work from students and continue to hear new ones, so there is fertile ground here for creative interpretations. Think about color, for instance.

3. Lisa Lyon by Robert Mapplethorpe 1982
Lisa Lyon was the winner of the First World Women’s Bodybuilding Championship in Lose Angeles in At the time, this was a shocking photo, because women didn’t bodybuild. As you view this photo, think about the lines, stance, etc. for his art photographs which were censored in photographs of sadomasochistic and homoerotic acts, known as the “X” portfolio, the focus of Senator Jesse Helms’ debate over the funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. Many of these works were seized when they were exhibited at the Cincinnati Arts Center, and police arrested the Center’s director, Dennis Barrie, for pandering and the use of a minor in pornography.

4. Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait, 1988
Left: Mapplethorpe’s self portrait 1988.
Below: Pilippe de Champaigne’s Still life, or Vanitas (tulip, skull and hour glass) ,
Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait, 1988 Perhaps even more shocking was the photographer who took the photo of Lisa Lyons, Robert Mapplethorpe. Here he is seen in his 1988 self portrait, right before he died of AIDS. See if you can understand what messages he is sending about his view of himself and his own condition. He actually moralized about his own condition and explored conflicting attitudes about his own lifestyle in his photographs. Mapplethorpe is one of the most famous artists in history as a result of a censorship case that caused a national debate in In the exhibition at the Cincinnati Arts Center, police came in and confiscated his art work and arrested the Center’s director, Dennis Barrie, for pandering and the use of a minor in pornography. The case fueled Senator Jesse Helms’ debate over NEA funding for artists. I will not show the contested photos here, because they’re pretty dicey, but you’re free to look them up on the Internet.
In the Cincinnati exhibit, there wa a group of photos called the X Portfolio and a group called the Y porfolio, which were supposed to be viewed side-by-side. The X portfolio had sadomasochistic acts meticulously posed and photographed in a studio as if they were frozen in black and white. The Y Portfolio was of flowers. The two portfolios were supposed to become meaningful when viewed side-by-side. Seven of the photos became the subject of a censorship hearing in Ohio, which all happened after his death (and he was censored in other states as well). Keep in mind that, in 1989, even soft S&M was completely in the closet—”normal” people didn’t have erotic piercings, etc. Today a museum that is lucky enough to be able to afford Mapplethorpe’s work is considered to be lucky. The last time I saw some of it was at the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain, and in a traveling show at the Tampa Museum of Art. Some of his truly gritty work I have never actually seen on display, but it would knock the wind out of even today’s museum-goers.
”Momento mori” In his self-portrait, Mapplethorpe alludes to what we call “memento mori,” which means “reminder of death.” In the Middle Ages and Renaissance times, painters would include symbols of mortality, such as skull, candle, flower. The idea is candles burn out, flowers wilt and die, etc. These icons were religious reminders not to be prideful since life is short and you want to get to heaven. Beside Mapplethorpe’s self portrait I have positioned an example of a painting that includes memento mori. Pilippe de Champaigne ( ), Still life, or Vanitas (tulip, skull and hour glass)

5. Parrot Tulip, Mapplethorpe 1985
Robert Mapplethorpe, Parrot Tulip, This work is part of Mapplethorpe’s “Y” Portfolio, a series of still lifes of flowers. In many ways, this is not merely a still life but also acknowledges the vanitas tradition.

6. Select One Below
Race Riot Lisa Lyon Self Portrait Parot Tulip 1985
Time to select one for your group to analyze. Have you thought about it? Think about what both the form and content are telling you. What is being depicted and how is it being depicted? Think about color, lines, shapes, light, shadows, patterns, etc. You have about 10 minutes. Then you’ll report your findings to the class.

7. Questions?