SchoolArts - April 2007

The Orientalist, 1999. Watercolor, gouache, ink, and pencil on paper, 60 x 40 " (152 x 102 cm). Courtesy the Artist and Paul Kasmin Gallery.

“The big, big thing I’m always looking for in my work is a sort of attraction-repulsion thing, where the stuff is beautiful to begin with until you notice that some sort of horrible violence is about to happen or is in the middle of happening. Or that it’s some sort of interior monologue.”

Madagascar, 2002. Watercolor, gouache, ink, and pencil on paper, 119 x 60" (302 x 152 cm). Courtesy the Artist and Paul Kasmin Gallery.

ART IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Art21, Inc. is a non-profit contemporary art organization serving students, teachers, and the general public. Art21 produces the Emmy-nominated, nationally broadcast PBS series Art: 21—Art in the Twenty-First Century, a wide range of education materials, and outreach programs. This multi-faceted project introduces audiences to a diverse range of contemporary visual artists working in the United States today and to the art they are producing now.

For more ways to use Art: 21 in your classroom, check out:

Season One, Two and Three on VHS and DVD: to order call (800) 533-2847

Free Art: 21
Educators’ Guides:
www.pbs.
org/art21/
education/
teachingmaterials

Activity Suggestions

According to the symbolist system in Ford’s work Nila ( www.pbs.org/art21/ artists/ford/ art_nila.html), starlings bearing down on the elephant represent the Western tourist; the goldfinches who are working to plant flowers are Peace Corps volunteers; and the woodpecker is the Westerner who goes to India to shop. Create your own symbolist system. For whom will you create it, and what will your symbols be?

Find lesson plans
and ideas for the
classroom on the
Art: 21 Web site and
Online Lesson Library:
www.pbs.org/art21/education

Create an archive of images that depict the natural landscape and our rela- tionship to the natural world. Categorize and organize it according to the major themes that surface in the images you collect.