riculum four years ago. Juxtapoz is a
magazine of contemporary art, media,
and culture. The publication showcases a lot of Pop Surrealism and art
commonly referred to as “low brow.”
When my students see “low brow”
art, they see themselves and their own
narratives. They see street art, skate
deck design, tattoo art, comic books,
and album covers.
My Approach
I presented these artists to all levels
of high-school art; from beginning to
advanced placement level. Juxtapoz is
not necessarily “family friendly” and
art teachers should use their critical
eye to evaluate and determine what is
age-appropriate.
NATIONAL STANDARD
Students analyze relationships of
works of art to one another in terms
of history, aesthetics, and culture,
justifying conclusions made in the
analysis and using such conclusions
to inform their own art-making.
Reflections
The contemporary artists we studied
encouraged students to take greater
risks in their own work. For example, the deep layering of Jeff Soto’s
pieces prompted one student to
mix paint and window cleaner on a
canvas to create a unique textured
drip background that he ended up
incorporating into several of his
paintings for his advanced placement portfolio. Another student
applied a Lucy McLauchlan-inspired design to a bowling pin.
WEB LINK
www.juxtapoz.com
Contemporary Artists
Many of the artists, like Obama
“HOPE” poster designer, Shepard
Fairey, have evolved from the streets
to wildly successful gallery shows.
The artists featured in Juxtapoz represent every race, gender, and background. In some cases, the artists
are only a few years older than my
students; this brings the art world into
very close proximity to students who
are looking toward a future in art.
The Houston Museum
of Fine Arts hosted a show
entitled Red Hot: Asian Art
Today from the Chaney Family Collection in 2007. This
collection included several
artists who have been featured in Juxtapoz, including
Chiho Aoshima, Takashi Murakami,
and Yoshitomo Nara. I brought my
students to this exhibit on an after-school field trip and they were blown
away, as was I.
Every other week we studied a different contemporary artist. Students
reinterpreted the artists’ styles in
their own fashion in deconstruction
books. The idea was to create homage, not copy the works, and to learn
from them and create something new
through each student’s eyes. These
were homework lessons. Those student sketches evolved into large-scale
paintings, drawings, and mixed-media
pieces in class for longer, larger lessons.
When introducing a new artist, like
Lucy McLauchlan or El Mac, I often
began with a video clip of the artist at work or an artist interview—a
huge bonus in using contemporary
art. These videos were incredible
sources of inspiration; this generation
is extremely visual and media motivated.
The idea was to create
homage, not copy the works,
and to learn from them
and create something new
through the students’ eyes.
An added bonus of teaching this material is that the
teacher gets to learn a whole
new genre/artist’s style/
method. Teaching the same
group of artists for fifteen
years can get tedious. I found
students turning inward
more, often reflecting on
their own work and developing original styles. Using
contemporary art found in
magazines like Juxtpoz as
a springboard for my curriculum was the smart-est thing I’ve done in my
classroom.
Trish Klenow has taught
art in public high schools
for fifteen years. She was
named Outstanding High
School Art Educator in
2010 by the Texas Art Education Association.
