In this activity students will actively engage in comparing and contrasting The Ascent of Ethiopia by Lois Mailou Jones and Building More Stately Mansions by Aaron Douglas. They will then reproduce one of these paintings or create their own painting or artwork that represents the progression of cultures and civilization from Egypt (and therefore Africa) to the present; or reproduce a painting of their choice by a Renaissance artist.
- To familiarize students with two paintings by famous Harlem Renaissance artists whose art focuses on the progression of culture and civilization from Africa to the present.
- To facilitate group participation as students collaborate in analyzing these paintings, observing how each artist uses symbols, shapes, and human figures to express this progression.
- To give students an opportunity to express in writing their observations about the similarities and/or differences in these paintings.
- To give students the opportunity to reproduce a painting, one of these or another of their choice, from the Renaissance; or to create their own artwork that represents this progression of cultures and civilization throughout recorded history.
I suggest telling the students that this lesson will culminate with a hands-on art activity. It will give them a better understanding as to why they are going through the steps in this lesson and may make them more willing to complete the tasks.
I suggest reproducing these paintings as slides so students will see them
“larger than life,” as they collaborate in observing symbols, shapes, architecture, human figures, and colors present in each. To carry out this activity, each student will use a graphic organizer for each painting, where, in the left column, he/she will write down the symbols, shapes, etc., (such as “a chemistry beaker,”) in the painting, and across from it, in the right column, he/she will write down the significance of the symbol or shape, (such as, “It represents science.”) Students should include everything they see in each painting.
Students will do this activity together as a class, or they may be separated into teams, perhaps generating some competition.
Once they have completed these organizers, they can compare their findings for each painting, sharing and comparing what they wrote in the right column of their organizers.
Then, with their two organizers side by side, students can compare and contrast these paintings, looking closely at how these two artists represented the progression of culture from the beginning of recorded history. For this activity, students will use a graphic organizer made of two overlapping circles. Each student will list similarities in the center where the circles overlap and list the differences in the outer left and outer right of the circles. Completing this graphic organizer naturally leads to a “compare/contrast” writing activity.
Students are now ready to begin the hands-on art component of this lesson. They may choose to reproduce one of these paintings or to visit websites to find other Renaissance paintings they might prefer to reproduce. By the time they do this lesson, they will have viewed the video Against the Odds, and they may have seen a painting that they would like to reproduce. In fact, when showing this video, encourage them to look for a painting they would like to reproduce. Some students may wish to create their own artwork representing the progression of culture discussed in this lesson. Some students who resist painting may prefer to make a collage.