- Teacher Guide for Winter 2011, Addison Gallery of American Art Education Department, Fall 2010/Winter 2011, p. 1 -

Exploration and Documentation:

Art as Research/Research as Art

Teacher Guide to the Addison’s Winter 2011 Exhibitions

FREE GROUP VISIT HOURS BY APPOINTMENT: Tuesday-Friday 8am-4pm FREE PUBLIC MUSEUM HOURS:Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm & Sunday 1pm-5pm

TEACHER RESOURCES, WORKSHOPS,& EXHIBITION INFORMATION: www.addisongallery.org

Addison Gallery of American ArtPhillips Academy, Andover, MA Education Department:Julie Bernson, Curator of EducationJamie Kaplowitz, Education Fellow & Museum Learning SpecialistKatherine Ziskin, Education Fellow for School & Community CollaborationsContact: kziskin@andover.edu or 978.749.4198

- Art and Research Teacher Guide, Addison Gallery of American Art Education Department, Winter 2011, p. 2 -

THE ART OF RESEARCH

Computer chip and one of two motors used to create Tristan Perich’s “machine drawings”

Following a step-by-step procedure. Collecting data. Experi-menting. Using multiple methods of investigation. Inventing. These sound like activities a scientist might conduct in order to work out a problem. They are also often the activities of artists. And some historians, too!

The winter 2011 exhibitions at the Addison offer varied examples of the investigatory nature of artists. From the extant documents from John La Farge’s (1835-1910) expedition through the South Pacific in 1890-91, it is possible to view the artist as also part social-scientist and part historian, as he defines a time, place, and people through sketches, watercolors, paintings, notes, let-ters, and essays. Artist Sheila Hicks’s (b.1934) fiber-based sculp-tures and installations investigate places and traditions through innovative methods of working with culturally-specific materials. Her experimentation with stainless steel fibers, such as in Menhir (1998-2004), extends the possibilities of new, manufactured materials.

Like scientists, artists develop tools to conduct research and col-lect data. Many of these tools overlap. Some artists use comput-ers and microscopes in the study of their subject and/or the cre-ation of their work. Tristan Perich (b. 1982) programs a computer chip that drives two motors to create his “machine drawings” that mathematically explore the relationship between structure and randomness. Ethnographers record cultural activities with pencil and paper, and still and moving cameras. Microbiologists use cameras to capture cellular structure and functioning; while art-ists use cameras to explore and express a people, place, or time.

Artists and scientists share more than their tools. Developing research methodologies, problem-solving, continual experi-mentation, and ingenuous invention are all included in the work of innovative artists, who often conduct intensive preliminary research and draft forms of their ideas before going public with their work.

Activity Idea Everyday Research

In what ways do you do research everyday? Make a list of the small research projects of your daily life. Maybe you experiment with a new set of building toys to discover what blocks can be combined to create the highest tower - or test a set of colored pencils to find the most brilliant color - or adjust the left and right faucets so they are balanced for the perfect temperature bath or shower. Select three daily life research projects and make notes and/or images that describe your objectives, methods, and final results. See Keri Smith’s book in Resources for many creative ideas.

John La Farge, The Peak of Maua Roa. Noon. Island of Moorea, Society of Islands Uponohu, 1891, watercolor and gouache on paper, Yale University Art Gallery, purchased with a gift from Denise Fitch in memory of her husband, George Hopper Fitch, B.A. 1932, 2009.18.1

© Sheila Hicks, Menhir, 1998–2004, linen, cotton, stainless steel, dimensions variable, private collection, photography © Bastiaan van den Berg

- Teacher Guide for Winter 2011, Addison Gallery of American Art Education Department, Fall 2010/Winter 2011, p. 3 -

PROCESS AND PRODUCT

John James Audubon, Crested Titmouse, 1810, watercolor and graphite on paper, 17 3/16 in. x 8 5/8 in., Addison Gallery, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA

Eadward Muybridge (1830-1904) is best known for his Motion Studies of the 1870s and 1880s, a comprehensive collection of photographic plates illustrating the physiological movement of humans and animals. The compilation of nearly 1,000 plates serve as a testament to the photographer’s tireless, twenty-year inves-tigation of motion and form. The history-changing innovations in camera and film technology invented by Muybridge to capture motion with unprecedented speed and precision have influenced everything from horse and athletic training to animation and film production.

John James Audubon’s (1785-1851) renowned four-volume Birds of North America folios started with years of close observation in nature and his studio of bird forms, color, plumage, behaviors, and habitats. Using ink and pencil to record his research findings (left, middle), Audubon trekked North America working towards his goal to document the male and female of every species of bird. He then presented his comprehensive research as a collec-tion of hand-colored prints, some editions of which had pages large enough to show many birds true to size (left, bottom).

In order to complete his accurately scaled and proportioned drawings, Audubon created a system including a handmade graph to which he pinned his subjects. He also studied and included the foliage and activities of the birds in their natural habitats so that his representations would be both correct and educational. The detail and method with which Audubon executed his precise stud-ies allowed him to create the definitive ornithological text of his time; one that remains a model of scientific illustration and bird identification to this day.

Eadweard Muybridge, Plate 103. Athletes, Running High Leap, from The Attitudes of Animals in Motion, 1881, albumen print, 6 3/8 in. x 8 7/8 in., Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA

Activity Idea Tools & Methods

Fascinating people, things, objects, and operations are all around you. What would you like to know more about? The construction of your desk? The many types of hair color of your classmates? Do you ever wonder which plant species grow in your neighborhood and why? How would develop a research project to answer such questions? What tools would you need? In what form/s would you report your findings? Make a research plan that includes a question, procedure, tools, and a report. Execute your plan allowing for changes along the way. Present your findings to the class.

John James Audubon. Plate 6. Wild Turkey. Female. Meleagris Gallopayo. Linn, from Birds of North America Volume 1, 1827, hand-colored engraving from original drawing, 25 3/8 in. x 38 1/8 in., Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA

- Art and Research Teacher Guide, Addison Gallery of American Art Education Department, Winter 2011, p. 4 -

TELLING A CONVINCING STORY

John La Farge, Samoa, 1890-91, sketchbook with graphite drawings, 2 13/16 in. x 4 3/4 in., Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., Everett V. Meeks, B.A. 1901, Fund, 2005.64.54

Edward Hopper, Study for Manhattan Bridge Loop, c. 1928, black crayon on paper, 8 1/2 in. x 11 1/16in.; Study for Manhattan Bridge Loop No.2, c. 1928, conte crayon on paper, 6 3/8 in. x 11 1/4 in.; Manhattan Bridge Loop, 1928, oil on canvas, 35 in. x 60 in.; Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA

In 1890 artist John La Farge (1835-1910) and historian Henry Adams (1838-1918) set off on a year-long journey to the South Pacific islands. When they arrived in Hawaii, their first stop, they were disappointed to find that this distant land had been modern-ized by colonization. Thus La Farge turned his keen eye and expe-rienced hand to portraying lush tropical landscapes and dramatic volcanoes to share with his viewers back in Boston and New York.

Having expected to encounter “exotic” and “primitive” cultures and environments such as those mythologized by Captain James Cook and novelists Robert Louis Stevenson and Herman Melville, Adams and La Farge focused much of their attention on the indig-enous peoples living away from the westernized ports. While their observations, images, writings, and theories served for those back home as documentation of faraway people and places, today we see the work of both the historian and the artist/amateur ethnog-rapher as reflecting a distinctly colonial point of view.

Although painter Edward Hopper (1882-1967) traveled to scenic vacation areas to inspire his compositions, he studied familiar landscapes with a similar sense of discovery and invention. In the visual research leading up to Manhattan Bridge Loop, from his home base of New York city, Hopper observed, sketched, looked again, and re-addressed the scene. Through preliminary sketches we can follow Hopper’s data collection process and consider how and why he settled on the painting’s final composition, which lends a lonely emptiness to an otherwise bustling urban location.

Artists such as Hopper and La Farge, journalists, researchers, and scientists all employ keen observation, skillful execution, and astute editing to present a convincing theory that supports their particular point of view. When considered in the context of their place, position, and time, their perspectives can shed light on both the individuals and the cultures from which they come.

Activity Idea Tell a Story

Visit a familiar place in your school or neighborhood - a playground, a favorite street corner, a candy or coffee shop. Record (using pencil, markers, paper, camera, recorder, etc.) everything you see, observe, hear, smell, taste, think from various angles. Then through careful editing of all of the details of your experience, communicate in words, sound, and/or images how you would like people to un-derstand this place. Consider how selective editing of your recorded data can tell a specific story of the place. Maybe even compare classmates’ perspectives of the same place.

- Teacher Guide for Winter 2011, Addison Gallery of American Art Education Department, Fall 2010/Winter 2011, p. 5 -

THE POWER OF WORDS & PICTURES

John La Farge, Himine at Papara in front of Tati Salmon’s, the chief’s house. Feb. 26th, 1891, watercolor and gouache on paper, 7 3/4 in. x 12 5/8 in., private collection

Finding the peoples and cultures of Samoa and Tahiti somewhat less modernized than on Hawaii, John La Farge sketched, painted, and made copious notes on the personalities, behaviors, and ritu-als he encountered. Samoan rituals were of particular interest as evidenced in his repeated attempts to record in images and words the participants, their movements, the sounds, and the settings. Some notes were detailed accounts of the colors of dress and accessories of his subjects and others articulated the movements and sounds that could not be shown in pictures.

In La Farge’s portrait of their boat crew member, Maua, hand-painted text at the lower right of the canvas reveals information about the sitter and the colonial attitude with which La Farge entered into his relationship with his subject:

Maua is not tattooed.... He ought to be tatooed but I think is afraid of the pain. He will make believe that it is uncivilized or perhaps will trot out the Church, for he is a leader in prayer - in any small deviltry as well.

The text thus offers a window into La Farge’s understanding of his subject beyond what the lush colors and sensuous body of Maua’s portrait would seem to indicate.

Conversely to La Farge’s addition of text to his paintings, Sarah Charlesworth’s (b.1947) Herald Tribune series removes the text from newspaper front pages, leaving only the photographs to communicate the important stories of the day. By methodically removing the written stories and captions from twenty-six days of the newspaper in September, 1977, Charlesworth provides quantitative data about who does and does not get pictured and what stories are deemed the most important. The artist’s system calls our attention to the image-text relationship we experience daily in the media and prompts consideration of how the newspa-per is read if one’s scans its images alone.

Activity Idea Words and Images

Select an image from the front page of a newspaper. With-out reading anything at first, quickly write your ideas for the headline and caption of the story that the photograph could illustrate. Compare your impressions of the image with your classmates. Alternative/additional idea: Strip the front page of a current local or national newspaper of everything but the photographs. Have each student in the class write the headlines, news stories, and captions that they imagine would correspond to the images and compare to each other and the real stories.Sarah Charlesworth. Herald Tribune, September,

1977 (detail), 1977, 1 of 26 gelatin silver prints, 22 1/2 in. x 16 1/2 in., Addison Gallery, Andover, MA

John La Farge, Sketch of Maua, Apia. One of Our Boat Crew, 1891, oil on canvas, 52 in. x 38 1/8 in., anonymous donor, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA

- Art and Research Teacher Guide, Addison Gallery of American Art Education Department, Winter 2011, p. 6 -

EXPLORING METHODS & TOOLS

Eadweard Muybridge, Panorama of San Francisco from California Street Hill (detail), 1877, 3 of 11 bound albumen prints, 13 in. x 9 in. each, museum purchase, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA

Activity Idea Innovation

How might you explore the tiniest crevice of a rock or the highest peak in your area, or test the strength of nylon string? How can you use familiar materials in new ways (like Sheila Hicks) or create new tools (like Tristan Perich) to explore the unfamiliar? Develop an instrument and methodology to use in your research. What tools could you create from materials that are readily available to you? See what new uses for materials and tools you can discover through planning and experimentation.

How do you conduct an experi-ment when there is no prec-edent established to find the type of results you are looking for? Artists and scientists alike often have to explore new methods for research, use and create new tools in order to represent their ideas, and investigate unknown territory.

Prior to innovating motion photography Eadward Muybridge (1830-1904) developed a multiple-image panoramic technique to capture the expanse of the rapidly growing metropolis of San Francisco in 1877. Strategically photographed from a high point at the city’s center, the dramatic 360-degree view was simultane-ously artistic, fascinating, and informative for urban planning.

In the 1960s artist Sheila Hicks (b. 1934) moved from weaving on looms and hanging tapestries from the walls to create a new art form that would challenge the traditional notions and limitations of crafts. Instead of running her yarns and threads over and under the warps of a loom, she began to bundle and layer them. She thus created sculptures that had a solid presence yet were still soft and pliable and could be reconfigured each time they were exhibited.

Addison artist-in-residence Tristan Perich (b. 1982) works in marks and sounds to represent algorithms traditionally expressed through numbers and equations. Many of his music composi-tions use 1-bit technology, the simple on/off pulses of binary computer code. To visually represent his ideas, he developed a machine (see image page 2) with a left and right motor driven by self-designed code that creates both structured and random pen markings. This inventive yet relatively simple technology enables Perich to visualize mathematical concepts while creating engaging works of art.

Tristan Perich, Machine Drawing in progress, with detail of pen run by computer chip and motors, 2010, Museum Learning Center, Addison Gallery of American Art

© Sheila Hicks, The Evolving Tapestry: He/She, 1967–68, linen, silk, dimensions variable, Museum of Modern Art, NY

- Teacher Guide for Winter 2011, Addison Gallery of American Art Education Department, Fall 2010/Winter 2011, p. 7 -

RESOURCES

BOOKS

Faxon, Susan C. & Simon, Joan. Sheila Hicks: 50 Years. Andover, MA: Addison Gallery of American Art & New Haven & New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010. Comprehensive catalogue of the Addison’s retrospective exhibition.

Frankel, Felice & Whitesides, George M. On the Surface of Things: Images of the Extraordinary in Science. San Francisco, CA: Chroni-cle Books, 1997. Felice Frankel’s images of the unfamiliar and unseen enlarge and make imaginable the microscopic. Co-authored with chemist George M. Whitesides, the book was constructed as an experiment to visualize the scientific.

Hodermarsky, Elisabeth. John La Farge’s Second Paradise: Voyages in the South Seas, 1890-1891. New Haven, CT: Yale University Art Gallery & Yale University Press, 2010. Catalogue with essays by curators, historians, and art historians regarding La Farge’s historical and art historical context.

Smith, Keri. How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum. New York, NY: Perigree Books, 2008. Smith’s simple yet engaging prompts for adults and children to use the artistic and scientific methodologies of observing, collecting, documenting, comparing, and analyzing to encourage exploration of one’s world both near and far.

BOOKS FOR YOUNG ADULTS

Davies, Jacqueline & Sweet, Melissa. The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John James Audubon, New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2004. An illustrated biography of the early life of naturalist John James Audubon.

Manes, Stephen. Pictures of Motion and Pictures that Move. New York: Coward, Mc-Cann & Geoghegan, Inc., 1982.A fascinating and fact-filled biography of Eadweard Muybridge written for a younger audience .

WEBSITES

John La Farge’s South Seas Sketchbooks: http://artgallery.yale.edu/lafarge/Exhibition website with click-through feature showing every page of eleven of La Farge’s South Seas sketchbooks.

Tristan Perich: http://www.tristanperich.com/The artist’s website featuring visual art, musical compositions, and performance schedule.

Freeze Frame: Eadweard Muybridge’s Photography of Motion: http://americanhistory.si.edu/muybridge/index.htmNational Museum of American History/Smithsonian Institution site from a 2000-2001 exhibition.

ADDISON TEACHER GUIDES (available free from addisongallery.org or by email request)

Reality and Representation: An Exploration into Intention, Perception, and History. Spring 2009

Eadweard Muybridge, Harold Edgerton, and Beyond: A Study of Motion and Time. 1 &2, Fall 2008

- Art and Research Teacher Guide, Addison Gallery of American Art Education Department, Winter 2011, p. 8 -