Children - Lesson 3: comparing art works
Child
Hi. Do you like puzzles? Sometimes art works are like puzzles: One work is connected to another work, and it can be fun to put them side by side and compare them. Look at the images in this lesson. They are all about The First Vision that took place in 1820, but they are all different.
Adult/Teacher
Hello. The goal of this lesson is to help the child compare one work with another. What can you learn from their similarities and differences and the effects that different media produce? By asking questions, help the child to understand how the images below of The First Vision are alike and unalike.
Comparing
One goal of the art historian is to learn as much as possible about an art work or object; another is to puzzle out how one work connects with another. It’s not a question of which is “better.” We’ll leave that discussion to art critics—and we’ll get to that in another Art at Home unit.
Today, we want to look at the relationships that the separate works might have and how other artistic forces influence them. For example, a painting of a Chicago building created in 1920 will look different from one painted in 2020, but the differences themselves are interesting to study. Another discussion point is how the art work or object influenced people who saw it or used it—both when it was made and over time.
From top left: George Edward Anderson (American, 1860-1928), Sacred Grove, Manchester, NY (1907) gelatin dry plate negative, 6.5 x 4.75 inches, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University; Kenneth Riley (American, 1919-2015), Joseph Smith’s First Vision (ca. 1965) oil on canvas; Warren Luch (American, born 1935), The First Vision (1990) linocut print on paper, [collection?]; Seventeen Ward Stained Glass; Unknown artist (Panamanian, Guna Yala), Joseph Smith’s First Vision, (ca. 1980), reverse appliqué “mola”, Church History Museum; Elizabeth Coughanour [cut paper]; [stained glass] Artist unknown, Joseph Smith’s First Vision (1913) leaded stained glass, originally installed in a chapel in Los Angeles, Church History Museum; Walter Rane (American, born 1949), If Any of You Lack Wisdom (2004) oil on panel
© By Intellectual Reserve, Inc.
This comparison exercise looks at different images made in different times and with different materials that share the same subject. This process points to the kinds of connection they have to each other. The examples above are depictions of the Sacred Grove near Palmyra, New York.[1] Use the following questions to jump start your exploration of them.
What elements do the works have in common? There are trees in every work. There is a young boy (Joseph Smith, Jr.). What else?
How do the materials used create different effects? The images above include photography, painting, printmaking, stained and/or leaded glass, textiles, and cut paper. What is the impact of the selection of the art material on the finished work? Said another way, what does painting do that cut paper can’t do, for example, and vice versa?
Can you tell which image is the oldest and the newest? These artists are using similar stylistic approaches, with the exception of the textile work. You might expect to see the most recent image being more “modern,” but is it? What art styles or movements are they representing?
How is light depicted in the works? Each of the images shows light in a unique way, which represents something important to this particular scene. In your opinion, how does the media (the materials the art is made of) influence the way the artist conveys the concept and impact of light?
What does the textile work accomplish that the others do not? The Guna (also Cuna or Kuna) people live off the Caribbean coast of Panama. It is a unique society in which the women make cloth panels called molas, worn by them as blouses, from multiple layers of cotton cloth whose different colors are exposed by cutting and by appliqué. Because they live between the ocean and the vast jungle of Darién, the Guna are quite isolated. They speak Dulegaya, a language known to few outsiders, but they are well known internationally for their molas. In particular, they are known for taking other cultures’ pictures, advertisements, and other images, and adding their unique spin. Knowing a little of their cultural background now, what do you make of this artist’s interpretation of the First Vision relative to the other artists’ interpretations?
How do the depictions of diety compare in each work? The artists had a decision to make regarding the depiction of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ: to show them as figures or to refer to them some other, more abstract, way. How does each work refer to deity?
When they were made, what were these works designed to do? For example, the stained glass works were installed in chapels, but one of them is now in a museum. The painting by Kenneth Riley was a commission by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by an artist who was not a member of the Church to be used as an illustration for magazines and other purposes. Others of these works were created solely by an artist wanting to express himself or herself. Do the artists’ motivations affect the finished works?
The tools used to create these works are very different from each other. Can you describe how these works were made? (Again, the media are photography, painting, linoleum cut printmaking, stained glass, and textiles.) Do you have any of the same tools in your home?
So, that was a long list of questions, but art historians love questions. They use them as a way to find out more and more about an art work or object. In fact, there is no end to the questions in the study of works because we are constantly changing, and our relationship to these works change, too, over time. You’ll notice that we didn’t ask what the works meant or which one you liked best—although those are perfectly great questions to ask. The study of an art work or object with the lens of history can focus on things without needing interpretation or judgment.
Now, you have the basic tools to compare art works or objects on your own. Gather a few things together that have something in common, and explore their similarities and differences in as much detail as you can.
[1] See “The First Vision: Searching for the Truth,” by Ronald O. Barney, Ensign January 2005, pp. 14-19.]