Goals

These activities help to satisfy the following National and Illinois State Standards.

• To critically engage with representations of the body;
• To explore the concepts of the Gothic body, horror, and visual culture;
• To practice a visual art vocabulary by comparing and contrasting images;
• To identify, define, and practice new vocabulary words, especially adjectives;
• To use a computer to search for images of appropriate size and resolution;
• To use online resources to expand ideas and make connections;
• To analyze the sub-genre of self-portraiture and create a self-portrait;
• To consider the roles of memory and violence in artistic production;
• To argue multiple perspectives on the place of violent imagery in visual culture;
• To explore the visual elements of an artwork through creative writing;
• To compare and contrast how works of art and literature treat the same theme.

State Learning Goals

These activities help to satisfy the following National and Illinois State Standards.

• 1C: Students can…comprehend a broad range of reading materials.
• 2A: Students can…understand how literary elements and techniques are used to convey meaning.
• 2B: Students can…read and interpret a variety of literary works.
• 3B: Students can…compose well-organized and coherent writing for specific purposes and audiences.
• 4A: Students can…listen effectively in formal and informal situations.
• 4B: Students can…speak effectively using language appropriate to the situation and audience.
• 5C: Students can…apply acquired information, concepts and ideas to communicate in a variety of formats.
• 25A: Students can…understand the sensory elements, organizational principles and expressive qualities of the arts.
• 25B: Students can…understand the similarities, distinctions and connections in and among the arts.
• 26A: Students can…apply skills and knowledge necessary to create and perform in one or more of the arts.
• 27A: Students can…analyze how the arts function in history, society and everyday life.
• 27B: Students can…understand how the arts shape and reflect history, society and everyday life.

Full Goal Listings

• Illinois Learning Standards (Home)
• Illinois Learning Standards (English Language Arts)
• Illinois Learning Standards (Fine Arts)

Essential Questions

• What role do representations of the body play in your everyday life?
• How does your visual culture shape the ways that you see your own body?
• What choices do you make when you create a visual representation of your body?
• What occurs when you confront violent representations of the body?
• How do you think about the relationship between your body and your self?
• How does your body shape the ways that you experience the world?

Flesh and the Gothic Body

Goals

Students will use deductive reasoning to define the concept of the Gothic body; practice using a visual art vocabulary to compare and contrast images with similar themes; learn about the genre of memento mori and connect it to their everyday lives; consider different artistic strategies for representing flesh and the body.

Sarah Burns uses the concept of the Gothic body to describe the gruesome, decaying bodies that appear in Ivan Albright’s paintings. The Gothic body refers to a spectacularly gruesome, human body that is most often dead, or undead. Not merely a cold cadaver, the Gothic body is an oozing corpse whose ghastly appearance threatens our bodily integrity. Folktales and horror movies abound with examples of Gothic bodies such as vampires, zombies, and mummies. Their putrescent flesh can both frighten and fascinate, perhaps because it reminds us of our own mortality.

Materials

Computer with Internet connection and audio, digital image projector

Definitions

Gothic (literary style): http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/general/glossary.htm#g

Memento Mori: http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=162

Procedure

1. Project this digital image of Ivan Albright’s Into the World Came a Soul Called Ida (1929-30). Ask students to use their eyes to survey the entire image before focusing on Ida’s body. Pose questions about the painting’s color palette, light source, setting, and sense of space and scale.
2. Now focus on Ida’s body and have students talk about it through each of their five senses using horrific adjectives. Based on their descriptors, have students define their perception of the Gothic body.
3. Have students visit the Tate Britain’s online glossary and look up the definition of memento mori (“remember you must die”). The term denotes a genre of the visual arts that treats the themes of beauty, vanity, time, death, and decay. Have students consider how Ivan Albright explores these themes. Possible discussion questions: How does Albright suggest the ideas of beauty and vanity? How does he suggest the ideas of time passing and death? What moods or emotions does the painting convey?
4. Listen and view an excerpt from Sarah Burns’ lecture, “Corruptible Flesh: Art and Necrophilia in Chicago” in which Burns provides a framework for understanding Ivan Albright’s painting Into the World Came a Soul Called Ida (1929-30) in the visual culture of its day. Ask students to listen for the horrific adjectives that Burns uses to describe Ida’s Gothic body. Ask students to listen for descriptions of critics’ and audiences’ responses to Albright’s paintings. Multimedia Link: Ivan Albright’s Into the World Came a Soul Called Ida (1929-30), Ivan Albright’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1944) [http://chfmedia.net/classroom/sarah-burns/art-history/1-4.html]
5. Have students consider the response to Ivan Albright’s work. Questions: How did critics and audiences react to Albright’s paintings? Do you find Albright’s paintings frightening or fascinating? Why? How do you think critics would react today?
6. Have students compare and contrast Ivan Albright’s Into the World Came a Soul Called Ida (1929-30) with Norman Rockwell’s Woman at a Vanity, Saturday Evening Post (1933). (Note: Audiences could have seen Albright’s paintings in museums or public exhibitions while Norman Rockwell’s paintings regularly appeared on the covers of popular magazines. These two artworks were painted within three years of each other.) Questions: What colors are used in each painting? Where does each scene take place? What objects are included in each painting? What are the women wearing? How old are the women? Could the images show the same woman? How much detail is in each painting? Can you see either artist’s brushstrokes? If Albright’s painting shows a Gothic body, what type of body does Norman Rockwell depict? How does each artist explore the memento mori themes of beauty, vanity, time, death, and decay? Which painting is more compelling? Why? Image Link: Ivan Albright’s Into the World Came a Soul Called Ida (1929-30) and Norman Rockwell’s Woman at a Vanity, Saturday Evening Post (1933) [http://chfmedia.net/classroom/sarah-burns/art-history/1-6.html]
7. Listen and view a video introduction to the exhibition “Paint Made Flesh,” which ran at the Phillips Collection (June 20-September 13, 2009) and the Frist Center for the Visual Arts (January 23-May 10, 2009). (Note: The Phillips Collection’s video is for beginning viewers, while that of the Frist Center for the Visual Arts is for more experienced viewers. Teachers should preview materials before showing in class.) After viewing, have students go online to look at an image gallery of thirteen paintings from the exhibition “Paint Made Flesh.” The paintings exemplify different styles and approaches to representing the body. Have students choose several works for closer study. As a class or in small groups, discuss how these painters have represented the body. Questions: What techniques do the artists use? What themes do the artists explore? What types of bodies do the artists depict? Which paintings are the most compelling? Why?
8. Have students explore the genre of memento mori in a work of contemporary art that uses flesh as a material. Visit Jana Sterbak’s website and view six photographs of her artwork Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic (1987). Sterbak’s ‘meat dress’ is composed of 60 pounds of raw flank steaks that decay and change over time. The dress is reconstructed with new steaks each time that it is exhibited. Questions: What materials did the artist use to create Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic (1987)? How does Sterbak treat flesh differently than the artists in the show “Paint Made Flesh”? How is the work displayed in a museum? What occurs as the work is displayed over a period of weeks or months? How does the work relate to the concept of the Gothic body? How do we experience Sterbak’s artwork differently from paintings of flesh like Albright’s? What would it feel like to wear the ‘meat dress?’ How would wearing the artwork change your experience of your own body? How does Sterbak explore the memento mori themes of beauty, vanity, time, death, and decay? What else might Sterbak’s artwork challenge us to consider?
9. Have students connect Sterbak’s artwork to their own visual culture(s) by looking at a photograph of Lady Gaga wearing a ‘meat dress’ at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. Questions: Why did Lady Gaga wear a ‘meat dress’ to accept her award? How does Lady Gaga’s appropriation, or borrowing, of Sterbak’s ‘meat dress’ change the meaning of her original artwork? What occurs when an artwork moves from the space of the museum to popular culture?

Multimedia Links

• “‘Paint Made Flesh’: Modern Bodies, Naked Eyes” by Susan Stamberg (NPR Morning Edition, audio and image gallery)
• Paint Made Flesh (The Phillips Collection, “Paint Made Flesh” exhibition preview video)
• Paint Made Flesh (Frist Center for the Visual Arts, “Paint Made Flesh” exhibition preview video)
• Jana Sterbak (artist website, select Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic (1987))
• “Lady Gaga, Meat Jana Sterbak” by Christopher Knight (Los Angeles Times, September 13, 2010)

Extension

Visit the Art Institute of Chicago to see Ivan Albright’s Into the World Came a Soul Called Ida (1929-30) in person. (Note: Contact the museum in advance to make sure that Albright’s work will be on view the day of your visit.) Compare and contrast Albright’s work with contemporary artists’ explorations of memento mori including Bruce Nauman’s Human Nature/Life Death (1983), Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) (1991), and Charles Ray’s Hinoki (2007). Alternatively, compare and contrast Albright’s work with representations of the Gothic body including Guido Reni’s Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist (c.1639-42), Henry Fuseli’s Milton Dictating to His Daughter (1794), Francis Bacon’s Figure with Meat (1954), and Kiki Smith’s Untitled (1988).

World War I and Traumatized Bodies

Goals

Students will explore the concept of war trauma in relation to World War I; read and interpret several texts; consider how violence and memory influence artistic production; argue multiple perspectives on the place of violent imagery in culture; make connections across several media; connect the war trauma of World War I to that of Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Global War on Terror; analyze contemporary artworks made by veterans in response to war trauma.

Karen L. Hanscom defines war trauma as “an experience that results from exposure to war conditions… It is an experiencing of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the integrity of the individual. Second, it is an experience that causes a person to react with intense fear, helplessness, or horror” (see “Treating Survivors of War Trauma and Torture” by Karen L. Hanscom).

Materials

Computer with Internet connection and audio, digital image projector, classroom set of Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) (or another digital/print passage), access to classroom computers (or computer lab) with Internet connection

1. Define the word trauma and the phrase war trauma. Questions: What types of life events cause trauma? How do traumatic experiences change our lives? What does it mean to have a traumatized body? How is memory related to trauma?
2. Select a passage from a work of fiction or non-fiction that explores the themes of violence, memory, and World War I; for example, Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) or Modris Eksteins’ Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age (1989). (See the PBS website “The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century” for additional resource http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/.) Have students read a short passage that includes topics such as trench warfare, shell shock, or total war as an introduction to Ivan Albright’s wartime experience.
3. Listen and view an excerpt from Sarah Burns’ lecture, “Corruptible Flesh: Art and Necrophilia in Chicago,” in which Burns relates Albright’s military service. Burns juxtaposes a page from Albright’s medical notebook with a watercolor by the German artist Otto Dix, who suffered trauma as a machine-gunner in WWI. Burns also analyzes four portraits by Albright that date from 1921 to 1928; the portraits demonstrate Albright’s artistic development. Have students listen for critics’ and audiences’ responses to Albright’s Woman (1928). Multimedia Link: Ivan Albright’s “Gas Infection” (1918), Otto Dix’s Human Intestines (1920), Ivan Albright’s Marie Walsh Sharpe (1921), Memories of the Past (1927), Flesh (1928), Woman (1928) [http://chfmedia.net/classroom/sarah-burns/art-history/2-3.html]
4. Introduce the topic of censorship in the context of violent imagery. Questions: How did critics and audiences respond to Albright’s Woman (1928)? Why did the Toledo Museum of Art allegedly remove the painting from public view? How does Albright’s work relate to his war trauma? In what ways can we interpret Albright’s work as compassionate or deeply religious?
5. Have students read Caroline Alexander’s “Faces of War” published in the Smithsonian magazine, February 2007. (The website Smithsonian.com also hosts a video and image gallery related to this article.) Discuss soldiers’ and their families’ experiences of trauma. Questions: What roles did artists play during WWI? How did artists respond to war trauma? How did artists help wounded soldiers recover from their trauma? How did civilians respond to soldiers’ traumatized bodies? How do masks change the ways that we see ourselves and experience the world?
6. Listen and view an excerpt from Sarah Burns’ lecture, “Corruptible Flesh: Art and Necrophilia in Chicago,” in which Burns describes the visual culture of horror that gripped Americans in the early 1930s. Burns offers Frederick A. Barber’s The Horror of It: Camera Records of War’s Gruesome Glories (1931) as an example. Multimedia Link: Mutilated WWI veteran, published in Frederick A. Barber’s The Horror of It (1931), Lionel Atwill in burn make-up, Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933), Mutilated WWI veteran, published in Frederick A. Barber’s The Horror of It (1931), Ivan Albright’s And Man Made God in His Own Image (Room 203) (1930-31) [detail, head] [http://chfmedia.net/classroom/sarah-burns/art-history/2-6.html].
7. Ask students whether publications like Barber’s The Horror of It: Camera Records of War’s Gruesome Glories (1931) are anti-war documents or sensational material. Discuss the role of violent images in students’ visual culture(s). Questions: Where do we see violent images? Why do we consume violent images? Do images have the power to prevent or cause violence? Do images have the power to humanize or exploit? What occurs when violent images are censored? Who controls the censorship or circulation of images?
8. Have students read Richard Stengel’s editorial “The Plight of Afghan Women: A Disturbing Picture,” in which Stengel defends his decision to publish a violent photograph on the cover of TIME magazine. Jodi Bieber’s photograph is a portrait of a woman named Aisha, who was violently attacked by her husband. Listen and view Bieber’s story about photographing Aisha.
9. Have students respond to Bieber’s story. Questions: What words does Bieber use to describe Aisha and her body? What considerations did Bieber make when photographing Aisha? Does Bieber’s portrait humanize or exploit Aisha? In what ways can we interpret Bieber’s photograph as compassionate or beautiful? Where is Aisha’s voice? What value does Bieber’s photograph have in our visual culture?
10. Connect Ivan Albright’s war experiences to contemporary art produced by veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Global War on Terror. Listen and view a video introduction to the exhibition “Intrusive Thoughts,” which ran at the National Veterans Art Museum (November 11, 2010-May, 2011). “Intrusive Thoughts” surveys the work of nine individual artists and two groups. Ask students to look and listen for Ash Kyrie’s critique of how the media portrays three images of war—the benign intervention, the sacrifice, and the abstracted explosion--to the American people. Questions: What are intrusive thoughts? How are trauma and memory related? What role does memory play in artistic production? How did the artists’ lives change after they left combat and became veterans?
11. Have students visit the New York Times website and view “Art, and War and Consequences” as well as Marine combat artist Michael D. Fay’s three-part series <“Still in the Fight.” In the series, Fay uses images and text to recount his visits with wounded soldiers at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia. Questions: Why does Fay include sketches with his writing? How does Fay represent the veterans’ traumatized body? What qualities make Fay’s drawings personal? What occurs when we look at Fay’s art? What value do his images have in our visual culture? Have students compare and contrast Fay’s work with that of Albright and Dix.

Multimedia Links

• “The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century” (PBS)
• “Faces of War” by Caroline Alexander (Smithsonian magazine, February 2007)
• “The Plight of Afghan Women: A Disturbing Picture” by Richard Stengel (TIME magazine, July 19, 2010)
• “Photographing Aisha for the cover of TIME” narrated by Jodi Bieber (TIME magazine, video)
• Intrusive Thoughts (National Veterans Art Museum, “Intrusive Thoughts” exhibition preview)
• “Art, and War and Consequences” by The Editors (New York Times, March 17, 2011)
• “Still in the Fight: A New Reality” by Michael D. Fay (New York Times, March 15, 2011)