fame 4.4 Andy Warhol “”Marilyn Monroe” • W.C. Handy 1873-1958

(Put materials on desks before beginning the lesson. After lesson use process board and outline for project.)

Welcome to our fourth FAME lesson for this year. So far we’ve seen paintings so realistic we think the items in

them are real by artist William Harnett; we enjoyed the lively painting of an outdoor café scene by Renoir; and

we learned about the sculptural techniques Michelangelo used to paint the Sistine Chapel. You have composed

a still life, created an Impressionist painting, and worked as a sculptor. Today you’ll get to be a pop star!

When someone says, “I’m feeling blue” what do they mean? Sad, lonely etc. What

kind of music do you think would be called the blues? The blues started as African

American folk songs, about when life seemed hopeless yet were sung in captivating

and sometimes lively rhythms. As early blues great Alberta Hunter explained, “when

we sing the blues we’re singing out our hearts, we’re singing out our feelings . . .

what I’m doing is letting my soul out.”

Our composer, W.C. Handy (1873-1958) born just eight years after the end of the

Civil war was an African-American man from Alabama who realized the rich heritage

in music his people had created. He loved music, and when he was young, the first

time he was able to save some money he went out and bought a guitar. Do you

think his father was pleased? No. He wanted his son to get a good education so he

made Handy exchange it for a dictionary. He did go to college, but he kept on with

his music. Up until his time, African-Americans shared their songs with others by

singing them. No one had ever written down the notes to the music or published the

songs. W.C. Handy did just this so he is known as “Father of the Blues.” Let’s listen to

some blues, we’re going to play his most famous St. Louis Blues. You may share the

video clip of Handy himself playing this song on the Ed Sullivan show in 1949.

Just as W.C. Handy took the everyday music of African-Americans and popularized it

as a style, our artist today took things that were a part of everyday life and turned

them into “Art”—more precisely, POP ART. What do you think that means? The art

of pop-up books and cards? Actually, it stands for “Popular Art.” If desired, share the

5 minute video from Tate Modern on Pop Art. Pop artists used the “popular” images

OBJECTIVE: Listen to unique musical

style of the BLUES and W.C. Handy as “father of the

Blues.” Learn about POP ART and American artist Andy Warhol’s style and

silkscreening. “In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes”—Andy Warhol

INTRODUCTION:

Review various

artist subjects and

1-3 projects

THE BLUES:

Began as African

American folk

songs

Sang feelings of

despair in

captivating rhythms

COMPOSER: W.C. Handy

(1873-1958)

African American

born after Civil War

in Alabama

First to write down

and compose blues

Known as “Father of

the Blues”

Music: St. Louis

Blues

POP ART:

Stands for “Popular

Art”

The Blues

W.C. Handy devised a method for notating the way black folk singers “flatted” the 3rd and 7th tones of the musical scale, that is, played a half a tone lower in pitch than their position in the scale normally calls for, suspending the notes.

Most blues music has 3 line stanzas with only 12 measures of music, whereas most popular songs are written in 4 line stanzas with 16 measures

The notes are constructed so that there is room at the end of each line for the singer to stop—usually she might put in a word or phrase like a sigh or comment.

A good blues singer doesn’t stick to perfect pitch but wavers around the tone according to her feeling.

people saw everywhere and challenged ideas of originality and what it meant to be an artist. Like modern artists

before them they believed art could be made out of anything.

Our artist today, American Andy Warhol (1928-1987) was the first modern art “superstar.” He was an art icon and

was known for his personality and image as much as his art. Show picture of Warhol. He was a successful

commercial artist and did illustrations for greeting cards, magazine advertisements, and designed store windows.

Warhol made videos, calling them “living paintings of everyday events” and once filmed a man sleeping for 6

hours! He produced a gossip magazine, published books even and managed a rock band.

He became famous for this series of paintings: show Campbell’s Soup Cans. Does this look like the art we usually

see in FAME? What’s different about it? Warhol liked to paint familiar things you saw every day. At the time,

Campbell’s made 32 soup varieties; Warhol hand-painted one bright white canvas for each flavor. He made

stamps for the fleur de lys pattern on the bottom, mimicking the repetition and uniformity of advertising. Warhol

said he painted soup cans because he liked soup and the cans reminded him of his childhood when he would eat

it every day. When Warhol first exhibited these Campbell’s Soup Cans, they were displayed together on

shelves, like products in a grocery aisle. He also painted laundry detergent boxes and even money! How do you

think people reacted to his exhibitions in new York in 1962? They were shocked! They thought people went to

museums to escape from the commercialism of TV, movies, and advertising. Why go to an art museum to look at

soup cans? Refer to the pop-art video if shared, or discuss how you can look at everyday things in a new way.

Next Warhol painted portraits of movie stars, but he didn’t paint like Michelangelo or Renoir, carefully,

with a brush. He used a printmaking process called silk screening usually used for advertising. It is a stencil

method of printing flat-color design through a piece of silk or other fine cloth. It allows you to print the same

image over and over. Warhol would create silk screens in a giant studio he called “the factory” where his friends

and mother would help him in the operation he called a human printing press.

Let’s look at one of his movie star prints. Does anyone know who the lady in the painting is? Show Marilyn

Monroe Diptych. She was a glamorous 1950s Hollywood icon. Warhol used a popular photograph of Monroe to

create Marilyn Monroe Diptych. A “Diptych” is a picture painted or carved on 2 hinged tablets. Warhol has

placed her images together in endless rows just as you would see food in a grocery store—rows of cereal boxes,

laundry detergent, or soup! Which side of the painting do you like better? Most prefer the left side. If I showed

you these two products, which would you want to buy? What art element stands out? COLOR. The colors, though

bright, are highly unrealistic and the black and white faces on the right panel begin to lose definition and seem to

be fading off the edge. Point out other Marilyn prints with color variations and invite discussion.

Andy Warhol once said: “In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes.” With youtube

videos, reality TV and memes that “go viral” he may be right! Now let’s turn our classroom into an art

“factory” and make our own silk screen prints. Follow process outline.

ARTIST: Andy Warhol

(1928-1987)

Iconic pop art

“superstar”

Successful

commercial artist

Created art in all

mediums

Campbell’s Soup Cans

(1962):

32 canvases hand-

painted, one for

each variety of

soup

Displayed like food

in grocery store

Shocked museum

goers

Silkscreening:

Printmaking usually

used in advertising

Warhol created

these in his studio

he called “the

factory.

Marilyn Monroe Diptych:

Double panel: left

side bright and

uses COLOR, right

side faded b/w

Culture of 15

minutes of fame?