ARTISTIC ACTIVITY UNIT FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL LEVEL

The activity is addressed to students in the 6th grade of the higher cycle of primary education. The activity will consists in achieving a series of different steps scattered all over the Caixa Forum museum that the students need to fulfill in order to complete the activity on its whole (gymkhana). The activities are supposed to be done by groups of 4 people in the exhibition “Càmera i Ciutat” - we took advantage since is the exhibition that we visited for our museum’s project and we already know how it looks like and what contains-. The activity is to last 1 hour 30 minutes. More or less 30 minutes for the first one, 30 minutes for the second one and finally 30 minutes for the last one.

The activities of the gymkhana are the following:

1. Focusing only on the pictures of the second room, find a picture that can be represented by you. Then, express yourselves with mime in front of the other groups, for them to guess which is the picture you are thinking of. 
2. Select one picture of each section that draws your attention and explain the reason for such a choice.
3. Focus on the pictures that are most relevant to you and create a history that could be reflected by it. 

The objectives of the activity are:

• To progress with teamwork and cooperation.
• To develop divergent thinking when using creativity.
• To identify and defend human values from the pictures.
• To flourish an spirit of curiosity towards the visual arts.

COMMENT ON THE VISUAL COURSE

My expectations, before I started the subject, were quite high, in the sense that I thought I would learn about special techniques to know about painting and drawing, including taking into consideration the space, dimensions, type of paper used, colours... Indeed, all of them were fulfilled, however, I have been missing a few more exercise to use them to teach our future children. Notwithstanding, my opinion on the subject is positive. My skills on visual arts have always been poor and I feel have been able to learn some important concepts throughout the subject such as using an appropiate colour, transferring an image to paper, making a performance, creating a story and so forth. I also think that the outings, for instance, to caixaforum and to cosmocaixa were very useful in order to have references to send our future students there.
Overall, I believe that the only thing I would enhance about the course is the amount of visual exercises to work with our future students.

DIEGO VELÁZQUEZ: RESEARCH OPTIONAL PART

After having made some research on Leonardo da Vinci, I am going to look into Diego Velázquez, an artist of the Baroque period (Spanish Golden Age), considered by many to be the most talented painter of all time, his importance began to be recognized 2 centuries after his death. His most outstanding works are currently part of the permanent collection of the Prado Museum, in Madrid.

Velázquez was born in 1599 in Seville and died in Madrid in 1660, carrying out his works in the first half of the 17th century. 

Diego Velázquez's work is divisible into two stages: Seville and Madrid

Seville stage (1599-1623)

Velázquez had Pacheco as his teacher. With him he learned to be a great draftsman and to organize the compositions. The first works he made belong to tenebrism (Italian trend that comes from Caravaggio), whose charachteristics are the following:

• Realism.
• Light contrasts.
• Diagonal composition.

The themes that Velázquez painted in this first stage are religious and also popular, drawn from everyday life. During this period of time, some of his most well-known paintings are: worship the three wise men, the elderly woman frying eggs ...

Madrid stage (1623-1660)

he was employed as a chamber painter of Felipe IV and as time passed he got better jobs. During this period he continued his training as a painter, taking as reference the pictorial galleries of the Madrid Court. In addition, at this stage he meets the flamenco genius Rubens. During this period of time, some of his most well-known paintings are: Joseph's robe, the Forge of Vulcano, las Lanzas o la Rendición de Breda ...

Apart from these two stages, it is also important to highlight the most peculiar and representative characteristics of Velázquez's painting are:

• Using the aerial perspective.
• Depth.
• Painting "alla prima", that is, without making sketches. For this reason, the corrections were made on the go and it is evident in the numerous "regrets" in his paintings.

As it comes next, I am going to make a small research on a few paintings of Velázquez:

LAS MENINAS

The meninas dates from 1656. Its complex and enigmatic composition raises questions about reality and illusion, and creates an uncertain relationship between the viewer and the figures depicted. Because of these complexities, Las Meninas has been one of the most widely analyzed works in Western painting.

The central character and protagonist is the Spanish Infanta Margarita Teresa of Austria (1651-1673), surrounded by: her servants called "meninas", personalities of the nobility and Velázquez himself.

Personally, the painting reminds me of the power that the monarchy has over the population. The drawing places the princess in the middle of the picture and all the servants around her. 

Another aspect that drew my attention when looking at the painting is the servant, Velázquez (the man with the red cross on his chest) and the man on the bottom because they are all staring at the viewer of the painting. From my personal opinion, I think that these characters are trying to make you think about the drawing.

THE TRIUMPH OF BACCHUS

Bacchus, the Greek god of wine also known as Dionysus, is the protagonist of this canvas, commissioned by King Felipe IV of Spain. The occurrence of carrying out a work on a mythological theme arises from the admiration that the artist created, the works of the Caravaggio, among other Italian paintings. The canvas was painted in Madrid and wants to present a fusion between the Greek "deities" (the three characters on the left) and the mundane (the 5 on the right).

The importance of this work is that it marks a before and after in the painter's career, since it was Velázquez's first serious foray into the mythological genre, he would never again detach himself from the subject, until his last days.

The expertise to make the multiple portrait rescued her from her years in Seville as an expert portrait painter and religious genre painter, where she came to compose highly complex works.

The treatment of light on the protagonist and his companions, makes the main character stand out, and provides magnificent contrasts of light and shadow to the others. Naturalism is combined with realism and the mythological concept. This mixture gives the work a highly original character for the time.

Personally, I feel pride when I see the picture. From my point of view, the main character, who wears underwear, is praysing the man on his knees, while everybody is around them watching the scene.

WORSHIP THE THREE WISE MEN

Pictorial interpretation of the Christian tradition, the visit of the three wise men from the east, to the Messiah born in Bethlehem of Judea.

The composition features detailed shadow work and remarkable realism. It shows Saint Joseph, the Virgin Mary, a shepherd and the three magicians adoring the child and carrying their respective gifts.

Maria is presented as a beautiful young woman looking and holding the child in her lap. Saint Joseph appears as a man with a weathered face, looking at his wife's face, as though wondering: "What should I expect from now on?"

Personally, this picture clearly reminds of the Christian tradition that I celebrate year after year. The picture conveys tranquility and quietness as it shows an image that I am used to seeing since I was born and I can easily relate to it.

LEONARDO DA VINCI: RESEARCH

After having performed the pluridisciplinar artwork about "The last supper", I am going to make a small research about its artist Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the Renaissance whose areas of interest included invention, drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, paleontology, and cartography.

Leonardo da Vinci's education was, precisely, in the Florentine municipality of Vinci. There he learned the basic knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic skills.
Da Vinci soon expressed concern about nature. His curiosity led him to paint mythological beings invented by himself, inspired by his observations.

Aware of the young man's enormous talent, his father asked the artist Andrea del Verrocchio if his son could dedicate himself to painting. Then, Leonardo entered his workshop as an apprentice in 1469, where he learned from drawing and painting techniques to the basis of chemistry, through engraving and sculpture techniques. After the six years he spent as an apprentice, Leonardo set up his own workshop in Florence. At this time, he painted his first painting: Virgin of the Carnation (1476) and became an independent painter. In 1482 Leonardo da Vinci left Florence and settled in Milan. There, he appeared before Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, who became his patron. He remained in his court for 17 years as an engineer. In 1490, he opened a school in the Lombard city where he taught all his knowledge and shared his research. The Vitruvian Man dates from this same year, the famous drawing with which Leonardo explained the ideal proportions of the human body. In 1494, the Dominican convent of Santa Maria dalle Grazie commissioned da Vinci to paint a fresco in one of its rooms. This mural, more than four meters long and eight meters long, is none other than the famous The Last Supper, which ended in 1498, about which there has been so much speculation throughout history. A year later, French troops conquered Milan, and Ludovico Sforza's power fell. Leonardo fled the city with his friend, the mathematician and Franciscan friar Luca Pacioli. After a brief period in Mantua, in the house of Isabel de Este, Leonardo da Vinci moved to Venice. There he worked as a military engineer. Their task was to create defensive systems to protect the canal city from attacks by the Turks. The artifacts he invented were not built as, for example, a kind of diving suit or double-lined ships to withstand the onslaught. It is believed that his inventions did not go beyond paper due to lack of time and money. In April 1500, Leonardo da Vinci returned to Florence, where César Borgia ruled. Pope Alexander VI's son ordered him to visit various Italian cities as a military engineer to help him in his plan to conquer territories. However, a short time later, the population revolted against the Borgias and Leonardo returned to Florence. Around 1506, Leonardo da Vinci moved back to Milan. During this period, the genius developed a special interest in science, although he continued with his role as a painter. In these years the Virgin of the rocks ended. After coming and going on Italian territory as a military engineer, Leonardo da Vinci moved to Rome around 1513. There he developed his activity for Pope Leo X, a member of the Medici family. However, the men who stood out at the time were Rafael and Miguel Ángel.
It is believed that, due to the few commissions he received, da Vinci focused on his investigations. However, that feeling of failure in the Italian capital did not abandon him and possibly prompted him to move to France in 1516.
The king of France, Francis I, installed da Vinci in the Clos-Lucé castle, near the town of Amboise, where he spent the last years of his life. On May 2, 1519, after spending a season ill, Leonardo died at the age of 67. His remains rest in the chapel of Saint Hubert, in the castle of Amboise.

Some of his important artworks are:

LA GIOCONDA OR MONA LISA

It is located in Louvre museum, being a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance.  The painting is likely of the Italian noblewoman Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. It was painted between 1503 and 1506; however, Leonardo may have continued working on it until 1517.

The artwork contains optical effects, which are created by the location of the girl's eyes and her discreet smile. There are those who say that you have the impression of being constantly watched by the Gioconda, whatever position you look at it. This anecdote demonstrates the scientific and anatomical knowledge of Leonardo Da Vinci. As for Mona Lisa's famous smile, there is evidence that a group of musicians played during the painter's working hours so that she could maintain that cheerful attitude and broad smile.

The background is also a case study. The sfumato technique is used to create a gently blending perspective.

Personally, this pictures conveys joy and quietness to my brain. Her look gives me the impression of being attentively staring at me. The fact that she is crossing her hands makes me feel that she is thinking about something serious. Moreover, her dark black clothes remind me of the era in which she lived. The landscape that she has got behind her bring throughts of freedom to my mind, to my mind, I believe that she is trying to grab you into the picture with her thoughtful eyes and cheerful smile in order to live a life of her kind.

LA SCAPIGLIATA

La Scapifliata is a painting in oil on wood, which dates from around c. 1508 and is housed in the Galleria Nazionale di Parma, Italy. La Scapifliata means dishevelled, making reference to the messy hair with which she shows up on the picture. Actually, it represents a draft of a woman that was never painted due to a loss of the sketches. The lips, the outside of the eyes and the eyebrows define the perfect circle that Leonardo considered essential in the composition of a beautiful face. The delicate lines with which it achieves a perfectly blurred soft chiaroscuro add light and volume to the work.

Personally, I love the smile and the low gaze full of tenderness. This is how Leonardo's faces transmit that universal goodness that illuminates each of his canvases and that has remained unchanged over the centuries.

MADONNA OF THE YARNWINDER

Madonna of the yarnwinder is a picture dated from 1501. This work was based around the geometric figures of triangles and ellipses. The little picture shows a woman seated as if she were about to spin a yarn. The child is grasping the cross and gazes attentively at the four spokes, which depict the cross in which Christ was crucified. As if desirous of the cross he smiles and holds it firmly, moreover, he is unwilling to yield it to his Mother who seems to want to take it away from him. 

Personally, the emotions that this picture transmits to me are of eagerness for Christ. The child seems to be looking forward to seeing Christ and talk to him, nonetheless, the mother looks worried about her son holding the cross and approaching Christ. Moreover, as the child is entirely naked, he gives the impression of being pure, innocent and without any evil thoughts.

Regarding the landscape they have got behind, I can see that half of it depicts ground and moors, whilst the other half shows ridges and highlands, from which you may reach god. Therefore, I believe that the picture tries to show the so desired path we must follow to reach the divinities. 

A DRAWING MADE WITH PAINTS: THE EYE OF THE STORM

In today's session, we have represented the opposite feeling we chose last week. In my case, as I worked on showing happiness by means of drawing a rainbow, sun, grass ..., this time, I focused on showing sadness.

The title of this masterpiece is the eye of the storm, which tries to play with the real meaning of quietness and the eye that is painted in my drawing representing absolutely the opposite.

The elements of my drawing are meant to cause a direct imapact on the viewers when watching the eye, which tries to convey the gloomy, rainy, stormy weather that is around it.

You can see the image as it follows:

A DRAWING MADE WITH PAINTS: PARADISE

In today's session, we have been told about the different materials we can use in order to make paints. The handmade paints have a better quality and longetivity than artificial ones, that is the reason why, our teacher has encouraged us to use different types of techniques to make paints. After that, he got us to paint by using some brushes on a DINA-3 feelings such as hatred, love, sadness, joy ... In fact, we had to choose one of them and express it in any way we could on the piece of paper. My personal election was to depict joy because I always try to be positive and believe in a world of happiness, in which we as teachers need to do our best to accomplish it. Then, the first image that came to my mind was to express such an idea as this one:

The title of this drawing is Paradise because it represents a landscape that transmits quietness, joy, peace ..., it is a place where many people would like to be in. Actually, this pictures contains a series of elements that are meaninful regarding happiness. The rainbow represents diversity and freedom, meaning that you can be whoever you want to be and love whoever you wish to love. Furthermore, the grasss is represented in a tilt way in order to show how the air (an element of tranquility and peace) is always there, although we cannot see it. The birds and the clouds play a similar meaning as the two previous ones explained, because they represent freedom, quietness and peace. Finally, the sun shows the light, that is to say, the happiness that lits up the rest of the elements of my drawing, without it, there would not be any diversity, freedom or peace. Another important key factor of the sun is the rainbow that comes out of it. I decided to place it like this because of a personal matter, that is to say, to summarise it in a cause and consequence sentence: "happiness is what makes me feel diverse".

MUSEUM EXHIBITION "CÀMARA I CIUTAT"

CRITICAL REFLECTION ON THE EXHIBITION SPACE

The following critical reflection on the exhition "Càmara i Ciutat" from Cosmocaixa has been done with Anna López, Andrea Moriana, Laia García, Eva Granero, Berta Montaña and me (Manel Márquez)

Explain how you value the intervention in space and distribution of the work in the rooms.

It was organised by chronological pictures and nationalities that were distributed by sections within the hall. The space was very well distributed because the visitor could walk around the whole room without losing track of the evolution and sequence of the pictures. Moreover, the rooms were big enough to allow a proper flow of people, allowing them to see the images in a quiet and comfortable way.

Describe colours and typefaces used to explain, to accompany and signal the work. Relate it to the work. Means, techniques and supports used.

The different areas of the exhibition were divided with some different aspects that had a purpose. The general aspect that we could appreciate that differentiates one area with another one was the colour of the walls, for example ones were painted in dark grey and some in white. The purpose of this was to divide one area to another one by means of time. You can see an example below of some of the pictures.

Another aspect that we could value is that the pictures represented had a specific frame. For instance, it could mean that all the pictures within an area that had the same frame could belong to the same artist, or to the same place, or to the same historical time, or to the same meaning, etc. You can see an example below of a lot of pictures that belong to the same artist. Also in the example, before it can be seen how there are two pictures of the same artist.

It was also quite interesting the way in which the information and the different pieces of art were showed, for instance in one of the parts of the museum there was a lot of newspapers of that specific time, and all this newspaper were displayed on a kiosk painted in the wall.

Another example of the originality of the museum where the interactive activities, placed almost at the end of the exhibition, in this activity we could create a specific scene with the different objects, like a boy riding a bike, a bench, a dog or clothes hanged, as in the following example.

REFLECTION ON THE ART PROPOSAL

What interested you the most?

Focusing on what interested us the most, we have to mention the quality and meaning of photographs and videos. All of them had an intention and a purpose to express some feelings or emotions to the spectator and through its high quality it was easily achieved.

What have you researched out of the classroom?

On the website of “CÀMARA I CIUTAT”, we found information about the purpose of the exhibition. It explained to us the way in which the photography has captured the essence of the XX century, depicting the streets as a social scenario of civic and political revolution. Apart from the information taken from the official website, we have also looked up some professional concepts on the way we can extract and figure out the meaning of a photography. Some of the concepts that we have learned about are the following:

-General vision
-Technique
-Composition 
-Meaning

What are the most interesting works? Why? What do they have in common?

The most interesting works are:

-André Kertész, París a l’estiu, una tarda de tempesta, 1925.

-Marc Riboud, La noia amb la flor, 1967.

-Valérie Jouve, Sense títol núm.3, 1994.

They were interesting for us because they transmitted sadness, and they showed situations that we are not used to see in pictures. La noia amb la flor and París a l’estiu are black and white pictures, while Sense títol núm. 3 is a coloured photography. They are all from the Musée National d’Art Moderne, París.

What does this exposition make you think about?

This exposition makes us think about how the modern cities were during the XXth century, by looking at photographs of streets as social scenery or a school playground. It makes us reflect on how it was to live in XXth century and think about how different it was from our current way of living.

Do you think it can inspire you to do a classroom intervention?

We really think this exhibition about photography and cinema throughout history can certainly be used as an inspiration to do classroom interventions. Taking into consideration the importance and analysis of moments captured, we could include in class discussion about the interpretation of the meaning that these pieces of work could have. Moreover, we could include the study of its characteristics and to do something more practical, for instance, working on some kind of contests based on photos taken by ourselves.

REFERENCES

Alfonso (n.d.). ¿Cómo hacer un análisis de una foto? Retrieved from https://www.reflejandome.com/aprende-fotografia/como-hacer-un-analisis-de-una-foto-2/

Caixa Forum (n.d.). Cámara y ciudad. La vida urbana en la fotografí­a y el cine | Actividades CaixaForum Barcelona. Retrieved January 13, 2020, from https://caixaforum.es/es/barcelona/p/camara-y-ciudad-la-vida-urbana-en-la-fotografia-y-el-cine_a581881