Art reflects culture or culture reflects art?

This lesson provides social studies teachers with an opportunity to collaborate with visual arts teachers to create an interdisciplinary learning environment for students to study two works of art. It allows students to learn about two different time periods and cultures through art.

A lesson plan for grades 9–12 Visual Arts Education and Social Studies

By Amanda Keller

Provided by Ackland Art Museum

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Related topics

• Learn more about art history, culture, and social studies.

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Social studies teachers will have an opportunity to collaborate with visual arts teachers to create an interdisciplinary learning environment for students. If this collaboration is not possible, it may be helpful for the social studies teacher to speak with the visual arts teacher prior to teaching the lesson.

Learning outcomes

Students will:

• discuss how an artist’s culture influences and informs his or her artwork.
• compare and contrast two works of art from different time periods.
• discuss the role of visual arts in United States culture and Palmyran culture as a way to discuss past eras.
• write essays concerning their views on the two works of art, logically organizing their claims and reasoning.
• engage in group discussions to share their interpretations and analyses of two works of art.

Teacher planning

Time required

Two class periods

Materials needed

• Copies of Funeral Relief of No’om, Wife of Haira, Son of Maliku — one to project and one per student
• Copies of Mending Socks — one to project and one per student
• Various art materials (such as drawing paper, clay, acrylic paint, and canvas)

Technology resources

Computer with internet connected to a multimedia projector

Handouts/Resources

Teacher background

Pre-activities

Review the following background information about the two pictures with the students.

1. Funeral relief of No’om, wife of Haira, son of Maliku: This relief was created c. 150-170 CE in Palmyra, Syria. At this time, Palmyra was bustling with trade, the result of peace between the Roman and Parthian Empires. This bust was surrounded by similar busts of No’om’s family members. It was identified by the Aramaic inscriptions, “No’om, wife of Hayra, Son of Malku, syn (uncertain meaning), Alas!” It was purchased by Yale University in 1931, then deaccessed to Summa Gallery in New York, and finally sold to Ackland Art Museum in 1979.
2. “Mending Socks” (1924) by Archibald J. Motley, Jr.: This is a depiction of the artist’s grandmother, and it was designed for viewing in a museum. The subject is an 82-year-old African American woman in the 1920s. The white woman in the picture on the wall had been the subject’s former owner.

Activities

Social studies

1. The social studies teacher will tell the students that they will be looking at two different works of art as a way to understand the cultural and historical background of these artworks. Explain that both pieces of art are part of the Ackland Art Museum’s permanent collection.
2. Give students some background information on the funerary relief of No’om. Tell the students that they will be comparing this sculpture to a painting called Mending Socks. Give the students background information on this painting, as well.
3. The facets of these works that the students will be comparing include style, purpose, historical background, artistic choices, and intended audience.
4. Tell the students that they will be pondering the following question: Is art a reflection of the culture in which it was created, or is the culture a reflection of the art that it produces?
5. Conduct a class discussion on these two works of art. Discussion questions include:
   1. What is the role of women in each culture?
   2. What does each of these works tell us about the culture?
   3. What do we know about each woman based on these pieces of art? What do we not know?
   4. Compare the social status of each woman (both are represented as prosperous).

Visual arts

1. The visual arts teacher will present both pieces of artwork to the students and lead the students in a discussion concerning the artistic qualities of the works.
2. Discussion questions/topics to consider include:
   1. the materials used to create each work (limestone vs. oil on canvas)
   2. the hairstyles of the women who are the subjects of the works.
   3. the facial features and expressions of the subjects.
   4. the depiction of each woman’s individual physical traits and the importance of this.
   5. the items each woman is holding.
   6. the intended audience of each work.
3. After the discussion, allow the students the opportunity to create pieces of art that are similar in style/context/medium with the aspects of the bust and the portrait that were discussed. Allow the students to choose which aspects they want to incorporate. For example, a student could apply the aspect of commemorating one’s ancestor by incorporating certain objects that symbolize parts of that person’s life.
4. After the students have created their own works of art, they can write essays in one of the classes that describe the relationship between their own work and the art they have studied.
5. Ask students to think critically about how their own culture influenced their creations.

Interdisciplinary discussion

After the students have had a chance to discuss in depth these works of art in both the social studies classroom and the visual arts classroom, the following questions should be discussed in a joint class with both teachers:

• What is the impact of studying a work of art done by an unknown artist as compared to studying a work of art done by a known artist?
• What are the practical uses of art as compared to creating art for art’s sake?
• How does one work of art inform the other?
• What happens to a work that is immersed in the politics of the times?
• How do you look at the works differently when you know the cultural and historical background?
• What was the purpose for creating each artwork?
• What similarities do you notice between these two works of art? (Hopefully, this question brings up the importance of kinship and memory for both pieces of art. Guide the students toward discussing how both works of art are a way of preserving memory.)

Assessment

Have the students respond to the following prompts in essay form:

• How has an interdisciplinary learning approach impacted your understanding of these two works of art?
• Please choose one of these works and explain how the art work’s culture can be understood from the work of art itself. What aspects of this culture have you learned about from this art work?
• Create interview questions for one of the artists and ask them thought-provoking questions that have been left unanswered after studying their artwork.

Modifications

For students working at a higher level: Have these students find another piece of artwork from the Ackland Art Museum’s collection that can be compared to No’om. Advise students that they can search by typing keywords into the search box (examples of keywords include: woman, sewing, sculpture, etc.). Once students have located another art work, ask them to describe to the class why they chose this particular artwork and how it compares and contrasts with No’om. Students can write an essay about their process of searching for the artwork and describe the piece they selected. They can write an essay comparing and contrasting the two works of art and submit it either for extra credit or in place of the essay that the rest of the class is writing.

Critical vocabulary

humanism

a philosophy that usually rejects supernaturalism and stresses an individual’s dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization through reason

interdisciplinary teaching

applying methods and language from more than one academic discipline to examine a theme, issue, question, problem, topic, or experience; interdisciplinary methods work to create connections between traditionally discrete disciplines such as Mathematics, the sciences, Social Studies or History, and English Language Arts.

sociology

the study of human social behavior, especially the study of the origins, organization, institutions, and development of human society

Supplemental Information

Archives of American Art

This page contains an oral history interview with Archibald J. Motley, Jr.

Article on interdisciplinary teaching

This article from LEARN NC provides background information on teaching interdisciplinary lessons.

Interdisciplinary curriculum: Design and implementation

This book provides advice for teachers on how best to present material in a manner that connects subject areas to each other. In this lesson plan, History, Language Arts, and Visual Arts are all represented in various forms. This book may be helpful for teachers to gain a better understanding on how to connect these different subjects in a practical and useful way.

Gesture and identity in the funerary art of Palmyra

This article explores the way Palmyran sculptures were designed to portray the identity of the deceased, especially in the subjects’ gestures. The article also examines how Palmyran artists were influenced by the Romans but held on to their own local cultures as well. This article is helpful to teachers who want to better understand the role of the arts in ancient Palmyra.