Online Teacher Resources on Modern Art

Preparing for your visit

1. Study your “isms” in art (adaptable to all levels)
   The Galleries of Modern art at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts have a good representation of the major art movements since the turn of the last century. Review with your students some of these major movements in painting:
   Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, the Nabis, Fauvism and Cubism. Have them work in groups to do a research project on an assigned style of painting. Have them execute paintings in the style assigned. Here are some definitions of the various “isms” that might help you out.

   Impressionism: The Impressionist painters’ main aim was to show, through the use of colour, the subtle atmospheric variations that occur with the passing of time and changes of weather and season. These artists, who worked directly from nature, were mainly concerned with light and its effect on colour and form. Impressionist painters like Monet and Renoir used a multitude of coloured brushstrokes to render their light-soaked paintings.

   Post-Impressionism: Post-Impressionism is not a style, but rather a combination of styles that include both Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh. Although each of these artists had his own personal concerns, some tendencies, such as their emphasis on the picture plane and their movement away from Impressionism, link them together. An interest in structure and the organization of the picture plane is especially evident in Cézanne’s work. Although he retained much interest in Impressionist colour, he used colour to build up the compositional structure of his painting. Through his close study of nature, he emphasized pictorial form rather than detailed description of the natural world.

   The Nabis: The word means “prophet” in both Hebrew and Arabic and refers to a brotherhood of painters who rejected their academic training and a naturalistic style. Following the influence of Paul Gauguin, they looked for a synthesis of form that relied heavily on imagination. Paintings by the Nabis are generally small in scale; they often have an emphasis on pattern and decorative qualities; they are deceptively simple in design; the colours used are applied in a flat manner; bold contours are often present. Artist Maurice Denis was one of the key players in the Nabis.

   Cubism: Inspired by Cézanne’s abstract treatment of volume and space, artists like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque took it one step further. Abandoning traditional perspective in their works, which are often limited in colour range, they fragmented their subjects so that the end result resembles a network of interlocking planes and angles. By merging volume and space and combining multiple perspectives in a rational and systematic approach, Cubist painters shattered traditional views of the rendering of space and form.

   Fauvism: The Fauvist painters, led by Henri Matisse, had a particular interest in vivid, non-naturalistic colour and bold pattern. Depicting their environments in an emotional and instinctual way, these artists simplified the objects, people or landscapes that they painted and rendered them in a flattened, decorative space. The term “Fauve,” which means “wild beast”, was coined by a critic who was shocked to see the riot of colour in the first exhibition of paintings by the Fauve artists. Albert Marquet, Maurice de Vlaminck, André Derain, Georges Braque and Raoul Dufy were all considered Fauve artists at one time or another in their careers.

   Auguste Renoir Limoges 1841 - Cagnes-sur-Mer 1919 Young Girl with a Hat About 1890 Oil on canvas MMFA, purchase, grant from the Government of Canada under the terms of the Cultural Property Export and Import Act and gifts of Mr. and Mrs. A. T. Henderson, the families of the late M. Dorothea Millar and the late J. Lesley Ross, the Bank of Montreal, Redpath Industries Ltd. and the Royal Trust Company, in memory of Huntly Redpath Drummond

   Paul Cézanne Aix-en Provence 1839 - Aix-en-Provence 1906 Bend in a Road in Provence About 1866 or later Oil on canvas MMFA, Adaline Van Horne Bequest

   
   

2. What Is a Landscape? (adaptable to all levels)
   Modern art saw a renewed interest in the subject of landscapes. Review with your students the various types of subject matter in painting.
   Painters can choose to paint various subjects (or genres) – landscape, still life, portraits, narrative paintings or abstract paintings. Introduce your students to the notion of landscape. Ask them what they think a landscape is. Using a reproduction of a landscape or the images from the Museum’s collection pictured below, introduce a basic vocabulary: foreground, middle ground, background, perspective, horizon line. Have the students compare the paintings above using the following guidelines:

   • the level of the horizon line and the proportion of land to sky
   • panoramic (wide view) versus more intimate view
   • composition built on horizontal planes versus use of a diagonal suggesting depth
   • use of an element directly in the foreground to emphasize the perspective in the work
   • presence or absence of water
   • presence of people or a built environment
   • the way the artist has rendered light and the direction the light is coming from
   • Bird’s-eye view (a landscape seen from a vantage point above) or worm’s-eye view (one seen from below)
   • Compare your feelings as you look at each landscape

   Have your students compare the Sisley and de Vlaminck landscapes using the points mentioned above.

   Alfred Sisley Paris 1839 - Moret-sur-Loing 1899 The By Road at the Roches-Courtaut Woods – Indian Summer 1881 Oil on canvas MMFA, purchase, John W. Tempest Fund

   Maurice de Vlaminck Paris 1876 - Rueil-la-Gadelière 1958 Rueil Near Paris 1912 Oil on canvas MMFA, John W. Tempest Fund © Estate of Maurice de Vlaminck / SODRAC (2010)

   
   

3. Modern Sculpture: Several Degrees of Abstraction (adaptable to all levels)
   The twentieth century brought a flurry of different art movements and approaches, such as the ones mentioned above and many more. Departing more and more from the representation of nature, artists increasingly experimented with colour, line and shape to create forms that were more subjective and at times abstract. Discuss with your students the notion of abstraction. Abstraction occurs when the artist departs from an accurate representation of reality. He or she can do this by either exaggerating or simplifying forms seen in nature. The Museum has a splendid collection of twentieth-century sculpture that illustrates this. For instance, in the images of the sculptures illustrated below, the Giacometti sculpture can still be interpreted as the bust of a man. However, the artist has pared down the width of the form and elongated the proportions of the figure. In the Lipchitz sculpture, can you even recognize a human figure? The human form is rendered in a Cubist style with interlocking block-like shapes, but look carefully and you’ll observe an eye and a clue that gives away the title: Man with Guitar.

   Why not do a sculpture activity with your students? With younger students, ask them what the difference is between a painting and a sculpture. For smaller children, the concept of three-dimensionality is quite difficult to grasp. Explain that a sculpture is freestanding, while a painting is flat and needs to be hung on a wall for display. Have a child play-act a sculpture, holding a pose while the other children walk around the poser. You might even play-act a painting. Ask them: If you were a painting and someone wanted to display you, would they put you in the middle of the room or hang you on the wall? How do viewers observe a painting – by walking around it or by looking at it from the front? For older children you can also introduce the concept of low and high relief.

   Have your students do two sculptures in Plasticene or clay. Have them experiment with a figurative work representing either an animal or a human figure. Then they can work on a more abstract form. To provide them with inspiration, show them some images of twentieth-century sculpture.

Alberto Giacometti Borgonovo, Switzerland, 1901 - Chur 1966 Head of Diego on a Stele I 1958 Bronze, 5/6 MMFA, purchase, Horsley and Annie Townsend Bequest and gift of Charles Bronfman and Phyllis Lambert, Nahum Gelber, Q.C., H. G. Hallward, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Laing, Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Lamarre, Guy de Repentigny, Mr. and Mrs. Gershon Stern, The W.P. Scott Charitable Foundation, and anonymous donors © Estate of Alberto Giacometti / SODRAC (2010)

Jacques Lipchitz Druskieniki, Lithuania, 1891 - Capri 1973 Man with Guitar 1920 (cast 1972) Bronze, edition of 7 MMFA, purchase, Horsley and Annie Townsend Bequest © Estate of Jacques Lipchitz

Follow-up activities