EXHIBITION & MUSEUM RESOURCES GUIDE

Transcription

1 EXHIBITION & MUSEUM RESOURCES GUIDE Ansel Adams & Edwin Land: Art, Science, and Invention, Photographs from the Polaroid Collection March 31 - June 24, 2007 Ansel Adams, Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, California, 1960, gelatin silver print from Polaroid Ansel Adams & Edwin Land: Art, Science and Invention, Photographs from the Polaroid Collection is organized and April sponsored Gornick, by Blue Polaroid Moonlight, 2003, oil on linen, 25 x 25 in. Corporation. The exhibition is circulated by Curatorial Assistance Traveling Exhibitions (CATE), Los Angeles. Positive/Negative 4x5 Land Film Type 55, 19.5 x 15 in. INSIDE MUSEUM RESOURCES: p. 1-5, 20 Preparing for your visit... p. 2-3 Educator Resources..p. 5 August Heckscher Biography...p. 4 Future Exhibitions.p. 20 EXHIBITION RESOURCES: p Exhibition Summary.p. 6 Vocabulary.....p. 7 About Adams & Land..p. 8-9 Art Activities..p Internet Resources...p Images...p

2 Preparing for Your School Discovery Visit Materials 2 Please note the following guidelines to ensure the best experience for both you and your students. The School Discovery Program includes hands-on activities which utilize a variety of materials provided by the Museum. We ask that you remind students to pay special attention to the proper use and care of art materials. Because of the unique in-gallery working environment, extreme care must be taken. Students will be asked to put away and return the materials at the conclusion of each project. Arrival The Museum opens promptly at 10:00 am. Unfortunately, we cannot allow groups in before that time. Afternoon school groups may be required to wait momentarily while morning groups exit the Museum. Conduct The temptation to touch artwork can be great. It is important for your students to know that objects in the Museum are original works of art that cannot be replaced. We invite you to look and enjoy, without touching. Also, keep in mind that the Museum will be open to the public during the program. All visits include discussion, independent looking, and participatory activities. Therefore we ask that you remind students to remain with the group at all times, unless otherwise instructed. There should be no shouting, calling out, or running in the galleries.

3 Personal Belongings Please have students leave lunches and all other personal belongings on the bus. In the winter months, coat racks are available for your convenience. Photography Photography in the Museum is prohibited unless prior permission is obtained from the Executive Director three weeks in advance of your scheduled visit. Restrooms and Handicapped Accessibility Restroom facilities at the Museum are located on the lower level and are only accessed by stairs. If a student requires handicapped bathroom facilities, these are located in the adjacent cottage building. Name Tags Name tags for younger students are appreciated by Museum Educators. Smoking Smoking is prohibited in all areas of the Museum. Museum Educators reserve the right to dismiss any group at anytime from the Museum if they feel the group presents a threat to the safety of works on exhibition. 3

4 Born in Hamburg, Germany on August 27, 1848, August Heckscher was to become one of the foremost capitalists and philanthropists in the United States. August Heckscher was to fulfill the American dream of financial success and personal accomplishment. Arriving in this country, he turned his attentions to industry and real estate, becoming a well-respected operator and general manager. Toward the latter years of his life, August Heckscher began the most important chapter of Penrhyn Stanlaws, August Heckscher, oil on his career. As a philanthropist, he focused on canvas, 47 ½ x 34 ¼ in., Heckscher social issues and child welfare. Creating the Museum of Art, August Heckscher Collection. Heckscher Children s Foundation (now home of El Museo del Barrio), he sought to eradicate slum dwellings in New York City. Heckscher established playgrounds in lower Manhattan and purchased Heckscher State Park in East Islip, New York. In 1918, he purchased the Prime Avenue property adjoining the Historic Old First Church in Huntington, New York. He created a park for children and adults to enjoy. In 1919, the Heckscher Museum of Art, a beautiful beaux-arts style fine arts building, was added to the property. Heckscher s original collection of 185 paintings and sculptures, including art from the Renaissance, the Hudson River School, and early modernist American art, filled the Museum. When the Museum opened its doors in 1920, Heckscher dedicated the Museum and surrounding park to the people of Huntington, especially to the little birds that migrate, and to the little children who fortunately do not. August Heckscher passed away on April 26, 1941 at the age of 92. The Long Islander described him in an obituary as perhaps the finest benefactor that Huntington ever had. Since his death, the Heckscher Museum of Art has continued to collect artwork in his legacy, with a permanent collection now featuring over 2,100 works of art. 4 Who is August Heckscher?

5 Educator Resources All materials are available for loan by classroom and art teachers. A $25.00 refundable deposit is required for a two week rental. Please call the Education Department at for availability. Exhibition-related Slide Packets Art History Slides are available for a variety of exhibitions past & present. Free Posters Archived exhibition-related art posters are available free of charge. Videos & DVDS A variety of art historical films are available for loan. NEW! Eyes on Art: A Collection Interpretation Game This new hands-on curatorial game utilizes collaborative learning as students in grades 6 to 12 curate their own exhibitions using images of works in the Museum s Permanent Collection! Full-color laminated cards bring artwork dating from the 16th through the 20th century to life, illuminating the Museum s role as an interdisciplinary resource. Bring this fun-filled game into your classroom! Games are now available for borrowing. Please call for loan information. Learn more at 5

6 This exhibition of 86 photographs by American photographer Ansel Adams showcases the uncommon beauty that can occur through the conjunction of science and art. Here we see the artistic outcomes of the meeting of two key figures: Ansel Adams, famed photographer, and Edwin Land, scientist and founder of the Polaroid Corporation. In 1948, the art historian Clarence Kennedy, who was a colleague of scientist Edwin H. Land, invited the photographer Ansel Adams to Land s factory in Cambridge, Massachusetts to view the first Polaroid Land cameras. After that visit, Adams enthusiastically wrote to Land: I look forward to trying the camera out I am tremendously excited about the actual use in the field and studio. I think it promises to be one of the greatest steps in the development of photography. I only hope it will not be presented as a curiosity. I think the first presentation should include work by top photographers and show a broad range of application. So began a unique and enduring collaboration between artist and inventor that showed what was possible when tradition and innovation joined together. Adams was hired by Land as a consultant to test new films and analyze results. Dr. Land felt that the artist could tell us things about Polaroid products from a point of view that would be quite different from that of the company's technical staff. He sensed that artists would push Polaroid film to the limits and report back even the most minute problems. Adams contributions led the way for Artist Support Programs that the Polaroid Corporation continues to this day. Ultimately, Adams sent over 3,000 memos to Polaroid. With Adams encouragement, Land began to collect prints from photographers such as Edward Weston, Margaret Bourke-White, Imogen Cunningham, and other giants in the field of creative photography. These images formed the core of what would later become the Polaroid Collections, including works created on or with Polaroid Materials by artists such as William Wegman, Olivia Parker, Chuck Close, David Levinthal, Lucas Samaras, and scores of others from the United States and around the world. 6 ABOUT THE EXHIBITION Ansel Adams & Edwin Land: Art, Science, and Invention, Photographs from the Polaroid Collection

7 Ansel Adams & Edwin Land: Art, Science, and Invention, Photographs from the Polaroid Collection Vocabulary Words PHOTOGRAPH An image, especially a positive print, recorded by a camera and reproduced on a photosensitive surface. POLAROID A brand of material for producing polarized light from unpolarized light by dichroism, consisting typically of a stretched sheet of colorless plastic treated with an iodine solution so as to have long, thin, parallel chains of polymeric molecules containing conductive iodine atoms. Also called Polaroid Camera or Polaroid Land Camera, the first brand of instant camera, developed by Edwin H. Land and marketed since LANDSCAPE A work of art of an outdoor scene. FOREGROUND The part of a landscape that is nearest or closest to the viewer, or in the front. BACKGROUND The part of a landscape that is furthest from the viewer. MIDDLEGROUND The part of a landscape that shows the space between the foreground and background. SCALE The relative size of an object or objects. POINT OF VIEW The perspective, or angle, from which a subject is shown. MONOCHROMATIC A work of art that uses values of one color. CONTRAST The difference between dark and light. VALUE The degree of lightness or darkness of a color. 7

8 ABOUT THE ARTIST Ansel Easton Adams February 20, 1902 April 22, 1984 Ansel Adams is an American photographer known for his black and white photographs of California s Yosemite Valley. His photographs are among the best-known images in the world, having been included in hundreds of exhibitions and publications worldwide. One of Adams great gifts and indeed his gift to photography was his singular sensitivity to the power of light. This quality allowed him to reveal both the minute details and the grandiose beauty of our natural environment. Adams said of his work, My approach to photography is based on my belief in the aspects of grandeur and minutiae all about us. His photographs are widely recognized for their superb aesthetic and technical qualities. At age 17 he joined the Sierra Club, a group dedicated to preserving the natural world s wonders and resources. Adams remained a member throughout his lifetime and served as a director. He became an environmentalist, and his photographs are a record of what many of the national parks were like before human intervention and travel. Adams wanted his work to be seen by many, not just the few who could afford to purchase it. He chose several of his images and arranged to have them printed as affordable posters and calendars. Besides his own artistic contributions, Adams played an additional integral role in the acceptance of photography as a fine art. The Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York was founded with his help in Six years later, he started the photography department at the San Francisco Art Institute. The photographer published his very successful book Yosemite and the Range of Light in 1979, which has since sold over two hundred thousand copies. Among his many honors, Adams was the recipient of three Guggenheim fellowships during his career. The Minarets Wilderness in the Inyo National Forest was renamed the Ansel Adams Wilderness in 1984 in his honor. Mount Ansel Adams, a 11,760 peak in the Sierra Nevada, was named after him in

9 ABOUT THE INVENTOR Edwin Herbert Land May 7, 1909 March 1, 1991 Edwin Land was an acclaimed American scientist whose achievements spanned the disciplines of art, science, technology and commerce. Over his lifetime, he was granted over 500 U.S. patents, standing second only to Thomas Edison. He was also granted the Medal of Freedom the highest honor granted to U.S. civilians. Land was distinguished for his inventions and contributions in the fields of polarized light, photography, and color vision. Dedicated to applying natural science to everyday life, he mastered the art of giving people what they wanted at a price they could afford. He conceived and produced the first modern filters to polarize light in 1929 and formed a company to market them for use in such products as sunglasses and glare-free automobile headlights. He spent his entire adult life experimenting and innovating in the field of optics, from producing recording systems used by the U.S. in World War II to proposing the retinex theory of human color perception. Of all his accomplishments, it was through Land s founding of the Polaroid Corporation in 1937 and invention and marketing of instant photography that he was forever immortalized. His aim was to create a system of one-step photography, putting the chemistry of the dark room between two sheets of film and producing a finished print in 60 seconds. Incidentally, the idea was spurred during a family vacation in Santa Fe. His three-year old daughter at the time asked her father why she couldn t see the picture he had taken right away. The first Polaroid Land camera was first offered for sale on November 26, 1948 and he continued to improve his invention in the years following. The enterprise he led for half a century was less a business than an institution focused on making significant inventions. In 1975, he told a press interviewer, Every significant invention has several characteristics. By definitiion it must be startling, unexpected, and must come into a world that is not prepared for it. If the world were prepared for it, it would not be much of an invention. By the time Land left the Polaroid corporation in the 1980s, the company 9 grew to nearly 20,000 employees.

10 Art ActivitY IDEAS For all of the following activities, first look carefully at various works of art from the exhibition Ansel Adams & Edwin Land: Art, Science, and Invention, Photographs from the Polaroid Collection. 810 The SCIENCE of Art (Grades 2-12) Ansel Adams is, of course, not the only artist who has collaborated with a scientist/inventor. Many artists throughout history have looked to science for collaboration and inspiration. Research such artists who have created artwork based on a particular scientific subject and/or invention. Suggested Activities: Hands-on: Have students create group presentations about the artists and their artwork and/or create original works of art inspired by the artists work. Interdisciplinary Connections: Work with science teacher(s) in your school or district to make specific connections with the science curriculum. Develop a project based on the artwork of an artist who was inspired by the topics currently being covered. Community Collaborations: Visit a science museum or lab and base an art project upon the information or subject explored. PANORAMIC POSSIBILITiES (Grades 2-12) Ansel Adams is renowned for the grandeur achieved in his photographs of landscapes. Discuss how he achieved this effect in his artwork through a command of light, value, and perspective. Introduce students to the term panorama and show examples of panoramic landscapes. How is viewing a panorama a unique visual experience? Suggested Activities Hands-on: Have students select an Ansel Adams photograph of their choice and place a reproduction of it in the center of a piece of drawing paper/canvas cut to panoramic dimensions. Extend the landscape out in both directions to create an imaginary panorama in the media of choice. Technology: Have students photograph or bring in multiple photographs of a single landscape. Use Adobe Photoshop or another photo editing program to edit/manipulate the photographs. Experiment with sewing them together to create an original, digital panorama.

11 CAPTURING the EVER-Changing EnvironmenT (Grades 6-12) Many of Adams photographs serve as documentation of the ever-changing landscape of the United States, particularly its National Parks. Discuss how art can act as visual documentation of a changing time or place. Remind students that before photography, artwork was the only way to create a lasting image of a person, place, or thing. Art has the power to freeze a time and place for eternity, therefore acting as a valuable visual resource for people to make powerful connections to the past. Suggested Activities: Explore: Have students research the history of a particular site a town, city, building, or other locale (for example: their school, home, hometown, park, or favorite vacation spot.) Then guide students in finding a series of works of art that portray the site, thus acting as a form of visual documentation, over a period of time. Encourage students to compare and contrast these works of art with one another and note any changes in them. Are these changes the result of the artists opinions, styles, or media? Are they reactions to physical changes to the site, social or political changes, or changes in the art world? Raise openended questions to encourage critical thinking such as Can the viewer trust a work of art as the true image of a place or time? Students may then present their findings in the form of an oral presentation for their class. Interdisciplinary Connections: Collaborate with the Language Arts/ English teacher(s) in your school to incorporate a writing component. Based on their findings, have students respond to the above question in written form (For example: an essay, poem, or other writing exercise) Hands-on: Students create their own original work of art that will be a present documentation of the site chosen. If possible, visit the site or sites. Otherwise, work from photographs and other visual sources. Multicultural Connections: Have students research the country or countries of their family s heritage as the starting point for the project. Interdisciplinary Connections: Work with the history teacher(s) in your school or district to research a particular site that coordinates with the social studies curriculum. 811

12 Ansel Adams & Edwin Land: Art, Science, and Invention, Photographs from the Polaroid Collection Internet Resources General Exhibition Resources About the Exhibition - Vero Beach Museum of Arts URL: The Polaroid Collection URL: The Land List - Polaroid Camera Catalogue & Film Index URL: 12 Ansel Adams Resources PBS.org - Ansel Adams: A Documentary Film URL: PBS.org - Teacher s Guide to Ansel Adams: A Documentary Film URL: Masters of Photography.com - Ansel Adams URL:

13 Ansel Adams & Edwin Land: Art, Science, and Invention, Photographs from the Polaroid Collection Ansel Adams Resources (cont d) BBC.com Interview with Ansel Adams (audio files) URL: Ansel Adams Quotes URL: Edwin Land Resources Biography of Edwin Land by Victor K. McElheny URL: Edwin Land & Instant Photography URL: invent/iow/land.html Edwin Land: A Summary of Achievements URL: 13

14 Ansel Adams & Edwin Land: Art, Science, and Invention, Photographs from the Polaroid Collection Ansel Adams, Mission San Xavier del Bac, Tucson, Arizona, 1968, Polaroid Positive/Negative 4x5 Land Film Type 55, 3-1/2 x 4-3/8 in The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust. 14

15 Ansel Adams & Edwin Land: Art, Science, and Invention, Photographs from the Polaroid Collection Ansel Adams, Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, 1960, Gelatin silver print from Polaroid Positive/ Negative 4x5 Land Film Type 55, 19-1/2 x 15 in The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust. 15

16 Ansel Adams & Edwin Land: Art, Science, and Invention, Photographs from the Polaroid Collection 16 Ansel Adams, Manly Beacon, Death Valley National Monument, Califormia, 1948, gelatin silver print, 19-1/2 x 15 in The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust.

17 Ansel Adams & Edwin Land: Art, Science, and Invention, Photographs from the Polaroid Collection Ansel Adams, Self-Portrait, c. 1971, Polaroid SX-70 photograph, 3-1/4 x 3 in The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust. 17

18 Ansel Adams & Edwin Land: Art, Science, and Invention, Photographs from the Polaroid Collection Ansel Adams, Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite, c. 1967, Polaroid PolaPan 4x5 Land Film Type 55, 4-3/8 x 3-1/2 in The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust. 18

19 Ansel Adams & Edwin Land: Art, Science, and Invention, Photographs from the Polaroid Collection Ansel Adams, Mount Williamson, the Sierra Nevada, from Manzanar, California, 1945, gelatin silver print, 18-1/2 x 15-1/2 in The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust. 19

20 Future exhibitions at the Heckscher Museum of Art Long Island s Best: Young Artists at the Heckscher 2007 April 21 - May 6, 2007 This renowned annual juried exhibition of artwork by Long Island high school students inspired by works on view at the Heckscher returns for its eleventh year! View the extraordinary talents of approximately 80 students from across Nassau and Suffolk counties. Six Degrees of Separation May 7 - June 15, 2007 Curated by Joy Weiner, Director of Education and Public Programs, and Kristina Seekamp, Coordinator of School and Youth Programs, this exhibition will include artwork of a broad range of media, techniques, and subject matter dating from the 1500s to the present. Displayed in small thematic groupings, the exhibition was designed to challenge our initial perceptions, encouraging the viewer to draw new, unexpected connections between traditionally very disparate works of art. *Museum to be Closed for Restoration* Beginning July 2007 A much-anticipated restoration project will close the Heckscher Museum of Art s doors to the public beginning in July Please check our website for up-to-date information. We know you will be excited and pleased when we reopen and are looking forward to continuing with a new and improved School Discovery Program as soon as possible! For further information on our upcoming events & exhibitions, please visit our website at 2 Prime Avenue Huntington NY Education Department Staff Call Joy Weiner Director of Education & Public Programs Kristina Seekamp Coordinator of School and Youth Programs Lucy Taylor Coordinator of Docents & Adult Group Programs Craig Langlois Coordinator of Public Programs/Museum Educator