ART SET BY: Michael Clark, Visual arts Teacher St Mary's Cathedral College

ARTMAKING, CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL STUDIES UNIT OF WORK

Portraiture: furthering the figure

DURATION: 6-8 weeks, 6 x 60 minute lessons per 10 day cycle per term

Context

This unit investigates the genre of portraiture and will take a historical journey through this evolving genre via the context of Australia’s largest, oldest and most contested portraiture prize competition, the Archibald Prize. Australian artist Brett Whiteley will be investigated for his personal response to the genre of portraiture. In addition, contemporary Australian artist Todd Fuller will be studied for his innovative artmaking practice in furthering preconceived practices of portraiture.

Art-making

Students will:

• Explore portraits as communication to express ideas, feelings, personalities and psychology of themselves and others.
• Use drawing and painting skills, techniques & processes
• Explore how artists use signs, symbols and mark making to communicate and develop meaning
• Respond to Whiteley’s gestural mark-making and painterly techniques.
• Focus on representing their own metaphysical aspects of their personality and psyche
• Discover and create detailed personal codes for psychological and emotional aspects of themselves in combination with individual physical traits.
• Further their understanding of portraiture via digital media, creating a stop motion animation through two-dimensional mixed media
• Develop collaborative practice working in pairs and small groups across multiple expressive forms.

Critical and historical studies

Students will:
• Investigate the artmaking practices of Australian artists Brett Whiteley and Todd Fuller
• Identify ways in which portraits are interpreted and explained historically
• Study the Archibald Prize as a historical and ongoing exhibition, rooted in the Australian artworld.

Art-making

• Create a visual brainstorm using collage materials and 2D mixed media to explore ideas.
• Emphasis is placed on portraits as a symbol of identity. Why portraits express more about a person than their mere physical attributes.
• With student 'bust' portraits as a base, overlay with symbolic references of identity
• Experiment with portrait drawing techniques. Play with distortion and gestural lines
• Explore a variety of mark-making techniques to capture expression and emotion

Critical and Historical studies

• Respond to the question What is portraiture?
• Visit the Brett Whiteley Studio to develop a deeper engagement with the artists' practice and his world
• Expand visual literacy through readings on portraiture and sharing ideas
• Write a comparative study between Brett Whiteley and his influencing artists such as Van Gogh
• Pose the question Does an artwork have to depict a portrait to convey oneself? How does
Whiteley communicate his own world in his artwork?
• Investigate Whiteley’s 1976 Archibald prize winning portrait, Self-Portrait in the studio and his use of symbolism to convey himself and his world. In pairs, annotate the artwork for subject matter and suggested symbolism and share ideas with the class.