This ArtsConnectEd Set was designed for teachers and students in grades Pre-K–2 who plan to visit the The Living Years exhibition at the Walker Art Center. It can be used to prepare visitors for the tour theme, "Seeing Art With All Five Senses."
Since most artworks at the Walker cannot be touched, it's important to provide engaging ways for young people to experience the art. This "Seeing Art With All Five Senses" Set and the guided tour designed to accompany it emphasize imagination and sensory memory, helping younger students learn about art by activating all five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. The activities in this set are similar to those that students will have on their guided tour.
This ArtsConnectEd Set contains a sampling of artworks from the Walker's collection as well as outside resources. It can be considered a sneak preview of the ideas and artworks students will explore during their visit to the Walker Art Center.
It also includes questions adapted from a technique called Critical Response Protocol, which encourages active looking and analytical thinking, both during this preview Set and for the onsite tour.
When we see art, we look at it with our eyes. Careful looking helps us come up with words to describe it. Maybe a work of art is beautiful. Bright. Funny. Or just plain big!
If we use our imaginations when looking at a piece of art, we can also describe it using all five senses.
What are your five senses? What kinds of words do you use to describe a smell? What is the softest thing you ever touched? What is your favorite taste?
What if a color could taste sweet like a fruit? In your imagination, what color would that be?
Or what if a color could stink like garbage? What color do you imagine that would be?
Let's look at some artworks to see what we discover by using all five senses.
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What colors do you see in this painting?
Using your imagination, think of a food that goes with this color yellow. What does it taste like? Does this color red remind you of a different food? What does that food taste like?
Take a moment to imagine the tastes of these yellow and red foods.
Now put them together. Do the tastes make you pucker your mouth? Do they make your mouth water? Do the imaginary tastes make you want to take another bite or not?
Artist: Ellsworth Kelly, Yellow/Red
Date: 1968
Medium: Paintings
Size: Framed 74 x 103 x 1.5 inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
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What shapes do you see in this painting?
What words would you use to describe those shapes? Is there only one shape or can you find more than one? More than two?
Using your imgagination and using only your eyes, pretend you could touch the black shape. Do you imagine it would be hot or cold? Soft or hard? What about the lighter-colored shapes in the corners? Do those have a different temperature or texture?
Take a moment to imagine you are feeling these temperatures and textures with your skin. Can you imagine a painting so cold that it feels like a blustery winter day? Or so hot that it's like pretending you're by a fire? What touch words would you use to describe this painting?
Artist: Ellsworth Kelly, "Black Curve"
Date: 1962
Medium: Paintings
Institution: Walker Art Center
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Before we look at another painting, take a moment to stop and listen. Right where you are, what sounds do you hear when everyone is as quiet as they can be?
Do you hear any sounds from the room next door or down the hall?
Can you hear sounds from outdoors, such as cars, birds, rain, or people?
What are the loudest sounds? The quietest?
Are the sounds changing or do you hear the same thing again and again?
Take a moment to think about the sounds and how it feels to hear them.
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Are your ears ready for this?
Using your imagination, pretend this painting could make sounds you could hear with your ears. Do you think those sounds would be loud or quiet? Would they be calm or energetic? What do you see that makes you say that?
Take a moment to pretend you are listening carefully to this painting.
Do the sounds make you want to tap your foot or sway your head? Does the noise make you want to cover your ears? Would you describe these sounds as music or are they more like sounds from the everyday world around you?
Zoom in to find a detail. Then use your pretending powers to hear the sounds made by just that small area. Does it sound different than the whole? Explore the painting from side to side and up and down. Are there parts that clang or swoosh or chatter?
Take a moment to take in these pretend sounds.
Artist: Robert Rauschenberg
Date: 1960
Medium: Paintings
Size: overall installed 90 x 118 x 5 inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
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What do you see in this picture? What does it remind you of? Imagine you could smell these flowers. What would they smell like?
Take a moment to smell these roses. If you were in the room with these roses, what other smells might be in the air?
Pretend you are a little bug living on one of the flowers in the painting.
Take a moment to imagine yourself as a bug going on an adventure, crawling across the objects in this picture.
Tell a short story about your bug adventure. Maybe, as a bug, you took a swim in the water in the vase. What did that feel like? Or maybe you pretended to crawl along the outside of the glass vase. Thinking like a bug, do you like to hang out in the rose petals or on the vase? Why do you say that?
Artist: Henri Fantin-Latour
Date: 1884
Medium: Paintings, Painting
Size: 15 1/8 x 12 15/16 in. (38.4 x 32.9 cm)
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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What do you see in this picture? What does it remind you of?
Using only your eyes and your imagination, pretend you could touch the slice of bread. What would it feel like? Would you want to eat it? Based on your imaginary exploration, does this bread seem different from a real piece of bread? Or does it feel about the same as the bread you might have in your lunch?
Imagine you are in a bakery and take a moment to imagine the smells, tastes, and touch of bread.
If you toasted the bread, what new smells would be in the air? How would the texture of the bread change?
Even though it looks so much like food you can taste, touch, and smell, this bread is not real. The artwork is actually made with paint and paper on metal. The metal is called lead.
Artist: Jasper Johns
Date: 1969
Medium: Mixed Media, Multiples, Other
Size: 20.625 x 17.6875 inches
Institution: Walker Art Center
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Imagine you are outdoors and walking through this grove of trees in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. You are looking up through the branches and leaves.
What do you notice in the trees? What are those little black circles and light-colored rods? How many black dots can you count? These objects are not part of the tree, but what could they be?
These objects make real sounds—sounds we can hear without pretending. But since the picture doesn't make sounds, what do you imagine you can hear? What do you see that makes you say that?
Like before, let's stop to listen. When everyone's quiet, watch the short video on the next slide. Once the video finishes and the listening exercise is done, raise your hand to share words to describe the sounds.
Artist: Pierre Huyghe
Date: 1997/2009
Medium: Sculpture, Sculptures
Size: dimensions variable
Institution: Walker Art Center
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Pretend this is a photo of you and your friends on a school bus.
What does the window feel like? What would it feel like if it were a sunny summer day? What if it were a wintery day?
What noises do you hear inside the bus?
What noises would you hear if you were the person outside the bus?
Artist: Gilles Peress
Date: 1993
Medium: Photographs, Photograph
Size: 9 5/16 x 13 5/16 in. (23.65 x 33.81 cm) (image)10 7/8 x 13 15/16 in. (27.62 x 35.4 cm) (sheet)
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts
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Now you've learned to use your imagination when looking at art. Thinking about how a piece of art would feel, sound, smell, or even taste can help you understand the artist and his or her art. And it's fun!
You will see many works of art when you visit the Walker Art Center. Your pretending powers are now part of your art detective skills. As you use your eyes to look at art, think about your five senses when talking about the art in the museum!
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