Living in Our Time Activity
Title:
Our Expressions/Their Expressions

Theme:
Who Am I?

Age:
Grades K–4

Overview:
Tour participants examine, imitate, and interpret the expressions of subjects in painting and sculpture, as they discover that works of art can convey emotion and feeling. This activity could be used in the Walker Art Center galleries, Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, or in the classroom with a selection of images from Art Collector. The artworks included in the activity are suggestions only and instructors may choose different artworks to accompany the discussion questions.

Procedure:
Setting the Scene
What can our facial expressions tell about us?
Can we show how we are feeling without saying a word? How?
Can you tell what a friend is thinking by just looking at your friend?
Let’s practice interpreting our expressions, and then we will try to imitate the expressions found in some artworks.

Begin Looking
Choose a partner and sit down, facing each other. (You may need to assist with this or assign partners.) Show your partner how you felt when you got up this morning. Show your partner your angriest look. Now show your happiest look. Take turns showing different expressions and have your partner guess how you are feeling. What colors would you use to show some of these feelings? (Give examples such as happy, angry, and sad.) Now let’s look at some paintings or sculptures of people.
I would like you all to stand in front of this artwork and imitate its expression.

Ask
How do you think the person in this work is feeling?
What is the person thinking about?
Now let’s look even more closely. What colors do you see?
Why do you think the artist chose these colors?
How do the materials, textures, lines, shapes, or other elements in this artwork help explain how the subject is feeling, or what the artist was feeling when he or she made the work? These elements are clues to help us understand what emotion or idea an artist is trying to express in an artwork.

Conclusion
Artists express emotion in many ways. Some are easier to imitate than others. Which artwork was the easiest to imitate? Which was the hardest?
Which was the easiest to figure out?
Is there a piece we looked at today that you need more time to think about?
If you could have any artist we’ve seen today create a portrait of you, which artist would you choose? Why?

Props:
None

Tips:
For more sophisticated viewers, include works in which the “expression” might be more difficult to decipher. For example:

Lee Bontecou  Untitled No. 38  1961
Willem de Kooning  Woman  circa 1952
Yoko Ono  Cut Piece  1965
Judith Shea  Without Words  1988