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Lesson Plans


Re: Andy Warhol on E!

[ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]
kv24849
Wed, 18 Mar 1998 13:14:56 -0500 (EST)

I think it is important to first teach students about the work of an
artist and then let them know more about the artists' personal life. Many
times if you tell them about the private life of the artist first, it may
be all they focus on and not the art itself.

Kelly Vincent

On Wed, 18 Mar 1998, Monkey wrote:

> Did anyone happen to see the recent E! True Hollywood Story on Andy
> Warhol? It was a 2 hour documentary of his life that gets rather
> intimate and touches on some controversial personal elements such as
> homosexuality and drugs. As a high school art teacher, I am considering
> showing the video to my art classes. The major question I have is if it
> would be appropriate for and valuable to the students. Andy Warhol is
> without a doubt one of the most important artists of this century. But
> all too often it seems a closer look at the person behind the art brings
> pain and darkness that society would like to gloss-over or overlook
>
> Interestingly enough, I had a college English professor who felt it was
> important to reveal the artists behind the work (in this case, the
> artists were writers). I was really surprised at what controversial
> people these authors were, yet in my own schooling their writing was
> presented without mention of these important yet conveniently overlooked
> personal elements. It's kind of like the glossy image of history that's
> been painted on the American psyche, such as with Christopher Columbus'
> "discovery" of America. We were never taught about the racist thought
> involved, which might make Columbus look a little more like Hitler (a
> great book on the ways history has been "glossed" is A People's History
> of the United States by Howard Zinn).
>
> If anyone else caught the E! documentary, is this something you would
> show your classes?
>
> If you didn't see the Warhol special, I'd be interested in seeing a
> discussion considering these questions:
> 1. How much of the truth is appropriate to include in our public
> schools?
> 2. What are your guidelines for censorship?
>
>