Leigha and Bean Lesson Plan: Picabia’s

Objectives-

1. What kind of artists they were…
2. How did their relationship influence their art?  
3. What was it like for women vs men in the avant-garde (larger overarching theme)?

1st. Introduction: (~2 mins)                     [Leigha]

Although the driving force behind the art itself is to express yourself and show the world what you have to offer, an equally (if not more) important driving force or goal is to be well known- for people to be impacted by what you have created. In our previous classes, we have analyzed the winners and losers of the avant-garde. Some repeating (and tragic) patterns we have found show that men were most often the ones who sustained livelihood- they are the ones in the textbooks, they make up the history of the avant-garde, while females who were equally invested in the avant-garde have fallen to the wayside and we as present-day historians and investigators of the avant-garde have a responsibility to investigate and study these female figures complete stories. The Picabia’s are the perfect example of the problem we are faced with- the man in this heteronormative relationship became a face of Dada and Avant-garde in both Europe and the states. While Gabrielle was a strong female figure who wrote heavily about what she observed, and was an amazing art critic, and was in the center of the avant-garde itself. She was also present in many of the intimate groups of the begins forces behind the avant-garde movement yet is barely ever recognized.

2nd. Discuss Gabrielle’s essay (~10 minutes)    [Bean start us off]

• Plan for discussion:

1. Go around and share their thesis statements- where did they develop these thesis statements from? do they agree with one another?
2. Questions they might have or problems they might have with her writing
3. Closure of discussion- final page

• Driving questions and focuses:
  • Other than the subject of the essay, what is dada about the piece?
  • How would you describe her approach? Does the perspective teach you anything about her, if so what?
  • What can you learn from this about her relationship with Picabia and Duchamp?
    • By using the context of both readings, what do you think about Picabia’s and Duchamp’s relationship? How does it compare to Picabia and Buffet’s relationship?
    • How is Picabia’s relationship with Duchamp portrayed in the article versus Buffet’s essay?
    • Her use pronouns
    • Potential bias/accuracy of her analysis of Picabia and Duchamp- she wrote this after they divorced

3rd. Go through 4 paintings of Picabia (~10 minutes)           [Leigha starts us off]

• Discuss what it is, what its medium is, what it represents, when it was made, and then what their differences are
  • We are going to go through three paintings that we saw as strong examples of both Picabia’s importance and versatility as an artist
• Paintings and their titles  

• Dada La Sainte Vierge (translates to the blessed virgin)

1. 1. 1. Year published: March 1920 (peak time at which Dada was flourishing in Paris)
      2. How or where published: in his magazine 391 (today you can find it at the Musée National d’Art Moderne)
      3. Theme: what is art? Art can be whatever we say it is!
      4. Why it’s important:
         1. “It delivers blasphemous and anti-art blows in equal measure” (Hopkins 15) because of both the title and the nature of the image itself- there is potential irony (or a pun as Hopkins puts it) in its meaning- a virgin is supposed to be pure and- if I had painted a blessed virgin in this same regard it may have just been a blank sheet of white paper! So Hopkins debates are this anti-art or anti-religion?
         2. Other information in case of questions or if our discussion goes this way: around the same time he produced a painting called Jeune Fille (1920) which was a white sheet with simply a black circle in the center and Jeune Fille written around the circle (Hopkins 16). Also, 391 was a magazine published in Spain by Picabia almost as a “sister publication” the New York Avant-Garde magazine which he was also involved in (Buffet 257).

• Ici, C’est Ici Stieglitz Foit et Amour from Object Portraits

1. 1. Year published: 1915
   2. How or where published: in the journal 291
   3. Theme: representing personal stories, in this case, humans, with the complex machinery that was developing in this time period
   4. Why it’s important: Buffet actually mentions these works on page 257 and 258 in her article that we read in preparation for this class- this obsession was a movement within dada (she does not talk about this piece in particular but of another picture in this set) Picabia himself became indulged in technological work like this one in 1915
      1. According to Artsy- the online gallery you examined for class “Picabia channeled this negative energy into his illustrations for the combined July–August 1915 issue of the periodical 291. He rendered caricaturist Marius de Zayas as a perpetual motion machine and journalist Agnes Meyer as a spark plug. These diagrams of energy-producing contraptions contrasted sharply with the representation of Stieglitz depicted as a combined broken camera bellows and stationary vehicle. Despite this implicitly downbeat criticism, the elder photographer kept the original ink drawing and collage (1915; Metropolitan Museum of Art) for his own “likeness” until his death in 1946.”
   5. I really thought this singular painting could not stand alone so on the top right I also put “Machine Tournez Vite” (1916) and another piece from his own publication aforementioned 391; no. 6 (1917)
2. Edtaonisl (let them tell you about what they see and pick up from the painting first)
   1. Year published: 1913
   2. Theme: cubism
   3. Why it’s important: he actually was inspired to paint this while on the ship to NY (for the Armory show) and saw a Dominican priest watch and be fascinated by this polish dancer. The painting importance not only lies between the blend of the two figures (they are both on this boat yet so different) but also the contrast of two figures. There is also a motion of both the rocking ship and the dancer herself, according to The Essential Guide, 2013, p.255.Once again there is this underlying irony where this religious pious figure is gawking at and essentially finding pleasure or fascination in this woman.

4th. Split the classroom into half- team Picabia and team Buffet.

1. 1. Buffet’s writing excerpt or another writer that we have studied
      1. 3 excerpts of hers and 2 of other writers
         1. I need to be able to explain why it can/can’t be identified as hers: point of view, who is speaking, when was it written
      2. “It was a strange period of gestation and adaptation; new works brought nothing but doubt, dismay, anxiety until minds could adjust themselves and corresponding new reflexes could be created.” Buffet, 1949 Some memories of pre-dada: Picabia and Duchamp p.256
         1. Observational point of view
      3. “HE can compress every aesthetic principle in one line.” Mina Loy, “Aphorisms on Futurism” 1914 https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69405/aphorisms-on-futurism
         1. Loy, 1914. About the futurists – contrasts to Dada because not about aesthetics. Dada is about the effect it has on the audience, the questioning, the confusion, embracing the ability to think.
      4. “the end of this amazing figure will never be cleared up.” Buffet, “Arthur Cravan and American Dada” 1957 (Cite in the annotated bibliography: Motherwell, Robert, editor. The Dada Painters and Poets: An Anthology. Wittenborn, Schultz, Inc., 1951, pp. 13-17, 255-267. Print.)
         1. Finished without a conclusion, in Dada fashion; no definite message;  about Arthur Craven.
      5. “There is singularly nothing that makes a difference a difference in beginning and in the middle and in ending except that each generation has something different at which they are all looking.” “Composition as Explanation” Gertrude Stein, 1940 https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69481/composition-as-explanation
         1. Sounds like a train of thought – not Buffet. She has observed Picabia and Duchamp go through many stylist changes in one lifetime.
      6. “We were convinced of the arbitrariness and falsity of our poor creation, the world.” Buffet, 1949 Some memories of pre-dada: Picabia and Duchamp, p.255
         1. The intent of most dada work was to show how the world could be different or to look at it differently; this shows that they felt it needed to be different.

1. If they ever produced something together (20 min):

• What would it be?
• How would it be made?
• Who would take what roles in its creation?
• When would it be made?
• Where would they display it?
• Who would/where would advertise it?
• And why

(Explain that it can either be a work of art, or they can describe the features of a work of art that they think it would be like)

1. 1. Have each group work on their work for 10 min
   2. Each group presents the how and why then discuss as a class the similarities and differences between the 2 groups (10 min)