Survey

Learning to Look at Paintings: Portraiture

By looking at examples of different types of portraiture throughout the history of art, this class introduces students to the basic formal elements of a work of art and the choices an artist considers in depicting the identity of an individual, group, or the self. Class time may include a hands-on activity that allows students the opportunity to create their own portraits and expand on concepts presented in the curriculum.

Recommended grade levels: K-12, Adults.
Curriculum connections: World History, U.S. History, Social Sciences, Visual Arts.

Exploring Still Life

Still life is a category of artworks in which the subject is generally inanimate, such as a bowl of fruit or an arrangement of flowers. In this class, we will look carefully at a variety of still-life paintings and photographs from the seventeenth century to the present-day. Together, we will investigate the ways in which these works of art convey deeper layers of meaning about collecting, moral values, and aesthetics of form through their cultural context as well as through the artist’s deliberate selection and arrangement of objects.

Recommended grade levels: K-12, Adults.
Curriculum connections: World History, U.S. History, Social Sciences, Visual Arts.

Art of the United States

American History Through Art

"American History through Art" examines artworks from the colonial era to the late nineteenth century by noted American artists such as John Singleton Copley, Winslow Homer, Frederic Church, and Mary Cassatt. Artists of the United States often looked to social trends and historical events for their subject matter. This class examines a range of subjects including portraiture, genre scenes, and landscapes, and each work illustrates a significant moment in the development of the American artistic tradition. While discussing these artworks from LACMA's outstanding collection, students participate in a visual tour of early American history.

Recommended grade levels: K-12, Adults.
Curriculum connections: U.S. History, Social Sciences, Visual Arts.

Modern Urban America

This class explores the artworks of American artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries whose subject matter and style responded to social, economic, and industrial changes that marked the period. "Ash Can" artists such as George Bellows and John Sloan focused on capturing scenes of life in the city among the working class. Looking at paintings and photographs, this program explores depictions of the changing modern urban landscape in the United States.

Recommended grade levels: K-12, Adults.
Curriculum connections: U.S. History, Social Sciences, Visual Arts.

European Art

Drama in Art: Artists in Seventeenth-Century Europe

Europe in the seventeenth century was a place of dramatic contrasts. Against the backdrop of religious, political, and economic changes, the arts flourished. Depicting popular subjects ranging from still lifes and landscapes to biblical stories and portraits, artists of the Baroque period pursued an intense interest in naturalism. Chosen from LACMA's permanent collection, the artworks viewed in this class include paintings by seventeenth-century masters such as Jan van Huysum, Frans Hals, Georges de La Tour, Valentin de Boulogne, and Rembrandt van Rijn. Class discussion analyzes the various elements of the Baroque style that these artists employed in order to create compelling and dramatic works of art.

Recommended grade levels: K-12, Adults.
Curriculum connections: World History, Visual Arts.

French Impressionism: Color, Light, and Modern Life

French impressionism developed as a major artistic movement in the late nineteenth century as society became transformed by increasing industrialization and urbanization. Impressionist painters were interested in visually recording the subjects of a new modern life in Paris and the leisure activities of the middle class. Their style was revolutionary as it aimed to capture the fleeting effects of light, color, and time. This class looks at the principal impressionist and postimpressionist artists featured in LACMA's permanent collection, including Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Gaugin.

Recommended grade levels: K-12, Adult.
Curriculum connections: World History, Science, Visual Arts.

Ancient Art

Heroes and Myths in Ancient Art

Ancient objects often illustrate and embody important myths, beliefs, and details about powerful individuals in a culture. This class concentrates on four or five objects from LACMA's collection, each from an ancient civilization—Assyria, Greece, Rome, Mexico, or China—with attention on how the form and function of each object come together in order to capture and convey meaningful stories through art.

Recommended grade levels: K-12, Adults.
Curriculum connections: World History, Visual Arts.

Treasures from Ancient Egypt

Ranging in date from the fourth century B.C.E. through the end of the Coptic period (seventh century A.D.), the approximately two thousand works of art in LACMA’s Egyptian collection present a broad overview of artistic production. The strengths of the collection include Predynastic stone palettes and vessels, Old Kingdom tomb reliefs, bronze figures of deities, and a Twenty-First Dynasty sarcophagus. The class curriculum explores the belief systems, social structures, and visual imagery in ancient Egyptian life and culture, as evidenced from the artworks and cultural artifacts uncovered from this amazing civilization.

Recommended grade levels: K-12, Adults.
Curriculum connections: World History, Visual Arts.

Please check back monthly for new programs.

This program is made possible through the Anna H. Bing Children's Art Education Fund.

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Education Department
323 857-6512
educate@lacma.org