Look and Discuss

Present and discuss a selection of the 10-featured artworks in the Artwork & Artists slideshow with your class.

(Tabs will provide you with information on the theme, composition, interpretation and the artist.)

A downloadable Presentation that you can add to or manipulate will also help share these images in your classroom.

Context: In the 60?s and 70?s, American artists abandoned traditional processes and traditional art materials for unconventional materials from everyday life. They even questioned the very concept of what an artwork should look like. Among the emerging new movements, ?process art? focused on the creation process and introduced the notion of the ephemeral and the transitory. Once a fixed and lasting icon, the work of art was now considered a process. Artists began using unconventional materials, allowing gravity and chance to shape the overall form of their work. They created forms by cutting, fixing, hanging and dropping materials to create interesting compositions.

Discuss: Discuss with the students the concept of ?process art? by looking at the work by Robert Morris called Untitled (254 pieces of felt). What is the role of chance in creating a composition in process art? Does a work of art need to be fixed and permanent?