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Teaching Materials | The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation

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Explore a range of materials on art and artists for use in the classroom, at home or during visits to the museum.

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Big Idea: LGBTQ+ Art, Contemporary and Modern 

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Big Idea: LGBTQ+ Art, Contemporary and Modern 

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As someone who is grappling with the idea that she may be part of the community, it is important to educate students about the aspects of this community. There is age appropriateness, and there is ignorance. With this kind of art, we can find the perfect middle ground. This is aimed towards high school and middle school, since that is what I desire to teach.

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Bad Air/Yer Grievances, 2018. christina quarles 

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Bad Air/Yer Grievances, 2018. christina quarles 

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This large scale painting is 62"x55" and acrylic paint.  Quarles creates ambiguous forms in her paintings to create a stance for people whose "experiences of living in a body that is not always legible within the heteronormative, patriarchal, white, Western ideals that structure [their] daily life, [for her] particularly as a fat queer woman born to a white mother and a Black father." -Quarles

She strives to push the boundaries of people and extend the idea of the self.

The spectrum of identities within the LGBTQ+ community is also extended and limitless to the idea of oneself.

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Dawn Embrace, 2018.  Jonathan Lyndon Chase. 

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Dawn Embrace, 2018.  Jonathan Lyndon Chase. 

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"My work deals with bodies—more specifically Black, Queer, nonbinary bodies—and space relationships.   I admire thinking about the complexities of space; what’s real and not real; how things like memories, histories, emotions, travel from one origin to another." - Jonathan Lyndon Chase

"It is an exciting time to be making work that reclaims, challenges, and brings center focus to bodies and stories of Queer Black people in ways that are less about the constraints, lenses, and expectations. It’s exciting and empowering to see ideas of beauty; our bodies in historical references questioning gender. My work is about Love as well as a human range of emotions, self reflection, and visibility." -Jonathan Lyndon Chase

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Louis paints his story.  His most recent series depicts the last year of his life and the cast of characters and feelings he had along the way.

He paints people he loves and focuses on things he gets fixated on.  One example he uses is: " If I fell in love with hair on the back of someone’s neck, or a mole, I will redistribute the shapes of the body to highlight this element, the way a memory does."

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Big Idea: Immigration in Contemporary Artwork

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Big Idea: Immigration in Contemporary Artwork

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I decided on a topic that has always been one of major significance and yet, still continues to cause divide between so many in our country - the topic of immigration. It is important that students learn how much of our country's population is not only based on a melting pot of varying cultures, but also stop and consider the struggles immigrants face as they enter a country in which "liberty and justice for all" is promised.

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Portrait of My Father as an Alien, 2018. Tatyana Fazlalizadeh. 

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Portrait of My Father as an Alien, 2018. Tatyana Fazlalizadeh. 

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In this work, based on her father's "resident alien" ID card from the 1970s, Fazlalizadeh aimed to create a work that didn't showcase her father as an "alien" in a new country but rather a father, a husband, and most importantly, a human. The artist encourages the viewer to look beyond the label given to an individual (specifically, an immigrant) and see what is there, rather than how they are presented by society.

"It is essential to ask ourselves, how do we resist the dangerous narratives of immigrants that have been presented to us and instead see and uplift the humanity and rights of individuals?" - Tatyana Fazlalizadeh

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In this work, the artist Edel Rodriguez personifies the concept of xenophobia by creating a group portrait of not-quite human beings traveling together in a boat.

As the author states, "Boat people, that’s what many immigrants are considered. I was one of them, a refugee. I understand that welcoming strangers can be dangerous...We have always lived with the dangers of accepting foreigners, and we have always dealt with them, knowing that those are the risks a country must assume if it is to be a beacon to the entire world.

This country now seems scared to take risks on foreigners, to bet on the possibility that the next boat full of strangers might be full of greatness."

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Big idea: Prison Industrial Complex/Solitary Confinement in Art

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Big idea: Prison Industrial Complex/Solitary Confinement in Art

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One aspect of art that is important is inclusion and representation, and one community that is often unfairly represented and ignored is the prision population. It is important for students to have the opportunity to think about and discuss the prison industrial complex in a way that centers their point of view.

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Art collection "The Sound of George Floyd" by Maya-Ying Lam features images of the BLM movement in the soundwaves of George Floyd's last words. It is important that students understand aspects of our county's history and how that affects us today. With images such as these, it gives face and emotion to topics that students may not be exposed to in these ways.

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Big idea: Lesbianism and gender roles in Art

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Big idea: Lesbianism and gender roles in Art

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Often our societal perspective of lesbianism and gender roles are single faceted and non-inclusive. Giving students the opportunity to see the various ways that people can "be gay" is important for representation as well. In addition, art that reflects love, passion, and relationships can open up the idea that art reflects life.

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Notice No Soliciting, 2018. Patrick Martinez.

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Notice No Soliciting, 2018. Patrick Martinez.

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Using an unconventional medium of neon signs often seen in the windows of mom-and-pop stores, artist Patrick Martinez uses a play on words to transform an otherwise seemingly normal sign "as a visual deterrent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement", as the artist himself puts it.

The artist's medium and use of remixing text encourages the viewer to consider the double meaning behind the phrase "Notice No Soliciting" and how it connects to the stereotype of how an immigrant is treated in today's society, as well as how ICE plays a larger role in this stereotype and perception of an immigrant.

"Dozens of videos demonstrating the aggressive tactics deployed by ICE have surfaced online. In many cases, it has been reported that ICE agents have unconstitutionally harassed and arrested innocent people based on false information...Rather than using immigrants as scapegoats for issues related to crime or unemployment, we must call for social reform." - Patrick Martinez

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Kyle Meyer, “Unidentified 48” from the series “Interwoven”

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Kyle Meyer has a background in photography and sewing. He seeks to explore his identity as a gay man within the LGBTQ+ community. He’s from Swaziland and has lived in Ohio. Being gay in Swaziland is illegal. He draws on these experiences to inform his work. For this series he says, “I explore the challenges of homosexuality in a hyper-masculine culture within Swaziland. Given that homosexuality is illegal in this small African country, gay men constantly have to hide their sexuality and suppress their true identity. After befriending several gay men in Swaziland, who confided in me their personal stories of struggle, I asked them to choose a piece of fabric typically worn by women with which I made unique wraps on each of their heads. It would be taboo for men to wear these head-wraps in public, as that would indicate homosexual tendencies. This was one simple way for them to express their individuality that they regularly have to hide.”

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Molly Crabapple, Portraits of myself and Lola Montes with things said about us by our contemporaries

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Molly Crabapple explores how social media bullying affects one’s self image and identity. This is a two sided sculpture of the artist and another person she wanted to celebrate as being strong and fighting against the negativity that gets thrown their way. Each portrait is covered in comments people have said to them online.

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Anila Quayyum Agha, All the Flowers Are for Me

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Anila makes work that is meant to create spaces where no one feels like an outsider. She draws inspiration from the artwork of her homeland, Pakistan. She uses her cultural identity to hopefully evoke questions of feelings of belonging, why someone might feel they belong there and why they might feel like they don’t belong there and how their identity influences their perception of the work.

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I picked a topic that has been on my mind lately as we face the effects of climate change and the pollution we have caused to this earth. I feel like this topic can be important for students to learn about in order to think about the effects we have on the environment we live within.

One artist who is known for making art about environmental issues is Kim Dorland. He begs the question “how far do things have to go before we notice or act?" and primarily focuses his eerie paintings to depict the idea of memento mori in relation to not just humans, but nature as a whole as well.

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Another artist who focuses on creating art discussing environmental issues is John Feodorov, an Indigenous artist who wants to bring attention to corporations and fossil fuels damage to the land of Indigenous reservations. He wishes to use art as a way to bring attention to the discussion of the oil mining industry's exploitation and pollution.

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A third artist that uses art to discuss environmental issues like pollution does so in a different way than the previous artists. Angela teamed with a group of volunteers to clean up beaches of trash, and used the trash collected to create these large displays and statues. She hopes to at least attempt to help with the issue of pollution as she and her team clean up over 26 tons of trash off of beaches (as of 2020) and turn them into these displays to raise awareness.

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Roxanne Halls

Halls frequently depicts women being themselves without limits. She begins by asking “how should a woman be?”, and looking at her art, this mean unrestricted, unapologetic, and empowered. Rather than these women being passive in their expression, they are taking charge and taking up the space that they deserve to take up. This work in particular addresses the ridicule women receive in regards to eating and appetite, which is either too much or too little. Eating is biological this body appearance should be the the last concern of anyone.

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Marilyn Minter

This painting is part of a collection called “Pretty/Dirty”, again focusing on this duality of women being seen as too much and too little. Women are criticized for wearing too much makeup or none at all. Freckles have become trendy, but only when they can be washed off at the end of the day. Pimples and blemishes are seen as gross until you bring out your five step skin care routine. Minter tried to capture women in a way that makes you questions what you desire and why.

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Hend Al-Mansour

Much of Al-Masour’s work highlights the freedoms, or lack there of, of women, specifically in the Middle East. She states that the art she creates is art that would be banned from her home country of Saudi Arabia, though this is how women should get to act and dress. She states, “You grow up feeling that you have half a brain," Al-Mansour said. "I'm very, very embarrassed because my people can't bring themselves to give women the right drive a car. It's just stupid and meaningless,” though art has been her avenue to avenue to new opportunities.

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I chose the theme of environmental art because it brings light to environmental issues and conservation efforts. I believe that it is important to protect the Earth as we all share and live on this beautiful planet. We owe so much to the Earth, and a lot of the things we do is harmful to it. I think what these artists are doing is important as it sheds light onto the natural beauty of the Earth, the damage being done to that beauty, and the ways we can do better to help our home stay clean.

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The first artist I chose is Mark Dion. His work investigates and reinterprets representations of natural history. ("an institutional critique of Nature"). He brings environmental science into the museum and examines the ways in which dominant ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of the natural world. He creates works that question the distinctions between the 'rational' scientific method and the 'irrational' influences. Dion also collaborates with environmental institutions to spread knowledge on nature.

In this art piece, "The Survival of the Cutest" (1990), Dion draws attention to attractive "cute" animals using stuffed animal versions of said animals and placing them in a wheelbarrow. The animals shown are not keystone species meaning that the ecosystem wouldn't collapse if they were gone.

"They're not like the beaver or corals which produce systems that support other animals. Now, foregrounding charismatic animals is not so bad if you acknowledge at some point their relationship to other forms of life in the ecosystem. If conservation efforts could highlight the fact that by protecting the jaguar, we can also preserve vast areas of habitat that benefits everything in it, including us, then the focus on the 'cutest' would not be so problematic. But that's not what conservation groups do. They haven't taken the opportunity to reveal the real goals. To me, that shows how much they are working against themselves" (Dion).

https://www.artspace.com/magazine/news_events/book_report/mark-dion-54848
https://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/artists/34-mark-dion/

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Mark Dion, Survival of the Cutest, (Who gets on the Ark?) from 'Wheelbarrows of Progress' with William Shefferine, 1990

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Mark Dion Survival of the Cutest, (Who gets on the Ark?) from 'Wheelbarrows of Progress' with William Shefferine, 1990 Toy stuffed animals, white enamel on red steel, wood and rubber wheelbarrow Wheelbarrow: 25 x 27 x 55 1/2 inches, overall: 42x57x43 inches

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Wheatfield - A Confrontation: Battery Park Landfill, Downtown Manhattan - with Agnes Denes Standing in the Field©1982 Agnes Denes

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The second artist I chose is Agnes Denes. Agnes is internationally known for works created in a wide range of mediums and is a pioneer of several art movements. Her artistic practice investigates sciences, linguistics, history, philosophy, psychology, poetry, and music. Denes pioneered the practice of creating land art pieces that also provide functional ecological systems-restoration and community-based interventions.

One of her best-known works is "Wheatfield - A Confrontation" (1982). The project was created in a four-month period in the spring and summer of 1982 when Denes, along with the support of the Public Art Fund, planted a field of golden wheat on two acres of a rubble-strewn landfill near Wall Street in lower Manhattan. The piece transformed the Financial District and commented on the social values and priorities of the time.

"Planting and harvesting a field of wheat on land worth $4.5 billion created a powerful paradox. Wheatfield was a symbol, a universal concept; it represented food, energy, commerce, world trade, and economics. It referred to mismanagement, waste, world hunger, and ecological concerns. It called attention to our misplaced priorities" (Denes).

https://www.artspace.com/artist/agnes_denes
http://www.agnesdenesstudio.com/works7.html

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Natalie Jeremijenko, Amphibious Architecture, 2009, Grid of robotic buoys, marine-grade electronics. In collaboration with xClinic (NYU) and The Living (GSAPP)

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The third artist I chose is Natalie Jeremijenko. Natalie is an environmental artist with a background in biochemistry, neuroscience, physics, and precision engineering. Her work primarily explores the interface between society, the environment, and technology and she has pioneered a form of public art that generates collective action and environmental gain. Jeremijenko also uses technology, coding, and experimentation to offer functional ways for the public to interact and learn about the environment.

In her installation "Amphibious Architecture" (2009) Jeremijenko animates the ecosystem of the East River by using buoyant sensors to detect various environmental changes and data. The project blended art and science to make the invisible visible by revealing levels of Dissolved Oxygen in real-time through colored lights.

"Visitors and community from around the world can text a special number and receive real-time analysis of the health of the river. Amphibious Architecture aims to raise the profile of important issues related to the health of the Derwent Estuary and the interdependencies in our ecosystems and make the usually invisible, visible" (Carbon Arts).

http://www.carbonarts.org/people/natalie-jeremjenko/
http://www.carbonarts.org/projects/amphibious-architecture-what-does-the-derwent-want/