artfullearner

Latest Posts by artfullearner

You know that play is an essential and profound part of humanity when it's inspired countless works of art.

Girl on the swings, 1953.

Photo: Ernst Haas via Design You Trust

Playground sculptures. A fun, whimsical and culturally universal way to inspire learning!

Fiastyúk (then Thälmann) street housing estate, Budapest, 1960. From the Budapest Municipal Photography Company archive. 

I couldn't include everyone in my piece my piece "Form, Function and Fun: Playgrounds as Art Education," so I'll have to do a follow up blog post discussing Aldo van Eyck's work and philosophy around play and playground design.

When Aldo van Eyck assumed work at the Amsterdam Public Works (Amsterdam Publieke Werken) one task soon became his focal point: the design of playgrounds accessible for every child in every neighborhood of the city. Until then there existed only secluded playgrounds initiated by playground associations of which children had to be member to gain access. On Jacoba Mulder’s initiative Van Eyck made a first design for the Bertelmanplein consisting of a sandbox in which four large rocks and an arch-shaped climbing frame were placed. This design was his point of departure for many more playgrounds to come (Van Eyck eventually realized some 700 of them) but also a testing ground for his ideas about architecture, relativity and imagination. Especially with regards to relativity. i.e. the non-hierarchical arrangement of the different components based on their mutual relationships, the playgrounds proved to be of great importance for Van Eyck’s theoretical reflections.

In 2002 the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam devoted an entire exhibition to Aldo van Eyck’s playground that was accompanied by the present catalogue: „Aldo van Eyck: De Speelplaatsen en de Stad“, edited by Liane Lefaivre & Ingeborg de Roode and published by NAi uitgevers. The catalogue collects a wealth of photos and drawings that in turn provide insights into a body work that in many ways appealed to the architect. For Aldo van Eyck the children’s perspective on city and architecture as well as the lighthearted creativity that went along with it were of integral importance. As the authors show, he had his play equipment designs tested by his own children and at the same time let himself inspire by artists and artworks he admired. The result were playgrounds that on the one hand appealed to children and on the other hand tell a lot about Van Eyck’s intellectual and creative reference system. Unfortunately only a fraction of them still exist today….

I love Fujio Kito's photographs of playgrounds around Japan. There are so many artful and thoughtful designs for play spaces and structures throughout the Japanese cultural landscape.

東京都狛江市多摩川住宅ニ号棟

中央公園

※多摩川住宅ニ号等も建替えが決定しました。

★多摩川住宅の写真展をしたいので、調布市・狛江市で団地の公園遊具の写真展を開催できるスペースを探してます。オススメの場所などありましたらご連絡ください！

#公園遊具　#公園　#playground #park #playsculpture #artwork #photoism #tokyo #japantravel

#多摩川住宅　#多摩川　#団地　#石の山　#調布　#狛江

Playground art.

Rocks On Wheels, 2022, Mike Hewson                    

Rocks On Wheels is sculpture park playground consisting of 24 large monolithic bluestone boulders on domestic-scale furniture dollies.

88 Southbank Boulevard, Melbourne, VIC

I recently wrote about Khor Ean Ghee and other modern and contemporary artists and designers who have created whimsical designs for playgrounds. You can read my piece here: "Form, Function and Fun: Playgrounds as Art Education."

The Dragon Playground was designed in 1979 by Khor Ean Ghee, an in-house designer from HDB (Housing and Development Board’s) inspired by Chinese dragons, very popular among Chinese in Singapore.

The Ang Mo Kio Dragon Playground is one of two remaining playgrounds in Singapore with this design. The other one is located in Toa Payoh.

https://www.kopitravel.com/Asia/Singapore/Kids-Details?kidsId=1010

#singapore #singapur #kopitravel #travel #asia #visitsingapore #exploresingapore #splendid_urban #cityphotography #cityscape #dragon #playground #dragonplayground #historic #historico #angmokio #hdb #hdbsingapore (at Ang Mo Kio, Singapore)

My practice is largely focused on play as an artistic and pedagogical activity and philosophy. I recently wrote an essay called "Form, Function and Fun: Playgrounds as Art Education," about the fun and informative history of artist created playgrounds. In addition to several examples of actual playgrounds created by artists, I include a tried and true example of a lesson I like to use where students make their own paper playgrounds. You can read my essay here.

Image: One of Khor Ean Ghee’s dragon playgrounds in front of a community housing development in Toa Payoh, Singapore. Photograph by Jimmy Tan, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, David Novros, ForrestMyers, Robert Rauschenberg and John Chamberlain, Moon Museum, 1969, lithograph of tantalum nitride film on ceramic wafer. Source: MoMA

Whether or not you believed they put an art museum on the moon, my latest Artfully Learning post highlights art's universal value. Read about how the Space Race impacted art education and led to STEAM learning in "Art Spaces: Interdisciplinary and Interplanetary Explorations Through Artful Learning"

Isamu Noguchi's rendering for a playground. I wrote about the educational philosophy behind these artful playgrounds in a post called "Fröbel’s Gifts, Noguchi’s Playgrounds" on Artfully Learning. Read it here: https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2020/12/01/frobels-gifts-noguchis-playgrounds/

Harold Cohen coloring the forms produced AARON’s drawing Turtle at the Computer Museum, Boston, MA, ca. 1982. Collection of the Computer History Museum, 102627459. Is it possible to stop worrying and learn to coexist with AI? That's the question I begin to explore in the Artfully Learning post "Living and Learning with AI?" Read here: https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2023/01/17/living-and-learning-with-ai/

Hamish Fulton, Seven Paces, 2003, cast iron installation. Photograph by Hans Weingartz, CC BY-SA 2.0 DE https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/de/deed.en, via Wikimedia Commons

I wrote about how we can walk with a purpose by expressing habits of mind that we learn through art. Read "How to walk like an Artist" on my blog, Artfully Learning: https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2023/01/19/how-to-walk-like-an-artist/

Zoë Buckman, "Help I Work at the Ministry," c.1995, fabric and mixed media. Arts writer Priscilla Frank (2017) explains that, “when she was 10 years old, Buckman’s father got a job as a statistician at the Ministry of Defense in London. Imagining her father going to work at such an official building was humorous for her. Having overheard her parents speak of the long process of him receiving security clearance, she wanted to sew him a tie and entrap it in a glass frame.” . Read more about this artwork and others in my blog post "The Childhood Origins of Working Artists" Here's the link to my piece: https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2023/01/13/the-childhood-origins-of-working-artists/

First image: Irving Kriesberg, (no title) drawing from the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History, c. 1929, graphite on paper. Collection of the Irving Kriesberg Estate Foundation. Second image: Irving Kriesberg, The Victim, 1994, oil on canvas. Collection of the Irving Kriesberg Estate Foundation.

Irving Kriesberg developed an aptitude for art at an early age by filling notebooks with drawings of museum taxidermy he encountered at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History. This early experience of biological rendering made a lasting impression on Kriesberg, who manifested his own animal imagery and phenomenal aesthetic environments throughout his career.

The untitled graphite drawing of a leopard seizing a bird in its claws is from around 1929, which would mean that Irving was about 10 years old when he drew it; the painting, titled The Victim, is from 1994, when Irving was 75. Both compositions feature a large cat pouncing on a bird.

It is amazing to see how interests, explorations and influences from childhood manifest creatively throughout the course of one's life. This is an apt insight into artistic development of a professional artist. Read more about this phenomenon in my latest blog post "The Childhood Origins of Working Artists."

Graphite drawing of a lady with a parasol, made by Paul Klee between ages 4 and 6. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Read more about the childhood artwork of well known artists in my latest Artfully Learning post here.

Painter's Palette Inscribed with the Name of Amenhotep III ca. 1390–1352 B.C.

Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Carved from a single piece of ivory with wells for six different pigments. It is inscribed with the throne name of Amenhotep III, Nebmaatre, and the epithet "beloved of Re."

Helen Levitt's artful photographs of children's chalk drawings. Read more about her work in my blog post "Photographing Children’s Play and Art"

helen levitt

Read my latest blog post on Helen Levitt called "Photographing Children’s Play and Art" on Artfully Learning: https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2023/01/05/photographing-childrens-play-and-art/

Helen Levitt New York, c. 1942 Signed, titled N.Y. and dated CIRCA 1942 on verso

I wrote about Asawa's journey to become a renowned artist and art educator in a post titled "Weaving Art with Life." Read it now on Artfully Learning: https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2022/11/15/weaving-art-with-life/

Ruth Asawa teaching paper folding, ca. 1980s [© Estate of Ruth Asawa]

Top: 2- Stage Transfer Drawing. ( Advancing to a Future State),  Boise, Idaho. Erik to Dennis Oppenheim, 1971. Bottom: 2- Stage Transfer Drawing. ( Returning to a Past State), Boise, Idaho Dennis to Erik Oppenheim, 1971. Source: The Estate of Dennis Oppenheim

How does drawing extend beyond actual marks made on a surface? Find out in my post "Lineage Drawing," where I describe the impact of a 1970s collaboration between conceptual artist Dennis Oppenheim and his children. Read it via the URL here: https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2023/01/02/lineage-drawing/

A highly inventive childhood drawing by renowned American abstract painter Louise Fishman.

Louise Fishman, FOOD COUPONS FOR IMAGINARY BROTHERS & SISTERS, 1947 

Note, she’d have been around 8 at the time.

Helen Levitt, Graffiti: Chalk Drawing of Figure with Double Pupils, New York City, c.1940, gelatin silver print. Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

American photographer Helen Levitt is known for her documentary and candid style street photography of everyday life. One of her recurring subjects is children at play. She also captured their whimsical works of art, such as this 1940s photograph of a children's chalk drawing in New York City.

Louise Berliawsky, (no title), c. 1905. Courtesy of the American Art Collaborative.

This is an early twentieth century interior scene by a young girl named Louise Berliawsky, who grew up to become renowned for her modernist monochromatic, wooden sculptures under the name Louise Nevelson. Read more about the importance and influence of children's art in modern and contemporary culture via my Artfully Learning post "Conference of the Animals & 120 Years of Children Drawing New York City."

An ancient Egyptian sherd with three children’s drawings. Source: the University of Tübingen’s Athribis-Project.

In an Artfully Learning post titled Artfully Ancient Learning, I analyzed an early 2022 archeological discovery of pottery fragments from Ptolemaic-era Egypt inscribed with a educational content including mathematical problems, grammar exercises and a variety of sketches and pictographs. The inscriptions are believed to be the work of students. Looking at the drawings in particular, I described how the figuration indicated a developmentally appropriate understanding of the ancient Egyptian canon, and how they correspond with contemporary understandings of artistic development. Read more here: https://theartsandeducation.wordpress.com/2022/02/10/artfully-ancient/

Angélique du Coudray’s La Machine was a groundbreaking obstetric phantom. Read about how this innovative soft sculpture inspired radical changes in medical education in the Artfully Learning post Abrégé de l’art des accouchements (The Art of Obstetrics)

Vivien Collens, Froebel’s Gifts: Blue Circuit, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.

Vivien’s "broken cube" sculptural motif is an ode to Fröbel's Gifts. The cube is a module that enables Collens to explore her aesthetic ideas in an active, hands-on manner that combines guided and spontaneous artistic processes. "Broken cube" is a key component of Collens’ "Froebels Gifts" sculpture series (2017-ongoing). The title of the collective body of work references processes and products associated with Fröbel and his active learning methodologies.

On the Artfully Learning Audio Series, Vivien and I discuss her work within the context of education, specifically the influence of Friedrich Fröbel, a eighteenth century educational reformer who is notable for developing the first modern kindergartens. Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19-uDm961e8&t=1062s

Holy Night Ruthie Aybar 3rd Grade USA

Source: The Henry Schaefer-Simmern Collection, Children's Museum of Art, New York (CMA1264.20)

Birch bark letter no. 202: spelling lessons and drawings by Onfim (aged 6 or 7), c.1240–1260. Source: Wikimedia commons

Find out more about this drawing in my Artfully Learning post: "Ancient Art Education"

Color plate from the 1922 publication, "Christmas Pictures by Children." This illustration was made by students of Austrian artist and educator, Franz Čižek. Čižek established his Juvenile Art Class in Vienna, Austria in 1897. His student-centered approach to teaching, and his philosophy that children's art should be a unique genre (and not compared to adult art), led to the foundation of the Child Art Movement.

Sister Corita Kent’s "10 Rules for Students, Teachers, and Life," 1967-68.

Corita Kent’s list for students, educators, and everyday experiences, serves as sagely and flexible advice for living life in a more creative capacity. It incorporates the trials and tribulations, as well as the joys of being an artist (or being artful) and/or an educator. Read more about the pedagogy behind Kent's list in my Artfully Learning post "Making a list, checking it twice, going to receive some artistic advice"

This week I found myself talking about artist Jayson Musson’s “Art Thoughtz” again. The series of videos are done in a classic YouTube style, with low grade effects, text, and even complete with a low resolution webcam video of Jayson Musson in his persona “Hennessy Youngman”. The videos themselves challenge the art world with humor and exaggeration, spliced together with more seriously delivered well thought out critiques. Musson’s critiques on the history and present state of art bring a fresh level of awareness with a modern way of sharing and creating,YouTube. Critiques are presented in a way that does not shy away from the low brow conventions of the internet but they are embraced and satirized, though shown to be just as ridiculous as much of art’s history. It becomes apparent that these videos humorously lecture a lot about mediums and art culture, but in the modern and very meta stage of the 2010’s, this is clearly art in itself.