Art History - Arshile Gorky (Vostanik Adoian)

Our Specials schedule this year is

Mon - Art History

Tue - Philosophy

Wed - Structured Word Inquiry

Thu - Letter Writing

In my Art History 2024-2025 blog post, I decided December would be Arshile Gorky. Here are some resources and my planning notes:

Arshile Gorky
(born Vostanik Adoian)
1904 - 1948

Gorky's life was a difficult one and there are not ANY children's picture books about him. Instead we will be using books about war and being a refugee:

The Day War Came by Nicola Davies

Four Feet, Two Sandals by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed

The Cat Man of Aleppo by Irene Latham and Karim Shamsi-Basha

Last weekend I attended the "Dancing in the Well: Art for Healing Trauma" conference, and I plan to use some of those activities in our exploration of Arshile Gorky and his work.

teacher background information:

Rethinking Arshile Gorky by Kim S. Theriault
Penn State University Press

The Artist and His Mother painting (1926-36)
Whitney Museum of American Art

Arshile Gorky: Double Life, Double Portrait
National Gallery of Art

the original photograph of Gorky and his mother

Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective
Tate

Arshile Gorky
Wikipedia

also

Art History Kids - The Studio - April 2021

The Encyclopedia of Artists

Gorky's work at nearby museums:

Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University, STL
Golden Brown Painting (1943–44)

I recommend joining Lotus Stewart's Art History Kids website (The Studio) and getting access to her past lesson plans. I like her work, and find it's really helpful to have so many ideas that I can use as a jumping off point.

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week of Dec 2:

Mon

story - Four Feet, Two Sandals by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed

painting focus - "Garden in Sochi"
image p.7
discussion p.26

do Week 4 activity "Abstract Memories"

Tue

do "Intuitive Art" activity from Dancing in the Well conference

week of Dec 9:

Mon

story - The Day War Came by Nicola Davies

painting focus - "The Artist and His Mother"
image p.4
discussion p.24

do Week 2 activity "Paint from a Photo"

Tue

story - The Cat Man of Aleppo by Irene Latham and Karim Shamsi-Basha

do "Collaborative Poem" activity from Dancing in the Well conference

week of Dec 16:

Mon

story - Leah's Pony by Elizabeth Friedrich (Great Depression)

painting focus - "Study for Mechanics of Flying"
image p.6
discussion p.25

connect WPA with CCC (and Giant City State Park)

Tue

story - A Boy Named FDR: How Franklin D. Roosevelt Grew Up to Change America by Kathleen Krull

for students who are interested in learning more about the Great Depression, I also have


Six Days in October: The Stock Market Crash of 1929
by Karen Blumenthal

Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp
by Jerry Stanley

interesting side note and article about Sanora Babb (for adults):
She Shared Her Notes with John Steinbeck. It was Her Novel’s Undoing.
The New York Times - Oct 18, 2024

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