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Artist Research by ECSDM

The Arts (1996)

In this lesson, students will conduct their own web-based research on an artist of their choice.

Students will:

Research the life of an artist and be able to state basic biographical information.
Become familiar with the art work of the artist being researched and be able to identify the artist's genre.
Learn how to obtain information on the computer through the use of various websites.

Genre - a type of painting judged by its content or subject matter (e.g., still life, landscape, portraiture, history painting.)
Art style - an artist's personal way of using the elements and principles of design and expressing feelings and ideas in art (e.g., Impressionism, Cubism, Fauvism.)

Three 45-minute sessions

As a class, read through the questions on the "Artist Research" and "Artist Biographical Information" sheets.
Using the SMART Board, go over the procedure for finding the information. As an example, type in the name of an artist on Artcyclopedia.com to find their art style and the years of birth and death. Show students that by scrolling down they will find numerous websites that contain information about their artist.
After all of the research procedures are demonstrated on the SMART Board, students will conduct their own research in the computer lab.
Have students go to The Biography Channel site to find more biographical information about their artist.
Have students go to the Art.com site. They should familiarize themselves with the artist's work and subject matter/genre, and choose an artwork to critique.

Students will be assessed on their completion of the questions on both sheets and the accuracy of the information.