10/01/2012 – Pinakotheke – Salvador – Exhibition – Nereide Schilaro Santa Rosa

Lasar Segall (Click to see the original article)

Exhibition on the artwork of Lasar Segall (1851 – 1957) ART-EDUCATION – Supplement with suggestions for student activities to CHILD EDUCATION, ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 1, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 2 and HIGH SCHOOL

Dear Teacher Visit an art exhibition is a special time in our lives. It is an encounter with the expression of thoughts and feelings of sensitive people and a rare opportunity to enjoy unique works. This meeting takes place in different ways: when we appreciate the work of art, to imagine the constructive process that culminated in that work and when we establish visual contact with the exhibition space itself. The artist, in preparing his work, as well as the curator of the exhibition, think about every detail, about the colors, shapes, materials, location, size and more. Visit an art exhibition is to feel and enjoy it all. It is thinking about each work, on the artist’s intention, as he organized the material and chose particular support for the expected result. This exhibition organized by curator Vera d’Horta, deals specifically, the work of Lasar Segall, part of Brazilian modernism and one of the most important names of the Expressionist movement in Brazil. Born in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, in 1891. At 15, he went to live in Germany and studied at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. Later he moved to Dresden, where he studied in the city’s Academy of Fine Arts. Came to Brazil for the first time in 1913 and exhibited in São Paulo and Campinas. Returned to Europe, living in Germany during World War II. Around time to Brazil in the 1920s.He married in 1925 with Jenny Klabin and naturalized Brazilian. In the 1920s, the height of Modernism, Lasar Segall became friends with Mario de Andrade (1893-1945) and other modernists as the architect Gregori Warchavchik, who designed his home in São Paulo neighborhood of Vila Mariana, where today stands the Museum Lasar Segall. Founded the Society Pro-Arte Moderna (SPAM). He died in São Paulo, in the year 1957. At the beginning of the visitation, comment with your students some aspects of the artist’s biography and, during the visitation, have students observe the arrangement of the paintings. n assessing a painting, some aspects should be considered. Think about what it conveys: • curiosity, lyricism, gentleness, strength, movement, anxiety, playfulness, sadness, fun, tranquility, comfort, etc. • Note whether figurative or abstract work and if there is a theme. • Realize the screen size, stroke of the artist, texture, material used, including support such as canvas, cardboard or wood. During the visit, and enjoy the works, call students’ attention to the colors and the brightness of the exhibition room, the size of the works and space, and read the information that is available to visitors. At the end, discuss with your students about your preferences, what they learned and observed, and listen to your comments and suggestions. Upon returning to the classroom, resume the subject through development activities. Below we suggest a series of educational activities directed especially to work in the classroom from the exhibited works. Thus the teacher will develop the three guiding principles of art education at school: enjoy it while visiting the exhibition, the context when commenting on the biography and historical information about the artist, and finally do, to carry out the activities from the theme. The following activities are divided in such a way to serve the interests of early childhood education teachers, elementary school 1 and 2, and High School. We recommend, however, that the / a teacher / a read all the activities and make the necessary adjustments according to their reality.

CHILD EDUCATION                                                                                                                                                                                       
1- Women errant second version, from 1919 to 1920 woodcut, 23 x 29 cm First: ask your students to describe what they observe in the work. Tell them what engraving, that is, an etching made from a wood matrix. The artist digs mother, spread the paint with a roller, place a sheet of paper on the ink and the press. The excavated in the array images are white and the higher parts are colored, printed on paper. Ask students to locate, in the work, the high parts of the matrix. Second: this period of his life, the artist produced prints with strong contrasts between white and black, light and dark, empty and geometric forms well defined. Comment on the theme that the artist has depicted and drawing attention to the geometric and simplified faces. Third: associate the shapes of the work faces with masks made of paper. Provide models of similar shades to the picture faces. Have each student draw and cut out your mask on white cardboard and paint with black gouache so that the painting be similar contrasts with the work. Finally, propose students to play using the masks. Interdisciplinary enrichment activity Art education: body language through theater masks. Physical education: playing games and using masks.                                                                                                                                                                                              2 – Brazilian Landscape, 1925 oil on canvas, 64 x 54 cm Lasar Segall Museum, Sao Paulo First: ask your students to describe what they see in the painting. Tell them that in this period of his life, the artist returned to Brazil and definitely the same year that produced this work was married to a Brazilian and naturalized Brazilian two years later. Second: this work, the artist represented a Brazilian urban landscape composed of simple houses, similar to the slums that exist today in the hills and outskirts of our cities. Ask students to describe the designed environment. Note the features and geometric outlines, bright colors that stand out in almost overlapping shapes. Third: to propose to your students to draw the urban landscape of the place where they live in Canson A3 paper and crayons. Recommend to supplement the landscape with collage of geometric cutouts of colored waxed paper. Interdisciplinary enrichment activity: Mathematics: study of geometric shapes and use of space.      
3 – Maternity, 1935 bronze, 56 x 40.5 x 44 cm Lasar Segall Museum, Sao Paulo First: tell your students that the material of this sculpture is bronze. Explain the process of a bronze sculpture is made complex and time consuming, first artist modeling clay in the form passes into the plaster, and then makes a wax coating the mold plaster mold is then placed in an oven for three to four days. The space where was the wax is empty because it melts. It is in this space that is poured a molten bronze broth to 1400 degrees. This process is known as “lost wax”. The piece will be ready when the molten bronze take the shape of the mold. After the artist breaks the mold and removes the sculpture to put the finishing touches with various tools: sandpaper, files and chisels. Bronze is made up of three materials: copper, tin and zinc. Second: ask students to describe what they observe in sculpture. In this work, the artist has depicted a mother and her son or daughter. Relate the theme maternity sculpture and comment on the intention of the artist to represent the maternal affection by the position of the figures, the look and the mother’s posture. Comment she is seated, dressed and barefoot on the floor. Let your students imagine and verbalize the mother’s name and the child, where they live, how they live and in groups, to create a little story about the double sculpture. Third: from the observation of the sculpture, propose that each student build his sculpture with junk objects on the same topic: plastic bottles for body, paper napkins to dresses, and so on. Let your students suggest other materials and solutions.. Interdisciplinary enrichment activity: Portuguese: speaking and writing by creating stories about the figures represented in sculpture. Science and Environment: considering the activity with scrap comment on the importance of reusing materials for the preservation of the environment, the issue of recycling and conscious consumption.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 1    
1 – Boy with lizards, 1924 oil on canvas, 98 x 61 cm Lasar Segall Museum, Sao Paulo First: ask your students to describe what they observe in the work. Tell them that in this period of his life, the artist was enchanted by Brazil and Brazilian people. In this painting we see the simplicity and lyricism image showing a boy playing with lizards in the middle of a banana plantation, typical plant of a tropical country like Brazil. The themes of Brazilian culture were the main issues of the modernist movement. Discuss with your students how the colors, the shapes and figures of this work of Segall remind the people, the culture and the Brazilian landscape. Second: we can see that the boy is the focal point, the first figure that catches the eye of the beholder to work. The yellow color highlights the lizards. Perceives an environment with low light in the middle of a dense banana plantation. Review and note along with their students the dark shadows of the leaves of banana trees that give depth and movement impression. Third: propose the realization of a large panel group. With black pencil, students will design the foliage, the boy and the lizards on the A2 size sheet. With blunt scissors, cut shapes in green crepe paper and paste on the designs of banana leaves. With brush and colorful gouache paint, paint the rest of the panel. Interdisciplinary enrichment activity: Science and Environment: considering the work of Lasar Segall picture, make a reflection on the importance of preserving ecosystems, small animals function in the ecological balance, the tropical vegetation and the issue of sustainability in the environment. 
2 – Mario on the net, 1929 drypoint, 25.5 x 32 cm Lasar Segall Museum, Sao Paulo First: ask your students to describe what they observe in the work. Explain the printmaking technique in drypoint. It is an engraving process on copper plate (chalcography) without the use of varnishes or acids. The artist makes incisions with a steel prop with diamond tip. When drawing, the artist holds the prop in diagonal position for burrs that will help in printing. Then it prints the drawing on paper and the image obtained is smooth and clear. This type of print is delicate and the matrix allows you to print a few copies of this print. Second: ask students if they have had the opportunity to sleep in a hammock or swing, and explain that this is a very common object in the interior of homes in Brazil, in the north and northeast. Comment that Andrade was a researcher and writer who recorded the customs and Brazilian culture, and his work was very important for the modernist movement. Segall the honors in this work for the friendship that existed between them. Third: ask students to observe closely the work of Segall and black pencil draw on an A3 sheet of paper, the Mário de Andrade’s figure sitting on the net. Then ask them to do a balloon of thought over your head and write what Mario was thinking at that moment of rest. Ask students to justify the text. Interdisciplinary enrichment activity: Portuguese: creating text from the design. Geography: study of the uses and Brazilian customs and the rescue of Brazilian cultural events by Mário de Andrade.
3 – Still life with vase of flowers, 1913 oil on canvas, 58 x 43 cm First: ask your students to describe what they observe in the work. Explain that still life is a work with the representation of inanimate beings. In this case, a vase with flowers and a plate of fruit on a table. Second: comment in the same year that Lasar Segall produced this work, in 1913, he first came to Brazil and exhibited in São Paulo and Campinas. This is a figurative work, with strong lines and colors. In that time, he studied in Germany, whose art is strongly significant even before the expressionist movement. Let students understand the intention of the artist to represent the objects significantly. Draw attention to the table inclination line, which causes a feeling of imbalance in the viewer. Third: ask students to observe closely the work of Segall and then with brush and ink colored gouache, draw and to paint a still life on an A4 screen. Interdisciplinary enrichment activity: Science: comment with your students about the physical phenomena related to light, and the study of polychrome, monochrome and color of the circle: primary, secondary, tertiary, analogous, complementary, hot and cold.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 2      
1 – Self-portrait, c. 1914 black paint to brush on paper, 32.8 x 21 cm First: comment on the subject and the importance of self-portrait for the artist. Explain that self-portrait is the image of the artist executed by himself, so full of subjectivity and meaning. For example, in some works, Segall themselves portrayed as African descent, a fact that calls attention because he was Jewish emigrant. Maybe that’s why he felt affinity with the people of African origin in some way to suffer prejudice and social oppression. Propose students to find some physiognomic similarities. Second: comment with your students the artist produced this work in 1914, early in World War I, and it was at this time that he began to produce expressionist works, emotional conversations. His figures are sad, and angular lines and geometric shapes trends, such as the screen Two girlfriends. Third: have each student make an enlarged copy of your own photograph and observe the image and then compare the reflected image in a mirror. Ask students to divide an A3 sheet into two equal parts. A party, with crayons, the student will design his self-portrait as he saw the photocopy and mirror image. In the other half, with crayons, ask students to draw and to paint a self-portrait by modifying their physical characteristics (skin color, hair, eye color, mouth and nose shapes, etc.). Ask students to expose the two designs and compare the results. Make comment and reflect on your preferences. Interdisciplinary enrichment activity: History: comment on the First World War. Geography: promote a reflection on the issue of social inclusion, the role of migrants in the formation of Brazilian society and the issue of racial discrimination in the world. Discuss the role of critical citizen, transformer and articipatory.                   
2 – Mulato II, c. 1924 oil on canvas, 64.3 x 45.5 cm First: ask your students to describe what they observe in the work. Tell them that in this period of his life, the artist is fascinated by Brazil, mainly by the people and produced several works on social matters such as this. Tell Lasar Segall who was a scholar and painter dedicated himself preparing his canvases and worked for about ten hours a day. Second: comment with your students about the structure of the composition where you see the boy in the foreground, the colors and background decorative ornaments. The artist used the very colorful and vibrant colors, and lines with defined geometric planes are more organized, show less strain than in the previous expressionist period. Third: ask your students research and cut out of magazines a figure with a boy in a similar position to work. Then ask the student to draw squares or rectangles with black pencil on an A3 sheet of paper. Ask to color the squares with colored gouache. Once dry, stick figure boy on colorful squares. Interdisciplinary enrichment activity: Mathematics: let your students calculate the aspect ratio relative to the size of A3 paper and calculate how many geometric shapes fit within the sheet.          
3 – Cattle on the mountain, in 1939 oil and sand on canvas, 60 x 65 cm Lasar Segall Museum, Sao Paulo First: ask your students to describe what they observe in the work. Tell them that in this period of his life, Lasar Segall began to use more refined tones that have become characteristic of his works of that time. The tones were softer, with predominance of cool colors. During this period, Segall produced several views over the mountains of Campos do Jordao. Second: let your students understand the perspective in screen space as the size and shape of mountains and animals. The shadows are soft, but indicate the volume of the figures. No details on the animals, like the eyes, and there are shady trees and lush vegetation. The environment is represented arid, almost desert, which makes the viewer look centralize their animals, the only “living” beings in the landscape. Propose a problem situation to his students: “As the cattle could survive with little vegetation to feed would be the intention of the artist?”. Third: let your students to prepare some ink pots made from the sieved soil mix, gum arabic and some colorful gouache splashing in cool shades. Have each student draw with black pencil, a landscape on A3 Canson paper. Then with a brush, paint the drawings with the earthy paints prepared previously. Interdisciplinary enrichment activity: Mathematics (geometric design): explain about perspective, vanishing point and point of view in geometric design. Sciences: comment on the environmental issue, the food chain and the preservation of the environment for the animals and the vegetation necessary for their food.

HIGH SCHOOL           
1 – Two girlfriends, c. 1914 oil on canvas, 85 x 79 cm First: comment with your students the artist produced this work in 1914, at the beginning of the First World War and was at this time that he began to produce expressionist works, emotional conversations. His figures are sad, with lines and angular forms and geometric trends. Propose students research on the Expressionist movement in Germany especially the Die Briicke group (The Bridge). Comment on the extent of Lasar Segall coming to Brazil in 1923 – from it, the German expressionist art came to serve as a counterpoint to the French influence, represented by Tarsila do Amaral (1886-1973), Vicente do Rego Monteiro (1899- 1970) and other modernists. Mon undo moment: let your students appreciate the work under different aspects: color, form, theme, the artist’s intent, light, perspective, volume, tension and expression – for example, drawing attention to the dark background highlights the female figures in the foreground. Propose a discussion between groups: one will defend the Academicism which valued proportion “perfect” shapes, lights and shadows to give the feeling of volume and perspective in the plan, and the other team defends the expressionist movement that valued the expressive freedom the artist through the colors and shapes. Third: ask students to browse and cut out pictures of actors or actresses. With crayons, should represent the patterns of photos through geometric lines on Canson A3 paper and paint them with watercolor pencils and charcoal. Interdisciplinary enrichment activity: History: Lasar Segall was Jewish and so, in your life, suffered moments of racial discrimination, including been confined for a while in the city of Meissen, near Dresden, where he lived during the First World War. His works have been ignored, ridiculed and banned by the Nazi regime in Europe. Have students search, discuss and reflect on the important and significant relationship between Art and Politics, In some moments in the history of European art and also Brazilian, both in the Empire period as the Vargas period.       
2 – Female figure with mirror, 1922 oil on canvas, 75 x 62.5 cm Lasar Segall Museum, Sao Paulo First: comment with your students about the importance of the year 1922 in the history of Brazilian art, marked by the implementation of the Week of Modern Art. According to Mário de Andrade’s opinion, even with the passage of Segall by Brazil in 1913, the beginning of Modernism was, in fact, with the exhibition of Anita Malfatti in 1917. Lasar Segall, coming to Brazil in 1923, was associated the modernist group. In 1927 he became a naturalized Brazilian and was Brazilian family, to marry Jenny Klabin Segall, with whom he had two children. It was also one of the founders of SPAM, Society Pro Modern Art in November 1932. Second: ask students to verbalize what they observe in the work. Draw attention to the title, in which the artist refers to a mirror. Note to some cubist influence, with the colors and stoned volumes and the distortion of shapes such as a reflected image and transformed by the painter. Third: bring a mirror and some objects to the classroom, and place them on a table. Ask your students to observe the image of the objects in the mirror, from different angles and points of view. With brush and ink gouache, ask students to represent, in drawing and painting, the images observed in the mirror. Interdisciplinary enrichment activity: History: Research on the importance of the Revolution of 1930 and the constitutional movement of 1932 as events that contributed to the Social Art of this new direction for the production of the modernists, in that period. Sciences: study of optics, light reflection and its physical phenomena.
3 – Ship and mountains, 1930 drypoint, 28 x 41.5 cm Lasar Segall Museum, Sao Paulo First: ask your students to describe what they observe in the work. In the picture in drypoint the artist uses a copper plate as a template, such as chalcography, but without use of varnishes or acids. When drawing, the artist makes incisions with a steel prop with diamond end in diagonal position for burrs that will help in the design of print on paper. This type of print is delicate and the matrix allows you to print a few copies of this print. Second: comment that the artist produced a series of prints in the late 1920 and early 1930. One of his most frequent themes represented the open spaces with sky and sea and the journeys of migrants on ships. In this work, the theme is represented in drypoint, with smoothness and clarity. Segall had exemplary technique, since he was a student of fine arts from a young age in his homeland. The result of his artistic training is a group of works with refined techniques and strong emotional density. Third: propose students to reproduce the sky themes and sea, ship and emigration, with watercolor pencils on Canson A4 paper. Interdisciplinary enrichment activity: Portuguese: essay on the importance of the study of biographies on the choices and the professional life of an individual. History: study the importance of migrants to the economy of a country and the cultural changes that occur from their integration into society.

SUGGESTED READING / TITLES OF OUR PUBLISHER                                                                                                            
Series History of Brazilian art for children                                          
The author writes especially for children and youth about the most important events of Brazilian art, and thus shows, in plain language, the evolution of the artistic culture of the country. In the collection, published in six volumes, presents the work of traveling artists in Brazil between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The Imperial Academy of Fine Arts and the greatest artists of the nineteenth century; Modernism and the birth of a genuinely Brazilian movement; the greatness of Abstraction; the refinement of Baroque art in our country and the importance of the Brazilian folk art to the knowledge of our culture. Nereide Schilaro Santa Rosa, Pinakotheke Issues, Rio de Janeiro, 2002-2003.   
Sarewa: a trip to the Langsdorff Expedition
In a first-person narrative, the young indigenous Sarewa, fantastic character, describes for the small player, the difficulties and the adventurous mood of the Langsdorff Expedition (1821-1829), which is one of the most important events cultural and scientific Brazil. Expedition facts, this adventure without historical character, are enriched by truthful excerpts from the diary of Baron Langsdorff. Through this beautifully illustrated and colorful book, the children’s reading public will understand the importance of scientific expeditions in Brazil in the nineteenth century, both for science and for art, since drawings made during the trip are important records of our culture and our people. The narrative is accompanied by an educational supplement and a glossary. Nereide Schilaro Santa Rosa, Pinakotheke Issues, Rio de Janeiro, 2004.
History of Sao Paulo through art
To honor the city of São Paulo in the year celebrating the 450 years of its foundation, the author addresses the children and youth to tell, in very nice language, the history of São Paulo, largest city in Brazil, through the development of fine arts. Illustrate the text reproductions of works of art – paintings and sculptures of the most important Brazilian artists such as Alfredo Volpi, Victor Brecheret, Tomie Ohtake, Candido Portinari, among others. Nereide Schilaro Santa Rosa, Pinakotheke Issues, Rio de Janeiro, 2004.
Views and landscapes of Brazil
The author tells how the various Brazilian regions, from north to south, influenced Brazilian and foreign artists who came in search of inspiration for a new world. It takes the reader to stroll through Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Sul and Bahia, ciceroneado the vision and inspiration of our greatest artistic exponents. It may be noted the evolution of Brazilian art from the documentary character of painting Traveller painters in a century old, as Montanus, Frans Post and Rugendas, to contemporary and abstract view of artists such as Claudio Tozzi and Gregory Gruber, through the modernist traits of Cicero Dias, Candido Portinari and José Pancetti. Nereide Schilaro Santa Rosa, Pinakotheke Issues, Rio de Janeiro, 2005.  
Art education for teachers: theories and practices in school visitation
This book aims to help the educator to enrich their work with art education in the classroom, through a reflection on the issue of visitation students to exhibition spaces. It is intended that after reading this educator is effectively prepared to take the student to understand the importance of eye contact with a work of art in a space specially designed for this purpose, and that this be fully useful, both in their didactic and pedagogical aspect, as in the generation of personal and aesthetic growth. Nereide Schilaro Santa Rosa and Neusa Schilaro Scalea, Pinakotheke Issues, Rio de Janeiro, 2006.Verses for the old Rio de Janeiro – Poetry for Children
The author invites readers to a colorful and poetic tour of the Rio de Janeiro nineteenth century. Among the places visited are Copacabana, the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas and the City Centre, from the inspiration of great painters as Eliseu Visconti, Castagnetto, Debret, Grimm and Fachinetti, among others. This book, designed for children suggests the resumption of a practice almost forgotten in the family environment and in the classroom: the spoken poetry reading. Henrique Rodrigues, Pinakotheke Issues, Rio de Janeiro, 2007.
Everything changes: everyone, the whole world.
In this book, a very cheerful and frisky teacher asks a sly question for your class: what changes color, shape and size of an hour to another? Reading illustrated by beautiful paintings of Aldemir Martins, one of the greatest Brazilian artists, will exercise the imagination of children. Tereza and Luiz Yamashita Bras, Pinakotheke Issues, Rio de Janeiro, 2007.