Although this lesson plan is designed for teachers, it may also be used as a web enhanced activity for students.  So please try these activities yourself and with you students, invent others, and tell me about what you are doing.  I hope that you will share your or your student's comments and reactions by sending an e-mail.

Introduction to Art
Topic:   Art Criticism
Grade Level:   9-12
Student Lesson name and URL:

Standard 1. Artistic Perception

Processing, analyzing, and responding to sensory information through the language and skills unique to the arts.

Visual arts descriptor:  Students learn how to perceive the world in an artistic way by refining their sensory perceptions of works of art, objects in nature, events, and the environment. They identify visual elements and principles of design using the language of the visual arts.

Benchmark met
1.1.   The student recognizes, describes, analyzes, discusses, and writes about the visual characteristics of works of art, objects in nature, events, and the environment.

1.4.   The student continues to expand and use art vocabulary to describe and analyze works of art and the environment.

Standard 4. Aesthetic Valuing

Responding to, analyzing, and making judgments about artworks.

Visual arts descriptor: Students analyze, interpret, and derive meaning from works of visual art. They make critical judgments about and deter-mine the quality of visual artworks and art experiences in accord with learned elements and principles of art.

Benchmarks met
4.1.   The student makes informed judgments by applying the four steps of art criticism to his or her artwork and the work of others (describe the work, analyze the work in terms of the art elements and design principles, interpret the work in terms of ideas and emotions, and judge the work as to its success both technically and in terms of communicating an idea or emotion).

4.2.   The student responds to a variety of works of art and talks about his or her interpretations of the artists’ intentions.

4.3.   The student expresses his or her ideas about art and gives reasons for preferences in works of art.

Standard 5. Connections, Relations, Applications 

Connecting and applying what is learned in each art form to learning in
other art forms, subject areas, and careers.

Visual arts descriptor: Students apply what they learn in visual arts to
learning across disciplines. They develop competencies in problem solving,
communications skills, and management of time and resources, all of which
contribute to lifelong learning and career skills.

Benchmark met
5.1.    The student integrates what he or she learns in art to learning in other
subject areas.

5.2.   The student learns skills in art that translate to careers.

Student Activities

Introductory Activity

  Wayne Thiebaud (pronounced Tee' bow) was born in Mesa, Arizona in 1920. He studied at Sacramento State College and the California School of Arts and Crafts. He teaches at the University of California, Davis, and is represented with works at major museums of American art. "Wayne Thiebaud first gained national and international acclaim in the early 1960s with his food paintings such as Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts. Critics allied his paintings with the banal, common objects of the Pop Art of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Tom Wesselmann, and Claes Oldenburg. However, these paintings now seem more akin to the American Realist tradition practiced by Edward Hopper or nineteenth century French Realists such as Jean Chardin, with whom Thiebaud has been compared. Thiebaud revived the still life that celebrates the ordinary. 

Mr. Thiebaud is highly personable, and an extremely articulate, masterful painting instructor. He does not consider himself an 'artist,' but rather a 'painter.' He likes to make a clear distinction between the two. 

Before studying art at Sacramento State College. Wayne Thiebaud served in the army.  While in the army from 1942-1945, Thiebaud worked as a cartoonist for the comic strip Wingtips.

• Do you see any connections between Thiebaud's earlier career as a cartoonist and his now famous still lives, such as Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts  (1962, oil on canvas, 52" x 72")?

• If  Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts was a frame from a comic strip, what might come before or after it?

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Enabling Activity(ies)

  Adding Up the Details

Many of Thiebaud's still lives share the concept that multiple presentations of mass produced pleasures tug at or consciousness.

• How many different food items are in Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts?

• Does this painting remind you of making hard choices?

• Was Thiebaud's choice to present several types of food, better than if he had had all sandwiches?

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  Criticizing Criticism of Salads, Sandwiches, and...

An art critic wrote this about Thiebaud's still lives of food: "What he (Thiebaud) shows us isn't very appetizing food.  I wouldn't eat it.......he never paints to flatter his subject or us (the viewer)"

(click on image to see it enlarged)

Salads, Sandwiches, and...

• Do you agree with the critic when he says the food "isn't very appetizing"?  Would you want to eat it?

• Do you agree that Thiebaud "never paints to flatter his subject or us"?

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• Pretend you are in Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts, writing in first person, explain your thoughts and actions.

• Think like one of the food items displayed in Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts, writing in the words of that food item, explain Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts.

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(click on image to see it enlarged)
     Considering Thiebaud's Choices
Salads, Sandwiches, and...      

How would your understanding of Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts change if:
 

• one sunday was missing?

• there was no sundays?

• it was all sundays?

• there was only one of each food item?

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  Compare  Salads, Sandwiches,.. to Penny Machines

                                                    (click on image to see it enlarged)                                                 (click on image to see it enlarged) 

                                    

Critics often compare works of art by the same artist to assist in the interpretations and style.  Thiebaud created both Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts and Penny Machines in the early 60's.  The two paintings show common elements.

• List the commonalties among Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts and Penny Machines.

• Both titles mention the objects in the painting.  Are these paintings about more than the objects themselves?

• One critic proposes that Penny Machines be a symbol for Las Vegas hotels.  How does Penny Machines relate to Las Vegas?  Might its title be compared as well?

• What is meant by this claim?

• Which is more appropriate for Penny Machines?

• Is one more appropriate for Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts?

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Culminating Activity

  Criticism of Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts

The art critic helps viewers perceive, interpret, and judge artworks.  Often, after applying the four steps of art criticism to a work of art, the art critic themselves will become more appreciative of the artwork.  Although the art critic helps viewers better understand a work of art, the actual process of doing criticism is most beneficial to the one who does it.  Using the resources from the above activities and the outline provided below, develop your own critical judgment of Salads, Sandwiches, and Desserts

I.   Description:  A gathering of information; names, dates, size.  What do you see, feel, hear, smell, taste?  Also, contextual information such as facts about the artist or the times in which the art was made.

A.   Subject Matter:   What is in the art work (objective)?

B.   Medium:   What tools, materials, or processes did   the artist use?

A.   Elements:   Line, shape, light and value, color, texture, mass, space, volume.

B.   Principles:   Scale, proportion, unity, rhythm, balance, directional force, emphasis or subordination.

A.   Interpretive Statement:   Express what you think the artwork is about in one sentence.

B.   Evidence:   What evidence inside or outside the artwork supports your interpretation.

A.   Criteria:   What criteria do you think are most appropriate for judging the artwork: realism, expressionism, formalism, or instumentalism.

Realism:   The idea that art mimics the real world, that artworks represent or reflect object in the physical world. 

Expressionism:   The emotional impact of an artwork is related to the feeling of the artist, the intrinsic nature of the artwork, and/or the responsive feelings of the viewer.

Formalism:   The composition or structural arrangement (elements and principles) of the artwork is the most important quality.  Art needn't be about anything. Art for art sake.

Instrumentalism:   Art serves as an instrument for furthering a point of view that might be moral, religious, social, or political.

B.   Evidence:   What evidence inside or outside the artwork relates to your criterion?

C.   Judgment:   Based on the criteria and evidence, do you find the artwork to be successful?

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Insert your grading rubric for the culminating activity or a link to your rubric or test document file.

Introductory Activity
List and link the web resources for this activity here. Also link supplementary materials such as PDF files and /or document files. 

Enabling Activity
List and link the web resources for your learning activity(ies) here. Also link supplementary materials such as PDF files and /or document files.  Links to examples

Culminating Activity
List and link the web resources for your culminating activity here. Also link supplementary materials such as PDF files and /or document files. student critique sheet

Casey Tosta
Galt High School
145 N. Lincoln Way, Galt, CA 95632 

Last Revised: 08/19/00