Lesson Plan W r n V d Poppies - Denver Art Museum

Secondary
(Grades 6–12)

Lesson Plan

Writings from a Room with No View
Andrew Dasburg’s
Poppies

Poppies, Andrew Dasburg, 1931

Overview
After a careful examination of the painting Poppies, students will use it as a backdrop for a
creative writing activity. The lesson will start with a fun storytelling warm-up designed to get
students thinking about what catches people’s attention.

Age Group
Secondary (grades 6–12)

CMCS
Visual Arts
Standard 1: Students recognize and use the visual arts as a form of communication.
Standard 2: Students know and apply elements of art, principles of design, and sensory and

expressive features of visual arts.
Standard 4: Students relate the visual arts to various historical and cultural traditions.
Standard 5: Students analyze and evaluate the characteristics, merits, and meaning of works

of art.

Reading and Writing
Standard 2: Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences.
Standard 3: Students write and speak using conventional grammar, usage, sentence structure,

punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.
Standard 4: Students apply thinking skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and

viewing.

Length of Lesson
One 50-minute lesson

Rationale
Although it might seem obvious that artists make choices when they work, emphasizing this
point and linking it to how the brain has to make choices all of the time helps students think
about the concept more directly. It also helps students be more aware and purposeful when they
make conscious, creative choices for their own work.

Writings from a Room with No View
Andrew Dasburg’s Poppies

Denver Art Museum

Objectives
Students will be able to:

• describe how an artist’s subject matter and design choices affect viewers’ experiences
with a work of art;

• use a work of art to inform and inspire their imaginations; and

• use peer editing to improve their own writing and the writing of fellow students.

Materials
• One pencil or pen for each student

• Lined paper

Included:
• About the Art sheet on Poppies

• One color copy of the painting for every four students, or the ability to project the image
onto a wall or screen

Lesson
1. Warm-up: Select three student volunteers to come up to the front of the room. Sit one
person on a chair in the middle, with the other two people sitting on either side of that
person. The students on the outside are going to tell a story (a different story each)
to the person in the middle, each talking into a different ear at the same time. The
person in the middle is going to have to state as many details as possible about both
stories after two minutes. Tell them to begin; two minutes later, tell them to stop. After
the middle person states as many things he or she can remember, share that when
there is so much stimuli it’s impossible to attend to everything. Talk about how artists
often have to make choices on what to attend to, just like the person in the middle
(who probably paid attention to the more interesting story). Allow students to divide
into groups of three and repeat the exercise on their own with you keeping time.
2. Show students the painting Poppies. Lead a discussion on the subject matter, design,
and overall feel of the painting. What did the artist attend to? How does that affect the
overall feel? If certain elements were changed, (e.g. color, perspective, angles) how
would the painting feel different?

3. Tell them that this painting is the setting for a short story they are going to write. In this
story they have to explain how they came to be in the room, what is going on while
they are there, and what will happen to them if, and when, they leave. They need to
include descriptive words that portray what they see and how they feel in the room.
The story should be from a definite voice, either a narrator or first-person perspective.
They may be human, alien, ethereal, etc. Remind them that people pay attention to
things that are interesting and to keep that in mind as they write.

4. Students will share and peer edit stories, attending to voice, verb usage, description,
clarity, and overall quality of the story. If you can have two peer editing sessions,
student learning would benefit. The emphasis is on the fact that the words won’t be
just right the first, or perhaps even the second, time. Encourage students to take risks
and write differently than they might have in the past.

Writings from a Room with No View
Andrew Dasburg’s Poppies
Denver Art Museum

About the Art

Andrew Dasburg’s
Poppies

Poppies, Andrew Dasburg, 1931

Who Made It?

At age five, Andrew Dasburg traveled with his widowed mother from his birthplace of Paris to
New York. A fall into an excavation site at age seven sent Dasburg to a home for children with
disabilities, where his artistic talent was first encouraged. He enrolled in art school at the Art
Students League at age 16, and at 19 he was awarded a scholarship to the League’s summer
program in Woodstock, New York. In 1909 Dasburg traveled to Paris, where he was profoundly
moved by seeing Paul Cézanne’s paintings for the first time. (Cézanne is a renowned French
painter who has been called a forerunner of modern painting.) An art collector loaned Dasburg
a small Cezanne still-life of apples so he could copy the painting over and over again to better
understand and emulate Cézanne’s style. Back in New York, Dasburg continued to immerse
himself in the art world, experimenting with color theory and abstraction (not depicting an
object exactly how it looks but simplifying, distorting, or rearranging it to reflect an emotion or
sensation).

Dasburg moved to Taos, New Mexico, around 1930, where he lived for the remainder of his life.
Addison’s disease—and the fatigue and depression that came with it—kept him from working
for nearly a decade, but he started painting again at age 60. After his diagnosis, Dasburg
moved away from oil paint and watercolors and began using ink, pencil, and pastels. He also
made lithographs, or stone prints. He died at age 93, with the distinction of being the oldest
surviving participant from the 1913 Armory Show, the first International Exhibition of Modern Art
in America.

What Inspired It?

Increasingly influenced by the landscape of New Mexico, Dasburg resolved to give up pure
abstraction, realizing he gained more satisfaction in reacting to shapes and forms he observed
in nature rather than working from pure invention. He simplified and transformed the objects he
observed, using angular lines and geometric shapes to represent them without destroying their
identity as objects.

Dasburg’s real interest was not in studying flowers or their symbolism, but in simply creating a
good picture. The poppies were only a starting point for a study in color, shape, balance, and
rhythm. Dasburg made sure each individual shape that he used contributed to the picture as
a whole. Rhythm was particularly important to him; he said that “the force of gravity” and the
“upward impulse in living things” were fundamental factors in considering rhythm. Looking at the
poppies, it’s easy to see both the force of gravity as the blossoms droop and petals fall, and the
“impulse in living things” in their natural upward growth.

Andrew Dasburg’s Poppies
Denver Art Museum

Things to Look For
Straight and Curved Lines
The square shape of the doorframe and table and the short, straight
brushstrokes create a sense of angularity that contrasts with the arcs of the
vase, the rounded poppy petals, and the curved stems.

Warm and Cool Colors
Dasburg was interested in color theory and made use of the principle
that warm colors seem to come forward in space and cool colors recede.
The bright, warm color of the poppies forces the flowers to the front of the
picture. In contrast, the walls, which are made up of purples and blues,
seem to move back into space.
Vibrating Color
In most of the painting, Dasburg applied color in patches and separate
brushstrokes, interspersing warm and cool colors for a lively, almost
vibrating effect. The bold red and green colors in the center intensify each
other. The bright background creates a halo around the vase and flowers,
emphasizing the vibrancy of the vase and poppies.

Arc of Blossoms
Dasburg placed the flowers along a diagonal line, beginning at the upper
left and cascading down to the lower right. Follow the arc from the long-
stemmed flower that curves upward, to one that sits lower in the vase but
still faces upward, to its neighbor that faces downward, and finally to the
poppy whose stem curves completely down toward the table.

Andrew Dasburg’s Poppies
Denver Art Museum

Poppies, Andrew Dasburg, 1931

Funds, by exchange, from Mr. and Mrs. Gibson Gardner and Mr. and Mrs. Bayard J. Young in memory of Governor
Oliver H. Shoup, and Mr. and Mrs. Merrill E. Shoup, Helen H. Erickson, YWCA,

Elizabeth Scanlan bequests, Art America Fund, A. Wassenich Collection, and general acquisition funds, 1989.149
Photograph © Denver Art Museum 2009. All Rights Reserved.