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SPLAT!
BOOM! POW! The Influence of Cartoons in Contemporary Art
LESSON PLAN
Use of Appropriated Imagery:
Borrowing Images from Popular Culture
OBJECTIVES
1. To make art utilizing appropriated imagery
2. To better understand the role of popular culture in contemporary
art
3. To recognize the iconography of cartoons
4. (Optional)To learn how scale and location affect meaning.
MATERIALS
Cartoons/comics (supplied by students), white paper, tracing
paper, sharpies, markers/colored pencils/crayons
Optional: Overhead or Opaque projector, pencil, large sheet
of paper
BACKGROUND DISCUSSION I
In the early 1960s, American painting was deeply rooted in
Abstract Expressionism, which stressed the importance of the
authentic individual mark of the artist. There was a belief
that the abstract painter, usually a male, could make something
universal by tapping deep into his own unique psyche. Roy Lichtenstein
countered these assumptionsof paintings with work like Forget
It, Forget Me! (1962).
Roy Lichtenstein, Forget It!
Forget Me! 1962
Painted in the large scale often associated with abstract expressionism,
it is directly taken from Tony Abruzzo’s illustrations
in Girl’s Romance comic book, with minimal editing of
comic and text. The depiction of a banal subject matter complete
with the flatness of its original flatness was, at the time,
irreverent within the hallowed realms of fine art. The image
readily questions, “What is authentic?” “What
is unique?” “What is painting?” and “What
is art?”
BACKGROUND DISCUSSION II
Artist Jason Dunda also takes imagery directly from cartoons
and comic books. However, he transforms the work by trying
to re-present it a very painterly manner.
Jason Dunda, Supergirl’s Bedroom, 2000
Dunda describes his work this way:
"My current body of work takes its subject matter from old
comic books… I prefer to locate my work far from Pop
art and the current tongue-in-cheek purveyors of high-art/low-art
irony.
I temper the monumental, mythological nature of the comic book
with a cautious delicacy which I consider fundamental to painting. "
ACTIVITY
Have the students look through their comic books and choose
scenes that they think are interesting. Trace these scenes
and transfer them onto two different pieces of paper. On the
first, copy the scene in full. Try to reproduce this one so
that it looks as close to the original as possible. On the
second, remove the characters and the text. Leave only the
background setting and comic icons: starbursts, thought bubbles,
architecture, etc. Recreate this one in a style different from
a comic: paint it, color it with unusual colors, etc.
Which do the students prefer and why?
ADVANCED ACTIVITY (Optional)
Scale plays a huge role in how we perceive meaning. Using an
opaque or overhead projector, project either the comic (or
the transparency copy of the comic) onto a large sheet of paper.
Reproduce either all or part of image in large scale. The student
can depict the comic in a traditional or non-traditional comic
style.
Using a copy machine, reduce the original images to less than
half of their original size. Trace all or part of the image
and reproduce it at the new scale on a piece of drawing paper.
How has scale affected meaning? Does the larger one seem less
like a comic now? The smaller? Does one seem more like “art”?
Why?
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