In this lesson students explore both the passion that inspired Picasso to take political action and the thought process behind the work. Students will reflect on their own decision making process when they feel compelled to take public action. This lesson will lead students to investigate the following Life-Long Learning Question: How does passion inspire public action?

Students will be able to compare portrayals of individual soldiers to depictions of battle scenes and discuss the impact of each on viewers; analyze rhetorical strategies in two newspaper articles about a current war; write two different newspaper articles about a current war from different viewpoints; and create digitally or manually manipulated photographs.

Students will be introduced to performance art and will consider its relationship to more traditional forms of visual art, such as painting and sculpture; consider the different ways in which performance art is documented; explore artists' construction of identities in performance and their adoption of signature materials and props.

Students will consider artists' choices related to materials, line, color, and scale; consider artists' motivations for using repeated forms; compare and contrast industrially fabricated works of art with those made by hand.

The five lessons that comprise this guide may be used sequentially or as independent units. An introduction to the key principles of each lesson is followed by a close examination of the works, including historical context and information on the artist. Discussion questions based on the images lead students through formal analysis of the artworks and seek to create connections between information and visual evidence. The activities that conclude each lesson encourage students to synthesize what they have learned about the works, and carry the lessons into the broader curriculum or relate it to skills students are practicing in the classroom.

Access and download over 50,000 images that are a part of the National Gallery of Art's permanent collection.

Students study how artists of the Neoclassical period were influenced by major historical events during the Enlightenment. They will identify and analyze the Neoclassical style.

Students will consider the challenges of representing identity visually; consider text and elements of popular culture in an image; continue to consider the role of drawing as a political medium.

Students will consider portraiture as a means of political expression; discuss the elements of a portrait that contribute to its meaning, such as expression, pose, costume, and background; consider the effectiveness of drawing as a form of political expression.

Students will compare and contrast two paintings; understand the term modern as used in an historical and art historical context; become familiar with the terms foreground, middle ground, and background.

Students create a small time capsule of their own, shaped like a pyramid.

This resource packet contains images and supplemental readings to be used when teaching with Peter Blume's painting "The Rock." Classroom activities and discussion questions are also provided.

Students will examine architectural structures in paintings and how they are used, also considering the art elements, composition, emphasis, color, and light. Students will be able to examine the use of architectural structures in paintings; consider the use of composition, emphasis, color, and light in paintings; write words, phrases, and a stanza of a poem depicting a painting's mood; draw an interior and write a related stanza of a poem; and draw exterior landmarks and write a related stanza of a poem.

This lesson plan offers the unique opportunity to see behind the scenes of the life of a political illustration artist. Students will learn how to use an illustration to express a political point while exploring many art mediums and self--expression.

Students will be introduced to some of the conventions of portraiture such as costume, gesture, expression, pose, and background; consider how the above elements can communicate information about a person; consider how symbols can be used in a portrait to add meaning.

The nation’s only complete collection of presidential portraits outside the White House, the America’s Presidents exhibition lies at the heart of the National Portrait Gallery’s mission to tell the American story through the individuals who have shaped it; these models are a selection of Presidential sculptures from the exhibit.

The Smithsonian 3D Program is a small group of technologists working within the Smithsonian Institution's Digitization Program Office. We focus on developing solutions to further the Smithsonian's mission of “the increase and diffusion of knowledge” through the use of three-dimensional scanning technology, analysis tools, and our distribution platform.

This work is already transforming core functions of our museums. Researchers in the field can now come back not only with specimens, but also 3D data documenting entire sites. Curators and educators are using 3D data as the basis for telling stories and sending students on quests of discovery. Conservators are using 3D data to track the condition of a collection item over time using 3D deviation analysis tools, showing exactly what changes have occurred to an object.

Students will compare propagandistic strategies in artworks to modern-day examples of persuasive techniques and create a propaganda poster for a current political leader.

Students will be able to talk about the original contexts of works of art; explain what the Grand Tour was; and give reasons why people have looked to the art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome for centuries as a source of inspiration.

This resource contains information about a reading about Chuck Close. After reading and discussing questions about the artist, students will create a image using one of his methods/techniques. 

Students will learn about design issues including sustainability, safety, and use; explore how architects are using green technologies in today's buildings; investigate how the built environment affects the natural environment; investigate how the natural environment affects the built environment.