Curriculum Links
The Weeping Woman and VELS (Victorian Essential Learning Standards)

 
 

Discipline-based Learning

Domain: The Arts

Dimension: Exploring and Responding

1. How does this painting make you feel when you look at it? What message is the artist conveying in this work and why do you think this?
2. How has the artist used each of the art elements to convey this message?
3. Why has the artist brutally deconstructed and disfigured the face of his model, Dora Maar? How does it contribute to his message?
4. How did Picasso communicate human suffering differently to previous painters?
5. Tate Modern, London own a painting in the Weeping Woman series (26 October 1937) Locate the painting on the internet and discuss the ways Picasso has used colour differently in this version and why. http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=11871
6. Research Picasso's Guernica from which the Weeping Woman motif is developed.The painting is regarded as one of the world's greatest anti-war masterpieces. Discuss the style, subject matter, art elements, scale and materials he has used to convey his sense of the outrage and senselessness of war. Find out how the work was received when it was made in 1937. Does the work have the same impact now as it did then?
7. Find and discuss examples of art, music and dance from different times and cultures that have been used effectively to communicate human suffering.
8. What role can art and photography play in documenting and expressing the many sides of war? Find, discuss and compare examples of each.

Dimension: Creating and making

1. Isolate an issue or current event that you feel extremely strongly about. How could you communicate it to raise awareness on a mass scale? Discuss which medium would most effectively communicate your message. Create your own politically driven masterpiece. Consider sounds, images, movements and technology, or a combination of these.
2. Compare the materials, techniques and processes available to Picasso in his lifetime with the high technologies available today. Picasso was known for the remarkable innovation of his techniques. Recreate a contemporary and innovative version of Picasso's Weeping Woman in visual imagery, sound or dance incorporating new technologies.
3. Discuss current campaigns that promote community messages relating to the environment or health issues. Design your own visual campaign. Decide if it is to be used on a harmful product e.g. guns, cigarettes, or on a grand scale as a billboard.
4. Create an image that responds to a war taking place in the world today.

 

Domain: English

Dimension: Reading

1. How do you 'read' this painting? What emotions and issues are being communicated? What was the artist's intention in creating this work?
2. How was this painting shaped by the time, place and cultural setting in which it was made?
3. Compare this visual text with other media from different times and cultures expressing anti-war sentiments such as literature, factual reports and film. Read and discuss The Times newspaper report of 1937 on the bombing of Guernica: See http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2151248,00.html
4. Read and discuss poetry written by Picasso that explores war (see Guernica article). Find other examples of war poetry. How might art and poetry be considered as similar forms of expression?

Dimension: Writing

1. List all the words that come to mind as you study this painting. Use them to create a poem that summarises the ideas and emotions expressed by Picasso.
2. Research a war currently taking place in the world. Write a short narrative or play based on the experiences of a family living in a war-torn country today.
3. Write a persuasive article arguing either for or against the idea that the arts play a powerful role in reminding society of the horror of war.
4. Discuss why Picasso painted this unrealistic portrait which brutally distorts and disfigures the model's face. Write a review as an art critic arguing for or against this approach to painting suffering.
5. Write a list of the questions you would like to ask a world leader who has recently made the decision to go to war.
6. Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper expressing your opinion about a war currently taking place in the world.
7. Write a speech for a presentation to the United Nations exploring what we have learnt from wars in the past, why we continue to go to war and how we can prevent war in the future.

Dimension: Speaking and listening

1. Prepare and perform a 'talking head' monologue imagining that you are the Weeping Woman on whom Picasso based his painting.
2. Imagine you are a TV journalist standing in front of the Weeping Woman painting at the National Gallery of Victoria. Write the script you would use to explain its history, meanings and messages to the public.
3. Hold a debate based on the statement: War is an inevitable part of human existence.
4. Prepare and deliver a personal response to the painting which may include visual imagery and music as well as an oral commentary.

 

Domain: The Humanities - History

Dimension: Historical knowledge and understanding

1. Discuss what emotions and messages the artist is communicating in this painting.
2. Research the events in Europe in the 1930s that lead to this impassioned anti-war statement.
3. Find out about the philosophy behind Fascism. Are there Fascist dictators in the world today? What effect did Fascism have on the world during the 20th century?
4. Find out about organisations in the world involved in peacekeeping and assisting victims of war and oppression. Write a description of one of them, such as Amnesty International or the United Nations.

Dimension: Historical reasoning and interpretation

1. How will you frame your research questions based on the analysis and discussion of the painting, Weeping Woman 1937.
2. The bombing of Guernica in 1937 shocked the world. Why didn't it prevent similar massacres from occurring in the world?
3. Research the companion piece to Weeping Woman, the painting Guernica (see Guernica article on this website). Why has it become known as the greatest anti-war masterpiece in the history of modern art?
4. What is the role of art in war? Why has society continued to employ war artists since the advent of photography?
5. Compare images of war from ancient, medieval and contemporary societies. What are the similarities and differences?
6. Can art be regarded as a reliable source for learning about wars in the past?
7. How is what we learn from visual records of wars (paintings, drawings and photographs), today and in the past, different from knowledge gained from written records of wars?
8. Weeping Woman represents one perspective on the horrors of the 20th century Spanish Civil War. Research other perspectives and compare them. For example, read The Times newspaper report of 1937 on the bombing of Guernica. See www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2151248,00.html

 References

• Physical, Personal and Social Learning
• Interpersonal Development
• Civics and Citizenship
• Discipline-based Learning
• The Arts
• English
• The Humanities - History