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Lesson Plans for Educators
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts has free lessons for teachers and educators. We are in the process of digitizing many of the lessons; see the links to the right for examples. Please call us if you want other lessons about our permanent collection that you do not see here or for any suggestions for lessons to create in the future.
Sample Lesson Plan
Spirit Mask Ashira/Bapunu, Ogowe River, Gabon, Wood and pigment, Ulfert Wilke Collection purchased with funds from the Friends of the Art Museum, Acc. 1982.001.001
Ogowe River Area, Gabon
There are a number of groups living in and around the Ogowe River area in Gabon. All have a mask style featuring a stylized female face painted white with an elaborate hairdo painted in a stark, contrasting black. These groups include the Lumbo and M'Pongwe.
This small delicate mask represents the spirit of a deceased woman; "the girl from the Land of the Dead." While the mask represents the group's ideals of feminine beauty, they always depict actual women. The chalk white color is associated with the color of the ghost or spirit at night. The narrow eye slits are a ritual requirement intended to prevent the spirit evoked from adversely affecting the wearer. Although representing a woman, such masks are always worn by men. The impersonator wears stilts that raise him far above the viewers.
The vision of the artist is fundamentally realist. His proportions are natural and the features are realistic but idealized. Faces are smooth with serene expressions. The masks, known as Huma (Duma) or Muvdi, are worn by members of a secret society and are used at burial ceremonies, in the ancestor cult and in dances of the full moon. They represent the guardian spirits during the initiation of adolescent girls. The high arched brows, half-closed eyes and formal hairdo all represent the feminine ideas of beauty.
Bernadette Brown
Curator of African Art, Utah Museum of Fine Arts
Art Concepts:
What is beauty? Although these two masks come from different geographical areas within Africa they are both based on the ideals of feminine beauty of each group.
Grade Level: fourth to sixth grades.
Student Objective: students will create a mask demonstrating their personal ideal of beauty.
Materials:
drawing paper
pencils
Model Magic or clay
construction paper in various colors.
markers, crayons or colored pencils
tempera paint
scissors
glue
Process:
What is beauty? In many African cultures it was thought that inner beauty is reflected in how a person presents her/himself to the world. A woman who took great care with her hair, who selected her dress carefully and arranged its folds artistically was said to be beautiful. This judgement did not take into account her physical appearance but rather her ability to translate her inner tranquility and poise. Among the Ashanti a round head with a smooth, large forehead was the standard of beauty while the Mende people of Sierra Leone thought a young woman, whom we might consider overweight, was beautifull since extra fat was a symbol of her future ability to nourish and care for her babies. In addition to clothing and hair styles many African cultures also included facial and body decorations, such as scarification and tatooing. Facial decorations would usually be placed on the forehead between the eyes and on the temple area near the eyes.
Discuss with your students the concept of beauty in our culture. Have them bring in pictures from magazines of people they think are beautiful. What makes them beautiful?
Discuss with them the African concept that inner beauty is reflected in how we care for and present our physcal appearance not in the arrangement of our features. Show the two slides and discuss with your students what the standards of beauty were among the Dan and among the Ogowe River groups. See the information on each of the slides.
Art Making Project:
Give each student enough Model Magic or clay to make a mask that would be face-size. Have each student create a mask that represents his/her ideal of beauty. Model Magic can be colored using markers, crayons or paint. |
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