Framed: Playing with Framing in Artmaking
Learning Outcomes
Learners will:
- actively consider artmaking processes and how these processes can change depending on framing considerations
- experiment with self-portrait creation while considering framing
- engage in reflective discussion about artmaking
National Curriculum Statement linked to:
Pupils should be taught to develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.
CTB Director Harry states:
I started developing the idea for this lesson during a recent visit to the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, England). I was in the Art of the Netherlands room in the Museum, and was struck by the range of ways works were framed. It made me think of the way we frame art, and ask: how does making art for a particular frame differ from framing an artwork after it has been made?
On a sidenote, if you haven’t been to the Ashmolean Museum, you absolutely should, the scale of the Museum itself, along with the breadth of artefacts and artworks compiled under its roof is staggering.
Before the lesson
Learners will need:
A4 sketching paper / card
Sketching pencils
Strips of card for framing
A range of artistic materials (optional)
A range of picture frames, ideally differently shaped (optional)
Key Vocabulary
frame, framing, artmaking, perception, self-portrait
Prelude
Ask learners:
How many different meanings can you think of for the word ‘frame’?
Collect responses, you may wish to create a mindmap of what we associate the word frame with.
Exposition
Move the conversation onto frames in their artistic sense. Ask:
What is the purpose/role of a frame in art?
Share the following quotes from articles/research papers with learners.
What different ideas about the role of the frame can you find in these quotations?
Which idea do you find most convincing? Why?
Having considered these ideas, how would you now describe the role of a frame in art?
"the sole purpose of frames was to behave as strict borders between reality and the imagined" (source: Framing History: A Study of the Craftsmanship of Picture Frames | Art & Object)
“I don’t see frame history as an independent subject but as an integral part of art history and that is the way the subject should be heading.” (source: Framing History: A Study of the Craftsmanship of Picture Frames | Art & Object)
“In his essay on the picture frame, Simmel (1902) proposed that the function of the frame is to separate a work of art, which represents a world on its own and does not require any relation to the exterior, from its surrounds.” (source: Frontiers | Frames as visual links between paintings and the museum environment: an analysis of statistical image properties)
“Ultimately, attaching aesthetic value to an artwork seems to be determined by social norms. It is not only the picture we admire, it is also the frame.” (source: Is it the picture or is it the frame? An fMRI study on the neurobiology of framing effects - PMC)
Tell students that in today’s lesson they are going to be actively considering the role of the frame in artmaking.
Present three differently framed versions of a self-portrait of Degas (source: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436158). Cultivate a discussion around how the learners’ perception of the art shifts with the way the art is framed. Here are some prompt questions you may wish to use during the discussion:
What changes when you look at each version?
Does the artwork itself feel different?
Does your attention go to different parts?
Development
Ask learners to create two different self-portraits.
For the first self-portrait, ask learners to create a self-portrait which, as much as possible, fills an A4 piece of sketching paper/card. After completing the portrait, learners are to use different sized/shape frames (if available), or strips of card, to ‘find’ different views of the portrait. Encourage learners to experiment with different frame shapes, moving beyond the conventional rectangular frame.
For the second self-portrait, learners will actively consider before and during making how they are going to frame their work (i.e. place or establish the frame/framing device on the sketching paper/card before starting to sketch). Encourage learners to play with the possibility of having or not having the subject’s full body/face within the portrait.
Coda
Display learners work around the learning space and facilitate a reflective discussion centring on the different experiences of creating the two self-portraits. Here are some prompt questions you may wish to use during the discussion:
How did it feel to make the first portrait?
How did it feel to make the second?
Did knowing the frame in advance change what you drew?
Did you make different decisions about scale, composition or detail?
Which process did you prefer?