Animals in Picasso's & Warhol's paintings

Description: This proposal is organized around the theme of animals through their depiction in Picasso’s animal serigraphs and line drawings and Andy Warhol’s endangered species screen prints. Students distinguish between the two artists’ painting style, express opinions, are informed about endangered animals and learn about Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol.    

Level: Intermediate-Upper Intermediate

Learners: All ages

Themes: Animals, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol

Language: Simple present, past forms, adjectives, comparisons

Skills: Speaking, watching videos, note taking
Materials: Power Point presentations, 2 short videos, worksheets
Time: 90 minutes

Warm up

Brainstorm your students around the theme of animals. Make a diagram on the board. Each student comes up with the name of an animal. Have a second round if needed. Then, ask them to classify the animals in 2 groups: wild and domestic.

Step 1

Organize your students in pairs. Show them the slides below. Ask them to organize the paintings in 2 groups according to similarities they notice in the painting style. 

 

Answers: Group 1 (1, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 18), Group 2 (2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 12, 14, 17)

Step 2

Show the slides below, verify answers and ask your students to guess the titles of the paintings.

Step 3

Get feedback. Inform your students that these paintings belong to 2 famous artists: Pablo Picasso & Andy Warhol. Let them guess which group of paintings belongs to each artist. Ask them what they think about the paintings. Then, pair them and ask them to complete the first activity in the worksheet.

Worksheet.docx by chrysapap

Step 4

Get feedback. Show students the PowerPoint presentation below with Picasso’s paintings. Ask pairs to complete the 2^nd activity in the worksheet. 

Picasso animals from hrysa

Step 5

Show students the PowerPoint presentation below with Warhol’s paintings. Ask questions related to the verbal input of the slides. Focus on speaking and note taking. 

Warhol endangered species from hrysa

Step 6

Write on the board: 

American/August 1928-February 1987/Spanish/Cubism/October 1881-April 1973/ Pop Art movement

Ask your students to attribute the information to either Picasso or Warhol. 

Step 7

Organize students in small groups and tell them that they’re going to watch a short video about Andy Warhol and Pop Art. They should deal with part A in the worksheet while watching the video. Let them have a look first at the questions before watching. 

 

Worksheet Warhol-Picasso.docx by chrysapap

Step 8

Get feedback. Then, tell them that they’re going to watch a short video about Pablo Picasso. They should deal with part B in the worksheet while watching the video. Let them have a look first at the questions before watching. (video: 0:00-1:50) 

Homework

Students can choose one of the following:

1.  Write short descriptive texts based on their notes and further researching on any four (4) of the endangered animals in Warhol’s paintings.
2. Prepare a PowerPoint presentation titled Animals in Art in which they should look for other works of art with animals as a theme. 

I hope you find this proposal worth experimenting.