Lesson 5: The exhibition

• Art

Instructions

Equipment

• Easel
• Museum edition ‘The bedroom’
• Digital blackboard/screen
• Internet connection
• For each student;
• A pencil (grey)
• Pencil sharpener
• Eraser
• Tape / double-sided stickers to hang all artworks
• A5 sized pieces of cardboard for text boards
• 4 different colors of cloth the size of a sheet: green (dark), orange, blue (royal blue), yellow.
• Colored cardboard for the frames

Approximate timings

• Start lesson 5 minutes
• What does Van Gogh Museum look like (incl. background colour assignment) 15 minutes
• Film on The Potato Eaters exhibition 5 minutes
• Divide into groups 5 minutes
• Down to work; thinking of ideas 10 minutes
• Down to work; build exhibition 40 minutes
• Look at exhibition together 10 minutes
• Reflection on entire series incl evaluation form 10 minutes

Total: 100 minutes.

Link to survey

The exhibition

Re-establish contact with the kids and tell them that today you’re going to be making the exhibition of everything you’ve made in the lessons. To inspire the kids, tell them something about what the Van Gogh Museum looks like. 

Van Gogh Museum

Explain: There’s lots of art in the Van Gogh Museum by Vincent and artists who lived at the same time as him. This is what the building looks like. Inside you can see some of Vincent’s most famous masterpieces, including The Bedroom. We also have shorter exhibitions that change a couple of times a year, so people are always thinking about the best way to show paintings and drawings.

To set up an exhibition, you have to think very carefully about what you are going to hang where. And whether you are going to hang things, or lay them down.

slaapkamer in het museum

Label

Vincent van Gogh 1853 - 1890 

The Bedroom, 1888

oil on canvas

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

 Van Gogh became increasingly skilled in using colour and style to express emotions. For instance, the bright tones of his bedroom had to convey ’utter repose’ in a period during which he felt anything but calm due to all of his hard work. He hoped that his paintings would afford comfort not only to himself, but others as well. Van Gogh was convinced that this now famous painting had that: ‘When I saw my canvases again after my illness, what seemed to me the best was the bedroom.’

Explain: This is a photo of The Bedroom hanging in the Van Gogh Museum, with the label next to it that we read last lesson. It’s hanging with other paintings that were all made in Arles. Because it is right in the middle, you really get the feeling that you are looking at an important piece by Vincent. The people who arranged things in the museum decided to paint the wall blue. Do you think the colour matters?

Let’s test it.

Orange makes The Bedroom…

Blue makes The Bedroom …

Green makes The Bedroom …

Yellow makes The Bedroom …

You’ve brought with you four pieces of fabric the size of a sheet in different colours: green, orange, blue and brown. Together with one of the students, hold each one up in turn behind the museum edition. Do this without saying anything, until you’ve done all the colours. Hold the sheet behind the painting for at least 15 seconds. The kids should look quietly and think about what the background colour does to the painting.

After each colour, the students should write down one word to finish the sentence on the slide. Eventually, everyone will have written down four words.

Divide the class into pairs. The kids tell each other what they wrote down in random order. Then they try to guess which word belongs with which colour.

Then discuss as a class whether there were any surprises, or had they all written down more or less the same things? What did you notice about the effect of the different background colours? (e.g. a different colour can draw your eye to things in the painting that you didn’t notice before / colours seem more intense or softer / you might get a different feeling from the painting) Which colour do you think goes best with this painting?

On the other side of the wall where The Bedroom hangs in the museum is the painting Sunflowers. Hanging them like this shows that the paintings really do belong together. These are famous pictures that Vincent painted in the same period. They both have bright colours and the paint is very thick and lumpy.

Sunflowers is also on a blue wall. This makes all the shades of yellow in the painting even more yellow. You might like to refer again to the colour wheel.

Explain: Here you can see another example of paintings that are hanging together for a reason. They also have the same kind of frame, to make it even more clear that they belong together. Vincent wrote that he would like to exhibit these paintings together. 

Show: Paintings in the museum often hang next to each other, but sometimes they are above or below one another. In Vincent’s time, paintings in exhibitions often covered the whole wall, from the bottom to the top. Sometimes there were even paintings on the ceiling! What would you think if your painting were hanging on the ceiling? 

Sometimes paintings that are similar are hung together (e.g. colours and same period, same subject) 

Sometimes paintings that are really different are hung together.

Some works of art have labels…

In other places there is information about several artworks in a bigger sign on the wall.

In the Van Gogh Museum lots of paintings have very special frames. Vincent didn’t put them in those frames. He didn’t have enough money for that. 

When the Van Gogh Museum opened in 1973 there were very different frames on the paintings than we have now. You can see them in this old photo. The frames are simpler. At the front is Vincent Willem van Gogh, Theo van Gogh’s son, who officially opened the museum. 

Not so long ago we had an exhibition all about this painting: The Potato Eaters. We’re going to watch a short film about how this exhibition was made (see next slide). 

After the film say to the kids: As you can see, there’s a lot to do and think about when you make an exhibition.

You have to think about what story your exhibition is going to tell, and building it is a lot of work too. And of course you have to be very careful that nothing happens to the paintings! It’s really important to work together as a team. You guys are also going to work as a team on your exhibition.

Let’s get to work! 

1. Stories from lesson 1
2. Drawings from lesson 2
3. Paintings from lesson 3
4. Photos from lesson 4

Divide the class into four groups.

1. Stories from lesson 1

2. Drawings from lesson 2

3. Paintings from lesson 3

4. Photos from lesson 4

(Optional: A fifth group can arrange an opening ceremony, with a speech and a ribbon to cut, for example, and a press release to announce it to the public)

Each group should ensure that the collection of artworks that they are responsible for is shown as well and as attractively as possible. Give each group a place where they can show their artworks. Show them the materials they can use, as discussed in lesson 4.

Think about..

• How are you going to hang the art? 
• What background are you going to have?
• Which artworks are you going to show together? 
• What are you going to write on the label? 
• Is the light good?

Divide the class into four groups.

1. Stories from lesson 1

2. Drawings from lesson 2

3. Paintings from lesson 3

4. Photos from lesson 4

(Optional: A fifth group can arrange an opening ceremony, with a speech and a ribbon to cut, for example, and a press release to announce it to the public)

Each group should ensure that the collection of artworks that they are responsible for is shown as well and as attractively as possible. Give each group a place where they can show their artworks. Show them the materials they can use, as discussed in lesson 4.

First give the groups 10 minutes to think of three ideas about how they could show the art. This will encourage them to think of things other than just the first idea that comes to mind. 

• What do you notice about how the art is exhibited here?
• What do you remember from the lesson when we made these?
• What did you learn from making them?

Use this time to build the exhibition. 

Round off the lesson by walking round the exhibition together and congratulate them on their work. If a fifth group has arranged an opening ceremony, makes sure this also happens, either during or after the lesson.

As you look at each part of the exhibition, consider the following questions:

- What do you notice about how the art is exhibited here?

- What do you remember from the lesson when we made these?

- What did you learn from making them?

Reflect on the entire series

Round off the series of lessons with two general questions:

- What have you learned about Vincent van Gogh in these lessons?

- What have you learned about yourself in these lessons?

NB The second question is intended to start a conversation about how the kids relate to making art. Do they enjoy it, or is it a struggle? It was both for Vincent van Gogh. But he kept on practising, no matter what happened. 

Try to draw more information out of the kids in this last discussion. What did you enjoy, what was easy, and what problems did you have? Is there a particular piece, or a part of something you made, that you’re really proud of? Were you secretly jealous of something that someone else made? When you were making your artworks, were you worried the whole time about what it would look like, or were you able to let that go? Etc. Where possible, make links to Vincent, how he went about making art.