Ralph Eugene Meatyard: Landscape and Slow Looking

Subject: Art

Grade Level: 2 – 5

Time: one or two class periods, lesson can be adapted for in class or online learning.

Lesson Overview: Students will learn about Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s photography of Red River Gorge in Wendell Berry’s book The Unforeseen Wilderness. Students will analyze and discuss landscape artworks by artists Thomas Addison Richards and Ralph Eugene Meatyard using a process called “slow looking.” Students will learn about the landscape genre in art and will create a landscape drawing.

© The Estate of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

© The Estate of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

© The Estate of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

© The Estate of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

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MATERIALS

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LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  • Students will be introduced to the landscape genre in art.
  • Students will practice the process of “slow looking” by viewing and analyzing landscape works by Thomas Addison Richards and Ralph Eugene Meatyard.
  • Students will create a drawing of their own imaginary hike through the forest.
  • Students will share their work.

ABOUT

The Red River Gorge is a canyon system on the Red River in east-central Kentucky. The Gorge comprises 29,000 acres within the Daniel Boone National Forest, and has supported human habitation for over 12,000 years.

In 1962, the Army Corps of Engineers received approval from Congress to dam the Red River in an effort to control decades-long flooding in the area. In response, the University Press of Kentucky commissioned poet and essayist Wendell Berry to write a book, The Unforeseen Wilderness, advocating the preservation of the Gorge in its natural state. Berry engaged Lexington, Kentucky photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard to produce photographs to accompany the text. Meatyard’s photography was one of the first photographic attempts at environmental conservation in the American South, and played a vital role in the decades-long effort to preserve the Gorge.

Meatyard’s work captures the beauty of the local landscape from a hiker’s perspective. Meatyard was proud to create his photographs about local subjects, saying: “One is surrounded with interesting subject matter and it is not necessary to travel far to make strong photographs.”

GUIDED PRACTICE

Focus question: What motivates people to visit beautiful places? What motivates landscape artists to depict the awesome beauty of a place?

  • As a group, share and describe experiences with beautiful natural places. Using Richard’s landscape, Meditation in the Catskills, discuss how the beauty of the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York is depicted, encouraging students to describe exactly what they see.
    • (Landscape artists create art that both documents the features of a site and demonstrates the inspiration gained from the natural world, the landscape image can have varying degrees of realism).
  • Use information from the links, maps, image set, photos and drawings to help students understand and describe the geography and landscape of the Red River Gorge.
  • Practice “slow looking” together by asking questions that are open ended and contemplative but also directed to specific places in the Meditation in the Catskills such as: What do you see in the sky? Follow the water—what is the water doing? Can you find the person visiting the forest—and what is that person doing? What season do you think this is—how do you know?
    • Hudson River landscape painting was among one of America’s most popular art forms in the nineteenth century– before the invention of photography. Art exhibitions and tourism were very popular, inspiring people to travel up the Hudson River to visit historic sites and view the amazing scenery.
  • Continue slow looking by comparing and contrasting Richards and Meatyard’s similarities and differences. Since the works are made with different materials it is easy to spot differences between painting and black and white photography in color, texture, mood and realism. Ask students: Which work do you think is more realistic, why? What kind of similar or different feelings or moods do you get when you compare the works to each other? Which place would you rather visit? Which landscape would be easier to walk through? Why?
  • While viewing Meatyard’s work, ask students if any of them have been to the Gorge or a similar recreational area, and ask them to describe what they saw and did at the Gorge. Continue slow looking by asking questions directed to specific places in Meatyard’s work from The Unforeseen Wilderness series. Comments to direct their discussion could be about: the rocks and their weathered textures and what it might feel like to climb on the rocks, the tall trees and the shadows the trees cast, the reflections of the sky in the water, the image that shows a cave-like entrance and whether it feels like a doorway to a cozy fairyland or a dark scary portal?
    • This last question may be more appropriate for older students. Meatyard chose black and white film for several reasons, among these: ease of processing, ability to achieve expressive emotional qualities, better experimentation with the effects of light and shadow, and the effects of light on water.
  • Share the following quote that Meatyard used to describe his connection to the Gorge: “The Gorge is a place of contrasts, of surprising alternates of light and dark.” Using this quote, continue building slow looking skills. Find areas of contrast and prompt students to describe how the dark makes them feel. Ask what parts of the landscape are darker– why? Discuss what it would feel like to walk on the rocks barefoot– or to touch the water? What kind of sounds would they hear as they walk? What other kinds of things would they photograph if they were in Meatyard’s Gorge?

ACTIVITY

  1. Students are drawing an imaginary forest walk, the focus is on landscape but could include a self portrait or people. The teacher or group can decide whether the starting point will be the Gorge, the Catskills or some other landscape, if working from home students could choose their own backyard or a local park.
  2. As a pre-drawing activity, students can discuss and share ideas and plans for their imaginary forest walk. If working from home, older students could discuss their ideas in a Padlet, shared document, or discussion board.
  3. Begin by referencing the slow looking exercise as a way to help students to imagine that they are taking a walk in their imaginary greenspace—they can continue to view the images used in slow looking or they can close their eyes and use their own thoughts as they ponder walking in their imaginary landscape.
  4. Ask the group: “Where is your imaginary forest walk? Is it at the Red River Gorge or in the Catskills– or somewhere else? Is the walk in the present or the past? Did you see animals in the forest? Have you seen or touched the river? What is the sun, wind, clouds and weather doing? As you are walking, are you picking up sticks or leaves?”
  5. Encourage students to think about the area that is surrounding them– what is above, below, and beside them.
  6. Share completed journal drawings and written descriptions. The Speed would love to see samples of your student artwork and writing, please consider sharing student work.