Title: Artists in the service of advertising

Lesson plan elaborated by: Magdalena Trysińska

Topic:

Artists in the service of advertising.

Target group:

2nd‑grade students of a high school.

Core curriculum

General aim of education

Analysis of selected posters. Developing cultural awareness and expression.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Learning outcomes

Student:

• analyses and describes the poster as an artistic form of expression;

• knows the function of the poster;

• knows how the placard and advertising poster is different;

• characterises the Polska Szkoła Plakatu (Polish Poster School).

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. Students look for examples of contemporary advertising posters. They bring them to the lesson.

Introduction

1. The teacher determines the purpose of the class, which is to learn the specific artistic form of the poster. It gives students the criteria for success.

2. The teacher asks students what the advertising is and what goals, functions and features they have. Students' answers are listed on the board. Analysis of several advertising posters brought by students: the indication of features and means of expression.

Realization

1. Exercise 1 in abstract. Students connect concepts: advertising, placard, poster and billboard with their dictionary definitions. They pay attention to the ranges of meaning (similarities and differences).

2. Students search on the Internet for information about the Polska Szkoła Plakatu (Polish School of Posters). They have the task of finding the following information:
   - date of creation
   - representatives;
   - determinants of style;
   - characteristic means of artistic expression.
   Then the students in pairs solve the problem 3. The pair that solves the task correctly first wins.

3. The student willing or selected before the lesson presents information on the life and work of Alfons Mucha and art nouveau art. Students will get acquainted with the posters by Alfons Mucha. Together, they wonder if they have the features of an advertising poster in the modern sense.

4. Students perform exercises 4, 5 and 6 in the abstract.

5. The student willing or chosen by the lesson presents the life and work of Teodor Axentowicz and Jan Bulas. The students will get acquainted with the next posters. They compare them with previously known works of Mucha. The teacher asks:
   - Where are the posters of Axentowicz, Bułas and Mucha similar?
   - How do they differ?
   - How do we know that they are all advertising posters? Why is not this for us, of course?.

6. Students perform exercises No. 7 and 8.

7. Work in groups. Each group creates one advertising poster, inspired by the works of the creators of the Art Nouveau trend, but for the contemporary audience.

Summary

1. The teacher asks the pupils questions, e.g.
   - What is the Polish Poster School? Who belongs to her?
   - How do you think the artists' approach to advertising and advertising for one hundred years has changed?
   - Compare advertising goals from a hundred years ago and today.

Homework

1. Write a review of the posters of the selected creator of the Art Nouveau.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Artists in the service of advertising

Illustrated posters have started to be created in the second half of the 19th century along with the development of chromolithography that not only allowed the colour to be introduced to placards but also to combine illustration with a text. Posters appeared in big cities during the Industrial Revolution. A need to inform the society about cultural events (plays, concerts, exhibitions and charity events) arose as well as to advertise fashionable goods and services.

Alfons Mucha (1860‑1939) was a Czech painter, illustrator and designer of posters, advertisements, calendars, magazine covers, sculptures and jewellery. The creator of an innovative and admired le style Mucha that embodied the principles of the French Art Nouveau. In the years 1893‑1903, he worked in Paris and achieved a remarkable success. In 1902 he published a book of design for artists and craftsmen. Mucha was deeply interested in symbolism, mysticism and theosophy. He also belonged to Masonry. Decorative panneaux: The Seasons (1896), Zodiac (1896), The Arts (1898), The Times of the Day (1899), The Precious Stones (1900) as well as a monumental oil painting series The Slav Epic (1912‑1926) are some of his most famous works. The artist used chromolithography technique.

The poster of the play Gismonda (picture no.1) ordered by Sarah Bernhardt - the queen of the Parisian theatre, was essential for Mucha's career. It resulted in a long‑standing lucrative contract with the actress, in fame and financial reward. It was a ground‑breaking project, totally different from the previous placards because of its original narrow, vertical shape. The artist drew an idealized portrait of the actress on a scale 1:1. Instead of using vivid contrastive colours he chose refined pastel colour scheme.

Pictures no.2 and no.3 show the images of beautiful sensual women with long flowing hair and dreamy eyes, typical for Mucha style, that attract the viewer's attention. The women's heads were usually encircled with a semicircle filled with flowery ornaments, their apparel was decorated with an arabesque. He drew his inspirations from Byzantine, Celtic, Japanese and Slavic art as well as from Rococo.

The 1st International Poster Exhibition took place in Cracow in 1898. A year before, in the same place, The Society of Polish Artists „Sztuka” was established. The exquisite artists Józef Chełmoński, Teodor Axentowicz and Józef Mehoffer were some of its members. Picture no.1 shows one of the most recognizable Modernist placards created by Teodor Axentowicz, the author of subtle, pastel female portraits and folklore paintings. In the poster there is a beautiful ginger‑haired muse with a laurel on her head. The artist used a black bold line to paint it which brings out the woman beauty.

Picture no.2 shows a placard designed by Jan Bulas, a painter, printmaker and book illustrator. The decorative motif used here comprises dry thistles that make it expressive and graphic. The similar style of vegetal ornaments in the shape of vignettes or decorative initials was used by the most comprehensive Modernist artist - Stanisław Wyspiański. He drew his inspiration from the acknowledged French illustrator and poster designer – Eugene Grasset.