Keep Your Hand on the Plow , ca. 1950, color serigraph. 12 ½” x 16”
1.Set the stage for your students. The year is 1950. The US had already used atomic weapons against Japan and the Civil Rights Movement was gaining strength in certain parts of the United States. Then play the music for your class as they look at the picture. Ask them to consider all of what you said as it relates to the song and the picture. After they have done that, have them write a paragraph about how they think the song, the picture, and the events of the time connect. Have the class share and discuss what it all might mean, paying special attention to the Demon on the atomic missile.
2. Ask your students if they think that from the artist’s point of view, she has captured in this work her current world vision? Is it positive or negative? Why or Why not?. The artist was very well known as a champion for justice and equality so this piece, made in 1950, is definitely trying to convey that. ( Ask them if looking at it from a two-thousands lens makes it look different? Comparing and contrasting that could be interesting here, if you have time.
3. Have students decide on something that they feel strongly about and ask them how they could make that feeling known without using words. Could they draw it? Paint it? Dance it? How could they explain it using today’s world as a backdrop? If you have a class that needs to be challenged, you could have them express it using a different time period as a backdrop.
MD State Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3.1/CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.4.1/CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.5.1/CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.6.1/CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.7.1/CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.8.1
Music: Cn11:E:3-5:1/Cn11:E:6-8:1/Cn10:I:3-5:3/Cn10:I:6-8:3
Art: Cr2:E:3:3-5:2/Cr2:E:6-8:2