Grade 9 Art - Day 63: Visual Literacy Session 4, "Juxtaposition, Part 1"

I want to introduce you (or help you re-familiarize yourself with) the word juxtaposition.

I know we have talked about the principle of design "contrast".  When you place two things side by side, the contrast and comparison between the two is the juxtaposition between them.

Let's do some visual juxtaposition as part of our visual literacy activities.

The following paintings are all done by artists from different cultural backgrounds, of the same group of people, The Mongels.  The first is a painting of Chinggis Khan.  This is a painting that shows the Mongels as painted by a Chinese artist.  The second painting is of Chinggis Khan and his son as painted by a Persian artist.  The third is a painting of Marco Polo's dad meeting Kubilai Khan, thus showing a painting of the Mongels by a European artist.  Let's juxtapose!

Thanks to Andrea Goldman, Department of History, University of Maryland, for inspiration and source photos for this lesson.