Welcome to TUSD Fine Arts Quiz of the Week 

 

May 12, 2009 (No quiz. Stay tuned for more Fine Arts puzzlers next year!)

 

May 5, 2009

Question:

Ann Hampton Callaway is an accomplished singer and songwriter with over 250 songs to her credit. One of those songs is considered a collaboration between Cole Porter and Callaway even though Cole Porter died when Ann Hampton Callaway was only 6 years old. Name the song and explain the paradox.

Answer:

Some time during the 40's, Cole Porter apparently wrote lyrics for "I gaze in your eyes". The lyrics were found after his death in 1964 but no music was ever found. The Cole Porter estate commissioned Ann Hampton Callaway to write music to go with the Cole Porter lyrics.

 

April 28, 2009

Question:

In Summer Days, the painting by Georgia O'keeffe, what is the symbolism of the bleached skull and flowers floating in the clouds over a range of red mountains?

Answer:

This was really a trick question. Art critics and historians frequently discuss Georgia O'Keeffe in terms of symbolism. O'Keeffe herself was adamant about painting what she saw and only what she saw. She is quoted as saying "Fill a space in a beautiful way." While she did try to use color and shape and space to convey emotional feeling, she tried very hard to exactly what she was seeing and feeling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 21, 2009 (No quiz)

 

April 14, 2009 (No quiz)

 

April 7, 2009 (No Curriculum Connection)

 

OOPS!

The entry for March 24th was inadvertently switched for the entry for March 31. Here is the correct entry for March 24.

 

March 24, 2009 (corrected)

Question:

The creator of this week’s picture, Enrique O. Sanchez, has worked in films and on the production of Sesame Street and is a well known illustrator of children’s books. The picture contains a hint about those books. Can you find it? 

Answer:

Enrique O. Sanchez  has illustrated children's books like Amelia's Road, Abuela's Weave, and Estela's Swap, books that are a mainstay of elementary bilingual and multicultural education book lists. At the bottom of the picture you see a small boy playing with letters, some of are shown clearly and some are just hints of letters. The letters you see clearly are N, A, B, E. This is probably a reference to the National Association of Bilingual Education, an organization devoted to bilingualism and "living and creating unity in diversity".

 

 

 

 

 

 

March 31, 2009 (Previously labeled March 24)

Question:

This picture, Don't let teacher see, is by Sonya Fe, an up and coming young artist. Where is she from? Can you find the answer? If you did, how long did it take? Could you find out from a TUSD computer?

Answer:

A Google search for Sonya Fe returned her own website which is very nice but doesn't say either where she lives or where she's from. However, the second Google entry is a interview in North Coast Journal in which she describes growing up in an Los Angeles area call "Dogtown" and mentioned that she now lives in Hoopa, California. That probably took about five minutes to read the two websites and find the information. The information about where Sonya Fe currently lives is also in her ArtBistro profile, which is accessible from TUSD computers, even though it is a social networking site like Facebook and Myspace, which are blocked. Arizona's current governor has a Myspace page, but we can't see it from a TUSD computer because of the blocking. As social internet networking becomes more a part of everyone's daily life, some of those blocking parameters might need to be changed.

March 17, 2009

Question:

The Ashanti King sits on a throne, even though the symbol of the Ashanti power is the Golden Stool. Why doesn’t the king sit on the Golden Stool?

Answer:

According to Ashanti legend, the Golden Stool came from the sky in a cloud of white dust and landed on the lap of first Asantehene, Osei Tutu I. The Asantehene is the Paramount Chief or Chief of Chiefs, usually referred to by Westerners as King. The Golden Stool is never allowed to touch the ground and never sat on by anyone. Throughout the Ashanti area, a stool is the traditional symbol of authority. Every village has a stool and the ceremony of installing a new village chief is called enstoolment. If chief must be removed, a destoolment process is instituted. Those stools are merely symbols of authority. The Golden Stool is considered the shrine of the Ashanti soul and is itself a sacred object. If the Golden Stool is ever taken from the Ashanti people, it is believed that they will sicken and die. When the Asantehene is enstooled, he is raised and lowered over the Golden Stool without actually touching it. In 1900, a provincial British governor, Sir Fredrick Hodgson, knew that the Golden Stool was the symbol of the highest Ashanti authority and knew that it was, after all, a seat, made an assumption based on not quite enough information. Hodgson assumed that if he sat on the Golden Stool, he would be recognized as the Ashanti's highest authority. The resulting war, Yaa Asantewaa,  is called the War of the Golden Stool. Until Hodgson's startling mistake, the Ashanti authorities had been welcoming British representatives as peers and were prepared for opening standard diplomatic relations with the British Empire.

 

March 10, 2009

Question: 

EMC also has a visual rendition of another piece by Tchaikovsky, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, shown here. The characteristic sound in this piece is provided by what non-stringed instrument?

 

Answer:

The sound of the Sugar Plum Fairy is the sound of the celesta, a keyboard instrument which looks like a small piano. On the inside, however, the hammers strike metal bars instead of strings. It was invented in Paris in 1886 by Auguste Mustel. Tchaikovsky first heard a celesta in Paris after he had begun a commission to write a ballet based on the Nutcracker story. He immediately wrote to his publisher asking for one. He also asked the publisher not to tell any other composers about his find. As a result, Tchaikovsky was the first "major" composer to used a celesta. For more about the celesta here's an interview on NPR.

 

March 3, 2009

Question:

The EMC painting for this week is “Diego en mi piensamiento”, a self-portrait by Frida Kahlo. What is she wearing - a) a huipil grande, b) a child’s christening gown, or c) a white lace Tehuana headdress?

 

Answer:

And the answer is ... all of the above! For special occasions Tehuanas, women of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, commonly wear an elaborate white lace headdress called a huipil grande. A huipil is a blouse worn by women all over Latin America. Here you can see an example from the  Educational Materials Center Textile Collection. A huipil can be short like a blouse or long like a dress. A huipil might have sleeves or might be completely open on the sides like a poncho. Tehuana special occasion dress consists of a short huipil, an elaborate skirt with a wide, pleated lace ruffled at the bottom, and a huipil grande as in this example from Casa Folklorico. The wide lace band on the skirt is called an Olan (Holland) because they were originally made with Holland lace. There are two ways of wearing the huipil grande. In Diego en mi piensamiento, Frida wears the huipil grande with her face through the neck opening and the white lace neck ruffle framing her face. One of the sleeves hangs under Frida's chin and the other goes down her back. In the picture to the left, the model wears the huipil grande with the lace ruffle at the bottom of the huipil grande pinned to her hair. The stiffly starched lace border stands up like a halo or resplandor over her head. When a huipil grande is worn in this style the sleeves may both hang down the back or might be arranged to hang on either either side of the face. That takes care of the a and c choices. Why is b also correct? The tradition in Mexico is that the huipil grande originated with a chest washed up from a shipwreck in the Gulf of Tehuantepec. The chest contained, among other things, children's christening dresses, possibly like the white lace garments you will see here. The Tehuanas who found the chest loved the elaborate lace and decided to wear them on their heads. An alternative story is that the huipil grande evolved from the quechquemitl, a short triangular poncho worn in pre-Conquest Mexico. You can find that argument here. The truth might be a mixture of both stories. All over Latin America before the arrival of the Europeans, the short triangular cape or quechquemitl was worn over other garments like we would wear a sweater.  In the hotter areas it might be the only upper garment worn and when it got very warm, the quechquemitl would be draped over the head as protection from the sun, leaving the upper body bare and hopefully cooler. You can see an example of a woman wearing a quechquemitl on her head here. It's possible that women used to wearing a quechquemitl on their head were the first to see the fashion possiblities in a chest full of children's christening robes. In this photo on Flickr you can see a whole row of modern huipils grandes with their tiny sleeves hanging down the back.

 

 

February 17, 2009

Question:

Tucson’s Fiesta de los Vaqueros provides lots of opportunity for integrating the arts into your lessons. The picture to the left shows the Singing Cowboy. Do you know his name and do you recognize the picture?

Answer:

The picture is a mural entitled The Sources of Country Music in the Country Music Hall of Fame. The mural was painted by 85 year old Thomas Hart Benton and was completed and ready to sign the day he suffered a fatal heart attack. Benton was a well-known American painter. He was less well known as a harmonica player, although, he did record a 3 record album for Decca Records in 1941. In addition to being an active musician, he also collected folk music and was delighted to be approached by the Country Music Foundation for a mural. The cowboy with the guitar is the legendary "singing cowboy" Tex Ritter, father of the actor John Ritter. The mural was dedicated to Tex Ritter who played a part in the design of the mural but died before the mural was actually begun. Tex Ritter is the legendary voice of a lot of popular western music such as the theme from the movie High Noon. 

 

February 10, 2009

Question:

What event does this wordle describe?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answer:

Tucson Unified School District's Fine and Performing Arts Department invites you to preview the latest ARTSmobile exhibit African Footprints Open House Monday, January 26, 2009 the southeast corner of the Lee Instructional Resource Center 2025 E. Winsett 3:00 - 5:00pm

 

 

 

 

February 3, 2009

 Question:

El Rancho Lounge and Twist Palace, by Mary Ann Jones, a largely self-taught Angeleno artist, celebrates guitar players in popular music of the 20th century. It also contains a little puzzle. The picture lists 9 musicians, B.B. King, Albert C. (or is that K.?), Woody, Hank W., Mississippi J.H., Chuck B., Lefty P. (or is it an F?), M. Street Jimmy, Bumblebee S. Who were they and why were they important? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answer: 

B. B. King

This is an easy one. Here's his entry in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Albert C. (or K.?)

Albert King was known as one of the Three Kings of Blues Guitar, also with B.B. King and Freddie King.  Albert King was a left-handed guitarist who played a standard guitar upside down. However, I think this reference is probably to Albert Collins, known as the Master of the Telecaster. Albert Collins was cited as a primary influence by Jimi Hendrix.

Woody

This can only be Woody Guthrie.

Hank W.

Another easy one. Hank Williams, icon of country blues.

Mississippi J. H.

A little more obscure. Mississippi John Hurt. He had 2 blues recording sessions at the beginning of the Great Depression, then went back to obscurity in Mississippi until the 1960s when he again became famous, playing all over the United States.

Chuck B.

Chuck Berry, another iconic figure, rock and roll this time.  John Lennon was more succinct: "If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'." (Wikipedia) Here's his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame entry.

Lefty P. (or F.)

Another obscure one. Lefty Frizzell played a lot of country guitar blues and was a very influential country singer and songwriter. Lefty Frizzell was a left hand guitarist who played right handed. While Lefty Frizzell is commonly associated with Nashville and country music, he lived and performed in Southern California for many years. To find out more about left handed guitarists, check out this site from the book Uncommon Sound: The left-handed guitar players that Changed Music by John Engel. There is also Robert Wilson "Lefty" Perkins, another left-handed guitar player. He was played primarily steel guitar and was most famous in the 1930's, before the time of this painting. Lefty Perkins is probably less likely than Lefty Frizzell.

M. Street Jimmy

This one is really obscure.  Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis, born Charles Thomas in Mississippi, played blues guitar on Maxwell Street in Chicago for most of his adult life.  Maxwell Street Jimmy was a Maxwell Street fixture but was less well known outside of Chicago until the blues/folk revival of the 1960's when he recorded the album Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis for Elektra Records.

Bumblebee S

Bumble Bee Slim Easton was a bestselling blues artist during the 1930's, at one point the most recorded blues artist of the decade. Born in Georgia, he played Chicago style blues in Detroit and Chicago, then moved to the West Coast. where he recorded some West Coast jazz. The recordings weren't wildly successful. He continued to perform in Los Angeles clubs until his death in 1968.