Reinvent an Artwork
Reinvent a work of art in a different style

With your students, discuss where artists get their inspiration from. For this pair of works the artists Stuart Davis and Roy Lichtenstein were inspired by the media and popular culture. The evenly-spaced dots and words in Davis’s Owh! In San Paõ (1951) may have been inspired by the comic book printing process and techniques. For his painting Girl in Window ( Study for World’s Fair Mural) (1963), Roy Lichtenstein was inspired by comic book characters and techniques. Both artists based their work on existing material and experimented with different ideas, simplifying forms and using bold color, pattern, dots, and contrast. Have your students view and discuss Stuart Davis’s Owh! In San Paõ (1951) and Roy Lichtenstein’s Girl in Window (Study for World’s Fair Mural) (1963). Compare and contrast the use of color, shape, rhythm, and pattern in these works. Where do your students find inspiration for their own artworks?

Ask your students to reinvent a Whitney artwork! Use the images on whitney.org/for-teachers/collection. Have students make a drawing or painting of the artwork, but in a style that incorporates vivid color, simplified shapes, pattern, and bold contours and contrasts. Students could use styles such as comic book cartooning, anime, graffiti, bubble writing, or their own invented style.