History by Design: How Leaders Have Been Portrayed in Art

The Jackie Robinson Museum

• Check out clips, commentary, and primary sources to learn how Jackie Robinson was portrayed in the bioptic "42."

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Use the lesson plan based on the painting Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze to illustrate how leaders have been portrayed in art. 

The New Yorker

• This article from The New Yorker discusses what a monument is, what is typically memorializing in America's public space, and the shape that monuments are taking in current day. Below are some key quotes:
  • "What isn’t a monument? The term is used to describe an incredibly wide range of structures, from ancient burial mounds, stones arranged with some kind of intention, and the pyramids, to concrete archways, magnificent palaces, columns, and statues of obscure local merchants."
  • "Monuments connect us to the furthest reaches of history, though why we value these things later on may have little relation to why someone was inspired to alter the landscape in the first place."
  • "When we speak of monuments in America, we’re often talking about structures such as statues, obelisks, and memorials that celebrate a relatively narrow band of our history: the Civil War, the First and Second World Wars, the civil-rights era."

NPR

• Listen to or read the transcript of this coverage of the unveiling of Kehinde Wiley's monument, "Rumors Of War" in the former capital of the confederacy.

• Archival footage
• Primary and secondary sources
• Propaganda materials
• Newspaper articles
• Zines
• Photographs
• Public opinion pieces

• Communist leaders
• Fascist leaders
• Confederate leaders
• National Monuments
• Local statues of leaders
  • Ask yourself: what statues of leaders have you seen while walking around your neighborhood?
• How does the city decide who gets a statue or monument? Are some privately owned?
• The new women's suffrage monument in Central Park
• Public art
• Statues and monuments in city/state/national parks
• Presidential portraits

Kehinde Wiley on Race, Portraiture, and Leadership

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

• Exploring Art across Cultures: How do works of art communicate? 
  • To request a virtual field trip, please contact schoolvisits@metmuseum.org at least two weeks in advance.