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Diversity of Voice: Views on Guns in America

Communication and Listening Activity

Andy Warhol, Gun, 1981-1982, ©AWF

This lesson uses the artworks of Andy Warhol as a springboard for discussing diverse points of view about gun ownership, gun use and gun imagery in contemporary culture. Students read texts ranging from personal viewpoints to the Bill of Rights in order to debate cultural values.

Grades:

8-12

Subjects:

Social Studies, Civics, Art, Language Arts

Suggested Time Frame:

1 class period

Objectives:

Students will describe personal and cultural associations with an artwork
Students will associate meanings with popular symbols
Students will explain the meaning of historical and cultural documents and sources
Students will compare and contrast historical and cultural values
Students will formulate individual points of view about an artwork in writing
Students will assess the role of art in communicating cultural values

About the Art:

In the early 1980s Andy Warhol painted a variety of iconic objects, including guns, knives and crosses. Warhol rejected the idea that his work functioned as social criticism and instead described himself as an American artist who was merely depicting his environment. This description suggests that his paintings of guns can be read in the same way as his images of Campbell’s Soup, Marilyn Monroe, or Coca-Cola—as simply images of American icons.

Yet, as with many of Warhol’s statements and works, there is the surface of things and then the multiple meanings below it. Gun ownership in America is hugely popular, in part, because it gives people a sense of security. Hollywood imagery and video games add to the allure of guns. The gun is also, through its widespread use and availability in America, a tool of real and commonplace violence. This particular gun, the .32 snub-nosed pistol, was the type that Valerie Solanas used in her 1968 assassination attempt on Warhol. In his choice of such richly associative iconic objects, Warhol becomes a truly artful social observer.

Andy Warhol, Gun, 1981-1982, ©AWF

Andy Warhol Quote:

When you hurt another person, you never know how much it pains. Since I was shot, everything is such a dream to me. I don’t know what anything is about. Like, I don’t know whether I’m alive or whether I died. I wasn’t afraid before. And having been dead once, I shouldn’t feel fear. But I am afraid. I don’t understand why.

Andy Warhol after he was shot and seriously wounded in 1968.

Points of View:

What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.

Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1787.

There’s a saying in the theater that if a play opens with a gun over the mantle, the gun must go off before the final curtain. Warhol suggests that lethal potential: with no one gripping it, this gun seems to be firing itself, its double image suggesting the “kick” of recoil.

But the viewer stands just to the side of where it’s aimed. You can appreciate its lethal allure without being threatened directly by it. And you can understand how the pro-gun and anti-gun lobbies both fetishize the object of their disagreement. The former treat guns as totems to ward off danger or totalitarianisms, the latter regard them as taboo objects whose mere presence invites evil.

Chris Potter, managing editor, The Pittsburgh City Paper, “Point of View Labeling Project,” The Andy Warhol Museum, 1999.

I stood up in a social studies class—the teacher wanted a discussion—and said I could never kill anyone or condone anyone who did kill anyone. But that I could on some level, understand these kids in Colorado, the killers [reference to school shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado where 12 students were shot by two classmates]. Because day after day, slight after slight, exclusion after exclusion, you can learn how to hate . . . After class I was called to the principal’s office and told that I had to agree to undergo five sessions of counseling or be expelled from school, as I had expressed ‘sympathy’ with the killers in Colorado and the school had to be able to explain itself if I ‘acted out.’ In other words, for speaking freely, and to cover their ass, I was not only branded a weird geek, but a potential killer, that will sure help deal with violence in America.

Jay in the Southeast, Slashdot.org.

Discussion Questions:

What associations do you have when looking at this gun? Make a list of words that come to mind.
Who do you usually associate with guns? Do these people impact your daily life?
How many times in one week do you think you see guns on television, movies or in other video imagery? Do these images affect you?
Do you think our culture is obsessed with violence? Why or why not?
Does this artwork celebrate or critique America’s gun culture? Can it do both? Why or why not?

Procedure

Materials:

Paper

Writing Utensil

Handout

Procedure:

Read and discuss each Point of View. Attached handout includes the Points of View, supplemental information and possible discussion questions.
Write your own Point of View about Andy Warhol’s Gun painting.
Extension: discuss or write an essay addressing the following questions:
- Should art communicate cultural values or morals? Why or why not?
- What do you think the role of art is and should be in culture?

Assessment

Warhol Education Rubrics

Click the Warhol Rubric headers below to reveal associated rubrics to which this lesson applies.

Critical Thinking

	Developing	Emerging	Proficient	Advanced	Exemplary
CT.4	Investigative: Able to conduct research and ask questions, know forms of arguments, inferences and fallacies.	Solicits information that may be superflous and draws inappropriate conclusions.	Highlights some relevant and useful details thorough research that support interpretation and analysis.	Acquires reliable and persuasive information from a variety of sources to support their interpretations.	Ranks the quality of information researched and develops nuanced interpretations.	Acquires new information that supports highly sophisticated analysis or revision of previous ideas.

Communication

	Developing	Emerging	Proficient	Advanced	Exemplary
CO.1	Reading: Comprehension of textual information	Comprehends the literal meaning from a range of texts about a work of art, an artist or concept but is still working to grasp big ideas and varying points of view.	Identifies some big ideas in various texts and is beginning to distinguish between fact and opinions within the text.	Identifies significant big ideas and is able to makes connections between the themes of texts and more complex cultural issues related to a work of art.	Taps into prior knowledge and supports thinking beyond the text with specific evidence from the text or personal knowledge about a work of art.	Displays original thinking about ideas in texts and makes these ideas relevant to the work of art or concept at hand.
CO.2	Writing: Mechanics, Organization, Vocabulary.	Vocabulary is limited, mechanics are poor and organization is weak.	Some coherence, organization, and use of new vocabulary but ideas are ill-supported and/or grammar is still poor.	Adequate mastery of mechanics, vocabulary and grammar to convey a clear point of view.	Demonstrates a strong command of structure and purpose; as well as an appropriate understanding of style and mechanics.	Presents and interprets complex material with sophisticated attention to mechanics, accuracy and context.

Creative Process

	Developing	Emerging	Proficient	Advanced	Exemplary
CP.1	Creative Thinking: questioning, exploring, brainstorming, working or discussing activities.	Has problems identifying ideas and concepts for a work of art.	Brainstorms information for a work of art from own knowledge, class instruction and outside sources around the subject.	Makes selection and elaborates upon an idea for a work of art after the analysis of multiple ideas and options.	Hypothesizes adaptations from the initial ideas for a work of art.	Demonstrates originality and innovation.

Historical Context

		Developing	Emerging	Proficient	Advanced	Exemplary
HC.1	SocioCultural and Political: Understands how art relates to social movements, political events, or historical figures.	Interprets works of art as having limited influence or relationships to social movements, political events, or historical figures.	Increasingly recognizes that artworks can be shaped by or can express social movements, political events, or historical figures.	Explains how culture impacts artists and/or art through political events, historical figures and cultural contexts of an artwork.	Interprets, constructs opinions, and draws conclusions about an artwork based upon analysis of historical, political and cultural contexts.	Combines all previous knowledge about socio-political contexts to create new predictions, questions or insights about the relationship between art and history.
HC.2	Biographical: Understands how historical events influence an artist’s life and work.	Has limited understanding of how historical events influence an artist’s life and work.	Able to identify moments in time that are significant in the artist’s biography.	Describes the scope of an artist’s work in duration, quantity and influence.	Applies information from an artist’s biography in the illustration of larger historical, conceptual and philosophical ideas.	Compares and analyzes the ways in which the work of past artists have affected the work (both physical and conceptual) of contemporary artists.
HC.4	Interpretative: Able to synthesize facts and opinions in own interpretation of historical/cultural significance.	Possesses a limited ability to develop an opinion about how an artwork relates to historical events and/or current events.	Recognizes multiple points of view about a historical event.	Forms opinions on the importance of events in history in relation to a work of art or to an artist’s process.	Synthesizes facts and opinions in own interpretation of the historical/cultural significance of a work of art.	Integrates historical/cultural evidence in unique interpretation of artwork and future implications (impact, effect, role) in society.