Teachers’ notes

The Superpower of Looking:
Pop Art planes inspired by comics

How to use this resource

In class, open a full-screen version of the image in a new window.

Use the prompts in these notes to guide your students through the lesson.

Contextual background for teachers

Whaam! (1963)

Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997)

Acrylic and oil on canvas

H 172.7 x W 406.4cm

Tate Modern, London

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/whaam-117785

American artist Roy Lichtenstein was a well-known exponent of the Pop Art movement. The composition (arrangement of forms) is borrowed from a comic book and the hard-edged style, with forms outlined in black, gives it a cartoon-strip appearance. The title, Whaam!, is onomatopoeic which heightens the impact of the missile launched from the fighter plane on the left at the enemy plane on the right. Lichtenstein had served in the US Army and, at the time of painting this, the Vietnam War was well underway.
How has Lichtenstein represented war here? Does the simplified style, in two-dimensional (flat) blocks of unmodulated primary colour, affect our interpretation?

Look, describe and discuss

You can start by showing the whole image, and then use the zoom feature to explore details of the painting. Or you might like to start by using the zoom feature to show a detail from the image, and then zoom out to see more.

Encourage your students to look carefully – this is their superpower! It’s best to not give too much background information about the artwork at this stage, so students can develop their own ideas and opinions.

Nudge questions

Now when looking at the painting, ask more specific ('nudge') questions:

What do you think is going on here? Who or what does the artist want us to look at first? Is there movement in a particular direction?

What difference does it make to see the battle action up close rather than further away?

If this painting could make a sound, what kind of sounds would it make?

In terms of its style, what does it remind you of? Why?

Questions from The Superpower of Looking Kit

Now we can start to explore the 'elements' of the painting. Use The Superpower of Looking Kit to ask questions about the artwork. For this artwork, you will focus on composition, colour and line.

Ask your students to evidence their points:

Where exactly are they looking when they make a statement?

Can everybody see what they see?

Slow down, take time to really look closely

You can introduce knowledge from the contextual background for teachers at this point.

Everyone learning

You can find out more about The Superpower of Looking SEND/ASD/ALN approach on the Superpower homepage.

Now it's time to explore the artwork in different ways. This list of sensory activities encourages students to apply their learning and can suit a variety of learning needs.

Make

Choose a moment from history to recreate in Lichtenstein’s comic book style. Challenge students to make use of a limited colour palette and outlining forms in black.

Create a drawing using the Ben Day dots typical of Lichtenstein’s work. Find out more about this style in this profile of Roy Lichtenstein from Tate.

Listen

Listen to Blowin' in the Wind by Bob Dylan. The song was released in 1963, the same year Lichtenstein painted Whaam! It is one of the most famous anti-war protest songs. Do students feel that the music suits the painting?

Touch

Get your students to touch toy aeroplanes.

Move

Take on this paper plane challenge set by Imperial War Museums which takes inspiration from aircraft used in combat.

Communicate

Whaam! makes use of onomatopoeia. You can find out about this device in this resource and video exploring onomatopoeia from BBC Bitesize. What other onomatopoeic words can you think of to go with the painting?

Learn the Makaton sign or British Sign Language for ‘aeroplane’.

Final stage: review

Ask your students to:

share their sketchbooks in groups and discuss the 'elements' they have identified

choose an element/aspect they find most interesting about the artwork and record it in their sketchbooks

choose their own name/s for the title of the artwork

think of a question they would like to ask the artist

Congratulations!

You have now completed The Superpower of Looking lesson resource.

There are more resources in this theme to try – have a look in the ‘next lessons’ section below.

Next lessons

Now try these other lesson resources as part of the history theme:

The three wise men who visited Jesus

A lady, a curse and tales of King Arthur

A battle in Renaissance Florence

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Shore Family

2023-09-04T12:24:00Z

Jennie Thornber