Inspiration Through The Art of Imitation.

Each year, scholars in the twelfth-grade studio art class at Chandler Prep, under the direction of art teacher Jennifer Summa, collaborate and create a large-scale replica of a master work of art.  Each student works on an individual 12-inch by 12-inch square wooden panel that is just a small piece of the larger installation.  When the panels are put together on a complete grid and hung on the walls of the academy, the artwork comes to life. “We believe that having great works in the school elevates our mood, intentions, and the overall campus,” said Chandler Prep Headmaster John Paul Poppleton.

Summa works with students to choose the master works to replicate.  “We want our students to use the highest standards so that they learn to reach and grow past their comfort zone. In this way we believe they will learn to reach their full potential.”

The Old Guitarist, an oil painting by Pablo Picasso, was chosen during the 2020-2021 school year.  “With this piece, we were still in the pandemic, and we reflected on the period our community was going through and we knew that Pablo Picasso had lost a friend when painting this piece and that his blue period was a feeling of loss and uncertainty for him,” explained Poppleton.  Picasso’s blue period or período azul is the term used to define the works he created between 1901 and 1904.  During this period, he painted essentially monochromatic paintings in shades of blue and blue-green.  The original piece depicts an elderly musician, a haggard man with threadbare clothing, who is hunched over his guitar while playing in the streets of Barcelona, Spain.

The completed installation is a remarkable replica with just a few notable differences. The most obvious being that the original was painted by the master painter, Pablo Picasso, in the late 1903 and early 1904.  In contrast, the replica is the collaborative work of a recent senior class.  The original painting, currently on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, measures 2-feet, 9-inches wide and 4-feet tall, while the replica displayed at Chandler Prep measures a larger 4-feet wide and 5-feet tall.  Instead of using the original medium of oil paints, acrylic paints were used because they are non-toxic, yet the pigmentation is comparable to the depth and quality of the oil paints that Picasso used in his time.

“[This piece] inspires the younger students to know what they have ahead of them.  They realize that there is potential for great things ahead of them,” said Poppleton.  “The students feel proud that they get to leave a beautiful mark on our campus for the students who come, and they get to leave the school more beautiful than they found it.”

Navigating the classrooms and hallways throughout our academies feels like touring a museum with galleries of fine art created by some of the great artists of the Western Tradition.  It is this creation of sacred and humane spaces that elevate the classical education experience at our revolutionary schools.

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