Art Tells a Story (1)

Marc Chagall

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Chagall’s painting, I and the Village, and learn about his fantasy and realistic images; Identify the use of primary and secondary colors, geometric shapes, and abstract images; Compare the design of everyday objects in Chagall’s painting with similar objects in today’s culture; Sketch faces and basic objects; Mix and paint with secondary colors; Create self-portraits to tell “Story About Me” using oil pastels.

African Tribal Art

In this lesson the student will: Analyze an African tribal mask and learn about the use of masks from various time periods and cultures; Learn how tribal masks are carved from wood; Identify curving/angular lines, natural colors, geometric shapes repeated in patterns, and rough/smooth textures; Describe geometric patterns found in nature and in the decoration of the Banda mask; Sketch faces in proportion; Create paper sculptures of symmetrical masks, using lines and patterns inspired by tribal masks.

Paul Klee

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Sinbad the Sailor and discuss realistic and abstract designs and patterns in nature and in this painting; Identify the use of vertical, horizontal, curving, and angular lines and geometric shapes; Describe how contrasting colors create moods; Identify the ways movement is shown with diagonal lines; Draw fish and sea creatures; Create underwater scenes, using fingerpaints, with expressive jagged and curving lines and patterns.

Tapa Cloth

In this lesson the student will: Analyze a tapa cloth from Fiji and feel its rough texture; Learn how tapa cloth is made and what it is used for; Identify symmetrical patterns and geometric shapes in a sample of real Polynesian tapa cloth; Sketch symmetrical designs; Print patterns with positive and negative shapes based on Polynesian designs.

Georges Seurat

In this lesson the student will: Analyze The Circus and discuss Seurat’s method of letting the viewers’ eyes mix the colors and his use of color to create a mood; Identify how Seurat shows the illusion of distance using size and placement; Describe his use of line and color to create movement; Sketch butterflies with symmetrical patterns; Paint butterflies using Seurat’s Pointillist style.

Pieter Bruegel

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Bruegel’s Winter Scene and how people lived in Holland during the 16th century; Compare everyday objects, such as toys and houses, from 16th-century Holland with those in modern-day America; Identify horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines; Describe how size, placement, detail, and foreground, background, and middle ground show the illusion of space; Sketch figures in action poses; Color and paint winter landscapes showing people engaged in wintertime activities.

Tlingit Rattle

In this lesson the student will: Analyze a Tlingit animal carving and learn about Native American sculptures, including materials and techniques used to create them; Identify use of color, line, shape, and texture in the Tlingit rattle; Describe how the artist carved realistic features in the creation of a composite animal; Sketch animals using geometric shapes; Sculpt animals from clay, using the pinch–pull method; Create texture on sculpted animals.

Claude Monet

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Monet’s use of small brushstrokes and bright colors to show texture and light; Identify the way color, line, texture, and patterns are used in Bridge over a Pool of Water Lilies; Learn about Monet and the Impressionists; Discuss how an artist uses foreground, middle ground, and background to show distance; Sketch garden landscape; Paint Impressionist landscapes with actual and visual texture, using tempera paint.

Romare Bearden

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Bearden’s use of collage and paint to tell the story of the Queen of Sheba; Identify how Bearden’s use of color, line, shape, and texture gives rhythm to the collage; Describe the use of positive and negative space, angular lines, and geometric shapes; Sketch figures in proportion; Create abstract figure collages, using textured and colored paper, that communicate the feeling of rhythm.

Egyptian Stela

In this lesson the student will: Analyze an Egyptian stone stela depicting an Egyptian-style portrait, a still life on an offering table, and hieroglyphics; Identify the use of line, color, shape, and texture in the stela; Learn about stylized Egyptian portrait painting and how Egyptians carved pictures in stone; Describe and compare Egyptian stylized views with realistic profiles, Egyptian clothing with modern clothing, and Egyptian chairs and tables with modern chairs and tables; Sketch contour figures in Egyptian stylized poses; Draw Egyptian-style figures and hieroglyphics, using variations in line, color, and shape, to tell stories.

Joan Miró

In this lesson the student will: Analyze People and Dog in the Sun and Miró’s use of repeated shapes, lines and colors to express feelings and ideas; Identify how Miró used organic and geometric shapes to balance the painting; Discuss Miró’s use of positive and negative spaces and his abstract composition; Draw a doodle using Miró’s automatic drawing techniques; Create abstract works of art, using chalk pastels.

Jackson Pollock

In this lesson the student will: Analyze how the expressive lines in Jackson Pollock’s action painting, Composition, show movement; Describe the way colors create the appearance of depth and how shapes are balanced by lines and colors; Learn how abstract artists express their feelings through their artwork; Identify primary colors and overlapping shapes and lines; Paint expressive lines to show movement and overlap colors to show depth; Create non-objective compositions.