Pop Art it is!

The winning modern art movement from last week´s assignment was POP ART (congrats Marlene and María, great job!), so this week´s assignment will be based on the work of it´s most notorious figure, Andy Warhol.

This will be a three part assignment which we will complete between this week and the next. The first part is written; Today I will hand you will a magazine article about Andy Warhol. After reading, I want you to extract 10 sentences with the information you personally found the most interesting, as well as answer the 3 questions that are on the magazine.

Also, check out the websites mentioned in the magazine to look at his work. Choose 3 different pieces and tell me why you like them or not (proper lexicon, please. Mention elements and principles of art). Email me your sentences, images and answers.

While you are reading, I will go around taking your picture. By the time you are finished, I will give you your digital picture and you will begin the second part of your assignment, which is to digitally manipulate it in photoshop to create a silkscreen print effect. Follow this tutorial. You´ll love it, it´s super cool :-). Email me your pimped up photo in jpg format.

Next week is the final assignment. You have to print ONE SQUARE (not all four, just ONE) of the photo in 8.5" x 11", prefferably in color but black and white is acceptable, and bring it in to class. We will create a lithograph using these, but this I will explain next week. If you do not bring the printed picture you cannot work, so DO NOT FORGET.

Good luck, and get to work!

Optical Art: Lines like Bridget Riley

A unit on Optical Art is always a big hit with 5th graders. I love it because non-representational art is fun to look at not too intimidating to make, so students who are not that skilled at drawing often surprise themselves by creating a wonderful piece. For this project, students studyied the life and work of Bridget Riley. I chose her because:

1) Students are not too familiar with women artists (and they should be!)
2) Her work is mostly composed of abstract line compositions and the elements of art are very easily identifiable
3) She was an art teacher too ;-)

On the first lesson we saw some cool optical illusions and defined the term. The next day we saw Bridget´s work and students were handed black construction paper and colored chalk to create similar composition —basically, parallel curved lines to create the illusion of movement. A very basic assignment with very different results. Here are some of them:

Then we took it a step further by working with shapes and complementary colors to make it pop out more. Like these:

Finally, the best part is when students go outside the box and apply what they learned to create completely original compositions, such as these:

We are currenlty woking on some Victor Vasarely checkerboard radials. Will post as soon as they´re finished, i´m sure they´ll be just as awesome :-)

Modern Art Movements

Content objective: Research movements within modern art and examine how they influence each other.

Language Objective: Do an oral presentation about an assigned modern art movement.

Today you will spend the class researching one of the following modern art movements (i will assign) in pairs:

• Impressionism
  
• Post-Impressionism
  
• Expressionism
  
• DaDa
  
• Fauvism
• Cubism
• Bauhaus
• Surrealism
• Abstract Expressionism
  
• Pop Art
  
• Minimalism
  
• Conceptual Art
  
• Post-Modern Art

You must provide the following information about your movement, plus anything else you found interesting:

1) Time period the movement encompasses

2) A brief summary of the most important ideas behind the movement

3) Historical in uences that led up to this movement, or a mention of what came before this movement

4) If the movement was a reaction to something, what was it?

5) The purpose of the movement--what was it trying to say about art

6) Media used by artists of the movement e.g., paint, photography, ready-made objects…

7) Major artists or founders of the movement

8) Characteristics of the artwork representing this movement

9) Initial reaction of the public to the movement

10) Two to three pieces of art work from this movement, along with why they are representative of this period

This is kind of a webquest—when you have finished answering these questions, email them to me (a.casals@gcnewhorizons.net) FIRST ONE TO FINISH GETS A SPECIAL PRIZE! (no, not money).

Next week you will do a BRIEF presentation about this; You may do a Powerpoint, a display, a dramatization or anything you want. Creativity will be highly valued! Much more than just repeating everything you read.

Good luck and please don´t waste time.


Art history sites for research

• Modern Art Timeline
  http://www.notaflag.com/timeline.htm
  Use this interactive timeline to learn about modern art.
  
  
• Interactive Art Timeline
  http://www.the-artfile.com/uk/timeline/timelinemain.htm
  This site is a rich art history resource, complete with succinct descriptions of many of the major art movements and their founders. Scroll to the right for modern art.
  
  
• Interactive Art Timeline
  http://www.sanford-artedventures.com/study/timeline. html
  Use this interactive timeline to learn about art history.
  
  
• About: Conceptual Art
  http://arthistory.about.com/msubmp5.htm
  This About.com site contains a list of links about conceptual art.
  
  
• About: Art History
  http://arthistory.about.com/library/bl101.htm
  This list of art movements is arranged chronologically.
  
  
• About: Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
  http://arthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa021 400a.htm
  This page provides a good explanation of impressionism and postimpressionism.
  
  
• Definition of DaDaism
  http://arthistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site= http%3A%2F%2Fwww.peak.org%2F%7Edadaist%2F English%2FGraphics%2Findex.html
  This site has a concise definition of dadaism.
  
  
• WebMuseum: Impressionism
  http://arthistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site= http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oir.ucf.edu%2Fwm%2Fpaint%2 Fglo%2Fimpressionism%2F
  Visit this in-depth description of impressionism.