San Diego Jewish Academy Advanced Art Color Abstractions

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E-Mail Doug at mrdoug@aznet.net

There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted. Henri Matisse

Introduction
This assignment provides students the opportunity to see color through the exploration of different art movements, periods, and artists to find a style or genre that they would like to emulate. Each student will create a PowerPoint presentation showing background information on the artist and or movement and then create a piece or pieces that reflect the style of the work researched with a focus on the use of color palettes to express an emotional tone or make a social commentary.

Color Abstractions Rubric | Artists: Agam - Albers - Arp - Chagall - Derain - de Vlaminck - Gauguin - Itten - Jawlensky - Kandinsky - Kelly - Klee - Marc - Matisse - Monet - Moholy Nagy - Munch - Newman - O'Keeffe - Picasso - Reinhardt - Rothko - Rouault - Seurat - Van Gogh - Vasarely - Warhol

PowerPoint Presentation

See PowerPoint Tips

• Apply PowerPoint format elements for clarity (e.g. provide a title slide and subtitles at the top of each consecutive slide, include no more than three bullet points per slide, use parallel structure in your bullet points, use only one image per slide, select and apply one color/design/font scheme)
• Edit carefully to create a product free of most errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics
• Title to capture our interest with byline
• Opening quote
• Birth and death dates of artist(s) or movement with picture of artist(s)
• Overview of the artistic movement with which your artist(s) identifies (Impressionist, Fauvist, Expressionist, Pop, etc.); include images from the movement to provide reference
• Brief biographical sketch of artist(s) - If you chose a movement this will combine with the overview above
• Examples of art created by the artist(s) which demonstrate the traits of the artistic movement (at least five (05) major works)
• Discussion of how artist(s) or movement uses color to express an emotional tone or make a social commentary and why you chose the artist(s) and color palette; show depth in explanation
• Ending quote
• Works cited and citations for all research

Top

Personal Interpretation of Artist(s) or Movement

• Uses the creative process to develop piece or pieces; See Creative Process and Thumbnails
• Creates a composition that leads the viewer through the piece(s) (see Rules of Thumb - Layout) using the following techniques: grid structure; frame; directional flow; focus - first read, second read, third read; negative space; etc.
• Uses Color to express an emotional tone or make a social commentary
• Shows care, craft, and technical skill appropriate for the message and medium/media
• Makes a clear and powerful statement using color as a primary tool

Artists to Consider
Also see Historical and Cultural Context at: http://www.writedesignonline.com/history-culture/context.htm

Vincent Van Gogh - Starry Night - 1889 -
http://www.best.com/~martyw/Postimpression.html

Edvard Munch - The Scream (or The Cry) - 1893 -
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/munch/

I sense a scream passing through nature. I painted ... the clouds as actual blood. The colour shrieked.
Edvard Munch, on his painting The Scream.

Georges Seurat - Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grand Jatte -1884-1886
http://psych.hanover.edu/Krantz/art/jatte.jpg

Paul Gauguin - Maternite II - 1899
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40494000/jpg/_40494469_gauguin_body.jpg

Henri Matisse - Woman with the Hat, Paris - 1904-5 http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/2933/fauves/fvmatisse.htm

Colour helps to express light, not the physical phenomenon, but the only light that really exists, that in the artist's brain.
Henri Matisse, 1945

Maurice de Vlaminck - Chatou, with Red Tree - 1906 -
http://www.spaightwoodgalleries.com/Pages/Vlaminck4.html

Andre Derain - The Turning Road, L'Estaque - 1906 -
http://www.mcs.csuhayward.edu/~malek/Derain.html

Jean Arp - Arrangement according to Laws of Chance (Collage with Squares) - 1916-17 -
http://www.moma.org/collection/drawings/arp_arrangement.html

Claude Monet - Waterlillies,Green Reflection, Left Part - 1916-1923 -
http://webpages.marshall.edu/~smith82/monet.html

Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.
Claude Monet

Alexey Georgievich Jawlensky - Mystical Head (Head of a Girl), around 1917 -
http://russianavantgard.com/master_03_artists_world_of_art/alexei_javlensky.html

Johannes Itten - Vogelthema - 1918
http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?aid=24111&c=&search=Johannes+Itten

Paul Klee - Southern (Tunisian) Gardens - 1919 -
http://www.oir.ucf.edu/wm/paint/auth/klee/

Color possesses me. I don't have to pursue it. It will possess me always, I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour: Color and I are one. I am a painter.
Paul Klee

Georgia O'Keeffe - Blue and Green Music -1921
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/highlight_search?acc=1969.835&page=1&Keyword=O'Keeffe

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.
Georgia O'Keeffe

Laszlo Moholy Nagy - Untitled Construction - 1922 -
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/keptar/english/m/moholy/muvek/index.html

Wassily Kandinsky - Black and Violet - 1923 -
http://www.oir.ucf.edu/wm/paint/auth/kandinsky/

Georges Rouault - Les Trois Clowns - Trio Cirques - 1928 -
http://www.ir-tmca.com/cgi-bin/tmcasrv.exe?filename=painting&item=346

Pablo Ruiz Picasso - Girl in front of Mirror - 1932
http://www.modjourn.brown.edu/mjp/Image/picasso/GirlMirror.32.jpg

Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions. Pablo Picasso

Mark Rothko, White Center - 1950
http://www.nga.gov/feature/rothko/classic2a.shtm

Marc Chagall - Lovers in the Red Sky - 1950
http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/exhib_detail.asp?id=110

Ad Reinhardt - Red - 1950 -
http://members.aol.com/mindwebart4/page3.htm

Barnett Newman - Adam - 1951-2 -
http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/m/minimalism.html

Marc Chagall - Adam and Eve Expelled from Paradise - 1954-67
http://www.rollins.edu/Foreign_Lang/Russian/chag3.jpg

All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites.
Marc Chagall

Joseph Albers - Homage to the Square: Apparition - 1959

Ellsworth Kelly - Red Blue Green - 1963 -
http://www.mcasd.org/exhibitions/permcol/artists/kelly.html

I'm not interested in edges. I'm interested in the mass and color, the black and white. The edges happen because the forms get as quiet as they can be. I want the masses to perform. When I work with forms and colors, I get the edge... Ellsworth Kelly

Grace Kelly and Andy Warhol's interpretation - Grace Kelly #305 - 1984 - http://members.tripod.com/~gracepage/gallery.html and http://www.artdirectgallery.com/andy_warhol_grace_kelly.htm

Yaacov Agam - Begegnung, Siebdruck -1985
http://www.israeli-art.com/malerei/images/agam.h9.jpg

Victor Vasarely - Atelier Arcay - 1970
http://tle.northwestern.edu/museum/catalog/cgi/search.cgi?DB=1&QUERY=1995.57&REGION=IDNUMBER

Due Dates
Select an artist(s) or art movement you would like to emulate, then create a PowerPoint presentation and a piece or pieces that represent the feel and general style of the artist(s) or movement. You may use any media you feel appropriate. The school offers pastels, watercolor, pencil, marker, construction paper, and tempra. You must provide other media and tools as appropriate. These dates may change as needed.

5-11-12 - Completed draft of PowerPoint presentation and thumbnails of art

5-18-19 - Revising and editing presentation and art

6-01-02 - Production of presentation and art

6-08-09 - Final PowerPoint and art due for sharing and assessment with all appropriate files emailed to: dkipperman@sdja.com

Color Abstractions Rubric
You have synthesized the essential ingredients: completely, mostly, somewhat

PowerPoint Presentation

See PowerPoint Tips

• Apply PowerPoint format elements for clarity (e.g. provide a title slide and subtitles at the top of each consecutive slide, include no more than three bullet points per slide, use parallel structure in your bullet points, use only one image per slide, select and apply one color/design/font scheme) (10 points)
• Edit carefully to create a product free of most errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics (5 points)
• Title to capture our interest with byline (5 points)
• Opening quote (5 points)
• Birth and death dates of artist(s) or movement with picture of artist(s) (5 points)
• Overview of the artistic movement with which your artist(s) identifies (Impressionist, Fauvist, Expressionist, Pop, etc.); include images from the movement to provide reference (15 points)
• Brief biographical sketch of artist(s) - If you chose a movement this will combine with the overview above (10 points)
• Examples of art created by the artist(s) which demonstrate the traits of the artistic movement (at least five (05) major works) (15 points)
• Discussion of how artist(s) or movement uses color to express an emotional tone or make a social commentary and why you chose the artist(s) and color palette; show depth in explanation (20 points)
• Ending quote (5 points)
• Works cited and citations for all research (5 points)

Total 100 points

Personal Interpretation of Artist or Movement

• Uses the creative process to develop piece or pieces; See Creative Process and Thumbnails (20 points)
• Creates a composition that leads the viewer through the piece(s) (see Rules of Thumb - Layout) using the following techniques: grid structure; frame; directional flow; focus - first read, second read, third read; negative space; etc. (20 points)
• Uses Color to express an emotional tone or make a social commentary (20 points)
• Shows care, craft, and technical skill appropriate for the message and medium/media (20 points)
• Makes a clear and powerful statement using color as a primary tool (20 points)

Total 100 points

As basic rules of a language must be practiced continually, and therefore are never fixed, so exercises toward distinct color effects never are done or over. New and different cases will be discovered time and again.
Josef Albers