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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


Essential Ingredients

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

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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

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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


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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.


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


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


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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


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


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


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Franz Marc - The Large Blue Horses (Die Grossen Blauen Pferde) - 1911 -
http://www.walkerart.org/programs/vaexhib_images/Franz.jpg



Alexei Jawlensky - Stormy Pine Trees at Prerow - 1911 -
http://russianavantgard.com/Artists/jawlensky/jawlensky_storm_pine_trees.html


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Johannes Itten - Horizontal/Vertikal - 1915 -
http://the-artists.org/art-gallery/johannes-itten.cfm

Only those who love color are admitted to its beauty and immanent presence. It affords utility to all, but unveils its deeper mysteries only to its devotees. Johannes Itten


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


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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


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


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


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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


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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


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


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


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


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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


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


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


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


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


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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


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Joseph Albers - Homage to the Square: Apparition - 1959


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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


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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


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


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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


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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


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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


Site Map | Historical and Cultural Context | Color Rules of Thumb | Quotes | Glossary | Graphic Organizers | Rules of Thumb | Co-Teachers - Doug and Melissa | Gallery | Top
E-Mail Doug at mrdoug@aznet.net

Melissa and I would like to
thank z
net for
making a commitment to
education and WriteDesign.