WriteDesign - Historical and Cultural Context - Matisse

Historical and Cultural Context - Mobiles
Leaves, No Litter

Worth checking out:

a virtual and real place to
explore your passions:
writing, reading, design, art.

Drawing Prompts - Each artist link provides an opening representative image suitable for drawing by students. Additional images and information are also provided to help students explore the vast posibilities of artistic expression.

Historical and Cultural Context | Site Map | Co-Teachers - Doug and Melissa | Gallery
E-Mail Doug at mrdoug@aznet.net or Melissa at melissa.granadatreehousestudio@gmail.com.

"Why must art be static? You look at an abstraction, sculptured or painted, an entirely exciting arrangement of planes, spheres, nuclei, entirely without meaning. It would be perfect but it is always still. The next step in sculpture is motion."
- Alexander Calder, referring to his abstract kinetic sculptures on display at the Julien Levy Gallery, New York, 1932. Excerpted from the New York World-Telegram, June 11, 1932 - http://www.sfmoma.org/espace/calder/calder_intro.html

Mobiles - A type of moving sculptural artwork developed by Alexander Calder in 1932. Fellow artist Marcel Duchamp became particularly fascinated by one of Calder's motor-driven sculptures. Duchamp suggested the term "mobile" -- in French, a pun that suggests both motion and motive -- to describe this work, as well as the new category of kinetic art to which it belonged. (http://www.sfmoma.org/espace/calder/calder_earlymobiles.html)

Often constructed of colored metal pieces connected by wires or rods, the mobile has moving parts that are sensitive to a breeze or light touch; it can be designed to hang from the ceiling or stand free on the floor. Mobiles became popular in the 1950s for interior decoration. http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0833511.html

Key Elements | Matisse's Process | Shape Vocabulary | Materials

Alexander Calder - Goldfish Bowl - 1929

Wire - Private Collection, Copyright ©2000 National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/calder/realsp/4f.htm

Alexander Calder - Steel Fish - 1934

Sheet metal, wire, rod, lead, and paint, 115 x 137 x 120 in. Private Collection, © 1998 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York http://www.sfmoma.org/espace/calder/photo_lg_fish.html

Alexander Calder - Aluminum Leaves, Red Post - 1941

Sheet metal, wire, and paint, 61 x 61 in., Collection of Jean Lipman, © 1998 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
http://www.sfmoma.org/espace/calder/photo_lg_aluminum.html

Alexander Calder - S-Shaped Vine - 1946

Sheet metal, wire, and paint, 98 1/2 x 69 in., Collection of Rita and Toby Schreiber, © 1998 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
http://www.sfmoma.org/espace/calder/photo_lg_vine.html

Alexander Calder - Poisson Volant (Flying Fish) - 1957 -

Sheet metal, wire, & paint - dimensions: 24" x 89", http://members.tripod.com/~Raincloud771/favart/calder.htm

"I make and fly kites to play with color and line in the sky. My kites play games with the light, hide and seek with the clouds. They push and pull on the wind. They challenge the birds. My hand grows longer and longer until I feel I am somehow in contact with that immensity into and out of which all things come and go. The kite itself is a reference to the human: so fragile and yet so strong. It is also a reference to constant movement, sinuous movement, the movement of dreams and childhood. A child on the street rarely walks in a straight line. It plays while it goes, in and out, around and about. That is what birds in flight do. That is what my kites do. I wish to create "sky works" however ephemeral. Kites are an instrument for this. They put line and color into the sky and sculpt the air. They play game of freedom." - Jackie Matisse

Jackie Matisse - 3 Kite Tails, http://www.raykass.com/html/Matisse/html/mat_exhibit.html

Mobiles with hanging irregular shapes

Sketches from exhibit, Art That Soars - Kites and Tails by Jackie Matisse at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, April 25 - November 26

Wire frame "box" with hanging pieces of nylon fabric attached to fishing line

Sketch from exhibit, Art That Soars - Kites and Tails by Jackie Matisse at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, April 25 - November 26

Wire frame "box" with hanging objects

Sketch from exhibit, Art That Soars - Kites and Tails by Jackie Matisse at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, April 25 - November 26

Wire frame "box" with rocks and hanging objects

Sketch from exhibit, Art That Soars - Kites and Tails by Jackie Matisse at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, April 25 - November 26

Andy Goldsworthy - Iris Leaves & Rowan Berries, http://cgee.hamline.edu/see/goldsworthy/see_an_andy.html

“What I am after, above all, is expression.”

Henri Matisse - The Clown

Key Elements

Simplified shapes
Flat colors
Repeat patterns

Henri Matisse - Chinese Fish - 1951

“Finally I have found the most direct way to express myself – the paper cutout”

Henri Matisse - Icarus (shows the original French text) - 1943

Matisse's Process

Pick a subject
Create shapes that symbolize the elements within the subject
Cut out shapes spontaneously
Arrange (play with) the shapes

Shape Vocabulary

People and plants are organic (curved)
Backgrounds are geometric
Rectangles act as framing devices
Positive shapes in cut paper
Negative shapes left from cut
Space between shapes
Scale (large vs small)

Henri Matisse - The Knife Thrower

“The truly original artist invents his own signs.”

Henri Matisse - The Codomas

TEXT and ART not referenced with hyperlink: Henri Matisse, working with shapes Scholastic Art, Dec 1996/Jan 1997 vol.27, no. 3,
Published in cooperation with the National Gallery of Art. Formerly ART & MAN

Materials

Construction paper, tag board, fabric (nylon, rayon, burlap, cotton), foil (aluminum, copper), cellophane, tissue paper
Wire
Fishing line, twine, string
Natural objects - feathers, leaves, sea shells, twigs, dried fish (yes, dried fish, the Japanese dry lots of fish and they look really surreal)
Litter - wrappers, bottle tops, note paper

Historical and Cultural Context | Site Map | Co-Teachers - Doug and Melissa | Gallery
E-Mail Doug at mrdoug@aznet.net or Melissa at melissa.granadatreehousestudio@gmail.com.

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