Modern Art

Salvador Dali

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Dali’s Swans Reflecting Elephants and learn how Surrealism combines realism and abstraction; Learn about Dali and how his background affected the kinds of paintings he created; Identify the use of line and color in compositions with fantasy animals in impossible backgrounds; Draw animals and add features that turn them into imaginary creatures; Create surreal animals, using oil pastels, in watercolor landscapes with dreamlike backgrounds.

George Bellows

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Bellow’s painting Dempsey and Firpo and the techniques he used for showing action; Learn how Bellows used color and contrast to create an exciting mood; Describe how diagonal lines and contrasting color show movement; Identify viewpoint, proportion, and scale; Sketch contour figures; Sculpt wire figures in action poses, showing movement through the use of strong diagonal and curving lines.

Richard Diebenkorn

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park No. 54 and his abstract landscapes; Identify bird’s-eye view, vertical, and horizontal lines and analogous colors; Mix colors and paint washes with watercolors to show mood; Draw abstract landscapes as seen from a bird’s-eye view, using geometric shapes to design balanced compositions; Paint using flat, graded, and variegated watercolor techniques; Create abstract watercolor landscapes in the style of Diebenkorn.

Pablo Picasso

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Picasso’s Weeping Woman and his use of abstract and Cubist styles; Discuss the way Picasso used color contrasts as emphasis in this portrait; Learn about Picasso’s use of color, shape, line, and form to show emotion; Identify pairs of complementary colors and describe how Picasso used them to communicate an idea or mood; Draw profile and frontal faces in proportion; Paint Cubist portraits in original compositions, using complementary colors to show contrast and emphasis.

Charles Demuth

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Demuth’s The Figure Five in Gold and discuss how it illustrates The Great Figure, a poem by William Carlos Williams; Identify the use of color, shape, line, and space in this painting; Describe the way repetition creates rhythm and movement in it; Design compositions using positive and negative shapes; Create number designs, using oil pastels, emphasizing contrast and unity.

Henri Matisse

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Matisse’s Interior with Aubergines and his use of bright colors and confusing space; Identify organic and geometric shapes and patterns; Describe color contrast and the contrast between 3-D and 2-D; Sketch organic and geometric shapes; Print organic and geometric patterns; Create 3-D rooms with patterned walls, floors, and furniture.

Franz Marc

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Marc’s painting Two Cats, blue and yellow and the way he used symbolic colors; Identify the mood created by color and how highlights and shadows create form; Describe the way Marc used color to create abstract compositions; Sketch cats using geometric shapes; Create Expressionistic cats using chalk pastels.

Auguste Rodin

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Rodin’s The Thinker and his techniques for showing expression and emotion; Discuss the qualities that make a sculpture 3-D; Describe the texture of the surface of the figure; Identify scale and proportions in the figure; Sketch contours of figures in action positions; Sculpt posed figures from clay, using additive and subtractive techniques.

Diego Rivera

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Rivera’s The Zapotec Civilization and discuss how a mural can convey universal ideas and social commentary; Identify the activities of the figures in the mural; Describe how Rivera depicted a peaceful society, using similar colors, stylized figures, and simple shapes to unify the composition; Sketch and plan mural scenes; Draw and paint a collaborative mural showing scenes of mission life, using stylized figures and muted colors.

Georgia O’Keeffe

In this lesson the student will: Analyze O’Keeffe’s Poppies and the way she enlarged and simplified forms in nature; Identify the use of color, shape, line, texture, value, and form in the painting and in real flowers and shells; Discuss the way tints and shades create the illusion of form; Describe the way contrasting colors add emphasis and show radial symmetry; Sketch enlarged or exaggerated flowers or shells; Draw and color a flower or shell, blending oil pastels to create new colors and to change values to show form; Paint contrasting backgrounds in complementary colors using watercolors.

Wayne Thiebaud

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Thiebaud’s Dessert Table and discuss how geometric shapes have been abstracted and how shadows and impasto add realism; Identify the use of line, color, shape, texture, and form in the painting; Identify the repetition of shape and color and find colors in shadows; Sketch objects with simple, repeated shapes; Transfer charcoal images in a series; Paint desserts using tinted colors, impasto paint, and colored cast shadows.

Victor Vasarely

In this lesson the student will: Analyze Vasarely’s Tridem K and learn how shapes and colors can create optical illusions; Identify the use of color, line, shape, value, and form in the painting; Describe the way Vasarely used color contrasts and positive and negative shapes to create a 3-D effect; Sketch and transform 2-D squares into 3-D cubes; Paint Op Art geometric designs, using watercolors, showing optical illusions.