Intro Quiz: Matisse (Part 1)

Video: Matisse (Part 1)

﻿Hello and welcome to your art lesson. My name's Mrs. Davis. This is your third of eight abstract art lessons. And today we're going to be looking at Matisse. There are two lessons. This is the first of those two lessons on Matisse. Okay, so we're going to be looking at Henri Matisse. I'd like you to listen to the presentation, analyse the artist's work, create a cutout figure, and finally recreate your own figures in movement. Okay, so a little bit of information about the artist. Henri Matisse was born in 1869 and died in 1954. He was French. He originally studied law and was one of the Fauves and the word fauve translates wild beasts. He was married with two children and recognised along with Picasso as one of the main protagonists of the European Avant Garde. So one of the main artists in that movement. Just a little bit of information to flesh out the dates there. So he was born in 1869, died in 1954. That means like so many of the artists working at this time, he'd lived through both of the World Wars and France was obviously right at the heart of what was going on in the First and Second World War. Okay, so this was a quote from the artist: "He who loves flies, runs and rejoices. "He is free and nothing holds him back." So this was a common theme with the Fauves, the Expressionists and the Impressionists, that they were in pursuit of freedom, artistic freedom, maybe personal freedom. They've known a lot of rules in their lifetime and they were rebels. They were keen to break some of those rules and change some of those conventions, particularly in art. And you may not realise it, but the way that they changed the art world has shaped it forever. So it was really important what was going on in Europe at this time. So in galleries, up to this point, you would've found lots of traditional themes, looking at Bible stories and mythology. You would have only seen important, famous, rich, royal people painted. And you would've only seen beautiful landscapes and beautiful stately homes. These artists were keen to change that. They were keen to present a different version of life and they were keen to break some of those rules. So the Fauves in particular were breaking rules about the way that colour was used, thinking about not working quite so figuratively, but using colours in a more expressive way. Okay, so today you're going to be looking at the artist. I'd like you to listen, try and remember some of the key points about Matisse, answer the questions using full sentences and learn more about his style by recreating one of his cutout artworks. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. It's a really great way of learning and understanding about an artist is to recreate their work. Even if you don't produce something, that's exactly like their work, you'll understand. Believe me, you will understand their work so much better by attempting to recreate it. And the same is true of evaluating an artwork. It's a really important part of what we do as artists is to evaluate, because evaluation forces you to spend more time looking at the artwork and really thinking about it. Okay, so this is an example of one Henri Matisse's paintings. It's a painting of dancing figures. Looking at the colour of the figures, we can tell straight away that he's not using colour in a realistic way. These figures weren't actually red. So importantly colour was being used in an expressive way. So what expression, what atmosphere or emotion might red convey? I think red might be the colour that would symbolise anger or passion. They don't look angry. So I'm going to assume that this is or passionate dance. It might also convey something about the heat of their bodies. When you're moving, if you've ever danced energetically you'll know that it will make you feel hot. It might also, you might also see some expression in the way that their bodies are moving or the position of their bodies. So they look like they're not really thinking about how they might look. They're not worrying about whether they look good when they're dancing or whether they're following any particular routine. They just look like they're lost in the movement. And so that would've all tied in with the expressive and slightly wild ideas that went along with Fauvism. Okay, so we've just looked at a painting, but towards the end of Matisse's life, he worked in a completely different way and he produced artworks called cutouts. So here's an example of one of his cutouts. So he was in ill health towards the end of his life. And he wasn't able to paint anymore. Some people might have put their head down and thought, oh, well, that's it then. I give up, but not Matisse. Matisse was creative about his problem and he thought of a way round it. He showed resilience and determination to continue to be creative and to continue to express himself. And I think we should admire him for that because I think that's really excellent way of approaching a problem. So rather than getting his head down and thinking, that's it, I can't work anymore. He decided to work in a different way. So the way that he worked was to paint huge sheets, 'cause these were very large artworks of white paper with different colours, bright colours. So he was really into these bright, expressive colours. Not necessarily, obviously this is a blue figure, so not realistic. He'd just painted them with one single colour, allow the paint to dry. And then he would use a pair of scissors instead of a paint brush or a pencil as a way of drawing lines. So he was using his scissors to draw the lines in trying to continue to be expressive. Like the dancing figures that we saw on the previous slide, this is a human figure. So that was a common theme in Matisse's work. A lot of his work was inspired by human figures. So we know why the artist was working this way. Hopefully you can see that the picture is of a human figure. Think about the way that it's positioned. So he did look at different positions. He wasn't just looking at humans as a static figure. He was thinking about the way that the body moves. And I want you to finally answer the question, how does it make you feel? So when you look at this artwork, you might've had an initial gut reaction, it might be familiar to you. You might have seen it before. His work is really influential and has inspired a lot of artists to work in a similar way, but this particular seated blue figure has been reproduced a lot and it is quite visible. You will see it if you look at sort of gallery gift shops and things like that. And after having looked at it for a while and learning a little bit about his story and the fact that this was something he produced in later life, because of ill health, you might feel slightly different about it. So talk about your first reaction and talk about how your opinions changed. Remember how important this is, is a way of getting you to understand and to think about the artwork. Okay, so if you could go and collect a paper and pen, pause the video to answer those questions and resume when you've finished. Okay, how did you get on? I hope you answered all the questions. I hope you had an idea of what to write, because we've talked about his work a little bit already. The next thing you're going to be doing is a practical task. So I'm going to show you the equipment that I want you to gather first of all. And then we're just going to go through the instructions one step at a time. Okay, so first thing I'd like you to do is collect coloured and white paper, scissors, and a pencil. Now, I'm well aware that a lot of you will not have coloured paper in your house. So think about using any kind of paper. So it could be that you find a magazine and just use a page from a magazine or a newspaper. It may be that you've just had a flyer posted through your door. You could use that. Or if you wanted to, you could colour in a piece of paper. If you're painting a piece of paper, obviously you're going to need to leave time for it to dry as well. So if you can pause the video to go and get those things and resume when you've finished please. Okay, finger's crossed you've got all of those bits. Right, so this is the first thing you're going to need to do. You're going to need to draw on the coloured or the printed piece of paper. So I'm going to ask you to draw basically the body parts of a human figure. And if you draw all of them as all these separate components, it will allow you to do quite a lot of movement. So I don't want the legs to be just one long strip. I want you to think about the joints of the legs. So having the thigh and then the lower half of the leg and the foot, and you can see I've, I mean, I've measured that vaguely to make sure that the proportions were accurate, but to give you a rough idea, 20 centimetres is about the width of a piece of A4 paper, 15 centimetres, obviously five centimetres shorter than that, 12 centimetres, three centimetres shorter than the arms. And you can see that the body is broken into the hips and the chest. The chest should be a bit bigger than the hips. And you can see it's a kind of rounded off, almost like a square shape for those two parts and then the head and obviously the neck and don't forget the foot and the hand. So the next thing I'd like you to do is to draw all of those things on and resume when you've finished, please. Okay, hopefully you've got those drawn on, then it's a cutting task. So I'd like you to cut all of those pieces out and arrange them like this to make a body. So if you can pause the video to complete that task, please. Okay, hopefully you've got a body in front of you that you are now able to move and position. Okay, so this is what I did with my figure. So I had a kind of, almost like a running figure there. And then I've got a kind of strange dance move. Take photos or stick down what you've created. It's up to you. Matisse love recreating bodies dancing. Perhaps you could try out some of your best moves. So I'm sure at some stage you have created some moves, whether you're in your bedroom dancing, dancing in the living room, or maybe even dancing at a party, have a think about those moves and try recreating one of them. Have a bit of fun with this. I quite enjoyed positioning my bodies and photograph or stick down your best results. Okay, so you can pause to complete that task please. Resume when you finished. How did you get on? I'm hoping you've got some really, maybe some funny, maybe some quite stylish figures moving. Please make sure you take time to complete the end of the lesson quiz. If you've been following the whole of this lesson, I think you're going to do well on the quiz. And finally, if you could, I think we'll really enjoy seeing of some of your outcomes. If you could share your work Oak National, please, could you ask a parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak. It's been a real pleasure talking about Matisse with you and I'll see you again soon. Thanks, bye.

Exit Quiz: Matisse (Part 1)

Completed: Matisse (Part 1)

In today's lesson you are going to look at Matisse and learn about the artist, re-creating his work and producing your own 'cut out'.

Art

Matisse (Part 1)

Introductory Quiz

Video

Final Quiz

Lesson Complete