Henri Matisse: Jazz & Poetry on Paper (Elementary)
The student will be able explain Matisse’s process in creating a four-part work of art. Students will try to determine the subject of the works of art based on the images and discuss how Matisse uses simplified shapes to convey feelings or events. Students will select their own still life subject and create a sketch of it in one quadrant of their paper. In the next quadrant they will create a sketch that is more simplified, with less definition. Students will continue this process until they have a four-part work of art.
Lesson Created By: Glenna Barlow
Grade(s):
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 5
Subject(s):
Recommended Technology:
Internet
Chromebooks or iPads
Other Instructional Materials or Notes:
• The art activity itself could vary widely in medium or other constraints. For students with low or impaired vision, for instance, the medium could be clay or other 3D media. Younger or less experienced students may be better suited to working with materials with which they are already familiar.
• Extend the lesson as an ELA activity by asking students to add accompanying text to their images – for the first image they can write a whole paragraph, for the second, just a few sentences until they refine their image to a single word or phrase.
Lesson Progression
In the classroom the instructor will:
1. Start by introducing the art of Henri Matisse. For more advanced groups, explain that Matisse started working when abstraction and modern art was still very new. (Discuss abstraction if students are unfamiliar.)
2. Show students an image of Matisse’s Sorrow of the King. Ask them to guess what they think is happening in the image.
3. Then introduce Rembrandt’s David Playing the Harp for Saul, explaining that Matisse was looking back to Rembrandt in creating his own modern work. Have students compare the two images and draw conclusions about Matisse’s approach to artmaking.
4. Show the group Matisse’s Back series, explaining that Matisse didn’t intend it as a series but rather it was a subject he returned to again and again over about 20 years. Ask students how they would characterize the progression from one sculpture to the next.
5. Explain to students that they will be creating their own progression – starting with a more complex work and simplifying it to its essential shapes, colors and lines.
6. Have students fold their paper in half twice, creating four quadrants.
7. In the top left instruct students to sketch a still life from some objects assembled. Encourage them to pay attention to details and think about elements like shading.
8. After students have completed the first section, ask them to create a second drawing in the adjacent quadrant, refining and simplifying from their original sketch.
9. Continue in this manner until students reach the last quadrant, where they will create a simplified image that includes lines and forms that give an impression of the objects.
10. Facilitate and ask questions as needed.
11. After students have finished their work of art, have students discuss the process and how completing the first sketch helped inform their subsequent drawings.
Matisse biography
The remarkable career of Henri Matisse, one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, whose stylistic innovations (along with those of Pablo Picasso) fundamentally altered the course of modern art and affected the art of several generations of younger painters, spanned almost six and a half decades.
View ResourceStandards
- VA.CR Creating - I can make artwork using a variety of materials, techniques, and processes.
- VA.CR Creating - I can make artwork using a variety of materials, techniques, and processes.
- VA.R Responding - I can evaluate and communicate about the meaning in my artwork and the artwork of others.
- VA.R Responding - I can evaluate and communicate about the meaning in my artwork and the artwork of others.
- VA.R Responding - I can evaluate and communicate about the meaning in my artwork and the artwork of others.
- VA.P Presenting - I can choose and organize work that demonstrates related concepts, skills, and/or media.
Assessments
Ask students to point out various elements of art in their finished product, explaining what certain elements represent.