Art
Over the course of the school year we will study a number of artists. Here is a brief biography about each of them, along with a few websites if you are interested in viewing their work:
Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932) Karl Blossfeldt was a photographer famous for his close-up pictures of plants. He made his own camera that magnified plants 30 times larger than they really were. Like Georgia O’Keeffe, he saw great beauty in nature, and wanted other people to see it, too. View these photographs at the following sites:
http://www.pixelpress.org/pixelpicks/pick_blossfeldt.html
http://www.soulcatcherstudio.com/exhibitions/blossfeldt/index.htm
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) Mary Cassatt was a painter famous for her pictures of mothers and children. She loved the special bond they had with each other and showed that bond in a variety of ways. Here are some websites devoted to Mary Cassatt:
http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/ggcassattptg/ggcassattptg-main1.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cassatt/
Edgar Degas (1834-1918) Edgar Degas was most famous for his paintings of ballet dancers. He liked to paint them because of the way their dresses moved and captured the light. As he got older, his eyesight got worse, so he used brighter colors in his pictures and began sculpting. His most famous sculpture is “Fourteen Year Old Dancer.” Enjoy the world of Degas by visiting these sites:
www.theartgallery.com.au/kidsart/learn/degas/
www.nga.gov/feature/artnation/degas/index.htm
Claude Monet (1840-1926) Claude Monet was most famous for his paintings of the outdoors, especially paintings he made of his garden at home. Monet did not paint pictures of things to show exactly how they looked. Instead, his pictures look blurry and are his impression of how the objects looked. This is how he and other artists came to be called “Impressionists.” See the beautiful paintings by Monet by visiting these sites:
www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/monet/
Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) Georgia O’Keeffe is most well-known for her large paintings of flowers. She wanted everyone to see how beautiful flowers are when you look at them closely. She loved living in the desert in later life and painted many pictures of the landscape there. To see her paintings, visit the sites below:
http://ellensplace.net/okeeffe1.html
www.okeeffemuseum.org/indexflash.php
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) Jackson Pollock was famous for his “action painting.” He would usually put huge canvasses on the ground and throw, splash, and pour paint onto them. He often stood right in the middle of the canvas to paint! Kids love to see his work. One of his most famous paintings is “Blue Poles.” Here are some sites to visit his work:
www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/
www.kaliweb.com/jacksonpollock/art.htm
Georges Seurat (1859-1890) Georges Seurat was one of the first and best artists to use a painting technique called “pointillism.” Seurat painted tiny dots of paint to make a big picture, similar to the way a television or newspaper cartoon works. Many of his paintings were made entirely of dots! His most famous painting is “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte,” and it is at the Art Institute of Chicago. See it on one of these sites:
www.artic.edu/artaccess/AA_Impressionist/pages/IMP_7.shtml
www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/degas
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) Vincent Van Gogh was best known for the way his paintings had thick, swirled paint on them. One of his favorite colors was yellow and he used it in many paintings. His two most famous paintings are “Starry Night” and “Sunflowers.” See them, along with other Van Gogh paintings, at these sites:
www.vangoghmuseum.nl/bisrd/top-1-2.html
www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gogh/
Frank Lloyd Wright () Frank Lloyd Wright was a famous architect, which means he designed buildings for people to live and work in. He liked his buildings to look like they fit in with nature. His most well-known building is a house called “Fallingwater.” It was built right over a waterfall! To see Frank Lloyd Wright’s work, visit these sites (there are also many Wright-designed homes, including his own, in Oak Park, IL):
www.delmars.com/wright/flwright.htm
www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/FLW.html
