Elegant Art Nouveau

Submitted by: Kris Fontes, Union City High School, Pennsylvania 
UNIT: Art Nouveau - Pattern - Gustav Klimt
Lesson Plan: Adopted from Elegant Art Nouveau - Scratchboard
Grade Level: Middle School

 

Standards:

9.1.B Recognize, know, use and demonstrate a variety of appropriate art elements and principles to produce original works in the arts.

9.1.H Demonstrate and maintain materials, equipment and tools safely.

9.2.C Relate works in the arts to varying styles and genre and to the periods in which they were created.

 

Instructional Materials:

  • Reproductions of works by Klimt, especially those that are highly embellished and ornamental. Caution - Klimt's images should be chosen carefully as they are often of the female form.

  • Handouts on Klimt and Art Nouveau

  • The Grammar of Ornament by Owen James

  • Student Examples

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See Detail

Instructional Materials:

  • Reproductions of works by Klimt, especially those that are highly embellished and ornamental. Caution - Klimt's images should be chosen carefully as they are often of the female form.

  • Handouts on Klimt and Art Nouveau

  • The Grammar of Ornament by Owen James

  • Student Examples

Supplies:

Reproductions

DVD: Klimt.- In this biographical fantasy by acclaimed director Raúl Ruiz, Klimt (John Malkovich) recalls the decadence of his past in feverish visions from his deathbed. Reflecting on his many torrid affairs and his struggles for artistic freedom, he travels back to the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris. There, Klimt is introduced to a mysterious dancer, Lea de Castro, who emerges as his muse and the personification of his own erotic ideals and carnal desires.

 

Books

Gustav Klimt: Art Nouveau Visionary. - This lushly illustrated volume explores his fascinating artistic career, covering Vienna at the time of Klimt's creative peak. With more than 300 beautifully reproduced pictures, paintings, and photographs

Gustav Klimt: Landscapes. - Accompanied by scholarly essays, the images reproduced in this book comprise all extant landscapes from this brilliant artist, proving that his mastery extends beyond portraiture and revealing themes that appeared throughout his life's work.

 

Lesson Summary:

This is one of Kris's favorite middle school lessons that involves lines, textures, gold scratchboard and the Austrian artist, Gustav Klimt. I titled my workshop, Elegant Art Nouveau.

 

Students create an elegant drawing in the ornamental, decorative and luxurious style of Klimt. In preparation for this lesson, Kris created handouts to be given to each student/table. One handout dealt with the art history, both of Klimt and Art Nouveau. This information was readily available on the Internet. Another excellent source was Helen Hume's book, Art History and Appreciation Activities Kit. She included a student worksheet on Descriptive Line, that gave examples of different types of line, such as, diagonal, horizontal, vertical and zigzag.


Introduction/Motivation:

  1. Present PowerPoint of work by Gustav Klimt. Provide handout of biography and short notes on Art Nouveau. Present a few other examples of Art Nouveau art. Show example of Art Nouveau patterns and motifs.

  2. Instruct student to create several patterns and experiment with patterns on scrap scratchboards.

  3. Demonstrate proper use of scratch tools.

Procedures:

  • From a magazine cut out the head and hands of a human figure, this can be a man, woman or child. Glue these pieces to the gold scratchboard (Note: Self portrait digital images could be used.) Boys may be motivated to select sports heroes or rock stars.

  • Begin by scratching out an organic shape that suggests a garment. This garment dos not need to be realistic...

  • After you draw the garment you will have two areas to fill... the garment and the background around the garment. See Detail

  • One of these areas must be densely and richly patterned using lines and textures. The other area will be covered less densely. This will emphasize one area more than the other.

  • Keep the unscratched area of the scratchboard covered with a clean sheet of paper to prevent oils from your fingers transferring to the surface of the board.

  • Begin to fill one of the two areas with patterns, lines, textures and shapes. Refer to the Descriptive Line worksheet for ideas and also the book, The Grammar of Ornament, for inspiration.

  • Fill the other area.

  • Check to see if the two areas are distinctly different. Does one stand out more than another?  If they are too similar, go back and add more details to the dense shape.

NOTE: Jeannie Sandoval's students created some stunning self portraits using this lesson. They began with digital images of themselves.

 

.Submitted by: Mike Sacco, Paul J. Gelinas Junior High

 

Mr. Sacco's 8th grade class looked to Austrian Art Nouveau painter Gustave Klimt for inspiration in creating these scratchboard and collage portraits. Line, shape, pattern, and the design principle known as Emphasis were the focus of this lesson.

 

Utilizing Klimt's trademark gold color and intricate pattern work, students had to create designs where their figure was the focal point in their design. This was accomplished by establishing contrast between the pattern work in the figure and in the background. Students used scratch knives to carefully scratch away the black ink that is applied to the gold board.


Gustav Klimt Internet Resources: (preview site first if using with students)

Gustav Klimt [Austrian Art Nouveau Painter, 1862-1918] - Artcyclopedia:
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/klimt_gustav.html

 

See the Klimt Exhibition in Venice from 2012:

http://www.mostraklimt.it/ (See the brochure from the exhibit pdf - Download the Klimt iTunes app.)

Gustav Klimt - Web Museum:
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/klimt/

Expo-Klimt - Online Museum:
http://www.expo-klimt.com/ (Archive)

Gustav Klimt - Artchive - essay and links to images:
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/K/klimt.html

Gustav Klimt Art Gallery - personal web site - has biography - and 114 images of his work - View images for suitability: http://www.klimtgallery.org/

Gustav Klimt Landscapes - from Clark Art Institute
http://www.clarkart.edu/exhibitions/klimt/klimt/

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