The Google Art Project

Here is a great new art resource!!!  The Art Project, powered by Google, is a single source for touring 17 of the world's museums!  You can tour galleries and take close up looks at individual artworks. 

Click HERE and check it out!

Our Kandinsky Style Musical Art

Third and Fourth grade students joined our student teacher, Ms. Rowland, in creating music inspired artworks in the style of Kandinsky.  Using oil pastels, the students placed color, lines, and shapes on their papers as they listened to many different types of music.  Here are some photos of art in action!

Kandinsky: Inspired by Music

Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian born artist who lived from 1866 to 1944.  He was an abstract painter.  That means that he wasn't worried about making things look real to life in his paintings.  At one point in his artistic career, he decided to paint 10 "compositions", or music set to paint.  As he listened to the music, it inspired the lines, shapes, and colors he chose in each piece.  The following is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

Writing that "music is the ultimate teacher," Kandinsky embarked upon the first seven of his ten Compositions. The first three survive only in black-and-white photographs taken by fellow artist and friend, Gabriele Münter. While studies, sketches, and improvisations exist (particularly of Composition II), a Nazi raid on the Bauhaus in the 1930s resulted in the confiscation of Kandinsky's first three Compositions. They were displayed in the State-sponsored exhibit "Degenerate Art" then destroyed along with works by Paul Klee, Franz Marc and other modern artists.

While some of his artwork did not survive the Nazis, he did!

Here are some of the "Compositions" that did survive.

Composition #4

Composition #5

Composition #6

Composition #7

 

 Composition # 8

 

 Composition #9

 

Composition #10

Op Art

The term OP ART is a shortening of a style of art known as Optical Illusion Art.  The definition of Op Art (according to Art Lex) is;

A twentieth century art movement and style in which artists sought to create an impression of movement on the picture surface by means of optical illusion. It is derived from, and is also known as Optical Art and Perceptual Abstraction. 

 Op art falls into two main categories.  The first is ABSTRACT and the other is PERCEPTUAL.

ABSTRACT OP ART

Abstract means an image that does not look like a real world object or image.  For instance, it does not look like a house, a tree, or a person.  Instead, the image is comprised of shapes, lines, and colors.

Blue-Black

Victor Vasarely (French, born Hungary, 1908-1997) was an abstract Op artist.

Blue/Red

1983

Victor Vasarely

Intake

Bridget Riley (British, 1931-)

 

Cataract


 Bridget Riley

Perceptual Op Art

This refers to art that shows some impossibility in perception.  The most famous artist in this category is Maurits Cornelis Escher (Dutch, 1898-1972).

 

Relativity

This is only one of his many Op art works.  I would encourage you to explore the world of Escher by clicking on this link to  The Official M.C. Escher Web Site.  You can also find the link in one of the lists in the right column.

Notice that you can perceive (see) a seeming impossibility.  People going up and down stairs from different perspectives.  This would be impossible on earth due to the force of gravity.