For

Middle Years Students

Curriculum

Visual Arts – Creating and Making

Think About

“art is an adventure into an unknown world, which can be explored by those willing to take risks.”
Adolph Gottlieb and Mark Rothko, 1943

Aim

To gain insight to the influence of tribal art and symbols through a focus on the art work Adolf Gottlieb.

Preparation

To do this activity you will need to:

• Look at signs and symbols from different cultures and religious traditions.
• Create some symbols that represent important aspects of your life.
• Sketch and draw these symbols using a range of different techniques and media.
• Trace, redraw and rearrange these images, each time simplifying and modifying them to basic forms and colours.
• On a large canvas or piece of paper, lightly draw up an uneven grid like composition. Break up the paper into random sections. Think about the overall composition. Consider how Gottlieb has used concentrated small areas against large uneven sections. Experiment with a range of different compositional ideas to discover which will suit your needs.
• Paint your symbols and images inside the gridded composition.  Each symbol, sign and form should represent your synthesis of these cultures, belief systems and icons from your life.

Individual Task

Collect signs, symbols and images. Explain how you think these symbols capture the essence of these belief systems.

Group Task

Use this experimentation as the basis for a whole class activity/mural, where each student contributes one or two symbols towards the overall design.

Possible materials:

• Paper and or canvas board.
• Paint and brushes.
• Collected images of different signs and symbols.
• Your own symbols.

Discussion Questions

Discuss your response to this work with others.