Frank Stella

Frank Stella, Harran II, 1967

Artist: Frank Stella

Materials:

paper, sharpies, markers, circle templates from cardboard or lids of various sizes (or protractors), scissors (or, even better, a small paper cutter), construction paper, glue

Frank Stella is a contemporary artist still working and living in New York City. He was born in 1936 and graduated from Princeton. Stella started his career making non-representational art (art that's not meant to mean anything other than what it is on the surface: a calculated combination of elements like line, color, and shape). He gained early acclaim in his career, as the Museum of Modern Art in New York City purchased a painting from him when he was only 23. He has made many important series of paintings over the years, including a series of black line paintings (the Black Paintings), and colorful, flat paintings made with bright colors using protractors (the Protractor Series).  See this powerpoint presentation (made by educators from the public schools of Robeson County) for more information.

Activity:

(*This is a project that I found at artroomblog - thank you for a great lesson!) 

Using the powerpoint slideshow, introduce the kids to the work of Frank Stella. The slideshow is LONG and is largely for you to get a familiarity with the artist. Instead of trying to go through the whole thing with the kids, I would suggest choosing just maybe three slides to focus on (the ones most relevant to this lesson are at the end - from the Protractor Series), asking our discussion questions: what do you see? what makes you say that? what more can you find? Things to draw out in the discussion could be:

-what elements of art does Mr. Stella use? (line, color, shape)

-do the paintings look like they are moving?

-do you see any repetition in the art? (when something, like a line or color, is used over and over)

Using sharpies, have the kids create a geometric design using either the circles/lids, or protractors (protractors might be a great option for older grades). Then, have them color the shapes in with markers (they should take care to not use the same colors right next to each other).

After it is all colored in you can, depending on time, either leave it like this:

OR, cut the piece into fours (this would be great if you had an extra adult and a small paper cutter!), and then have the child glue the pieces on a piece of colored construction paper, rotating their images to find a combination they like, creating an end result like this:


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