A Matisse Art Lesson for My Son’s Class

Volunteering to Teach an Art Lesson/Project on Matisse

I thought I’d share my proposed Matisse Art Lesson/Project lesson for my son’s class. My son is in public elementary school, and this year, his school lost its art teacher due to budget cuts. The teacher asked for any parent volunteers to teach an art class. I love modern art (see https://kathystrobos.com/about-me/ ). So I volunteered to teach an art class on Henri Matisse, ending with the kids doing a cut-outs art project, following the Drawing with Scissors art lesson plan. Several other moms also offered to help, so thankfully I won’t be alone.

It’s only a 50 minute class, so ultimately that’s not that much time. (Or that could be a REALLY REALLY long time if it all goes bottoms up.) I want to do a little bit on Matisse and then let the kids “draw with scissors” to make art imitating Matisse’s Cut-Outs. I am still working on my lesson plan but I thought I’d share it here in case other parents are looking for an art lesson for their kids or for a class. Or in case anyone has any advice.

It was hard to pick which paintings to show the children as part of the art lesson. As expected, Matisse painted a lot of naked people, so I wanted to find some non-naked drawings. Since Matisse is one of my favorite artists, I bought the Museum of Modern Art Matisse Exhibition book from the retrospective in 1992. I also borrowed Art Book Matisse by Gabrielle Crepaldi from the New York Public Library.

So here’s the first draft of the lesson plan. I think we can spend 15 -20 minutes on the art history and then have 30 minutes for the art project.

Art Lesson on Matisse the Artist

Matisse was born in northern France in 1869. He trained to be a lawyer but took up painting while recovering from appendicitis.

He went to Paris to study art at the Academie Julian and he apprenticed to another painter Gustave Moreau.

This picture from Drawing with Scissors shows one of his first paintings (a stack of books). It also shows one of his last pictures, so you can see the evolution in style.

Fauvism

In 1905, there was a radical change in his work. While in the South of France, he began to paint with bright, clashing colors. “Honor every color without sacrificing a single one,” wrote Matisse.

This style was eventually called Fauvism, after a critic called Matisse and other artists painting in this manner “fauves”, which in French means “wild beasts.”

Here’s one painting showing this new painting style.

Matisse said that Fauvism was construction by means of color. He said that the art should convey the artist’s response to his subject. What do you think Matisse was feeling when he painted the above? Why? (If no one answers, I would say happy because he used bright colors.)

Matisse’s painting style continued to change, but he always remained true to bold color.

The Influences of Travel and Geometry in Matisse’s Work

Matisse traveled a lot and he was influenced by his travels to those different areas/countries (Russia, Morocco, and Asia).

Another element to look for in his paintings is Geometry (he has lots of shapes) and Nature. Let’s look at some of his paintings and see whether we can identify any geometric or nature elements.

What do you notice about this painting? There’s part of a rectangle (a geometric element). And there are a lot of decorative elements; it looks like there are vines crawling all around the room. The red is also very intense. It looks like there is a table but it almost flat. An interesting fact is that the large canvas was initially painted in green and the painting was called Harmony in Green. Then Matisse painted over it in blue and called it Harmony in Blue. An art collector bought it. Then Matisse changed his mind again, before delivering it, and re-painted it red. (See Art Book Matisse by Gabriele Crepaldi (Dorling Kindersley) at p. 60).

What do you notice about this painting? I see a lot of circular shapes. Also plants (nature) and again bright colors. What do you feel when you see this painting? It’s one of my favorites.

What do you see in this painting? I see a lot of triangles. The metronome is echoed in the boy’s face and the window. Also compare this to Harmony in Red – what is similar again? The swirls in the ironwork of the window remind me of the vines in Harmony in Red.

As an aside for adults, according to the Matisse Art Book, “critics have read symbolic significance into the scene, identifying the opposing elements of the creative process with emotional, irrational intuition on one side, and on the other side, deliberate rationality.” (Art Book Matisse by Gabriele Crepaldi, at p. 79). I can see that in the art sculpture in the lower left hand corner versus the woman sitting stiffly in the upper right background. It’s the tick of the metronome versus the expressive music emerging from the piano in the black swirls.

Matisse’s Cut-Outs

In 1946, Matisse was nearly 80 years old, and painting and carving sculptures had become increasingly difficult for him. He found a new opportunity for expression in making cutouts. Let’s read Matisse’s Garden. (It depends on time if I can read this to them, but I read it to my children as practice and they were inspired to make the cut-out art after listening, so it seemed effective.)

Drawing with Scissors Art Lesson

I found this amazing book, Drawing with Scissors, with a free art project lesson plan (http://creativityconnection.fabercastell.com/henri-matisse-art-lesson/ ) (available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/044842519X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). So we will then follow the art project lesson plan (although it recommends 2 45-minute classes). My children wanted to use pencils and I told them they had to use scissors to draw.

The Museum of Modern Art also includes a section on Matisse in its Family Guide. I am going to include their advice for arranging the shapes in my Matisse art lesson for my son’s class. See https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/learn/Education_FamilyGuide_Singles.pdf On page 18, they advise finding Matisse’s The Swimming Pool. Then they ask kids to rip out shapes and arrange them on the next page. “Experiment with placing your shapes close together, far apart, overlapping, and in different directions.” (at p. 19). There’s also this cool video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rke7RmxwfY by the MoMA.

So anyway, we will see if this works or if it all looks like the contents of the recycling bin, as one mom said. Lol.

Any advice on creating a Matisse art lesson for my son’s elementary school class? Are there any artists that you like that are good for elementary school classes? Who are your favorite artists?

Update: The kids loved it. And the art looked amazing! The teacher allowed them to do it again during their free time on Friday. Also I highly recommend using the craft pattern scissors available at craft stores or on Amazon as well as regular scissors.