Art Smart Club

Lesson Plan: Exploring Emotion through Non-objective Art
Grades 3-6

Objectives:

Be able to define and explain the difference between abstract and non-objective art.

Identify works by various abstract and non-objective artists.

Understand the concept of expressing emotion through art

Participate in unconventional methods of painting or drawing.
- Discuss the difference between abstract and non-objective art: abstract artists exaggerate or simplify objects they depict, while non-objective artists do not attempt to depict any sort of recognizable subject matter.
- Show examples of abstract art: Picasso, Braque, Moore, Hepworth, and Lipchitz, and non-objective art: Calder, Matisse, Mondrian, and Kandinsky. Reiterate the difference between the two styles.
- Explain to the students that they may create their own non-objective art. Show Sections 1 and 2 (Art is All About How You Feel and Doodle Right, Doodle Left) of Art Smart. A class discussion about emotion and its use in art is appropriate; encourage students to doodle how they feel. Review some of the examples of non-objective art and have students speculate on the artists' emotions.
- Involve the students' bodies with fun doodling activities. Set a timer and let them doodle, paint, or draw for set amounts of time in the following ways: with their eyes closed, with their non-dominant hand, with their toes. Another great way to focus students on the process instead of the end product is by challenging them to paint with unusual tools: try a paintbrush taped to the end of a yardstick, big basting brushes, cotton balls and cotton swabs, or ink rollers.
- Play mood music in the background: have students doodle or paint along with happy thoughts, lonely thoughts, angry thoughts, etc. End the session with a group critique. Encourage students to share the emotions they employed during the creation of their pieces; ask other students what aspects of the art convey that emotion.