Abstract Expressionism: Helen Frankenthaler

For this week's Art History lesson we looked at Abstract Expressionism. This one feel like it should come so naturally to children. While they often try to make realistic representations of their world, what often comes out looks more like a Kandinksy or Dubuffet or, dare I say - Jackson Pollock. So whenever we reach this point in our Art History month studies, I can see the kids get excited, most likely because they know it means I'm going to let them get messier than usual at art time, but also because it seems like they connect with these artists more than most. 

Perhaps I'm reading into it too much, but these are just my thoughts. 

 top image: Mountains and Sea, Helen Frankenthaler 1952

materials:

marbles

water colors

spoons

cups

paper

shoe box

crayon

Mountain and Sea 

get to work:

1. The Art History lesson: Abstract Expressionism is a movement that started in the US. 

• As always I like to start off each unit with a map - asking the children to identify the continent and then explaining to them that this is where Abstract Expressionism started.
• Next we define Abstract Expressionism-  a movement in art where the artist doesn't necessarily paint a picture that is recognizable. Some artists painted using specific colors/objects to identify emotions, for example red might mean anger while blue might mean calm. 
• Finally I show my students an image by an artist from this movement. You can use the  image by Helen Frankenthaler and ask them what they notice about it, what they like and how they think she made it. Tell them the title, Mountain and Sea and ask them where they think the mountains and sea are in this picture, if it's just the title. 

2. Using the crayon, make random lines and swirls on the paper. 

3. Place the paper in the shoe box. 

4. Put watercolor in a few cups with a marble or two. 

5. Using the spoon, scoop the marbles into the box and wiggle the box back and forth. Replace the marbles and start again. 

While Frankenthaler actually used diluted oil paints to make Mountains and Sea, the final product looks so much like watercolors, I decided to use those instead and in lieu of charcoal, we took the crayon route. 

I really like these two paintings by two of my students. The top one is so bright and colorful and the bottom one is quite interesting with the intersection of lines of color and the dark spirally crayon running across the paper.