Give me some fantastic non-European artists my toddler can appreciate
August 16, 2020 8:07 AM Subscribe
I got a homeschool curriculum for my three year old. It includes art modules that are based on a weekly painting/picture etc. and usually a themed art activity. For example: look at an impressionist painting and try painting with dabs instead of lines/strokes. Please suggest some more diverse artists and art traditions we might look at, and if you have an idea for an accompanying activity, all the better, but if you bring the art, I can come up with activities.
So here's an example, we're going to look at this painting by Christi Belcourt and then arrange butterfly and flower stickers over a painting done with a polka-dot-making brush.
We're in Canada, so I'll surely include at least one Group of Seven and aboriginal artists.
So here's an example, we're going to look at this painting by Christi Belcourt and then arrange butterfly and flower stickers over a painting done with a polka-dot-making brush.
We're in Canada, so I'll surely include at least one Group of Seven and aboriginal artists.
Northwest American Indian Totem art (plenty of kids' activities available eg coloring books)
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:36 AM on August 16, 2020
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:36 AM on August 16, 2020
Are you familiar with birch bark bite art? My kid was quite impressed by that when he was little. The recent post on the Blue about indigenous bead work depicting astronomy is pretty interesting and accessible to a kid. Netsilik Inuit sculpture and art we found inspiring as well.
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:39 AM on August 16, 2020
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:39 AM on August 16, 2020
Balinese shadow puppets, you can cut out for kiddo and he can decorate, you can compose a story together and perform it
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:49 AM on August 16, 2020
posted by fingersandtoes at 8:49 AM on August 16, 2020
Japanese woodblock printing, which might translate into toddler as potato printing.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 8:51 AM on August 16, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 8:51 AM on August 16, 2020 [4 favorites]
I think it would be fun to do a dive into Faith Ringgold's Tar Beach, which is a story quilt and also a children's book.
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:52 AM on August 16, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:52 AM on August 16, 2020 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Well, if your kid is anything like mine, they may get a kick out of Chris Ofili - especially the works he made with elephant dung. sorrynotsorry
posted by Mchelly at 9:19 AM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Mchelly at 9:19 AM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
Came to say ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock printing), there are a ton of online teaching materials available. Three is probably young for knives to do linocuts with erasers or whatever, but how fun would it be to take photos of your kid recreating the facial expressions of kabuki woodcuts?
I would also absolutely devote a corner of your house to recreating Yayoi Kusama's Obliteration Room, but YMMV.
posted by athirstforsalt at 9:23 AM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
I would also absolutely devote a corner of your house to recreating Yayoi Kusama's Obliteration Room, but YMMV.
posted by athirstforsalt at 9:23 AM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
How about a lesson on Romare Beardon and collage.
Frida Kahlo an a lesson on self-portaits.
Jeffrey Gibson on native american traditions and beadwork.
Kara Walker (though check for explicit imagery about slavery) and do paper cutouts.
This exhibit on modern versions of traditional African masks was great. And could be a good intro to using recycled objects to create something new.
posted by brookeb at 9:40 AM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
Frida Kahlo an a lesson on self-portaits.
Jeffrey Gibson on native american traditions and beadwork.
Kara Walker (though check for explicit imagery about slavery) and do paper cutouts.
This exhibit on modern versions of traditional African masks was great. And could be a good intro to using recycled objects to create something new.
posted by brookeb at 9:40 AM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
Canada’s group of seven - gorgeous and distinct landscapes of eastern Canada
Edit: sorry didn’t read your last line 😜
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:42 AM on August 16, 2020
Edit: sorry didn’t read your last line 😜
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:42 AM on August 16, 2020
To go in a slightly different outdoors direction: Andy Goldsworthy
posted by sencha at 10:22 AM on August 16, 2020
posted by sencha at 10:22 AM on August 16, 2020
Oh dang, Andy Goldsworthy is most definitely European; apologies.
I'll suggest instead: Mosaic art (check out some of the work inside mosques), and use paper or blocks to make your own patterns?
posted by sencha at 10:37 AM on August 16, 2020
I'll suggest instead: Mosaic art (check out some of the work inside mosques), and use paper or blocks to make your own patterns?
posted by sencha at 10:37 AM on August 16, 2020
Response by poster: Thanks, everyone. Keep the suggestions coming. I'm especially interested in suggestions for specific artists and especially for painting/collage/picture type things, since sculptures are harder to "print out a copy".
Btw, for this week I just decided to go with Chris Ofili . I had picked out this painting and my son came in as I was preparing to print it and told me he likes this one better. I decided to go with both, because I couldn't think of an activity to go with the nudes. They are both printed and on the wall and we talked a little about them and will keep looking at them all week.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 11:06 AM on August 16, 2020
Btw, for this week I just decided to go with Chris Ofili . I had picked out this painting and my son came in as I was preparing to print it and told me he likes this one better. I decided to go with both, because I couldn't think of an activity to go with the nudes. They are both printed and on the wall and we talked a little about them and will keep looking at them all week.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 11:06 AM on August 16, 2020
Andy Warhol? I'm thinking of the Campbell's soup one in particular. You could probably do some fun things based on that.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 11:44 AM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 11:44 AM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
In 1989, the Centre Georges Pompidou organized the contemporary art exhibit Magiciens de la Terre where half of the artists (50 out of 100) were from Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Australia. The English and French wikipedia pages have links to individual artists'pages. A (poorly scanned) catalog can be downloaded here (168 Mb) and the exhibit has a small website.
posted by elgilito at 12:00 PM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by elgilito at 12:00 PM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
No specific artist in mind, but microcalligraphy has a lot of potential activities that could go along with it.
posted by damayanti at 12:21 PM on August 16, 2020
posted by damayanti at 12:21 PM on August 16, 2020
Yayoi Kusama because polka dots are fun, Hokusai and specifically his 36 Views of Mount Fuji, for the idea of interpreting something in different ways, El Anatsui for working with "garbage", Omar Ba for combining figures and patterns, real life and fantasy (look ahead of time as the subject matter can be very painful), Annie Pootoogook for her beautiful pencil crayon drawings that show everyday life, Brian Jungen for making art with shoes and lawn chairs.
posted by Cuke at 2:05 PM on August 16, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Cuke at 2:05 PM on August 16, 2020 [3 favorites]
No specific suggestions but you could also explore photography with a cheap digital camera.
posted by mareli at 2:07 PM on August 16, 2020
posted by mareli at 2:07 PM on August 16, 2020
My kids' elementary school had a really nice art/culture lesson put together by an Anishinaabe outreach/education group that was about Lakota Winter Counts. They learned about the counts and the art involved in them, how they changed with the coming of European colonists, how they adapted and preserved the tradition on reservations, etc. And the kids each thought of one thing for each year of THEIR life, and designed their OWN winter counts. Three is a little young for much of a Winter Count but maybe you could do "our family" or "one per month" or something. The lesson talked a lot about the idea of art as a historical record as well as an object of beauty. (I was a parent volunteer handing out markers and stuff, so I got to hear the lesson, and it was SO INTERESTING.)
They also looked at a bunch of extant Winter Counts and you can identify 1833, or "the year the stars fell," when there was a particularly large meteor shower, and line up a bunch of Winter Counts based on that -- I bet if you printed off pictures of several Winter Counts, your 3-year-old could find the picture of the stars falling in a bunch of them! The elementary school kids really enjoyed that part, it was like being a history detective in a tiny way. (A bunch were available on the internet, some via the Lakota themselves, others -- often very high-quality scans -- via the Smithsonian.)
(And, fun comparative activity -- European-descended Americans and Canadians memorialized the 1833 meteor shower in art as well! Everybody who saw it was like, "whoa, gotta draw that!")
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:19 PM on August 16, 2020
They also looked at a bunch of extant Winter Counts and you can identify 1833, or "the year the stars fell," when there was a particularly large meteor shower, and line up a bunch of Winter Counts based on that -- I bet if you printed off pictures of several Winter Counts, your 3-year-old could find the picture of the stars falling in a bunch of them! The elementary school kids really enjoyed that part, it was like being a history detective in a tiny way. (A bunch were available on the internet, some via the Lakota themselves, others -- often very high-quality scans -- via the Smithsonian.)
(And, fun comparative activity -- European-descended Americans and Canadians memorialized the 1833 meteor shower in art as well! Everybody who saw it was like, "whoa, gotta draw that!")
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:19 PM on August 16, 2020
Listen to / watch videos of John Coltrane, and draw Basquiat's Stardust
Also, Basquiat drew some fantastic dinosaurs, like this black one and this blue one
Here's a chalk and masking project to recreate Hokusai's Great Wave
And I love how Frida Kahlo captioned some of her paintings (“Here I painted myself, Frida Kahlo, with my reflection in the mirror. I am 37 years old and it is July 1947. In Coyoacán, Mexico, the place where I was born”). Cute way to capture a child's self concept and voice.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 10:39 PM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
Also, Basquiat drew some fantastic dinosaurs, like this black one and this blue one
Here's a chalk and masking project to recreate Hokusai's Great Wave
And I love how Frida Kahlo captioned some of her paintings (“Here I painted myself, Frida Kahlo, with my reflection in the mirror. I am 37 years old and it is July 1947. In Coyoacán, Mexico, the place where I was born”). Cute way to capture a child's self concept and voice.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 10:39 PM on August 16, 2020 [1 favorite]
Sounds like a fun time with your kiddo, enjoy! The Hirshhorn museum in Washinngton, DC has a lot of kid-focused ideas for home art inspired by artists: HIRSHHORN KIDS at Home. There are a number of diverse artists. The colorful coffee filter sculpture inspired by Sam Gilliam looks pretty cool, and the idea for creating something based on Alma Thomas' Earth Sermon – Beauty, Love and Peace looks neat (I love her paintings).
posted by wicked_sassy at 8:49 AM on August 17, 2020
posted by wicked_sassy at 8:49 AM on August 17, 2020
I'm going to name an entire movement to take a look at: nihonga. It was a reaction to Japanese painters starting to paint in a western style after the opening of Japan. There was an adoption of western materials in many of the paintings and some of the techniques display a familiarity with western styles. Yokoyama Taikan is one of the most representative painters of the nihonga movement. My personal favorite is Yamamoto Shunkyo, who was part of the Kyoto school of nihonga.
posted by Hactar at 6:45 PM on August 18, 2020
posted by Hactar at 6:45 PM on August 18, 2020
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posted by plonkee at 8:25 AM on August 16, 2020 [2 favorites]