Lesson Plan

Making China in China

Theme: Positive and Negative Space
(adapted from Meet Matisse! lesson plan on www.kinderart.com)

Topic: Paul Mathieu’s Making China in China

Exhibition Background:

Paul Mathieu is a ceramic artist very interested in the culture and history of ceramics. For this exhibition he has focused on the ceramic art of China, in particular, the porcelain work made in factories in Jingdezhen, China. The city of Jingdezhen has been a centre for porcelain production for over 1800 years. The works coming out of this factory are shipped to cities all over the world, making them something almost everyone in any city is familiar with. The artist hires people from these same factories in Jingdezhen to create his ceramic works.

Combining imagery from Western art and decorative patterns of China, Mathieu creates new hybrids of West and East. He ‘borrows’ forms and imagery from artists such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse to create the original molds for his ceramic works. Taking these molds to the factories throughout Jingdezhen, he hires the factory workers to produce porcelain ware from his molds and then paint them in any style they wish. The painters in the factories paint as they normally would to decorate traditional porcelain ware. The entire piece is painted in a very decorative fashion to confuse the inside/outside, top/bottom, and positive/negative. Adding to the explosion of colour and pattern in this show, each piece is packed in a very decorative box made in China.

Mathieu’s works raise a lot of questions for the viewer to consider: What is original art? What is the difference between art and craft? Is it “your art” if you hire someone else to make it for you? Can everyday objects be considered works of art? What are the differences between Western and Eastern art? How is art thought of in different cultures?

Objective:

• Students will gain a better understanding of a contemporary and historical artist’s work.
• Younger students will develop their cutting and pasting skills.
• Develop an understanding of the uses of colour, shape, and pattern in images.
• Introduce students to the methods of collage.
• Introduce students to patterns and decorative styles from various cultures and time periods.
• Develop an understanding of positive and negative space.

Materials:

• Pencils and erasers
• Coloured felts, crayons, pastels, or other colour drawing materials
• Scissors
• Construction paper in many colours
• Posterboard or stiff paper for a stencil
• Drawing paper, 12 x 18 or larger
• Glue
• Books, posters, and other imagery of works by Picasso, Matisse, and Paul Mathieu.

Preparation:

• Introduce the idea of shape and pattern by having students look at works of Picasso, Matisse, and Paul Mathieu. Students should focus on the design elements they see as they look at each image or object: colours, shapes, lines, patterns, and textures.
• Have students look at how the artists used positive and negative space. The figures or objects in an image are the positive shapes, and the empty spaces between and around them are the negative spaces. Picasso and Matisse frequently emphasize the relationship between positive and negative space in their works. Paul Mathieu uses this technique as well, even confusing the viewer to what is positive and what is negative space.

Procedure:

Lesson 1: Explore shapes and pattern

• Students create a line drawing of a simple shape onto the posterboard. This can be a hand, a heart, a star, etc. Once they have drawn their shape, cut it out to be used as a stencil.
• Trace this shape over and over again onto the drawing paper, so that they overlap, are side-by-side, go off the page, and fill the paper.
• Use colored drawing materials to fill each shape with a decorative design (See Paul Mathieu’s works for decoration ideas).

Lesson 2: Explore positive and negative space

• Students choose 3 or 4 different colours of construction paper.
• Trace their same shape from Lesson 1 onto the coloured papers, and cut them out.
• Use only the positive shapes to create a design by gluing them down onto your backing paper.
• Use the leftover pieces from your cut-out shapes to create a negative space design on another piece of backing paper.

Conclusion:
Students will have 3 finished pieces all using the same shapes to create decorative patterns, positive shapes, and negative space. Discuss the 3 techniques and how the finished works look different from one another.

RESOURCES:

BCATA Journal for Art Teachers. Various issues.

Herberholz, Donald and Barbara. Artworks for Elementary Teachers: Developing Artistic and Perceptual Awareness. 8th edition. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 1998.
ISBN 0-697-34424-X

Hyde, Margaret. Matisse for Kids (The Great Art for Kids Series). Budding Artists, 1996. ISBN 1-88810-805-3

Hyde, Margaret. Picasso for Kids (The Great Art for Kids Series.) Pelican Publishing Company, 2003. ISBN 1589802055

Kinderart. www.kinderart.com - The Largest Collection of Free Art Lessons on the Internet.

Leland, Nita and Virginia Lee Williams. Creative Collage Techniques. North Light Books, Ohio. 1994. ISBN 0-89134-563-9