Visual Arts
Ilearn @ home
Day 5
Boogie Woogie your way through another snow day!
Read the information on the next pages about Piet Mondrian.
If you have internet access, you can also check the following sites to see more examples of his
work and information about how he created.
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-mondrian-piet.htm
http://www.piet-mondrian.org/
http://www.moma.org/collection/artists/4057
Let’s learn about Piet Mondrian:
Mondrian, who had escaped to New York from Europe after the outbreak of World War II,
delighted in the city’s architecture. He was also fascinated by American jazz, particularly boogiewoogie, finding its syncopated beat, irreverent approach to melody, and improvisational
aesthetic akin to what he called, in
his own work, the “destruction of natural appearance; and construction through continuous
opposition of pure means—dynamic rhythm.” In this painting, his penultimate, Mondrian
replaced the black grid that had long governed his canvases with predominantly yellow lines that
intersect at points marked by squares of blue and red. These atomized bands of stuttering
chromatic pulses, interrupted by light gray, create paths across the canvas suggesting the city’s
grid, the movement of traffic, and blinking electric lights, as well as the rhythms of jazz.
from MOMA
What Are Components of Mondrian’s Work?
Pattern: a decorative design.
Primary Color: a color, red, yellow, or blue, that yields other colors when mixed and cannot be
created by mixing other colors.
Quadrilateral: a plane figure having four sides and four angles.
Boogie Woogie music: an African American style of piano-based blues that became popular in the
late 1930s and early 1940s, but originated much earlier, and was extended from piano, to three
pianos at once, guitar, big band, and country and western music, and even gospel. While
the blues traditionally depicts a variety of emotions, boogie-woogie is mainly associated
with dancing.
Use the white piece of paper you were given and a straight edge (ruler if you have one, if
not another piece of paper or a book works well) to complete the steps below to create your
own Piet Mondrian style artwork.
1. Listen to any music that you like- if you would like to do this more than once, try to listen
to two different styles like hip hop and country to see if it has any influence on your design!!
2. Use a straight edge and paper to design quadrilateral shapes based on the music you
hear.
3. Color it in using blue, red and yellow. Use tempera paint, markers or crayons (which ever
you have access to! You could also cut out paper and glue it in) to color in the shapes.
5. Use the attached rubric to score yourself. Be sure you reflect on what your scores in at
least a complete sentence.