Pablo Picasso
November lesson Plan for Third Grade
Introduction to Cubism
Biographical information
Pablo Ruiz Picasso
Born October 25, 1881 in Malaga Spain – died April 8th, 1978 in Mougins France
Pablo Picasso was labeled the “Hero of Modern Art.” At the age of seven, Picasso began to paint, completing his first oil painting one year later. He began formal art studies at the age of 11 and continued until he was about 16. By his 20th birthday, Picasso was living in Paris creating new art styles that he is remembered for today. While Picasso’s career included many different styles and mediums, in this lesson we are going to be learning about Picasso’s work created during the Cubism period.
Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music and literature. The Cubist movement was so popular that many artists began to use this technique. In fact, there were so many artists using this technique from 1907 – 1919 that art historians have since divided the movement into two different categories: Analytic Cubism and Synthetic Cubism.
In cubist artworks, objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist shows the subject from many different viewpoints which helps to represent the subject in a more significant manner. The Cubists tried to create a new way of seeing things in art. Many of their subjects, both people and landscapes, were represented as combinations of basic geometric shapes - sometimes showing multiple viewpoints of a particular image. Often the images overlap at random angles, making it difficult to determine the depth of the painting. When looking at Picasso’s works of art created during this time, you will notice that the background and foreground merge with one another making it difficult to interpret space. The use of overlapping shapes, angular lines, and merging images represent Cubism’s distinct characteristics.
Now that you have learned a little bit about Cubism, let’s take a look at some of Picasso’s works of art and discuss his use of shapes and lines, and the effect that this technique has on his works of art.
Vocabulary Words
Cubism: in art, objects are broken up, analyzed and reassembled in an abstract form.
Avant-garde: people or works of art that are experimental or innovative.
Abstract: form, color and line are used to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from how it is seen in the world.
Discussion Questions
Here are a few questions to ask the students while showing examples of Picasso’s works of art.
Why do you think he chose to represent his images in shapes such as squares, circles, and triangles?
Does the use of shapes make it difficult to see the image he is painting?
Do you see any patterns in the paintings?
Here are some questions to ask the students after they have completed their project. If time allows, they can even use their own works of art to answer the following.
Did they enjoy using shapes to create their picture?
Did they like creating art this way?
Picasso Cubism drawing
Materials: white paper, paper shapes for tracing, colored pencils, crayons, or markers. Try to discourage the students from using all markers they will have a bigger color palate if mixing coloring mediums. Please collect all shape cutouts so that they can be re-used.
Demonstrate the lesson by following these step-by-step instructions; please remember to have the students put their name on their paper. There should be no structured form of evaluation, just observe the children and be sure that they are creative as possible.
1. Provide each student with a piece of while paper and one of each shape cut out.
2. Have the kids choose an image they would like to draw (star, heart, skateboard, face, etc.) Shape should be fairly easy to draw.
3. Using a pencil have students trace the shapes repeatedly as they create the image they chose.
For example: To create a heart, students will trace circles, squares, and triangles to create the image of a heart. Shapes can vary in size and be overlapped. Notice that when shapes overlap, a new shape is created. In the end, image should resemble a heart but have an abstract quality to it.
4. Once the students have completed their image have them color each shape a different color using their colored pencils, crayons, markers, or a combination. Colors should vary, choosing a warm (shades of red, orange, yellow) or cool (shades of blue, green, purple) color palate has the best effect.
Pablo Picasso
Harlequin and Woman with a Necklace, 1917
Musical Instruments, 1912