Andy Warhol
March lesson Plan for Second Grade
Pop Art
Please use the teacher’s computer to open the lesson plan located on Patterson’s website. It is located in the Art Awareness area in the Second grade tab titled April. Use the teacher’s Smart board or overhead projector to display the art examples on the chalkboard and use for discussion questions. There will not be a trifold board for this lesson.
Biographical Information
Andy Warhol was an artist and filmmaker and is considered one of the most important artists of the Pop Art movement. Andy Warhol was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1928. Warhol was interested in art from a very early age. As a child he spent a lot of time drawing, listening to the radio and collecting pictures of famous people. It is not surprising that when he became an artist and record producer.
After studying art in college, Warhol moved to New York City and began illustrating for magazines and creating advertisements. He became very popular, especially for his drawings of shoes.
During the 1960s, Warhol created the paintings he is best known for today. Warhol loved pop culture and he decided to paint what he loved, which became known as Pop Art.Pop Art is a form of art that shows objects or scenes from everyday life and uses techniques from commercial art and popular illustration (comic books) to recreate them. Warhol’s art used saturated colors (pure forms of red, blue & yellow that have not been mixed with white) just like you see in comic books or magazine advertisements. Some of Warhol’s most famous works of art are of large pictures of Coca-Cola bottles, Campbell’s soup cans, and dollar bills. He also painted pictures of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. If you were a Pop artist what would you create?
Since Warhol was creating pictures of popular everyday items, he thought it would be a good idea to create many pieces of art at the same time. He did this by using the silk screening process. Silk screening uses stencils to transfer an artist’s design. The stencils help artists create many works of art at the same time. The artist can then change the artwork by adding different colors. This process allowed him to make many copies of each painting, while still making each copy an original Warhol painting.
Andy Warhol was criticized for turning art into a business. Many people didn’t like the idea that he was just making copies of the same picture to sell and make money. Warhol believed in what he was creating though. He continued to make screen printed paintings of celebrities and other everyday objects throughout his career.
Warhol died unexpectedly in 1987 from complications of gallbladder surgery.
Vocabulary Words
Pop Art - a form of art that shows objects or scenes from everyday life and uses techniques of commercial art and popular illustration.
Complimentary Colors - a color directly opposite another on a color wheel and providing the greatest contrast to it.
Repetition - the act or process of repeating or being repeated.
Silk-screen Printing - involves the use of stencils to transfer a design. Paint is applied to a silk or nylon screen and soaks through areas of the screen not blocked by the stencil. By using several stencils a number of colors may be used in a single print. Silk-screen printing was developed as a commercial medium, it is also used by modern artists.
Discussion Questions
Here are a few questions to ask the students while showing examples of Warhol’s works of art.
What do you notice first about Warhol’s artwork?
What colors are primarily used in the artwork?
Why do you think he uses the colors he does?
Do they compliment each other well?
Does anything stand out about this piece of art?
Do you feel that repeating images makes the artwork more interesting?
Pop Art Mickey Mouse
Materials: Project example, full sheets of colored paper, precut squares of colored paper (12 pieces per student, 6 for background and 6 for Mickey) pencil, scissors, glue stick, Mickey templates for tracing
Demonstrate the lesson by following these step by step instructions, please remember to have the students put their name on the back of their paper.
- Give each student one large piece of paper and 12 precut squares of paper of varying colors and a Mickey template for tracing.
- Trace Mickey in center of square piece of paper on six of the precut papers. Each student should have a variety of colors.
- Neatly cut out Mickey faces.
- Time to create your pop art layout - Lay Mickey faces in center of the 6 remaining pieces of paper and arrange with 3 on the top and 3 on the bottom to create a design. Students may use a complimentary color theme or other pattern of their choosing. Make sure the colors are varied and that each square is bordered by different colors.
- Once satisfied with their design, glue Mickeys to center of the pre-cut squares and arrange on large piece of paper. Glue to complete.
Andy Warhol
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