PREPARATION - COLORS & SHAPES

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1 PRIMARY EDUCATION

2 PREPARATION - COLORS & SHAPES Everyone has played with LEGO at some time in their lives: it is the most popular toy of all time. You probably have some LEGO bricks at home. If so, you will know that the best thing about LEGO is using it to build something completely new. This is what the American artist Nathan Sawaya does too. He makes works of art that consist completely of LEGO. This LEGO artist has made a career out of his hobby. In the exhibition The Art of the Brick you can see all the beautiful things that Nathan has created with his imagination... as well as hundreds of thousands of tiny bricks! Colors It is now possible to buy LEGO bricks in all sizes and in every color of the rainbow. In the shops, you can choose from more than 50 different colors. Back in 1953, when modern LEGO was first available for sale, things were very different. In those days, you had a choice of only three different colored bricks: red, blue and yellow ones. The colors are not just random. In art, these colors have been known for centuries as the primary colors. Primary means first: these are the colors that can-not be created by mixing paints, but that you need in order to create other colors. They form the basis for everything else. Assignment 1 By mixing two primary colors, you make secondary colors. Which two colors do you need to mix together to make these LEGO bricks? yellow green red orange blue purple 2 Primary Education

3 If you look around you, you can see that there are actually more than six colors. What happens if you mix a primary color with a secondary color? You get a tertiary color. Of course, tertiary is another word for third. There are amazing numbers of tertiary colors. The Swiss painter and teacher Johannes Itten used them to develop a handy color wheel. Zwart & Wit Can you see which two colors are missing from the color circle? Of course: black and white. It may seem crazy, but everyone agrees that black and white are not really colors. They are non-colors. This is all to do with physics. A beam of light is a mixture of colors. When a beam of light hits a surface, some colors are absorbed and some are reflected back into your eyes. A green surface absorbs all the colors in the beam of light except the green part. This is why a blade of grass looks green. If a surface absorbs everything and reflects nothing back, our eyes see it as a black surface. The opposite of this is a surface that absorbs nothing and reflects everything back. We see that as white. This means that white is not a single color, but all colors combined. That is what makes white and black non-colors. Assignment 2 Here, you can see three artworks by Nathan Sawaya. The use of color varies a lot. Describe what is so eye-catching about these colors and why you think Nathan may have chosen these colors. Primary Education 3

4 Shapes It is now possible to buy LEGO in all shapes and sizes, but the most common LEGO pieces are still square or rectangular. Because the LEGO bricks mainly consist of right angles, most LEGO constructions illustrated on the box are also made up of straight lines and right angles. This is why you nearly always see buildings (such as hospitals, police stations or petrol stations) and vehicles (cars, trains, spaceships) pictured on the box. These are things that are made by people and are therefore often straight. In the natural world, it is not easy to find a completely straight line or a rectangular shape. Just look around you, at a tree, a cloud or even your own body. Nathan Sawaya particularly enjoys using these rectangular LEGO bricks to create bent or curved lines. He often creates human statues. From a distance, they look less straight and angular. It s the same if you close your eyes a little. Although it is not possible to create a perfect curve, if you have enough bricks you can achieve something that comes pretty close. Because Nathan is capable of making such good curves, he can rightly call himself a LEGO Master Builder. In order to earn this honorary title, he had to complete a difficult examination. He had to create a ball using LEGO bricks in just 45 minutes. Then came the real test: only if the LEGO ball could roll properly would he pass the exam. Assignment 3 Look at this work of art again. Nathan uses three familiar shapes to replace the heads. Write down what shapes they are, in the order of how difficult they are to make. 1. The easiest to make with LEGO is: 2. This is followed by: 3. The most difficult to make with LEGO is: 4 Primary Education

5 DURING YOUR VISIT The exhibition The Art of the Brick features an extraordinary collection of LEGO artworks, devised and built by the American artist Nathan Sawaya. He played with LEGO as a young boy, and has basically never stopped. After completing his education, Nathan discovered that LEGO is more than just a toy. You can also use it to create real works of art! This exhibition includes some of the best examples. As with all art, it is important that you do not touch the objects because that could damage them. There are several questions and assignments to accompany the exhibition. If you look carefully, you will find most of the answers yourself. You may even find them on the wall! When you have answered all the questions and completed the assignments, you will be well on your way to becoming a creative genius like Nathan Sawaya. Who knows You may even become an artist and have your very own exhibition! Assignment 1 - Use of Materials The material that an artist uses determines what the artwork looks and feels like. Today s exhibition is made completely out of plastic. The great thing is that artists use an amazing variety of materials and techniques in their work. There are even paintings made of sand, mosaics created using painted grains of rice and artworks made of... peanut butter! Compared with those, LEGO bricks do not seem so strange as artists materials. Some of the works you will see today are actually LEGO versions of existing works of art. Look carefully in each room to identify the material originally used for the existing work of art that Nathan transformed into LEGO plastic. Several answers are possible. 1. Oil paint: 2. Wood: 3. Marble: 4. Limestone: 5. Bones: Primary Education 5

6 Assignment 2 - Artists Many artists get their inspiration from other artists! Nathan Sawaya is no exception. He has made LEGO reproductions of famous paintings and sculptures from art history. If you know about art, you may even know the names of the original artists. If not, look around carefully, because you will find the answers on the wall! The Scream is a painting by: 2. Who painted this horse? 3. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was painted by: 4.. Starry Night was painted by: 5. painted the mysterious smile of the Mona Lisa. Did You Know? Nathan Sawaya uses exactly the same LEGO bricks as the ones you have at home. He just has a few more. In his workshop, he has 4 million building bricks. All of them are neatly sorted by color and shape, because otherwise it would take too long to find them. As it is, it takes an awful lot of time to create a work of art using LEGO. For a human figure, Nathan takes between two and three weeks, using between 15,000 and 25,000 different bricks. If you plan to make a LEGO person at home, it is sensible to start small. Do not try to start with a figure on the scale of 1:1 (life size), but make a smaller one first. Nathan s Hugman is a good example. 6 Primary Education

7 Did You Know? The exhibition includes a special Sculpture Garden, where famous statues from history stand alongside each other. Nathan Sawaya is actually a kind of sculptor, too: a LEGO sculptor. The big difference is that sculptors create shapes by chiselling away everything that is not needed, whereas Nathan creates form by adding elements. Nathan also treats the LEGO bricks slightly differently than you do at home, because he glues them together. He does this because his works of art travel around the world and often need to be packed and unpacked again. If the bricks were not glued together, something could easily break off during transport. Since all of them are original works of art, there are no instructions for putting them all back together again properly. The best thing to do, therefore, is to glue everything down. The disadvantage of this is that Nathan sometimes discovers halfway through the creative process that he has made a mistake somewhere and if he has to redo a part, it is not easy. He has no choice but to use a hammer and chisel to remove the faulty part. So sometimes he does do sculpture in the old-fashioned way! Assignment 3 - World Sculptures Of the original sculptures, two come from ancient Greece, two from Egypt and two from France. Can you match the right country with the right sculpture? Primary Education 7

8 Assignment 4 - Numbers You have probably never seen so many LEGO bricks together as you have today. But which work of art has the most and which has the fewest bricks? Tip: first try to guess how many blocks you think the object is made up of, and only then look at the sign on the wall. Was it a good guess or did you get it completely wrong? a. The object with the fewest LEGO bricks is: Estimated number of bricks: Actual number of bricks: b. The object with the most LEGO bricks is: Estimated number of bricks: Actual number of bricks: What Is Art? Now that is a difficult question! There is actually no single correct answer. Because tastes differ, everyone has a slightly different opinion about what is and what is not art. In very general terms, you could say that art is something created by a person with the main aim of being beautiful or making the viewer feel something or making them think. Preferably, a work of art should also be original or unique: anything that comes off a conveyor belt is not usually considered to be art. Assignment 5 Choose one of the following works of art: Yellow, Red Face Mask or Swimmer. Look at the artwork for one whole minute in silence. Then try to write down everything that you felt or thought: 8 Primary Education

9 Where Can You Find Art? Works of art are often hung on the wall in a nice frame or exhibited in a gallery or museum. But there are some exceptions here too. Street art is the type of art that you encounter outdoors, often in the most unexpected places. An attractive mural in the form of graffiti, for example. Nathan also creates street art, such as Hugman. In this exhibition you can only see it indoors, but next time... it could even be on your own doorstep! Assignment 6 - Beauty And The Best 1. Which do you think is the most beautiful work of art in this exhibition? 2. Why do you think that? 3. Which work of art would you like to take home with you and where would you put it? 4. What was the craziest work of art that you saw? Primary Education 9

10 Assignment 7 - Drawing When Nathan creates a work of art, he does not simply start building at random. First, he looks for a good idea. When he has an idea, he takes his sketchbook and starts to draw. He does not begin creating the work of art with LEGO bricks until he is satisfied with his drawing. For his drawings, Nathan uses special brick paper. When a painter draws something as part of his or her preparations, this is called a study. This kind of drawing does not need to be absolutely perfect or to be colored in. But by drawing, you force yourself to concentrate and look at something carefully. Choose an interesting work of art and draw it on this page. You will use your study in your work at school later. Be sure to look as carefully as possible at the work of art now and sketch it. 10 Primary Education

11 Assignment 8 - Dinosaur The highlight of this exhibition is the dinosaur skeleton. It took Nathan Sawaya an entire summer to create this monster in LEGO. It is so enormous that it has to be transported in 14 different pieces. This creation is the skeleton of the most famous dinosaur of all, which could be twice as long in real life as this six-metre model! Based on the skeleton, can you tell which dinosaur it is? Afbeeldingen N. Tamura Primary Education 11

12 AFTER THE VISIT Assignment 1 - From Sketch To LEGO Construction Like most sculptors, Nathan often makes sketches in preparation for his actual work. He uses special brick paper that enables him to convert the sketches into LEGO form. Below, you can see the millimetre paper Nathan uses. Now draw the study you created at the exhibition onto this special grid. Extra Now you can actually create your work of art using LEGO based on your LEGO drawing. You may not have enough bricks at home or at school, but that need not be a problem. You can also build with LEGO on the computer, via the website You will then have countless bricks to use. NOTE: You may need to ask your teacher or parents for help because this website does not work with every Internet browser. The best thing to do is to download and install the free Chrome browser via 12 Primary Education

13 Assignment 2 - Commission A Work Of Art By Nathan Many artists create personal art. This means that they decide for themselves what to create and how to create it. But sometimes artists are commissioned to do work. The client then pays for the materials and wages, and also gets to say what the artist should do in return. Rembrandt, for example, created his self-portrait for himself, but the famous work The Night Watch was a job paid for by the association pictured in the painting. If you were a rich client, what kind of work of art would you commission Nathan to create? Describe as accurately as possible below what your dream LEGO design would look like. Include details such as how big it should be, what colors Nathan should use and where it will be placed or hung. Primary Education 13

14 Assignment 3 - Do It Yourself (Portrait) Artists often look in the mirror. That is not because they are vain, but because they do not always have a human model nearby to study. But you always have yourself near at hand. What could be more convenient! During his life, Rembrandt created several self-portraits, including the one you saw in LEGO form. Nathan has also made LEGO versions of himself. Now it is your turn! For a self-portrait, it is a good idea to use a mirror so you can keep looking while you are working. Of course, you can always use a good photograph as well. It is completely up to you how you create your self-portrait. You can use paint, like Rembrandt, or LEGO bricks, like Nathan. Pencil, chalk, clay or something else is also permitted. 14 Primary Education

15 LEARNING ACTIVITIES FOR GRADES 3-5 FOR ART OF THE BRICK MISSOURI LEARNING STANDARDS 3-5 Fine Arts Standards Alignment Elements and Principles: Artists communicate ideas through artworks by selecting and applying art elements and principles. II.1.B Shapes II.1.E Color Artistic Perceptions: Viewers respond aesthetically to artworks based upon their personal experience and cultural values. III.1.A. Investigate the nature of art and discuss responses to artworks III.2.A. Analyze and evaluate art using art vocabulary English Language Arts Standards Connections 3-5 Writing 2.A Approaching the Task as a Writer - Development of Writing KANSAS LEARNING STANDARDS 3-5 Fine Arts Anchor Standards: The following Fine Arts anchor standards offer several connections for For more specific connections, teachers should consult specific grade level standards. Responding 7. Perceive and analyze artistic work. 8. Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work. 9. Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work. English Language Arts Standards Connections 3-5: Writing W W Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. Primary Education