Year 1 have transformed into artists this half term, exploring and recreating the work of Mondrian, Rothko, Klee, Pollock and Delaunay. We found out more about primary and secondary colours, ways to mix colours and create shades and tints.

    

We found out that Piet Mondrian was born in the Netherlands in 1872 and was introduced to art at a very early stage as both his father and uncle were artists. Mondrian’s painting style was known as ‘cubism’ but he classified his own work as ‘neo-plasticism.’ We recreated his famous painting using simple lines and rectangles in white, black and primary colours. 

  

Mark Rothko was a painter who loved mixing colours. Rothko was born in Russia in 1903 and moved to America when he was 10. He enjoyed mixing colours and using them to create simple blocks and lines on big canvases. This kind of painting was called ‘Colour Field’.

Paul Klee enjoyed experimenting with all different types of colours. Klee was born in Switzerland in 1879 and expressed his feelings through simple shapes and colours. Klee  created his famous painting ‘Seperation in the Evening’ by mixing tints.

 

Jackson Pollock was an artist who invented ‘Drip Painting’. Pollock was born in 1912 and liked to put his canvases on the floor! He would use different tools to drip, pour and splatter his paint on the canvas from up above!