This week I showed the kids message art – that is art that uses text to convey a message, usually a political one, often using photomontage. The artists we looked at included Barbara Kruger, Russian constructivists such as Alexandr Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova, and Hannah Hoch. The children of course didn’t have to go political, and some were more comical, such as Leonardo’s ‘Never give up’ which was left unfinished, as if the he had given up – I assure you this was deliberate!
However, in the studio this week there was also a still life – with fruit, crockery and fabric backgrounds – which several found too exciting to turn up, so I also showed them a painting method inspired by Caravaggio, in which you start by painting a very dark background, do a rough outline sketch in white paint, and then fill in the colours – which as you can see created a lot of drama.
