Today's Art Lesson... Gottlieb

Adolph Gottlieb (his painting on the left.). Cool name right? I had no idea about him this morning. I do now.

My kids were dragging their butts through a morning of school. Nothing getting done, lots of yawns. (Between you and me, I think they're both getting sick, but don't tell them.) So as not to completely scrap the day I declared it an ART DAY. Gosh I love those words. I wish I had been homeschooled and had big art days.

Instead of letting them loose on their own whims, I decided to pick an artist to study and emulate. The DDs' got on the pooter and found Adolph Gottlieb. He was an American Abstract Expressionist Painter and Sculptor. I wonder what people thought of his art at first. He did a lot of circles, rectangles, scumbling and is most famous for his little boxes with shapes and people shoved into them. I thought it funny to read an article that called him a fraidy-cat. He preached revolution and independence in American art but then he painted little people all locked up in his little squares, like they were going to escape.

It's interesting to me. His paintings reminds me of some Japanese work I've seen. I wonder if he traveled to Japan at all? One of my favorite people whose work I like to see on Flickr is Shohei. He is a japanese artist with swipes of paint and bold white or black lines on top.

So we tried different types of Gottlieb's paintings. Minimal and the boxed off kind. See for yourself.





8 yr old's Paintings



15 yr old's Paintings



My painting attempts



Oldest dd and I agree. Our fav painting is the 8 yr old's middle one. Very abstract. I think we'll study Georges Braque next, who along with Picasso, developed the art movement known as Cubism. I love art!