Elements of Design: Artist Example
Use examples of great art from art history to reinforce lessons.
This article lists artists whose work can be used in teaching specific Elements of Design.
It’s important to show works of art from the world of art history to your students to reinforce how to use the elements of design to create a successful composition. After all, how can you expect your students to create great art if they have never seen what it looks like?
Below are listed some artists whose work can be used as cultural exemplars. Many students may not have access to a museum, and digital art on the internet makes it easy to bring the museum to the classroom. And of course, there are some crossover artists: artists whose work is significant for more than one element of design. For example, Piet Mondrian is important to view for line, shape and color.
Line: Ellsworth Kelly plant drawings, Keith Haring, Albrecht Durer’s wood engravings, Rembrandt’s prints and drawings, Van Gogh’s landscape drawings, R. Crumb, Saul Steinberg, William Wiley, Cy Twombly, Jackson Pollack, Wayne Thiebaud, Piet Mondrian, Roy Lichtenstein, Aubrey Beardsley, the cave paintings at Lascaux, MC Escher, Joan Miro
Shape: Ellsworth Kelly shaped canvases, Elizabeth Murray, Milton Avery, Robert Motherwell, Georgia O’Keefe, Amish quilts, Piet Mondrian, Thomas Hart Benton, Chuck Close
Color: Josef Albers, Mark Rothko, Alice Neel, Fairfield Porter, Andy Warhol’s large silkscreen, Picasso’s Blue Period, Marc Chagall, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh, Piet Mondrian
Texture: Anselm Kiefer, Henri Rousseau, Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Howard Finster, Alma Thomas, Georges Seurat
Repetition: Jasper Johns, Joseph Cornell, Chuck Close, Louise Nevelson
Perhaps content should be considered as a significant element of artwork in and of itself. Some artists who are content kings: Joseph Cornell, Howard Finster, George Tooker, Balthus, Jasper Johns, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Rene Magritte
A few last words about showing slides: Don’t show too many artists at once. Try to stick to no more than three artists per lecture, and keep the slideshow at no more than ten images. Also, don’t spend more than 20 minutes for each slide lecture. It can be tedious for new art students to look at art and talk about art. The goal of the slide lecture is to hold their interest and teach them to analyze a work of art visually – not to totally bore them to tears.
Where to find images? The best place to start is on Google and choosing an “image” search. Once you have your selection you can further refine your search by image size. Try to find the highest resolution image possible for more pleasurable and informative viewing. ABC Gallery has a handy selection of paintings by famous artists, listed alphabetically by the artist's name.
