Lesson Plan: Additive Relief Sculpture 1

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Contemporary Art Lesson Plan:

Additive Non-Representational Foam Core Relief Sculpture

Cody Thomas

ARE 6148: Curriculum in Teaching Art

9 September 2022
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Figure 1: Instructor’s Additive Foam Core Sculpture

Lesson Title: Additive Non-Representational Foam Core Relief Sculpture

Grade Level: 11th & 12th Grades

Estimated Completion Time: 8 days total (7 days for introduction and work days, 1 day for

critique and photographing their work; each class is based on one hour)

Übersicht

In this lesson, students in the eleventh and twelfth grades will explore artists such as:

Liam Hennessy, Kevin Barrett, Frank Stella, and Sofia Vari. These artists construct abstract

works of art from paintings to sculptures. They experiment with materials pushing them to the

max. The non-representational aspect of their work creates a sense of narrative within the piece.

Liam Hennessy is a United Kingdom artist that works in many mediums. He is drawn to

abstract art due to the freedom it implies. His multilayered approach to image making creates an
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idea that the viewer can envision (Saatchiart, 2014). Kevin Barrett is an artist from Tennessee

whose sculptures focus on abstraction and space. Barrett is an accomplished artist with many

awards who also comes from a family of sculptors who they collaborate with (Barrett, n.d.).

Frank Stella is an American painter and sculptor whose abstract work utilizes shape, color, and

composition to explore non-literary narratives (Artnet, n.d.). Sophia Vari is a visual artist from

Greece whose abstract sculptures investigate the ideas of space (positive and negative) and

balance (Waddington, 2022).

The main idea of this lesson is to discover non-representational art and that art works

necessarily does not have to have a defined meaning or subject. Students will explore a variety of

materials and methods to produce works of art. Students will learn new vocabulary and visually

display what they have learned.

Enduring Ideas/Essential Questions

Enduring ideas and essential questions that may arise will be:

What is non-representational art?

Why is non-representational art important?

Does art have to have a meaning?

Why would an artist decide to construct abstract works of art in three-dimension space?

National or State Learning Standards

National Core Arts Standards:

VA:Cr.1.1.la – Use multiple approaches to begin creative endeavors

VA:Cr1.2.lla – Choose from a range of materials and methods of traditional and contemporary

artistic practices to plan works of art and design

VA:Cr3.1.lla – Engage in constructive critique with peers, then reflect on, reengage, revise, and

refine works of art and design in response to personal artistic vision.

VA:Pr4.1.lla – Analyze, select, and critique personal artwork for a collection or portfolio

presentation

VA:Re.7.1.llla – Analyze how responses to art develop over time based on knowledge of and

experience with art and life

VA:Re8.1.la – Interpret an artwork or collection of works, supported by relevant evidence found

in the work and its various contexts

Lesson Objectives

In this lesson, the student will be able to:

• Discuss living contemporary artists who work in abstract ways within their art

• Discover new process and methods of working with materials through exploration

• Critique the work of their peer’s art

• Conduct professional and safe studio practices while working with sharp objects such as

X-acto knives, scissors, and hot glue guns

• Experiment with various means of modeling the material by folding, tearing, cutting,

bending, scoring, weaving, etc.

Tools and Materials

Tools for the teacher and students for this project consist of the following:

Teacher:

• Workspace

• Demo supplies: cardboard sheet, Foam core, Bristol board sheet, glue gun, hot-gun glue

stick, scissor, metal 12” ruler, sketchbook, pencil, Z-acto knife, cutting mat
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• Project Introduction PowerPoint Presentation

• Teacher’s finished foam core project

• Smart board/Projector

• Computer

• Project sheet handouts

• Project grading rubric

• How to look at art handouts

• Critique handout

• Artist’s websites

Student:

• Foam core, Bristol board, cardboard sheet

• 12” metal ruler

• Hot glue gun, hot glue sticks (two guns for each table unless students have brought their

own from home)

• White Elmer’s glue

• Scissors

• X-acto knife and cutting mat

• Sketchbook

• Pencil

• Markers, paint (acrylic, watercolor, washable) which ever the student decides to work

with if desired

• Storage/counter space
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Einführung

Once the students have begun to enter the classroom and the class has started, the teacher

will begin today’s lesson by starting a class conversation with the following introduction to the

lesson: “Today we are going to be learning about contemporary artists who construct non-

representational artwork, also known as non-objective to make their art. Before we learn about

these artist’s and this week’s exciting new project, can anyone tell me what a contemporary artist

is?” Once student’s start to engage in conversations on the meaning of what a contemporary

artist is and with giving examples, the teacher will then ask: “Does anyone know what non-

representational art is? Does art have to have a defined and apparent meaning?” Depending on

the direction of the conversations, the teacher will tell the students the meaning and then posting

an example of non-representational artwork on the projector.

The teacher will then continue with the following:

“Art is made to make us thing, right?” “What artwork have we talked about so far this year that

has had some meaning behind it? Can you name a piece of work that could mean many things or

nothing at all? Can abstract art be more than just a drawing or painting?” The teacher will then

ask if there are some three-dimensional artworks, current and throughout civilization, that would

be considered a sculpture, such as cave paintings, hieroglyphics, and famous sculptures like

Greek relief sculptures. The teacher will then pull up the project PowerPoint to walk through the

brief history of relief sculptures leading to contemporary. This will then introduce the weeks

lesson plan which will be in the same PowerPoint.

Procedure

Day 1

Students will be introduced to four contemporary artists through a PowerPoint presentation.

These four artists are Liam Hennessy, Kevin Barnett, Frank Stella, and Sofia Vari. Through a

class discussion, students will discover what non-representational art is. The students will also be

introduced to what a relief sculpture (low and high) are. A PowerPoint presentation will

introduce these artists as well as a brief history of relief sculptures. This will then introduce the

weeks project of making their own additive non-representational relief foam core sculpture. The

teacher will pass out a copy of materials that the students will need as they complete their

project: PowerPoint handout, critic handout, Project introduction handout, Project grading rubric

handout, and How to Look at Art handout.

Day 2:

The project presentation will continue if wasn’t finished on Day 1. The teacher will demo

suggestions on how to experiment with the material by folding, cutting, tearing, adhering pieces

together. A demo will also be used on how to safely cut through material with an X-acto blade

and hot to use a glue-gun safely. Students will begin their project by creating their thumbnails.

Students can move onto the next steps. The teacher will encourage the students to spend time

working with the material and experimental with shape studies, design, and texture techniques to

push their work further.

Day 3-7:

Students will continue working on their project.

Day 8:
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Students will engage in a critique by completing a peer review of their peers work and presenting

their findings to the class on that peer’s work. The teacher will encourage the students to take a

professional photo of their finished piece using the class backdrop.

Distributing and Clean-Up

Once the project has been introduced, the students will be dismissed table by table to rather their

supplies from the counter for their project. The teacher will assign each X-acto knife and cutting

board to each individual student. The students will be gathering their own project and materials

each day as well as cleaning up their area and returning materials to the cabinet. Their projects

will be stored on their own shelf. The X-acto knives and cutting boards will be signed back into

the teacher before class is dismissed each day. The teacher will keep a locked cabinet with the X-

acto knives.

Closure

This teacher will reinforce the students understand by the work they produced, the completion of

their presentation of their peer’s work, and by completing of handouts. High quality images will

be taken of their sculptures and placed on the art classes on-line portfolio as well as social media.

Assessment

When assessing the student’s understandings of this assignment and discussed artists, vocabulary

words, rubric, and through a critique. Did the student grasp the main idea of the lesson? How

well did the student engage in the project overall, and with engagement with peers? See Additive

Non-Representational Foam Core Relief Sculpture Grading Rubric for assessment grading.

Artist(s) or Works of Art Studied

Liam Hennessy – Abstract artist https://www.saatchiart.com/hennesli

Liam Hennessy is an artist from Essex, United Kingdom who works in mediums such as painting

and sculpture. His work focuses on abstract forms. Despite the different mediums he works with,

his outlook on each piece is all the same: that abstract art is freeing, and he wants the viewer to

have their own representation of the piece. The class will look at both his abstract paintings and

sculptures.

Kevin Barnett – Sculpture https://www.kevinbarrettsculptures.com/

Kevin Barnett is a sculpture who works with bronze and metal fabrication to construct geometric

and abstract figures that focus on space. He is from Tennessee and collaborates with his father

and other family members who are also artists. The class will look at his metal sculptures.

Frank Stella – Artist http://www.artnet.com/artists/frank-stella/

Frank Stella is an artist who explores geometric shapes to construct abstract sculptures and

paintings. Stella mentions that it is with geometric shapes that gives his work a narrative.

Students will look at both mediums from this artist.

Sofia Vari – Artist https://www.waddingtoncustot.com/artists/218-sophia-vari/

Sofia Vari’s work focused on her investigations of balance and space. Vari works with many

different mediums such as sculpture, oil, watercolor, and collage. Vari was born in Greece and

now works and lives in Paris. Vari has had work at the Smithson Plaza, Ludwig Museum, and

has won many awards. Students will be looking at many different works from this artist.
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References

Artnet. (n.d.). Artist: Frank stella. Retrieved September 11, 2022, from

http://www.artnet.com/artists/frank-stella/

Barrett, K. (n.d.). Sculptures. Retrieved September 10, 2022, from

https://www.kevinbarrettsculptures.com/work

Waddington. (2022). Sophia Vari. Retrieved September 8, 2022, from

https://www.waddingtoncustot.com/artists/218-sophia-vari/

Saatchiart. (2014, March). Liam Hennessy. Retrieved September 9, 2022, from

https://www.saatchiart.com/hennesli