5th grade Week 5: All About Alberto

This week we're going to look at the work & life of artist Alberto Giacometti. Let's be inspired by the way he conveyed the human figure in our own sculptures!

Many of Giacometti's works are of lone. solitary figures. The piece above though, titled La Place II, shows an arrangement of 5 figures. Study the figures for a moment.

What do you notice about the figures? Where do you think they are? Look closely at their body position and poses.

How do you feel about the amount of space between the figures? What connections can you make between this artwork and your world? How does this work make you feel?

Digging a little deeper

Let's look into the life and artwork of Alberto Giacometti a little closer. Click on the video below to see more of his artwork and get a little history and background on his artwork.

How do you feel about his work now? Have your opinions or insights changed at all?

Let's start planning!

We're going to create our own sculptures inspired by the way Alberto Giacometti stylized his figures. Even though his figures are elongated and proportions are off you can still tell what his figures are doing, kind of like with our gesture drawings. For our artworks, I want you to create at least 3 figures that will all be attached to a base. If you didn't finish your gesture drawings last week you might want to go back to that before working on your final plans for this week. They can help give you an idea of what you want your figures to be doing in your piece. This week, I want you to create a sketch showing all 3 figures together on a paper as a plan/guide for when we start working 3-D next week.

What do you want your figures to be doing? Will they be spaced apart and separated? Or will your figures be connected in some way or interacting with each other?

While trying to decide on the final plan for your sculpture consider what you want people to feel when they view it? Check out my sketch below for my own plans! Next week I'm going to show you how to turn your 2-D sketch into a 3-D sculpture.

In my first sketch I was inspired by our current situation with social distancing during this pandemic. The two figures holding hands are me and my husband since he's the only one I am allowed near in public, while the other figure is spaced apart from us. I may consider adding more people, also spaced apart, once I start creating my 3D work.

My second sketch shows a social situation pre-pandemic and what I hope we can return to sooner rather than later. In this one I definitely want to do more than the 3 figures to emphasize the large gathering that is occurring, since it is so different from current life.

Share your sketches with me through Seesaw and tell me about the idea behind it!