TEACHER’S GUIDE PRIMARY EDUCATION

2 Primary Education

THE ART OF THE BRICK TEACHER’S GUIDE

Dear Teacher,

Below you will fi nd the teaching pack developed especially to accompany the exhibition The Art of the Brick. This international, travelling exhibition features 75 objects by American artist Nathan Sawaya, ranging from reproductions of world-famous works such as the Venus de Milo and Van Gogh’s Starry Night to a dinosaur skeleton and many original works. What makes Sawaya so unusual is his choice of material: his works of art are built using LEGO® bricks. More than 1 million of them, to be precise. In addition to being a tour de force in the art of construction, The Art of the Brick is proof that the imagination is without limits and creativity can take on unexpected forms. The exhibition also provides an accessible introduction to several important masterpieces from the history of art, three-dimensional construction quite literally providing a completely new perspective.

About the artist

As a small boy, Nathan Sawaya (1973) was mad about drawing, cartoons, magic tricks and playing with LEGO. Unlike most of us, he has never stopped playing. After pursuing a successful career as a corporate lawyer, he gave up his permanent job in order to follow his art. For this, he uses a material that is highly unusual in the world of art: LEGO bricks.

After studying law, Sawaya rediscovered these world-famous bricks, but as a medium, rather than a toy. ‘I like using LEGO bricks as a medium because I enjoy seeing people’s reactions to artwork created from something they are familiar with. Everyone can relate to this art, as it is made using a toy that many children have at home. My aim is to raise this simple toy to a completely new level. I like the right angles and characteristic shape of the bricks. Depending on the distance and the point of view, these right angles and characteristic shapes provide new perspectives, such as fl owing, curved lines’, says the artist about his work.

Like other artists, Sawaya takes inspiration from the human body as well as great artists from the past, including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Vincent van Gogh. Other objects from the history of art include his LEGO reproductions of the stained-glass window at Chartres cathedral, a Buddha fi gure and Munch’s The Scream. Sawaya also builds original creations of his own, giving extraordinary form to his dreams and fears (not featured in this exhibition).

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Two target groups

Two versions of the teaching pack are available, one for primary and one for secondary schools. The materials for primary schools are mainly intended for use in the senior years. The secondary school materials are aimed at the early years of secondary education, but can also be used in the later years if desired.

Structure

The teaching materials put the exhibited artworks in context. The teaching pack provides guidance on dealing with art history as well as prominent aspects such as the use of colour and form. Each worksheet off ers a combination of background information and practical or more knowledge-based assignments.

The three themed worksheets are:• PREPARATION - COLOURS & SHAPES• KNOWLEDGE-BUILDING DURING THE MUSEUM VISIT • REFLECTION AND SELF-EXPRESSION AFTER THE MUSEUM VISIT

It is up to teachers to decide how to use the worksheets. They can be used in preparation for the visit or as a way of evaluating it afterwards. The second worksheet is primarily intended as a guide during the visit and will encourage your students to be focused when looking at the artworks exhibited. It is therefore a good idea not to distribute this second worksheet, entitled DURING YOUR VISIT, until you are actually at the exhibition. You do not necessarily have to collect the worksheets at the end of the exhibition, since any uncompleted questions can also be fi nished at home or at school with the help of the Internet.

Preparatory discussion

Duration: 30 minutesRequires: teaching materialsNo specifi c prior knowledge is required before the exhibition visit. However, it is recommended that you prepare students for the visit and explain the ground rules. The following example questions may provide you with some inspiration:

• Who has already been to a museum or exhibition and what was it about?• What kind of objects can you make using LEGO®?• What makes something ‘art’?• What do you expect from LEGO art?• LEGO is fi rst and foremost a toy, but what other applications does it have (think, for example, of the recent LEGO fi lm and the Bionicle fi lms, video games, virtual LEGO, LEGO robots, board games)?

If you have more time, you can extend this lesson with all or part of the animated documentary The LEGO Story: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdDU_BBJW9Y.

This fi lm, which charts the early history of the LEGO phenomenon, is 17 minutes long and in English: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND8s68b8PK4.

The BBC programme The Culture Show featured an extensive half-hour report entitled LEGO: The Building Blocks of Architecture: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHamIjw11BQ.

It’s fun to see Nathan Sawaya building one of his creations, brick by brick. This time-lapse recording of the construction of Mask compresses a creative process that lasted for weeks into just 2 minutes and 35 seconds:www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSEhHxKzsqc.

WorksheetsIt is recommended that you take a look at one or two themes in class before the visit. Of course, you can also divide the class into diff erent groups and give each one a diff erent theme. The students can then give brief presentations to share their knowledge or projects with the rest of the class.

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Timing

For each theme, approximately one hour’s lesson time will be necessary to go through the information and complete the assignments. Some themes include more than one assignment, which means that the lesson can be shortened to 30 minutes or extended to 90 or 120 minutes.

Methods used

Most of the assignments are to be done by individual students. After completion, the results or the work created can be pre-sented in groups, however. Relatively complicated assignments (such as replicating a sketch in the Chrome browser’s virtual LEGO® module) can be done in small groups. In that case it is recommended that the group selects a design that they can work on together.

Materials required

Every student receives a printout of the materials. Depending on the assignment selected the following will be required:• Worksheet PREPARATION - COLOURS & SHAPES: paper, pen• Worksheet DURING YOUR VISIT: pen, pencil, paper• Worksheet AFTER YOUR VISIT: computer (with the Chrome Internet browser installed); for the self-portrait, materials of the student’s own choice: pen, paper and possibly a camera in order to enter the assignment into the competition.

Note to teachers

Please make sure that the links listed for LEGO documentaries are not played publicly in the exhibition.

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ANSWERS

Worksheet PREPARATION – COLOURS & SHAPES

Assignment 1

Yellow + blue = greenRed + yellow = orange Blue + red = purple

Assignment 2 - Use of colour

1.Peace Symbol: This work of art contains a large number of colours: white, black, red, blue, grey, green, pink, orange, beige and brown. It’s a colourful mixture, and the artist had a conscious reason for this. ‘What do you need to create Peace? All the colours of the world, working together’, says Nathan Sawaya about his colourful version of the international symbol of peace.

2. Venus de Milo: The warm tones of the white bricks are similar to the colour of the marble of the original sculpture. The brick replica version took over one hundred hours to complete. Nathan tried to capture the curves of the original statue while still using the rectangles of the toy bricks. The toughest part was the diff erent wrinkles and folds in the drapery of the sculpture. (taken from the exhibit list)

3. Circle Torso, Triangle Torso, Square Torso: With this group of sculptures, Sawaya aims to emphasise diversity. Every individual is diff erent. This is expressed in this work of art by the fact that each fi gure is presented in one of the primary colours: red, yellow and blue. Again, the use of a single colour ensures that the form and shape attract the most attention.

Assignment 3

1. The easiest to make with LEGO® is: a cube.2. This is followed by: a pyramid.3. The most diffi cult to make with LEGO is: a sphere.

Worksheet DURING YOUR VISIT

Assignment 1 - Use of materials (more than one correct answer)

1. Oil paint: Starry Night, Rembrandt – Self Portrait, Mona Lisa2. Marble: David, Venus de Milo, Nike of Samothrace, The Discobolus, Augustus of Prima Porta3. Bones: Dinosaur Skeleton

Assignment 2 - Artists

1. Girl with the Pearl Earring was painted by: Johannes Vermeer.2. San Giorgio Maggiore at dusk was painted by: Claude Monet.3. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was painted by: Michelangelo.4. Starry Night was painted by: Vincent van Gogh.5. Leonardo da Vinci painted the mysterious smile of the Mona Lisa.

Assignment 3 - Numbers

a. The object with the fewest LEGO bricks is Hugman (273 bricks).b. The object with the most LEGO bricks is Dinosaur Skeleton (80,020 bricks).

Assignment 7 – Dinosaur

The skeleton is that of a Tyrannosaurus rex or T-Rex.