DESCRIPTION
ANALYSIS
INTERPRETATION
EVALUATION
Working Together
First Grade
Lesson 1
Matisse Shapes
Objectives: At the end of the lesson, students will be able to,
1) Discuss Matisse’s cut outs in terms of line, shape, and color working together
2) Tell at least three facts about Matisse’s life
3) Differentiate between positive and negative space
Key Questions:
What does positive space mean? What does negative space mean?
What kinds of shapes do you see? What kinds of lines, colors, etc.?
Why was it easier for Matisse to use positive & negative cut-outs when he got
older?
How do positive and negative space work together in Matisse’s artwork?
Lesson Cycle
Focus: (5 min.) Using thickly sliced bread, cut out shapes with miniature cookie
cutters. Show the students that the cut out piece is the positive space and the
surrounding piece is the negative space. Share the positive and negative
bread slices with the students.
What does positive space mean? What
does negative space mean?
Guide the Group: (10 min.) Tell students that positive and negative space is a
concept many artists think about in their artwork. Henri Matisse was a French
artist [fact 1] who started out as a painter. As he got older, he became ill and
had to stay in bed all the time, making it difficult to paint [fact 2]. As an
alternative, he began making pictures with pieces of cut out paper. He would sit
in bed and make cut out pictures all day. In his pieces, he would use the
positive and negative shapes created in the sheets of paper [fact 3]. Show
examples of Matisse’s work and point out the positive and negative shapes to
the students. Ask students to point out the geometric and organic shapes in
various pieces. Ask students to describe the lines of the shapes. Also ask
students to describe the range of colors used by Matisse.
Independent Practice: (5 min.) Have students match pre-cut positive and
negative shapes together. Have enough made so that each student may work
independently or in a small group. Be sure to include geometric and organic
shapes.
Art Activity: (7 min.) Have students create a collage using positive and negative
shapes. Provide them with colored paper (perhaps with some things already
pre-cut to form positive/negative space), scissors, and glue. Encourage them
to use both the cut out shape (positive space) and the paper leftover around it
(negative space) on their collage.
Closure: (3 min.) Share the collages within the group and ask students to point to
the positive and negative spaces used in the collages. How do positive and
negative space work together?
Evaluation Question sample answers: How do positive and negative space
work together?
Positive space is typically the opposite of negative space and so they have to work
together in order to show space in a work of art. By paying attention to empty
spaces, the viewer pays more attention to the things that are taking up the
space.
First Grade
Lesson 1, page 2
Creative Curriculum Connections:
Point out how an artwork is like a community with many elements and
principles working together, like people in a community. Just as
negative and positive space work together in Matisse’s cut-outs, all the
other parts of an artwork also come together to make the artwork what
it is. Ask students to tell how the same thing happens in their school,
family or neighborhood.
First Grade
Lesson 1, page 3
Lesson Resources
Icon Card:
Space
positive
negative
First Grade
Lesson 1, page 4
Henri Matisse Time Line
1869 New Year’s Eve Henri Matisse’s birthday.
1887 Matisse’s father sends him away to study law.
1889 Matisse quits law school and starts attending drawing classes.
1890 Matisse completes his first painting and moves to Paris to study art.
1898 Matisse marries Amelie Parayre.
1910 Paints “La Danse,” a painting that abandons perspective.
1911 Experiments with the ideas of Cubism in his painting.
1938 Matisse starts making paper cut outs because his hands are too weak to paint.
1947 Jazz, a book of his paper cutout images is published.
1951 The New York Museum of Modern Art hosts a retrospective of
Matisse’s work.
First Grade
1954 Henri Matisse dies at age 85.
Lesson 1, page 5
Henri Matisse, “Dinner Table,” 1897
http://www.abcgallery.com/M/matisse/matisse83.html
Henri Matisse, ”Madame Matisse,” 1905
http://sunsite.dk/cgfa/matisse/p-matisse4.htm
Henri Matisse, “La Danse,” 1910
http://www.abcgallery.com/M/matisse/matisse91.html
Henri Matisse, “The Painter’s Family,” 1911
http://www.abcgallery.com/M/matisse/matisse97.html
Henri Matisse, “Icarus,” 1947
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/view1.asp?dep=9&full=0&item=1983%2E1009%2E8
Henri Matisse, “Jazz,” 1947
http://www.abcgallery.com/M/matisse/matisse120.html
Henri Matisse, “Blue Nude IV,” 1952
http://www.abcgallery.com/M/matisse/matisse118.html
First Grade
Lesson 1, page 6