Piet Mondrian


Minnesota K-3 Visual Art Standards Used in This Lesson:

  • 1. Identify the elements of visual art including Color, line, shape, Form, Value, texture and space.

  • 2. Identify the tools, materials and techniques from a variety of two- and three-dimensional media such as drawing, printmaking, ceramics or sculpture.

  • 4. Create original two- and three- dimensional artworks to express ideas, experiences or stories.

    • Additional Tie-ins

  • Art History
  • Primary Colors
  • Negative space
  • Principles of art: Variety

    • "The emotion of beauty is always obscured by the appearance of the object. Therefore the object must be eliminated from the picture."
    --Piet Mondrian

    First, we discuss how painting has evolved throughout history and how abstract art came to be. Next, students are shown a variety of Piet Mondrian's paintings in class. We talk about how he arranged his colors and how each of his paintings is a little different than the next. (Variety)

    First graders are to choose a variety of red, yellow, and blue colored squares of paper and arrange them on their page so that the colors are separated by strips of white. (Negative space) (Colored papers are glued to a white background.) The goal is to get all the white strips to look consistent throughout the composition.

    Here's a worksheet used as a substitute lesson.