Learning - Art 

Term Four in Visual Arts has been all about Yayoi Kusama and her dots! From Prep to Grade 6, the students have been investigating the life and works of the ‘quirky’ Japanese artist.

Here are some of the things our students have learnt about her life:

“Yayoi Kusama puts dots on everything” – Indigo (Prep)

“She was born in Japan, but flew to America to be an artist. She is really old now and lives back in Japan.” – Lily (3/4MG)

“Yayoi held protests called ‘happenings’ and was quite controversial” – Andrew (5/6 BOC)                  

The students have used the Elements and Principles of Art, to dive into some of Yayoi Kusama’s most famous artworks and share their ideas about her use of colour, shape, line and subject matter.

The students collaborated on a whole school project to transform a white chair into something that could take pride of place in a Yayoi Kusama exhibition!

The junior students observed Yayoi’s use of repeating patterns and geometric shapes. They were inspired by her love of nature, particularly vegetables and flowers. The students created collages, paintings and sculptures which are vibrant and covered in dots – just like Yayoi’s!

The middle level students learnt about Yayoi Kusama’s use of complementary and contrasting colours to create emphasis in her artwork. They compared Yayoi’s artworks with artworks by artists from different time periods. For example, they compared Yayoi’s ‘Pumpkin’ with a Renaissance painting of a pumpkin. The children discussed the different styles of artworks and which one they preferred. They created large paper flower sculptures, inspired by Yayoi Kusama’s “Flowers that Bloom in the Cosmos”, in NSW.

The senior students investigated the way in which artists communicate their ideas through art. They learnt to analyse art from different cultures and time periods, for example, the students researched and discussed the relevance of Yayoi Kusama’s dots alongside several Traditional Indigenous Australian dot artworks. The senior students also created clay fruit and vegetable sculptures, inspired by Yayoi Kusama’s painting “Fruit Bowl”.