Draft: this lesson was written with AI help and has not yet been read by a human editor.
1 What your class asks
This lesson asks you to use lines and shapes in your art to say something, and to explain how lines and shapes carry meaning in your work and in the work of others. The museum offers two examples of patterns that repeat; your class brings its own drawings and materials. 1
Curriculum expectations, with their official codes
- D1.3 use elements of design in art works to communicate ideas, messages, and personal understandings […]
- D2.2 explain how elements and principles of design are used to communicate meaning or understanding in their own and others’ art work […]
2 The lesson
Which lines and shapes do you see?
Name the kinds of line (straight, curved, wavy) and the shapes that you can find. Ask which ones come back and how often.
What does a repeated shape make you feel?
Look at a pattern and say what it makes you think of. Ask what would change if you made the shapes bigger, smaller or closer together.
Go deeper
Look for a pattern of leaves that grow on a stalk. It is called an arabesque. A big reference book, the Encyclopaedia of Islam, says that in an arabesque the stalk sometimes almost vanishes under abundant leaves and at other times dominates the pattern. That makes one part of the pattern look different from another. 2 The book says the leaves grow out of stalks. 3
Think about it
Look at a pattern where leaves hide the stalk and at one where the stalk stands out. Which one do you look at longer, and why?
Into the museum
- Arabesque: leaves that grow from stalks, and where the pattern is found.
- Islamic geometric patterns: a short record about stars, polygons and grids that repeat on buildings.
Try this
Read the card on Islamic geometric patterns and the card on the arabesque. Draw a pattern with one repeated shape, then add a second kind of line, and explain your choices to a partner.
3 Carry it further
Where this lesson leads in the museum.
4 Check yourself
Nothing here is marked or sent anywhere. It is for you.
In your own words: what does Islamic geometric patterns have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
Stars, polygons and grids. The record describes repeating geometric patterns of stars, polygons and grids that cover the surfaces of Islamic architecture and art, from al-Andalus to Central Asia. Look for the shapes that come back again and again. Which lines and shapes would you repeat to cover a page with a pattern of your own?
In your own words: what does Arabesque have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
Plant lines that interlace. The record describes the arabesque as intertwined plant ornament, a hallmark of Islamic art, flowing across plaster, stone, wood, manuscripts, mosques and palaces. Which curving lines would you use to fill a flat page?
I can now