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 explain how elements and principles of design are used to communicate meaning in your own and others' art work. The museum offers Islamic geometric patterns and the arabesque, as its records describe them. The records do not discuss colour or texture; your class can look at those in the works themselves. 1
Curriculum expectations, with their official codes
- D2.2 explain how elements and principles of design are used to communicate meaning or understanding in their own and others’ art work […]
2 Before you start
A thought to carry into the lesson.
3 The lesson
What does a repeated shape do to a surface?
The expectation asks how design carries meaning. Look at a repeating pattern and follow one shape in it: where does it start, where does it repeat, and what fills the space around it?
Go deeper
Picture a line of Arabic writing on a wall. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, a big reference book, says that in writing the arabesque, the pattern of leaves and stalks, may form a background to the calligraphy, letters may end in arabesques, or letters and arabesque may be interwoven. 2 It also says the arabesque can be combined with every kind of geometric decoration, such as geometric patterns. 2
Think about it
A wall has writing on it, and behind the writing there is a pattern of leaves. Does the leaf pattern make the writing easier to read or harder to read, and why?
Into the museum
- Arabesque: leaves and stalks, and how the pattern meets writing and geometric decoration.
- Islamic geometric patterns: a short record about stars, polygons and grids.
- Floriated Kufic: a style of writing whose letter ends and uprights are decorated with leaves, stems and blossoms.
Try this
Read about geometric patterns and then about the arabesque. Draw one shape and repeat it until it covers a sheet of paper, then describe what the repeating did to the surface.
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. Islamic geometric patterns are repeated patterns of stars, polygons and grids that cover the surfaces of Islamic architecture and art from al-Andalus to Central Asia. Look at one pattern from this tradition: which shapes repeat, and how does your eye move across the surface?
In your own words: what does Arabesque have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
A pattern that respects the surface. In Yeomans's view the plant arabesque is stylised and flat, that is two-dimensional, respecting the surface. What would you change in a drawing so that it respects its surface?
I can now