In our art lessons this week we have been looking at art by the South American artist Joaquin Torres Garcia.
Torres Garcia was famous for using symbols in his artworks. His biggest influences were the artist Mondrian and ancient people such as the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. Ancient people used symbols to tell stories and record information. Torres Garcia used this as a way of communicating his ideas too. Torres Garcia wanted his work to look flat, on a grid and he preferred earthy colours. He used symbols from music, religion, horoscopes, traffic, technology and ancient cultures.
We had a lot of fun trying to work out the symbols he used and noticed many similarities between his paintings. For example: his art seemed to always feature crosses, temples, fish, and chalice cups. We thought this might be because he was trying to express his Christianity. We compared Mondrian to Torres Garcia and realised there were many similarities.
We were inspired to create our own Picture Puzzle art which would represent where we came from. We discussed and considered different questions which would help us to express our individual identities and beliefs then painted these on to our own grids.
Please have a look at some of our art below.
Thank you to the parents and carers who came to our Creativity Afternoon to help us with our paintings!
“I have used an autumn leaf to represent the season my son was born.” Mrs Avdiu
“I have painted black and white keys to represent my love for playing the piano.” Jeanne
“I have used a lot of red and white in my art work because these are the colours of the Polish flag and I am from Poland.” Wanda
“I have put these initials on my art work because they represent someone very special to me who passed away.” Gabriella
“I have painted peace symbols because my dream is for the world to be peaceful.” Elena
“I have put this date on my art work because it is the day England won the world cup. Football is my passion.” Theo
