Picture the Story
Create an abstract artwork based on a book
Ask your students to view The Grand Armada, 1987. Find Chapter 87 of Moby-Dick here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2701/2701-h/2701-h.htm
Ask students to read the chapter aloud in class. How does Stella convey a sense of the whale hunt through line, shape, color, movement, and energy?
a. Ask students to create an abstract artwork based on a book you’ve read as a class or a book of their choice. Have them choose three key images from the book or a chapter in the book to use. Ask students to play with line, shape, color, pattern, overlapping, orientation, and scale to provide a sense of the narrative and the overall mood of the book.
b. Discuss students’ work with the class. What books did they choose? How did they convey a sense of the book?
Frank Stella, The Grand Armada (IRS-6, 1X), 1989. Painted aluminum. 124 × 73 7/16 × 39 in. (315 × 186.5 × 99 cm). Fondation Beyeler, Riehen / Basel, Beyeler Collection. © 2015 Frank Stella/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Robert Bayer, Basel.