NEW ART FROM OLD

The history of modern art is often remembered by the rejection of the past in favour of the new. Until the early 20th century, art students were expected to study in museums and copy the works of the great masters, but then the new visual language of cubism and abstraction came along and the art of the past was deemed as irrelevant. However, artists such as Picasso, Magritte and Mondrian all looked hard at earlier art in developing their own individual style.

We visited the National Gallery in London, to study work in which artists had looked at the past for inspiration. We then visited the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham with an artist called Pamela Wells to study the work of contemporary artists who had looked
at the past for inspiration.

Back at school the students chose a painting from The National Gallery and produced a contemporary response. For some of them the ‘engagement’ was about a study into how the artist paints, for others the art of the past was a source of ideas for their own work. Some students, with the help of Pamela, used the computer as a
tool to create digital artwork.

We would like to thank ‘Education Extra’, without their support and
funding this project would not be possible.

Thanks also to Pamela Wells, Innes Jones, Mari Allen and Andrew Smith.

Jo Harrison - Head of Art

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