Description of the Unit – Emphasizing movement, balance and repetition with Jean Dubuffet’s Hourloupe

This unit revisits a second-grade unit which also focused on the Hourloupe to practice line and pattern; here we go further to practice the above-mentioned principles of design.

Activity statement – According to the Art Story, (https://www.theartstory.org/artist/dubuffet-jean/artworks/#pnt_5), “Dubuffet’s L’Hourloupe series began in 1962 and would preoccupy the artist for many decades. The inspiration came from a doodle he created while on the telephone, in which the fluid movement of line combines with limited fields of color to create movement. He believed the style evoked the manner in which objects appear in the mind.”

We first discuss the movement Jean Dubuffet was a part of, Art Brut. Begun in 1945, Art Brut was a rebellious, pure and naïve form of art, created by auto-didactic, marginalized artists who had no desire to pander to critics or anyone else. Discussing the principles of the movement with adolescents always generates a lively, curious discussion, and gives the students deeper investment, and yet strangely a new freedom as they approach their own Hourloupe drawing.

This time as we observe Dubuffet’s Hourloupes, we focus on the principles of design: balance, movement, and repetition. To understand movement, ask students: What paths does your eye take? How is that path guided by line? How is the path guided by the relationship between positive and negative space? Does color, shape or pattern affect the way your eyes move across the artwork? To understand repetition, ask students to point to elements that repeat: certain lines, colors, shapes and patterns. For balance, ask students if the design feels stable? Does it seem symmetrical? How does the design relate to the surrounding negative space?

For seventh grade students, revisiting the Hourloupe is a freeing experience. They are very open to the playful nature of the Hourloupe and yield to being surprised by what they come up with rather than trying to plan anything out. As a result, their choice of colors and patterns seems sprightlier and more spontaneous.

Goals – Students should…

Understand:

• The variety of ways a design affects a viewer’s attention and eye movement
• Stability and symmetry when applied to a work of art

Know:

• The meanings of the terms balance, movement and repetition

Be able to:

• Identify movement, repetition and balance
• Draw patterns, especially through a variety of lines, and create movement and repetition in their drawing with line, shape, pattern, and/or color.  

Resources and materials –

• Exemplars of Dubuffet’s Hourloupe series
• 12×18 Bristol board in white
• Markers or sharpies in a variety of colors

Questions –

• What do you notice about the color’s in Dubuffet’s paintings? Are they primary or secondary? How many do you see?
• Can you name the kinds of lines Dubuffet uses?
• Can you point to some patterns?
• Where do you see colors or patterns repeat?
• Do you see any images of real life in his paintings?
• What paths does your eye take? How is that path guided by line? How is the path guided by the relationship between positive and negative space?
• Does color, shape or pattern affect the way your eyes move across the artwork? Does the design feel stable?
• Does it seem symmetrical?
• How does the design relate to the surrounding negative space?

Evaluation –

• Understand the concept of movement?
• Understand the concept of repetition?
• Understand balance?
• Use line, pattern and repetition in a thoughtful, deliberate way?
• Correctly use the targeted vocabulary when viewing other work or describing their own?

Informal:

• Student questions
• Group discussions
• Oral responses to essential questions
• One finished Hourloupe style drawing

• 7th grade
• Art History
• Drawing