Yayoi Kusama's Organic World

Yayoi Kusama's

Giant Universe of

Amoebas in Motion

Begoña De Ubieta

Art Teacher

Somerset High School

October 27, 2020

An art lesson that engages imagination... connecting science and creativity!

Fine Arts & Science

Grades 9 - 12

Video: A Vivid Message of Peace from Yayoi Kusama

Copy this link on your browser & watch:

https://youtu.be/9WtEF94zwmM

Content Objective:

Students will make the connection between creativity and science, as they design one exciting abstract artwork inspired by Amoebas in the style of avant-garde Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s "My Eternal Soul" Series.

Language Objective:

Students will identify biomorphic shapes of Amoebas in motion, comparing and contrasting them with the shapes found in Yayoi Kusama's "My Eternal Soul" paintings.

National Core Art Standards--Visual

• Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas

• Refine and complete artistic work

• Develop and refine artistic techniques and presenting visual work

• Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work

• Use art vocabulary to describe choices while creating art

• Use observation and investigation in preparation for making a work of art

Vocabulary

Avant-garde, abstract, irregular, color, organic, shape, line, figurative, imaginative, eternal, biomorphism, Amoeba, microorganism, artistic licence

"All the Eternal Love" Acrylic on Canvas, 2014-Yayoi Kusama

In 2009, Kusama began My Eternal Soul, a new series of acrylic-on-canvas paintings that builds upon her signature style of nets and dots. ... The paintings are surreal, semi-figurative, folksy explosions of colour and line that pulsate with complementary hues and biomorphic shapes, just like Amoebas.

"The Daybreak: The Arrival of Morning

2010, Acrylic on Canvas, 1.62 x 1.62cm

Copy this link on your web

browser to watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WtEF94zwmM

Answer on a Google Doc, upload it on your assignment.

• Where does the name Amoeba comes from?

• Is an Amoeba a cell?

• How do Amoebas move and why?

• Are Amoebas organic or geometric shapes?

• Do Amoebas change color and why?

• If you were an Amoeba what shape and color would you be?

Fill in the Blanks

Video: Amoeba in Motion

Copy this link on your browser & watch:

https://youtu.be/7pR7TNzJ_pA