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Art Masterpiece: “The Brooklyn Bridge” - Joseph Stella

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Art Masterpiece: “The Brooklyn Bridge” - Joseph Stella Art Masterpiece: “The Brooklyn Bridge” - Joseph Stella Keywords: Line, Symmetrical Balance, Point of View, Futurist Grade: 4th - 6th Activity: Mixed Media Lines Meet the Artist: Joseph Stella (1879 –1946) was born in the mountain village of Muro Lucano, Italy. He had a keen interest in art at an early age and drew everything that interested him, including his classmates at school. When he was 19 yrs. old, Stella immigrated to the U.S. and settled in New York. After studying medicine for a year, he decided to pursue his dream of becoming an artist. Many of his early paintings were realistic portraits of immigrants, miners and steelworkers, and reflected life and machinery of the modern industrial world. The Brooklyn Bridge was one of his favorite subjects. It awed him and he considered it a modern cathedral. He loved to walk along it at night. He painted 6 different pictures of it. Stella loved geometric shapes, lines and mixed media (any combination of art materials, such as paint, crayons, collage, colored pencils). Stella considered himself a Futurist (see definition below). Meet the Artwork: “The Brooklyn Bridge” is Stella’s signature image – he photographed its maze of wires and cables, the granite piers, Gothic arches & pedestrian walkway as an abstract pattern of line, form and color. He was inspired to paint the bridge late one night as he stood alone on the promenade listening to the noises of the city. He saw the bridge as a force of inspiration and every aspect of it was magnificent in a way that words could not describe. He saw the influence of the bridge (as well as the city skyscrapers in Manhattan) as a marker that set New York apart from the rest of the world. He used all the energy he felt on canvas. P.S.2013-2014 Keywords: Line: an outline or boundary of a figure or space. Symmetrical Balance: both sides of a picture look the same. Point of View: the position or angle from which something is observed. Futurist: Artist who tries to show movement through repetition of an image in a painting. Also believed that artists should not paint the figure or object, but should paint the shapes and atmosphere around the object. There is a fascination with geometric precision, machines and architecture. Stella created his special futurist style with lines and spaces. Possible Questions: What is the subject of the painting? Do you see more than one point of view of the bridge? Describe. (head-on view, as if going over the bridge; a side view of the bridge from a distance). Do you see the city? Does this painting have symmetrical balance? Can you point out the tower, the cables? What type of lines did Stella use? (Straight, curved, vertical, diagonal –describe where you see each type of line). What time of day is shown in the painting? How can you tell? (night; darkness of the tower and background behind the skyscrapers, nighttime scene at the bottom). Does this painting look futuristic to you considering it was painted in 1939? Why? Does it look real or abstract? Why? How do you think the artist feels about this bridge? Why? P.S.2013-2014 Activity: Lines and Mixed Media Materials needed: Construction Paper (9x12) Black markers (wide tip) Rulers Colored chalk Crayons or oil pastels Colored markers Colored Pencils Process: 1. Draw a black dot with the marker somewhere on the paper. It doesn’t have to be in the center, it can be anywhere. 2. Next, use the ruler to draw lines with the marker from the dot to the edge of the paper, like the sun’s rays shining outward. 3. Fill in the spaces with color, lines, designs and patterns, using all the various types of media. P.S.2013-2014 .
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