SECONDARY EDUCATION

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PREPARATION – COLOURS & SHAPES Everyone has played with LEGO® at some time in their lives: it is the most popular toy of all time. The name LEGO derives from the Danish LEg GOdt, which means ‘play well’. Originally a wooden toy, it only became popular when the bricks started being made of plastic. Modern LEGO as you know it has existed for more than 55 years. This means that it is something that not only you, but also your parents grew up with. Some people never lose interest in playing with LEGO, even when they grow older. These people are referred to as AFOLs: Adult Fans of LEGO. Especially for AFOLs, LEGO markets highly specialist kits, made up of thousands of different elements. But a few thousand LEGO bricks are not going to impress Nathan Sawaya. He has 4 million of them. Sawaya is an artist who made his hobby into a career. He prefers to follow his imagination rather than instructions. At the exhibition The Art of the Brick you can see how Nathan uses totally normal LEGO bricks to create the most amazing works of art.

Colours It is now possible to buy LEGO bricks in all sizes and in every colour of the rainbow. In the shops, you can choose from more than 50 different colours. Back in the 1950s, when modern LEGO was first available for sale, things were very different. Then, your choice was limited to three colours: red, yellow and blue. These are not just random colours. In art, these have been known for centuries as the primary colours. Primary means first: these are the colours that cannot be created by mixing paints, but that you need in order to create other colours. They form the basis for everything else. If something works in art, that does not necessarily mean that things work exactly the same in modern technology. For example, the colours of a screen – your computer monitor or television – are made up of the colours red, blue and green. This is where the abbreviation RGB comes from.

According to the colour theory used by artists, you can create secondary colours by mixing together two primary colours. For example, yellow and blue combine to make green, and if you mix red with yellow, the result will be orange. But it does not stop there. Mixing a primary colour with a secondary colour creates tertiary colours. There are lots of these. The Swiss painter and teacher Johannes Itten used them to develop a handy colour wheel.

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Black & white

Can you see which two colours are missing from the colour circle? Of course: black and white. These are known as non-colours, because of the way in which we perceive colour. A beam of light is a mixture of all kinds of colours. You can de-monstrate this by breaking up the beam of light, for example with water. This creates a rainbow effect, in which all the colours separate from each other. If a beam of light is not broken and falls upon a surface still intact, that surface (depending on the material) will absorb certain colours but not others. The colours not absorbed are then reflected back into your eyes. For exam-ple, a green surface absorbs all the colours in the spectrum except green. There are also surfaces that absorb everything and reflect nothing; we see these as black. The opposite of this is a surface that absorbs nothing and reflects everything back. We see that as white. This means that white is not a single colour, but all colours combined. That is what makes white and black non-colours.

Colour contrasts

Johannes Itten described a number of colour contrasts: what happens when colours touch each other or collide. This is known as colour-to-colour contrast. How do two different colours next to each other interact? If they are two primary colours (red and blue, for example), the contrast will be the greatest. Two tertiary colours alongside each other have much less of an effect.

Another important contrast in art is the light-dark contrast. The greatest contrast is between black and white, but light-dark contrasts are possible with a single colour as well, because it is all about the intensity. Pale and dark green alongside each other would be an example.

The warm-cold contrast is about how warm or cold something feels. People experience the colours close to red in the spec-trum as warm colours. The colours around blue feel cool.

complementary contrast is the most intense colour contrast there is. This involves two colours used alongside each other that are exact opposites on Itten’s colour wheel. For example, pale blue and orange are exactly opposite each other on the wheel and yellow is opposite purple. If you put two complementary colours next to each other, it creates a very striking visual effect.

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Assignment 1 - Juxtaposition of coloursA contemporary and compatriot of Johannes Itten was the Expressionist painter Paul Klee (1879-1940). An Expressio-nist painting is intended to be anything but an accurate representation of reality. Klee was very interested in colours and colour theory and was also familiar with the work of Itten. His fascination with colour can clearly be seen in his work New Harmony (1936). You might even say that Klee was a man ahead of his time: LEGO® had not yet been inven-ted, but this work bears a remarkable resemblance. At the exhibition The Art of the Brick you can see for yourself how Nathan Sawaya translated this famous abstract painting into LEGO.

a. How many colours did Klee use? The way in which the colours are ordered is anything but coincidental. Can you identify the principle Klee used for putting the colours in order?

Vincent van Gogh also created paintings that were rich in contrast, some-times using two totally different colours right next to each other. In Starry Night (1889) this creates an exciting visual display. A LEGO version of this work is also on show at The Art of the Brick.

b. What is the main colour contrast that Van Gogh uses here?

San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk, a masterpiece by the impressionist Claude Monet can also be seen at The Art of the Brick… in a LEGO version! Impressionist painters did not mix colours in advance on their palette, but preferred to use contrasting colours in juxtaposition. When the viewer looks at the result from a distance, the colours ‘mix’ in the viewer’s eyes. This creates a particularly vibrant effect. Impressionist painters avoided using true black. Instead, they created darker shades by mixing complementary colours. c. Which complementary colour contrasts did Monet use here?

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Assignment 2Here, you can see three artworks by Nathan Sawaya. The use of colour varies a lot. Describe what is so eye-catching about these colours and why you think Nathan may have chosen these colours.

a.

b.

c.

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Shapes

It is now possible to buy LEGO® in all shapes and sizes, but the most common LEGO pieces are still square or rectangular. Because most LEGO bricks consist of right angles, most LEGO constructions illustrated on the box are also made up of straight lines and right angles. This is why you nearly always see buildings (such as hospitals, police stations or petrol stations) and vehicles (cars, trains, spaceships) pictured on the box. These are architectural structures, consisting primarily of geometric shapes. Geometric shapes are shapes that you can construct using a compass or a ruler. They are used widely in architecture because they can be calculated precisely using mathematical formulae and because they link together well. Geometric figures do not occur in nature. That is why curved, unpredictable lines are sometimes also called organic shapes or forms.

Nathan Sawaya considers it a challenge to attempt to approximate an organic shape using the geometric LEGO bricks. That is why he makes a lot of human statues. From a distance, they look less straight and angular. It’s the same if you close your eyes a little. Although it is not possible to create a perfect curve, if you have enough bricks you can achieve something that comes pretty close. Because Nathan is capable of making such good curves, he can rightly call himself a LEGO Master Builder. In order to earn this honorary title, he had to complete a difficult examination. He had to create a ball using LEGO bricks in just 45 minutes. Then came the real test: only if the LEGO ball could roll properly would he qualify for the honorary title.

Assignment 3Look at this work of art again. Nathan uses three familiar shapes to replace the heads. Write down what these shapes are, from the one with the fewest to the one with the most bricks.

1. The fewest LEGO bricks are contained in:

2. This is followed by:

3. The most bricks are contained in:

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DURING YOUR VISIT The exhibition The Art of the Brick features an extraordinary collection of LEGO® artworks, devised and built by the American artist Nathan Sawaya. He played with LEGO as a young boy, and has basically never stopped. After completing his education, Nathan discovered that LEGO is more than just a toy. You can also use it to create real works of art! This exhibition includes some of the best examples. As with all art, it is important that you do not touch the objects because that could damage them.

There are several questions and assignments to accompany the exhibition. If you look carefully, you will find most of the answers yourself. You may even find them on the wall! When you have answered all the questions and completed the assign-ments, you will be well on your way to becoming a creative genius like Nathan Sawaya. It may even inspire you to dig out your old LEGO bricks and build something unique of your own.

Assignment 1 - Use of MaterialsThe material that an artist uses determines what an artwork looks and feels like. Today’s exhibition is made completely out of plastic. The great thing is that artists use an amazing variety of materials and techniques in their work. There are even paintings made of sand, mosaics created using painted grains of rice and artworks made of... peanut butter! Compared to those, LEGO bricks suddenly do not seem so strange as artists’ materials. Some of the objects you will see today are actually LEGO versions of existing works of art. Look carefully in each room to identify the material originally used for the existing work of art that Nathan transformed into LEGO plastic.

1. Oil paint:

2. Wood:

3. Marble:

4. Limestone:

5. Bones:

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Assignment 2 - ArtistsMany artists get their inspiration from… other artists! Nathan Sawaya is no exception. He has made LEGO® reproduc-tions of famous paintings and sculptures from art history. If you know about art, you may even know the names of the original artists. If not, look around carefully, because you will find the answers on the wall!

1. The Kiss was painted by:

3. Who painted this horse? 4. painted the mysterious smile of the Mona Lisa.

2. The Scream is a painting by:

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Did you know?

Nathan Sawaya uses exactly the same LEGO® bricks as the ones you have at home. He just has a few more. In his workshop, he has 4 million building bricks. All of them are neatly sorted by colour and shape, because otherwise it would take too long to find them. As it is, it takes an awful lot of time to create a work of art using LEGO. For a human figure, Nathan takes between two and three weeks, using between 15,000 and 25,000 different bricks. If you plan to make a LEGO person at home, it is sensi-ble to start small. Do not try to start with a figure on the scale of 1:1 (life size), but make a smaller one first. Nathan’s Hugman is a good example.

Did you know?

The exhibition includes a special Sculpture Garden, where famous statues from history stand alongside each other. Nathan Sawaya is actually a kind of sculptor, too: a LEGO sculptor. The big difference is that sculptors create shapes by chiselling away everything that is not needed, whereas Nathan creates form by adding elements. Nathan also treats the LEGO bricks slightly differently than you do at home, because he glues them together. He does this because his works of art travel around the world and often need to be packed and unpacked again. If the bricks were not glued together, something could easily break off during transport. Since all of them are original works of art, there are no instructions for putting them all back together again properly. The best thing to do, therefore, is to glue everything down. The disadvantage of this is that Nathan sometimes discovers halfway through the creative process that he has made a mistake somewhere, and if he has to redo a part, it is not easy. He has no choice but to use a hammer and chisel to remove the faulty part. So sometimes he does do sculpture in the old-fashioned way!

Assignment 3 - Dutch MastersThe LEGO® reproductions of famous paintings include three by Dutch painters. Which Dutch artists are they?

1.

2.

3.

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Assignment 4 - World sculpturesOf the original sculptures, two come from ancient Greece, two from Egypt and two from France.Can you match the right country with the right sculpture? What would these sculptures look like if they were in chronological order, with the oldest at the start and the most recent one at the end?

a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

f.

Chronological order:

d.

b.a. c.

e. f.

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What is art? Now that is a difficult question! There is actually no single correct answer. Because tastes differ, everyone has a slightly diffe-rent opinion about what is and what is not art. In very general terms, you could say that art is something created by a person with the primary aim of achieving beauty, evoking an emotion or making the viewer think. Preferably, a work of art should be original or unique; anything that comes off a conveyor belt is not usually considered to be art.

Assignment 5 - NumbersYou have probably never seen so many LEGO® bricks together as you have today. But which work of art has the most and which has the fewest bricks? Tip: first try to guess how many blocks you think the object is made up of, and only then look at the sign on the wall. Was it a good guess or did you get it completely wrong?

a. The object with the fewest LEGO bricks is:

Estimated number of bricks:

Actual number of bricks:

b. The object with the most LEGO bricks is:

Estimated number of bricks:

Actual number of bricks:

Assignment 6Choose one of the following works of art: Yellow, Red Face Mask or Swimmer. Look at the artwork for one whole minu-te in silence. Then try to write down everything that you felt or thought:

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Assignment 7Often, artists have a specific intention with their work. It is not always just about creating beauty for its own sake. In the gallery The Human Condition, you will find a series of works such as Grasp, My Boy and Hands. In these works of art, Sawaya has given form to personal stories, fears and dreams. Choose a work of art and describe below what you think the artist is trying to say or what kind of story you think forms the basis of the work.

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Where can you find art? Works of art are often hung on the wall in a nice frame or exhibited in a gallery or museum. But there are some exceptions here too. Street art is the type of art that you encounter outdoors, often in the most unexpected places. An attractive mural in the form of graffiti, for example. Nathan also creates street art, such as Hugman. In this exhibition you can only see it indoors, but next time... it could even be on your own doorstep!

Assignment 8 - Beauty and the best

1. Which do you think is the most beautiful work of art in this exhibition?

2. In your view, what elements make this work so attractive?

3. Is the most beautiful work of art also the most extraordinary, or are they different?

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Assignment 9 - Drawing When Nathan creates a work of art, he does not simply start building at random. First, he goes in search of a good idea. When he has an idea, he takes his sketchbook and starts to draw. He does not begin creating the work of art with LEGO® bricks until he is satisfied with his drawing. For his drawings, Nathan uses special squared paper.When a painter draws something as part of his or her preparations, this is called a ‘study’. This kind of drawing does not need to be absolutely perfect or to be coloured in. But by drawing, you force yourself to concentrate and look at something carefully.

Choose an interesting work of art and draw it on this page. You will use your ‘study’ in your work at school later. Be sure to look as carefully as possible at the work of art now and sketch it.

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AFTER YOUR VISIT

Assignment 1 - From sketch to LEGO® constructionLike most sculptors, Nathan often makes sketches in preparation for his actual work. He uses special millimetre paper that enables him to convert the sketches into LEGO form. Below, you can see the millimetre paper Nathan uses. Now draw the ‘study’ you created at the exhibition onto this special grid.

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Assignment 2 - Design your own Hugman

Hugman is one of Nathan Sawaya’s smaller creations, but it still consists of a few hundred bricks. Chances are that you will not have so many available at home or at school, but despite this it is still reasonably easy to design your own Hugman using LEGO®. LEGO provides a free computer program for PC and Mac. You can download the LEGO Digital Designer via ldd.lego.com/nl-nl/download. This program is to LEGO what Word is to documents and Photoshop is to images. This advanced de-sign program enables you to use a range of digital tools to design an object using virtual LEGO bricks relatively easily. It is simple to cut, paste and copy bricks or change their shape or colour. You can also save your design and share it with other people. The program uses its own file format for this, .lxf. If you search for this file extension on the Internet, you can download and import many LEGO creations made by other enthusiasts.

Use the LEGO Digital Designer to create your own Hugman. It is up to you to decide its dimensions, co-lour and precise shape, rather than simply duplica-ting Nathan’s work brick by brick. Your own Hugman may be slightly less cuddly, or maybe he has folded arms. Try not to start too big. For Nathan, a project with ‘only’ 273 LEGO bricks is a piece of cake, but for a beginner it is still relatively ambitious.

Are you satisfied with your virtual Hugman? If so, and if you have enough LEGO to hand, you can make a real version. A useful feature of the LEGO Digital Designer is that it automatically generates building instructions based on your design.

Whether you created your Hugman with the as-sistance of LEGO Digital Designer or built it with real LEGO bricks from the start, a Hugman is only really a Hugman when he is ‘in action’ outdoors. So, take your Hugman outside and take a photograph of it!

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Assignment 3 - Commission a work of art by NathanMany artists create ‘personal art’. This means that they decide for themselves what to create and how to create it. But sometimes artists are commissioned to do work. The client then pays for the materials and wages, and also gets to say what the artist should do in return. Rembrandt, for example, created his self-portrait for himself, but the famous work The Night Watch was a job paid for by the association pictured in the painting.

If you were a rich client, what kind of work of art would you commission Nathan to create? Describe as accurately as possible below what your dream LEGO® design would look like. Include details such as how big it should be, whether it is a two- or three-dimensional design, what colours Nathan should use and where it will be placed or hung.