David Smith show at The Whitney is the focus for a great Family art workshop November 19th

Max and I went to participate in a Family Art workshop at The Whitney Museum of American Art, based on the fantastic sculpture show up now of the great American sculptor David Smith, "Cubes and Anarchy."

As usual in the 45 minutes in the galleries looking at the art with the children, along with the children, I learnt a lot. That one of the larger pieces was based on a black and white photograph of his daughter carrying a dish to set on the dining room table, resonated with the children in the workshop. Making the connection between the abstract rectangular and geometric welded pieces of brushed metal and an extended leg or an arm was interesting to them. And I had no idea there was such a personal and figurative reference to this very abstract work.

Later the children went down into a new workshop area, and the instructor had them take pieces of white paper and a small rectangular shape of paper and create a pattern drawing of pencil lines. Then they carefully chose section to cut out.

The instructor then asked the children to take their created template and use it to create a colored marker drawing by moving the template around. He also said the children 

could add color if they wanted and patterns.

The next piece of art, moved the children towards creating a three dimensional art piece. The instructor showed them how to fold a long rectangular piece of hard paper and then to tape it into place on another sheet of paper with hinges.

http://whitney.org/Exhibitions/DavidSmith