Activity Guide by Kate Kwasneski, Intern, Grinnell College Museum of Art
Joyce Kozloff is a feminist artist whose work is based on maps and patterns. Decorative art like patterns has been seen throughout history as less serious and not “real” art when compared to things like portraits and sculpture. This was partially because it was historically associated with women. Most art based on patterns has traditionally been in forms like quilting and embroidery, which were categorized as ‘women’s work.’ In the 1970s, Kozloff and other artists created the Pattern and Decoration movement in art to show that decorative arts were real art. Today, we are going to create a patterned artwork like this. In the Pattern and Decoration style, the whole canvas was covered with flat blocks of color. This art took inspiration from art all over the world, using patterns found on tiles and in rugs in many different cultures and times in history. You can see that in this piece from Kozloff. Think about how she uses the space on her canvas, and how her colors work together.
Joyce Kozloff (b. 1942), Pictures and Borders III, 1977. Lithograph, 28.25 x 16.5 inches. Collections of Grinnell College Museum of Art, Marie-Louise and Samuel R. Rosenthal Fund. Featured in Let Yourself Continue.
Create
Make a pattern inspired by Joyce Kozloff. To do this, we’re going to use repeating shapes that come from one central point to create something similar to her octagonal shapes.
Start in the center of your paper. I started with a square, but you can choose any shape. A circle would also work well. In order to make a repeating pattern, I started by drawing some lines coming out of each corner and the middle of each side of my square. That way, your pattern can be the same in all directions. If you want your pattern to be exactly the same on all sides, it can help to use a ruler to measure all your lines.
The next step in making my pattern was to connect the lines I made. Here you can see the different sections I created. You can also see how I used the shapes that already existed to decide where the outside triangles should go. You can use this process to create the rest of your pattern.
When you can split a drawing in half from any angle and it is the same on both sides, like these ones, that is called radial symmetry. This kind of symmetry is also called rotational symmetry, because an object with this kind of symmetry is the same no matter what way you rotate it. Another common type of symmetry is reflectional symmetry. In this kind of symmetry, you can draw a line down the middle of an object and both sides are reflections of each other, like in a mirror. People have reflectional symmetry! If you drew a line that went down the middle of yourself, you would find that you had one eye on each side, one arm on each side, and so on.
Here are some examples of finished patterns. You can fill the whole page with your pattern, add lots of color, and put multiple patterns on one page if you want! Joyce Kozloff’s art has many different patterns that connect to each other, and you could fill a page that way, too!
Write
Think about the colors and shapes in your pattern, and how they work together. Write about why you chose to make your pattern the way you did!