KS3 Art

What’s unique about Art in Key Stage 3  is that we give students the opportunity to engage in the History of Art from 30,000 BC all the way through to Modern Art where we stop with the Pop Art period. Students begin by copying the amazing Cave Art paintings and the visual language from prehistoric life that existed long before any spoken or written language. Throughout the History of Art, by engaging with the different artwork from the different Art periods, students will have the opportunity to see how diverse life was, how it has evolved and how it compares to life and communicating through today’s visual language. Throughout the year, tracking the History of Art, students will be using different tools, different mediums and different techniques associated with each Art Period.     

Stopping off at the different Art periods documented in Art History, after Cave Art, students will engage with Ancient Egyptian Art - copying Egyptian portraits and mummification using modroc;  Greek Art - creating greek style vases using clay; Roman Art - creating mosaics; Medieval Art creating stained glass windows; Early Renaissance Art - completing paintings from Botticelli using watercolor; High Renaissance Art - creating portraits in the style of Archimboldo and finishing off artwork created by Michelangelo in a medium of their own choice;  Neoclassicism - creating faces in the style of Messerschmidt using air drying clay; collaborative work recreating impressionist paintings from Monet; Van Gogh and Klimt; In Modernism, pupils will engage with copying the works of Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, Malevich and Mondrian before moving onto the works of Miro in Surrealism, recreating ‘Harlequin’s Carnival using paper cut outs.  There is the stand alone artist, Georgia O’Keeffe and students will study her abstract flower work using photography and watercolour.  Drawing to a close, students will have the opportunity to engage in the action painting of Jackson Pollock and the colourfield paintings of Mark Rothko from the Art Period - Abstract Expressionism.  Finally, students get to study and copy some of the most famous American and British artists from the Pop Art period,  ending with copying the gigantic sized, mass produced items from their popular culture in the style of Claus Oldenberg.  

During this magical tour of the History of Art, students will be able to not only acquaint themselves with some of the world’s most famous artists but also learn about and copy the styles and techniques that made them famous.  Pupils who do not pick Art as an option often stop us down the corridor to ask when can they come to an Art lesson because they miss these opportunities to engage in the making of Art, experimenting with different styles and techniques and expressing their own artistic preferences.  All of the work engaged with at KS3, prepares pupils for the assessment objectives at KS4.