Picasso and the African Mask

After we studied proportions of the face, and I drilled in “EQUATOR EYES! EQUATOR EYES!”until I was blue in the face, I thought we could have a little fun with knocking those features back out of proportion. In a historical parallel to Pablo Picasso (only with a much more sped up timeline!), we moved on from our carefully studied portraits to do 3D masks based loosely on African masks and cubism.

I wanted to let the children have fun with this project. In preparation, I had them cut out a dozen shapes traced from the metal inset Montessori work. We then used these shapes as a launching pad for our “face.” It was great for them have something tangible to play with and physically move around. We talked about pattern and placement. This is a good exercise to allow the children to practice making choices and be truly creative.