Celebrating the Bold Colors and Grand Scale of Art by Katharina Grosse

Katharina Grosse is a German painter known worldwide for her large-scale, on-site works often found adorning the interiors and exteriors of buildings around the globe. But in this exhibition, Katharina Grosse Studio Paintings, 1988–2022: Returns, Revisions, Inventions, she takes us through 37 paintings displayed at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum in St. Louis. Of the unique retrospective of large scale works, some over 10 feet tall, Grosse says it’s fascinating to see a show like this that spans over 30 years of her practice. ‪@whoelselovesart‬ #art #visualart #femaleartist #arttour #contemporaryart #artandartist Quick Ideas for Using the Video with Students: Discussion Questions: 1. From the 01:03 mark to the 02:30 mark in the video, the artist talks about scale and size and what she considers the difference between the two and how they influence her work and a viewer’s response to art work. Have students consider her ideas and respond. How do they think about scale and size in the art they create? How would they place an artwork they created in certain locations to influence the viewer’s sense of size and scale of the work? 2. From the 02:31 mark to the 04:18 mark in the video, the artist talks about the use of color in her work and the processes she uses to create the paintings. Before viewing this section of the video with audio, show it to the students with the audio muted and have them respond to the colors they see in the work, the style and structure of the work, and hypothesize about different methods the artist might use to create the work. Then view the section with the audio and build on their previous discussion with their responses to what they learn from the artist. 3. In the third section of the video, from the 04:19 mark to the 06:00 mark, Ms. Grosse discusses how she uses freedom and adaptation in her work. At the 05:29 mark, she says, “”That’s why I like painting because it’s very mobile. It’s very flexible; it doesn’t need a lot of tools and you can really go from something and adapt it to a new situation…” What do students think? Do they find that painting provides them the opportunity to be both free and adaptive? Activity Ideas: 1. Use the first section of the video where the artist discusses scale and size and have students create two artworks of the same subject, using the same techniques, colors, patterns, etc., but changing the size and/or scale of the painting. Display both pieces and have students discuss how their process was affected by the changes in size and scale and also their viewer reaction to each other’s pieces and how size and/or scale influenced their reaction to the work. 2. Use the third section of the video where the artist discusses freedom and adaptation to inspire students to create a new artwork that allows them to adapt a technique, idea, or subject they have used before and take it freely in a new direction. 3. Have students respond to the art work as an art critic doing a review of the exhibition and write their review as it would appear in a newspaper or magazine or record their review as it would appear on television. Resources for Additional Research: Learn more about the artist and her work at https://ocula.com/artists/katharina-g...