Where Pipa and Picasso Meet

After perfecting the shading techniques for making realistic pictures, students are ready to deconstruct an image, embrace the fragmentation and geometric qualities of Cubism. I use cubism as a model to explore compositional style. It is wonderful for me, who introduces art from all over the world, including Asia, to firsthand travel the Silk Road and combine that artistic and musical cultural experience for my students’ benefit. This lesson is designed to help students learn the characteristics of pipa through comparison of different plucked-string instruments and provide students with historic background, stylistic development, and collage method on Cubism. In the end, students will transform an image of a musical instrument into a cubist style work of art Objectives:

The students will

Learn the origin of pipa and Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project

Learn the Cubism and key artists

Understand and Identify the components of the assignment

Understand the usage of collage

Appreciate different music and art style as well as strengthen own artistic decision

Create quality works of art and display them