To create these paintings we were inspired by the PORTRAITS of German Expressionism. We observed the portraits painted by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Emil Nolde, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, with deformed, angular figures and unreal colours.
For the FRAME we observed the XILOGRAPHIES (prints with wood plate) and expressionist FILMS in black and white, such as “The cabinet of Dr. Caligari“
We chose a black and white photographic portrait from the web. We copied the character’s face with pencil on a small sheet (A5), trying to deform the features making them angular, hard and expressive. After this first phase we colored the drawing with OIL PASTELS, trying to keep lights and shadows on the face but using contrasting and bright colours, with black, angular and coarse lines.
To make the frame, we used corrugated cardboard by collecting boxes of many different sizes. Each student made their own frame by cutting out the central “window” for displaying the painting. After that, we have cut out the frame with an irregular EDGE and ASYMMETRIC shapes. Subsequently the frame was painted entirely black and, once the paint dried, we added some details (lines, strokes, triangles…) with cut out white paper. Finally, the portrait was glued into the frame and the paintings were used to decorate a wall as a background for an event organized by the school.
