Key Stage

KS2 (ENG), KS2 (NI), CfE L2 (SCO), PS3 (WAL)
Art term

Pop art, Still life, Visual literacy
Created by

The Superpower of Looking
Topics

Fruit and vegetables

National Curriculum for England

Art and design
- Evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design
- Know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms
- Produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences
- Become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques

Northern Ireland Curriculum

Art and design
- Look at and talk about the work of artists, designers and craftsworkers from their own and other cultures; appreciate methods used in the resource materials and use their appreciation to stimulate personal ideas and engage with informed art making
- Develop their understanding of the visual elements of colour, tone, line, shape, form, space, texture and pattern to communicate their ideas
- Evaluate their own and others’ work and how it was made, explain and share their ideas, discuss difficulties and review and modify work to find solutions

Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence

Art and design
- I can create and present work that shows developing skill in using the visual elements and concepts (EXA 2-03a)
- Through observing and recording from my experiences across the curriculum, I can create images and objects which show my awareness and recognition of detail (EXA 2-04a)
- Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through activities within art and design (EXA 2-05a)
- I can respond to the work of artists and designers by discussing my thoughts and feelings. I can give and accept constructive comment on my own and others' work (EXA 2-07a)

National Curriculum for Wales (2008)

Art and design
- Describe and make comparisons between their own work and that of others
- Experiment with and examine the methods used by other artists from different periods, places and cultures
- Evaluate the methods and results of their own work and that of their fellow pupils
- Pupils should be stimulated and inspired by: other artists; methods and processes; media; styles; ideas
- Explore, experiment with and apply the elements of the visual, tactile and sensory language of art, craft and design which include: line, tone, colour, pattern, texture, shape and form

New Curriculum for Wales (2022)

Expressive Arts

Exploring the expressive arts is essential to developing artistic skills and knowledge and it enables learners to become curious and creative individuals.

Progression step 3:

- I can explore the effects that a range of creative techniques, materials, processes, resources, tools and technologies have on my own and others' creative work.

- I can explore how creative work can represent, document, share and celebrate personal, social and cultural identities.

- I can explore and describe how artists and creative work communicate mood, feelings and ideas and the impact they have on an audience.

Responding and reflecting, both as artist and audience, is a fundamental part of learning in the expressive arts.

Progression step 3:

- I can give and consider constructive feedback about my own creative work and that of others, reflecting on it and making improvements where necessary.

- I can apply knowledge and understanding of context, and make connections between my own creative work and creative work by other people and from other places and times.

- I can reflect upon how artists have achieved effects or communicated moods, emotions and ideas in their work.

Pumpkin (2018)

About this resource

This is one of the lesson resources in The Superpower of Looking on still life. It focuses on Yayoi Kusama's 2018 painting Pumpkin.

These lesson resources are also in the still life theme:

How to use this resource

To teach this lesson, download the teachers' notes on a separate device, screen or print them off. Have this webpage open on your screen or whiteboard and use the prompts in the teachers' notes to guide your students through the lesson.

Art theme: still life

Historically, 'still life' was a category of painting typically featuring objects such as fruit, flowers, insects and/or countless collectables. Some objects were invested with symbolic value, e.g. the flower can be a metaphor of life and death – beautiful in bloom, but quick to fade. Paintings were traditionally small in scale to hang in people's homes rather than in public spaces.

In recent times, still life appears in art in various forms from the abstracted (simplified but still recognisable) to the entirely abstract (not recognisable as anything in reality, but perhaps reduced to its essential shape or basic form). Still life can even be represented in the form of the 'found object' (an actual vase or table, etc.) and assembled and documented to become 'art'.

Contextual background for teachers

Pumpkin (2018)
Yayoi Kusama (b.1929)

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama confesses to having an obsession with pumpkins that began in early childhood. She is drawn to their form (shape), colour and feel. She has abstracted (simplified) the basic elements of the pumpkin in this work to give it a rather humorous quality. But does she still manage to represent the pumpkin-ness of a pumpkin?

Growing up, the artist was surrounded by pumpkins on her family's seed farm, and she recalls dreamlike visions of them covered in dots. Kusama has spoken openly about her mental health and there is a strong association between her repetitive use of dots as a form of art therapy. She has covered pumpkins, rooms and even buildings in polka dots.

The dot motif characterises her work and the idea of repetition feeds into the concept of mindfulness which is increasingly valued for improved wellbeing. The endless repetition of dots is said to relate to big ideas about infinity and the cosmos. In this sense, her humble pumpkin could be understood in both micro terms – insofar as it relates to aspects of her personal life – and macro terms, insofar as it relates to some of the biggest ideas human beings ponder.

How do you think that the repetitive action of drawing dots could help with how a person is feeling? How could dots relate to infinity and space? Would the pumpkin be less interesting or successful if it was multi-coloured and/or modelled to look more realistic?

Look, describe and discuss

Open a full-screen version of the image in a new window.

Ask your students to describe the artwork, encouraging them to simply say what they can see.

Encourage your students to look carefully – this is their superpower! It's best to not give too much background information about the artwork at this stage, so students can develop their own ideas and opinions.

Nudge questions

Now when looking at the painting, ask more specific ('nudge') questions:

Does the pumpkin look realistic? Why or why not?
If the banana-ness of a banana was that it was long and curved and yellow, what would the pumpkin-ness of a pumpkin be?
What do the patterns remind you of?

Questions from The Superpower of Looking Kit

Now we can start to explore the 'elements' of the painting.

For this artwork, you will focus on the following areas from The Superpower of Looking Kit:

Colour
Composition
Line

Ask your students to evidence their points:

where exactly are they looking when they make a statement?
can everybody see what they see?
slow down, take time to really look closely

You may like to introduce knowledge from the contextual background for teachers while asking these bespoke questions with helpful responses which can be found in the teachers' notes.

Pumpkin (2018)

Colour

What colour palette has the artist used?
What is the effect of this?
Which colour do you notice first?

Composition

How has the artist filled the picture plane?
Is the painting symmetrical?
What can you see in the background? Where do you think the pumpkin is?
Can you see repeated shapes?

Line

How has the artist arranged the dots?
Are the dots all the same size?
Where are the dots the biggest? Where are they smallest?
Why do you think the artist has arranged the dots this way?
Are the lines of dots rounded or straight?

Everyone learning

You can find out more about The Superpower of Looking SEND/ASD/ALN/ASN approach on the Superpower homepage.

Now it's time to explore the artwork in different ways. This list of sensory activities encourages students to apply their learning and can suit a variety of learning needs.

Make
We suggest creative activities for all learners, including a tactile option to support students with vision impairment: these activities explore the tactile qualities of materials or involve gestural mark-making to further explore the artwork.

Students could draw a fruit or vegetable of their choice and cover the surface of the fruit or vegetable with a repeated pattern of dots. Like Kusama, why not try using different sizes of dots to give their drawing a 3D effect? 
Tactile option: experiment by pressing and rolling objects with interesting textures into clay or plasticene to create a repeat pattern (e.g. pinecones, golf balls, or even Lego). Can you create a pattern that starts with small dots, and gets bigger, then smaller again, like one section of Kusama’s pumpkin? How do the patterns feel when students run their hands over the clay?

Experience

Kusama is also known for her immersive installations. Collect as many dotty fabrics and objects as possible (invite the students to bring things in from home) and create an installation in the classroom that you can sit inside. How does it make you feel?
Watch this inspiring 5-minute animated video about Kusama from Tate Kids.

Communicate

Many people use repetitive mark making, like Kusama, for practising mindfulness. Discussion with a partner: why do you think drawing repeat patterns might help you if you're feeling sad? What other things can you do to improve your mood? What things about making art make you happy? What other simple activities do you do that make you calm?
Learn the Makaton sign for 'pumpkin'.

Final stage: review

Ask your students to:

share their sketchbooks in groups and discuss the 'elements' they have identified
choose an element/aspect they find most interesting about the artwork and record it in their sketchbooks
choose their own name/s for the title of the artwork
think of a question they would like to ask the artist

Congratulations!

You have now completed this lesson resource on The Superpower of Looking.

There are more resources in this theme to try – have a look at the 'next lessons' section below.

Rachel Ruysch's flowers and insects

Matisse and a pink tablecloth

An old woman cooking eggs

Tate Kids: Who is Yayoi Kusama?

Victoria Miro: Yayoi Kusama biography

Video: Yayoi Kusama – Obsessed with Polka Dots | Tate

Video: Yayoi Kusama's Obliteration Room | TateShots

BBC Newsround: What is mindfulness?

Lemons and lobsters and cabbages, oh my! Symbolic food in painting 22 April 2020, Tasha Marks
Art Matters podcast: art good enough to eat 1 September 2020, Ferren Gipson
Pineapple mania: art history's fixation with an exotic fruit 18 July 2019, Tasha Marks
The artists inspired by Alice's adventures down the rabbit hole 9 August 2021, Chris Mugan