Great artists and designers
Learn about the work of artists, architects, craft makers and designers past and present; describe similarities and differences between their styles and methods, and make links to your own artwork
What a learner can do afterwards
- Name several artists or designers and describe what their work looks like (e.g. Van Gogh's swirling brushstrokes, Kusama's dots)
- Compare two artworks or buildings, pointing out similarities and differences in style, materials or purpose
- Try an idea borrowed from an artist in their own work and say where it came from
1 · Read
Style is how artwork looks and is made. Notice colours, shapes and marks. Artists can share ideas or change their style. One feature can be a clue, but it does not prove who made the work.
Vincent van Gogh often used thick, lively brushstrokes. In The Starry Night, marks swirl across the sky. Yayoi Kusama often uses repeated dots on paintings, sculptures and rooms. Other artists can use dots or swirls too.
Architects design buildings. Compare their materials and shapes separately. Two buildings may differ in both.
Compare a likeness and a difference. Look at colours, shapes, marks and materials. A price tag does not describe those features.
Borrow a feature, such as an artist's marks, for your own subject. Name its source and say how you used it. You could use Kusama's dot idea on a paper fish.
Compare several features. One shared feature does not identify an artist. Name the source of an idea you borrow.
Lesson, questions and learning cards written for this dataset, with examples from the work of Vincent van Gogh and Yayoi Kusama.
Learning cards written for this dataset using artwork facts from the linked Khan Academy art-history records.
Explore more
2 · Watch
En anglaisTake it off screen
Where it sits
Learn first
Nothing; this is a starting point.
Optional connections
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.