Jean Dubuffet Inspired Cardboard Sculptures by 4th & 5th Grades

These are recycled cardboard sculptures in the style of the monumental works by Jean Dubuffet. Houston has one of his pieces, Monument au Fantome, 1977, at our central park in Downtown called Discovery Green. 

The kids were very excited to work on these as many of them have seen the work in person and some have even climbed on it! 

Materials Needed:

Recycled thin cardboard (cereal boxes, etc.)

Scissors

White blockout paint

Red and blue markers

Permanent marker

Foamcore for base

Elmer's Glue All

Poster with organic shape examples

Slides of Dubuffet's 2-D and 3-D works

Procedure:

After several lessons on organic vs. geometric shapes, students created five organic shapes--1 large blob, 2 medium blobs, and 2 squiggles. They cut them from recycled cardboard and then painted them white on both sides. After observing Dubuffet's works, students created a similar motif on their pieces. I had them outline the shapes on the border with permanent marker and then section them off into three or four areas to fill in with red or blue lines. They folded one edge of the shapes and glued them to the base with a thin layer of Elmer's glue.

Art Teacher Thoughts:

I am amazed at how closely these resemble the Dubuffet sculptures they were shown. I would love to do this again and find a way to connect all of them into one monumental version of this piece.

 

These are some other assignments we did in the style of Dubuffet. I loved how accessible these were!