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The IB visual arts journal
Not every artist keeps a journal, and those that do have many different approaches: Degas’s sketchbooks are primarily observational, Frida Kahlo’s diary is an expressive outpouring, Paul Klee’s diaries teach, Eva Hesse makes diagrammatic drawings, Leonardo da Vinci works things out, Suárez Londoño keeps a ‘yearbook’ with a drawing a day. Most artists’ journals are a combination of notes and images, but graffiti artist Keith Haring’s journals contain more words than images, and sculptor Henry Moore’s sketchbooks are surprisingly full of drawings of woolly sheep! What you are aiming for in your IB visual arts journal (your artist’s journal) is a balance of both visual and written content, in your own unique style.
Activity 2.1: Look inside the book Find out about an artist by studying their sketchbook and journals. • What is the relationship between the journal and the work the artist makes? • What are the connections between your work and this artist’s work? • Record your reflections in your own visual journal.
Artist’s SKETCHBOOKS AND journals Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks Keith Haring Journals The Diaries of Paul Klee Gerhard Richter, The Daily Practice of Painting Frida Kahlo’s diary Louise Bourgeois’s diaries Suárez Londoño, The Yearbooks The sketchbooks of Degas, Delacroix, Giacometti, Eva Hesse, Henry Moore, Frank Lloyd Wright
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