Ellsworth Kelly is a famous modern artist, known for his use of coloured squares. In this activity we will construct and analyse coloured grid artwork.
Ellsworth Kelly is a famous modern artist, known for his use of coloured squares. In this activity we will construct and analyse coloured grid artwork.
Select a colour from the palette on the right, and paint on the grid. Repeat as often as desired — the Undo button will reverse the most recent action. The table below keeps count of the colours used. Type the resulting fraction, decimal and percentage for each colour directly into the blue cells, and click the Check Your Answers button to mark your work. (A double tick in the fraction column means the fraction is in simplest form.) Use the sliders to change the size of the grid, and if the Square button is selected, the values change in unison.
Practicing these conversions in this way is discussed by Scaptura, Suh & Mahaffey in Masterpieces to Mathematics: Using Art to Teach Fraction, Decimal, and Percent Equivalents, Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 13(1), 24-28 , 2007.
Some particularly relevant Ellsworth Kelly works are the four below. Click the images to see these works at the websites of Tate Gallery in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.