Art Kites

Anna Rubin Ali Fujino

Istvan Bodoczky Istvan Bodoczky

Christine Schwarting Kiyomi Okawa

Robert Trepanier Kiyomi Okawa

What differentiates an art kite from a traditional kite? Certainly not beauty alone. Many traditional kites are extraordinarily beautiful, while kite maker Marten Bondestam has this to say about art kites: "Artistic kites are kites with some extra intellectual qualities. Beauty is not art. Art can be ugly, but must have an intellectual message." Not just a painting in the sky, an art kite can be a sculpture in the air, a flying billboard of celebration or protest, or an interactive illustration of man and his environment.

Early art kite makers, such as Tal Streeter, Jackie Matisse, and Curt Asker, both honored and transformed the legacy of traditional kite makers when they adopted kites as canvases for their expression. The movement was further spurred by the Goethe Institute's ambitious "Kunstdrachen" (Art Kites) exhibit of the early 1990s, in which world-class artists collaborated with Japanese kite makers. The Drachen Foundation has led workshops in university-level art, design, and architecture, departments and supports interactive collaborations between kite specialists and students or professionals.

Follow these links for news of kite artists and art kite activities around the world.

• Explore the best in art kites through a recent publication by Caterina Capelli
• Start here for a description of the kite building principles taught in an art kite workshop.
• Read the statement issued by Art Volant, an art kite symposium in 1995.
• Look here for a profile of Artevento, the world's premier art kite festival in Cervia, Italy, and read about Drachen's project at Artevento 2005.

• Kite artist Greg Kono displays his recent creations and led a workshop on contemporary and traditional Japanese kites.
• Buteo Huang sees kite making as a way to "defy common perceptions of objects."
• Wings of Dream by Buteo Huang (written in Chinese) includes color photographs and illustrations of his kites and building techniques. One of Huang's bird kite kits is packaged with the book. A package called Legend in the Wing includes book, bird kite kite, and six small kites, each one ready to fly with string and tail.
• WINDART brings together more than thirty kite and sky artists for three weeks of collaborations involving photography, sculpture, music, poetry, and dance.
• Professor of art Istvan Bodoczky makes asymmetrical paintings that fly.
• Hidden Symmetry discusses kite artist Istvan Bodoczky's creations.
• Tako, an exhibition at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, surveys the work of kite artists inspired by Japanese kites—Tal Streeter, Scott Skinner, Stuart Allen, and Robert Trepanier.
• Tom Jeckel treats kites as a "provocation."
• This posting includes many images of kite artists Robert Trepanier, Greg Kono, and Mikio Toki teaching students in Missouri.
• Paper Kite Workshop documents the third of a series of workshops run by Istvan Bodoczky, Eveline Bischof, and Anna Rubin, on the premises of the Academy of Fine Arts, first in Horn, then in Vienna.
• This posting, with many images, describes a multi-year DF project to encourage kite artists to explore the medium of paper, overlooked in Europe and America, for making kite sails.
• Kite artist Curt Asker makes "signs on the sky."
• Kite artist Jackie Matisse puts kites into the air, under water, and into cyberspace.
• Professor of art Joan Montcada has been a fervent kiter since the age of twenty.
• Interviews with artists, and images of kites they created, are featured in this article about the 2003 Panama Hotel Paper Kite Artists in Residence project
• Art That Soars: Kites and Tails by Jackie Matisse documents an exhibition at the Mingei International Museum.
• This posting remembers kite artist Peter Malinski.