Formal Analysis terms
Quick sheet
ELEMENTS OF ART
Subject form – Chapter 3
Still life
Landscape
Portrait
Narrative
Genre
Figure
Non objective
Color – Chapter 3
Scheme -
Analogous
Monochromatic
Primary triad
Secondary triad
Tetrad
Double complementary
Split complementary
Complementary
Full palette
Temperature -
Warm colors
Cool colors
Degree of abstraction – Chapter 5
Realistic
Impressionistic
Expressionistic
Stylized
Non objective
Dominant Shape Motif – Chapter 5
Triangle
Rectangle
Square
Circle
Other
PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN
Balance – Chapter 4
Asymmetrical/Dynamic
Symmetrical
Radial/Overall patterning
Harmony – Chapter 4
Rhythm/repetition
Proximity
Closure
Continuation
Variety – Chapter 4
Contrast
Embellishment/elaboration
Eye Tracks - Chapter 5
Location of focal point – Chapter 5
Center
Upper left quadrant
Lower left quadrant
Upper right quadrant
Lower right quadrant
Focus by – Chapter 5
Anomaly
Isolation
Placement
Direction
Format shape – Chapter 5
Rectangle
Square
Circle
Triangle
Other
Directional Emphasis – Chapter 5
Horizontal
Vertical
Diagonal
Circular
Friday, December 5, 2008
Visual Art Terms - Chap 3 and 4
How to Experience Visual Art
1. Medium – the materials and techniques used by the artist to create the work. Example – oil paint on canvas is a traditional painting medium. Plural is media.
2. Form – the components of the composition and how there are arranged. Form is made up of ELEMENTS and PRINCIPLES of design. The resulting composition of form can range from representational, abstract, or nonobjective art.
Elements – Individual building blocks of visual communication.
§ Line – leads the eye and is straight, curved, thick, thin, broken, solid, etc
§ Shape – can define solid vs. open forms, geometric vs. organic, etc. Solid shape in sculpture is referred to as mass.
§ Texture – relates to actual or implied surface qualities. Rough or smooth, matte or shiny, etc.
§ Space – the degree of depth implied in the work. Space can range from flat to shallow to deep.
§ Value – light and dark relationships. Value contrast can be limited or sharp, high or low.
§ Color – schemes can range from muted to vibrant, warm to cool, etc. Related terms – primary, secondary, monochromatic, complements, analogous, tint, tone, shade.
Principles – How the elements are combined to form relationships.
§ Unity conveys a sense that the elements are working towards a common visual goal
§ Harmony/Variety alleviates extreme sameness providing diversity
§ Repetition/Rhythm – the creation of pattern or regular recurrence of a motif or the use of interval and progression to lead the eye.
§ Balance – a sense of equilibrium in a work. Balance can be formal (symmetrical) or informal (asymmetrical).
§ Emphasis – drawing attention to particular parts of a composition to create a primary focal point or multiple areas of interest. Some compositions utilize the absence of emphasis for effect.
§ Scale/Proportion – scale is size relationship of one thing to another. Proportion is size relationship of parts to a whole.
§ Depth is the relationship of objects on the picture plane. Overlapping, larger objects closer to you, smaller objects are farther away, and size are basic ways to achieve depth in a flat surface.
§ Contrast strongly dissimilar elements create dramatic effects such as light and dark or large and small.
§ Movement can be created by actual or implied changes in position.
3. Content – the overall meaning conveyed by the work.
§ Subject and function – what is the work about and what is it for?
§ Expressive content – what is being communicated about the subject? Are there possible symbolic meanings to the overall aesthetic experience?
1. Medium – the materials and techniques used by the artist to create the work. Example – oil paint on canvas is a traditional painting medium. Plural is media.
2. Form – the components of the composition and how there are arranged. Form is made up of ELEMENTS and PRINCIPLES of design. The resulting composition of form can range from representational, abstract, or nonobjective art.
Elements – Individual building blocks of visual communication.
§ Line – leads the eye and is straight, curved, thick, thin, broken, solid, etc
§ Shape – can define solid vs. open forms, geometric vs. organic, etc. Solid shape in sculpture is referred to as mass.
§ Texture – relates to actual or implied surface qualities. Rough or smooth, matte or shiny, etc.
§ Space – the degree of depth implied in the work. Space can range from flat to shallow to deep.
§ Value – light and dark relationships. Value contrast can be limited or sharp, high or low.
§ Color – schemes can range from muted to vibrant, warm to cool, etc. Related terms – primary, secondary, monochromatic, complements, analogous, tint, tone, shade.
Principles – How the elements are combined to form relationships.
§ Unity conveys a sense that the elements are working towards a common visual goal
§ Harmony/Variety alleviates extreme sameness providing diversity
§ Repetition/Rhythm – the creation of pattern or regular recurrence of a motif or the use of interval and progression to lead the eye.
§ Balance – a sense of equilibrium in a work. Balance can be formal (symmetrical) or informal (asymmetrical).
§ Emphasis – drawing attention to particular parts of a composition to create a primary focal point or multiple areas of interest. Some compositions utilize the absence of emphasis for effect.
§ Scale/Proportion – scale is size relationship of one thing to another. Proportion is size relationship of parts to a whole.
§ Depth is the relationship of objects on the picture plane. Overlapping, larger objects closer to you, smaller objects are farther away, and size are basic ways to achieve depth in a flat surface.
§ Contrast strongly dissimilar elements create dramatic effects such as light and dark or large and small.
§ Movement can be created by actual or implied changes in position.
3. Content – the overall meaning conveyed by the work.
§ Subject and function – what is the work about and what is it for?
§ Expressive content – what is being communicated about the subject? Are there possible symbolic meanings to the overall aesthetic experience?
EXTRA CREDIT
EXTRA CREDIT
can only be done when all other work is completed from the class.
You can earn up to 20 points in extra credit in the following ways –
1. Write an Art article summary from a major magazine. Each summary is worth 5 points. Limit one article per magazine issue.
- Summary should be 1 ½ pages typed
- State what the content of the article was in your own words. Do not simply copy the article.
- Give your thoughts and conclusions on the article.
- Photocopy the article and appropriate pictures you discuss
- The text from the article should be at least 2 pages long
- List the author of the article and magazine title
Magazine list –
- Art in America
- ArtNews
- Art and Antiques
- Smithsonian
- National Geographic
- Sculpture
- Pottery Making
- Architectural Digest
- Ceramic Monthly
2. Go to an art exhibit at a professional museum, art center or gallery and write a response paper on the experience. Each exhibit is worth 10 points
- Chose an exhibition not covered in a previous assignment
- After a brief introduction, focus your discussion on two or three art works
- Concentrate on descriptive writing which mentions aspects of medium, form and content.
- 1 ½ - 2 pages typed with a dated ticket stub or brochure as evidence of the attendance
3. Show your talent with a creative project. Only one project can be submitted. 10 points
- Produce an original work of art based on the theme or style of an artist or era covered in the textbook
- Write a brief ½ page typed description of how your work ties into class concepts
- There is no size limit, but art work should show evidence of at least 2 – 3 hours of work and be done for this class only
can only be done when all other work is completed from the class.
You can earn up to 20 points in extra credit in the following ways –
1. Write an Art article summary from a major magazine. Each summary is worth 5 points. Limit one article per magazine issue.
- Summary should be 1 ½ pages typed
- State what the content of the article was in your own words. Do not simply copy the article.
- Give your thoughts and conclusions on the article.
- Photocopy the article and appropriate pictures you discuss
- The text from the article should be at least 2 pages long
- List the author of the article and magazine title
Magazine list –
- Art in America
- ArtNews
- Art and Antiques
- Smithsonian
- National Geographic
- Sculpture
- Pottery Making
- Architectural Digest
- Ceramic Monthly
2. Go to an art exhibit at a professional museum, art center or gallery and write a response paper on the experience. Each exhibit is worth 10 points
- Chose an exhibition not covered in a previous assignment
- After a brief introduction, focus your discussion on two or three art works
- Concentrate on descriptive writing which mentions aspects of medium, form and content.
- 1 ½ - 2 pages typed with a dated ticket stub or brochure as evidence of the attendance
3. Show your talent with a creative project. Only one project can be submitted. 10 points
- Produce an original work of art based on the theme or style of an artist or era covered in the textbook
- Write a brief ½ page typed description of how your work ties into class concepts
- There is no size limit, but art work should show evidence of at least 2 – 3 hours of work and be done for this class only
Writing Assignment 3
3rd writing assignment
Critique of art – compare and contrast
Instructor Kelly Parker
This assignment is worth 25 points – 15 points for content, 5 points for form, and 5 points for grammar.
Content –
Select a work of art, your choice from any resource (2D or 3D). Use concepts, vocabulary, and information we have been studying from class to analyze and react to this piece of art. Please remember to add the title of the work, artist and date it was created along with where you saw the piece of art. First, spend time looking thoroughly at this work of art, and then write an analysis of it. Think in terms of subject, form and content. Look for the elements of design and the principles of organization. How is the artist using shape, color, line, and texture? How is the piece balanced? What rhythms are established? Do we get a sense of movement? How is the artist using these "formal" aspects to help convey a mood, or idea? Also, you may want to find out a little about the artist and the historical period represented. What do you think was the purpose for making this piece? What do you think they were trying to say? Find another work that is similar in some way. Look carefully at both, compare, and contrast the two. Again, think in terms of form, subject and content. How are they similar? In what ways are they different? Be specific. Respond to these works of art, both critically and personally. Do you think they are equally successful as works of art? Why? How do they make you feel? Do you like them? Why or why not?
Remember to –
Describe the work of art – as though the person you are writing too is blind
Analyze the work of art – using the art vocabulary, explain how the artist used them to create the composition
Interpret the work of art – message or meaning of the work of art
Judgment of the work of art – worth based on previous information gathered
Form –
Minimum 2 pages typed
- Picture of images used
- Bibliography of where you found the art
- 12 pt font maximum
- Double spaced
- One inch margins
- Heading on the top right of 1st page with
o Your name
o Writing assignment number and title
o Due date
o Art 211 Art Appreciation
o Instructor Kelly Parker
Grammar –
- use complete sentences
- write in paragraph form
- use your spell checker
- read over your assignment before you print it off
Other guidelines –
- staple all pages together
- number all pages
Critique of art – compare and contrast
Instructor Kelly Parker
This assignment is worth 25 points – 15 points for content, 5 points for form, and 5 points for grammar.
Content –
Select a work of art, your choice from any resource (2D or 3D). Use concepts, vocabulary, and information we have been studying from class to analyze and react to this piece of art. Please remember to add the title of the work, artist and date it was created along with where you saw the piece of art. First, spend time looking thoroughly at this work of art, and then write an analysis of it. Think in terms of subject, form and content. Look for the elements of design and the principles of organization. How is the artist using shape, color, line, and texture? How is the piece balanced? What rhythms are established? Do we get a sense of movement? How is the artist using these "formal" aspects to help convey a mood, or idea? Also, you may want to find out a little about the artist and the historical period represented. What do you think was the purpose for making this piece? What do you think they were trying to say? Find another work that is similar in some way. Look carefully at both, compare, and contrast the two. Again, think in terms of form, subject and content. How are they similar? In what ways are they different? Be specific. Respond to these works of art, both critically and personally. Do you think they are equally successful as works of art? Why? How do they make you feel? Do you like them? Why or why not?
Remember to –
Describe the work of art – as though the person you are writing too is blind
Analyze the work of art – using the art vocabulary, explain how the artist used them to create the composition
Interpret the work of art – message or meaning of the work of art
Judgment of the work of art – worth based on previous information gathered
Form –
Minimum 2 pages typed
- Picture of images used
- Bibliography of where you found the art
- 12 pt font maximum
- Double spaced
- One inch margins
- Heading on the top right of 1st page with
o Your name
o Writing assignment number and title
o Due date
o Art 211 Art Appreciation
o Instructor Kelly Parker
Grammar –
- use complete sentences
- write in paragraph form
- use your spell checker
- read over your assignment before you print it off
Other guidelines –
- staple all pages together
- number all pages
Writing Assignment 2
2nd writing assignment- critique of art work
Instructor Kelly Parker
This assignment is worth 25 points – 15 points for content, 5 points for form, and 5 points for grammar.
Content –
Select a work of art from the text (2D or 3D). Use concepts, vocabulary, and information we have been studying from class to analyze and react to your chosen piece of art. Please remember to add the title of the work, artist and date it was created along with the page number from the text. First, spend time looking thoroughly at this work of art, and then write an analysis of it. Think in terms of subject, form and content. Look for the elements of design and the principles of organization. Please refer to your handouts and notes from Chapters 3, 4 and 5.
Respond to your chosen work of art, both critically and personally. Some questions to think about - How is the artist using shape, color, line, and texture? How is the piece balanced? What rhythms are established? Do we get a sense of movement? How is he or she using these "formal" aspects to help convey a mood, or idea? Also, you may want to find out a little about the artists and the historical period they represent. What do you think was the purpose for making this piece? What do you think the artist was trying to say? Why? How does it make you feel? Why? Be specific.
1st paragraph: Describe the artwork
2nd paragraph: Analyze the artwork
3rd paragraph: Interpret the artwork
4th paragraph: Make a judgment about the artwork and back it up with good information.
Form –
- Minimum 2 pages typed
- Picture of images used
- Bibliography
- 12 pt font maximum
- Double spaced
- One inch margins
- Heading on the top right of 1st page with
o Your name
o Writing assignment number and title
o Due date
o Art 211 Art Appreciation
o Instructor Kelly Parker
Grammar –
- use complete sentences
- write in paragraph form
- use your spell checker
- read over your assignment before you print it off
Other guidelines –
- staple all pages together
- number all pages
Instructor Kelly Parker
This assignment is worth 25 points – 15 points for content, 5 points for form, and 5 points for grammar.
Content –
Select a work of art from the text (2D or 3D). Use concepts, vocabulary, and information we have been studying from class to analyze and react to your chosen piece of art. Please remember to add the title of the work, artist and date it was created along with the page number from the text. First, spend time looking thoroughly at this work of art, and then write an analysis of it. Think in terms of subject, form and content. Look for the elements of design and the principles of organization. Please refer to your handouts and notes from Chapters 3, 4 and 5.
Respond to your chosen work of art, both critically and personally. Some questions to think about - How is the artist using shape, color, line, and texture? How is the piece balanced? What rhythms are established? Do we get a sense of movement? How is he or she using these "formal" aspects to help convey a mood, or idea? Also, you may want to find out a little about the artists and the historical period they represent. What do you think was the purpose for making this piece? What do you think the artist was trying to say? Why? How does it make you feel? Why? Be specific.
1st paragraph: Describe the artwork
2nd paragraph: Analyze the artwork
3rd paragraph: Interpret the artwork
4th paragraph: Make a judgment about the artwork and back it up with good information.
Form –
- Minimum 2 pages typed
- Picture of images used
- Bibliography
- 12 pt font maximum
- Double spaced
- One inch margins
- Heading on the top right of 1st page with
o Your name
o Writing assignment number and title
o Due date
o Art 211 Art Appreciation
o Instructor Kelly Parker
Grammar –
- use complete sentences
- write in paragraph form
- use your spell checker
- read over your assignment before you print it off
Other guidelines –
- staple all pages together
- number all pages
Writing Assignment 1
1st writing assignment- What is art?
Instructor Kelly Parker
This assignment is worth 25 points – 15 points for content, 5 points for form, and 5 points for grammar.
Content –
Consider what you think of as "art" and then try to explain what makes it art. If you do not know what you think or have never considered this before, a good starting place may be to look through your textbook and examine which pieces you respond to and why. This essay on art is an introductory survey for me. There are no right or wrong answers, but please think about the questions seriously. I would like an idea of what you think at the beginning of the course, prior to any instruction, you will not get these papers back, but everyone who responds seriously and turns their paper in on time will receive the full 25 points.
Please respond to the following questions – please be specific with your answers
- What is art?
- What significance does it have to you?
- What do you respond to in a work of art?
- Think about what qualities you look for when you select something to hang on your wall. Is it the way it looks, or the way it makes you feel or the ideas it brings to mind?
- What type/kind of art interests you?
- Have you had prior experience with art, if so when and where?
Form –
- Minimum 2 pages typed
- 12 pt font maximum
- Double spaced
- One inch margins
- Heading on the top right of 1st page with
o Your name
o Writing assignment number and title
o Due date
o Art 211 Art Appreciation
o Instructor Kelly Parker
Grammar –
- use complete sentences
- write in paragraph form
- use your spell checker
- read over your assignment before you print it off
Other guidelines –
- staple all pages together
- number all pages
Instructor Kelly Parker
This assignment is worth 25 points – 15 points for content, 5 points for form, and 5 points for grammar.
Content –
Consider what you think of as "art" and then try to explain what makes it art. If you do not know what you think or have never considered this before, a good starting place may be to look through your textbook and examine which pieces you respond to and why. This essay on art is an introductory survey for me. There are no right or wrong answers, but please think about the questions seriously. I would like an idea of what you think at the beginning of the course, prior to any instruction, you will not get these papers back, but everyone who responds seriously and turns their paper in on time will receive the full 25 points.
Please respond to the following questions – please be specific with your answers
- What is art?
- What significance does it have to you?
- What do you respond to in a work of art?
- Think about what qualities you look for when you select something to hang on your wall. Is it the way it looks, or the way it makes you feel or the ideas it brings to mind?
- What type/kind of art interests you?
- Have you had prior experience with art, if so when and where?
Form –
- Minimum 2 pages typed
- 12 pt font maximum
- Double spaced
- One inch margins
- Heading on the top right of 1st page with
o Your name
o Writing assignment number and title
o Due date
o Art 211 Art Appreciation
o Instructor Kelly Parker
Grammar –
- use complete sentences
- write in paragraph form
- use your spell checker
- read over your assignment before you print it off
Other guidelines –
- staple all pages together
- number all pages
chap 23 notes
Chapter 23 Postwar Modern Movements in the West
Abstract Expressionism - mainly American movement of artists, who came together informally, beginning in the 1940's, influenced by European abstraction and Surrealism. Major figures of Abstract Expressionism were Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. Common elements included a certain spiritual nature of the work, the elements of chance and the unconscious, and the absence or distortion of objective reality. The movement was at its height during the early 1950's
Jackson Pollock – known as Jack the Dripper created what was called "Action Painting“, large drip paintings
Mark Rothko – color field painting, large blocks of 2 – 3 colors. Rothko painted in oil only on large canvas with vertical formats. This considerably large proportion was utilized in order to overwhelm the viewer, or in Rothko’s words, to make the viewer feel enveloped within the painting
avant-garde – innovative or nontraditional artists who pave the way for new styles or movements
Pop Art - American non-organized movement, Pop Art is well-known as a late 1950's, early 1960's art movement. A reaction to Abstract Expressionism and the new consumer culture in the United States, Pop's early figures were Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol; Claes Oldenburg is a Pop Art sculptor. Pop artists generally wanted to make art that was 'cool' as opposed to the strong emotion of Abstract Expressionism; Images were generally taken from advertising and the contemporary world. Styles of Pop ranged from painterly to hard-edge
Andy Warhol - During the 1960s, at a time when popular culture became a dominant force in both society and the arts, Andy Warhol became the guru of Pop Art. Using the most ordinary objects, Coke bottles, Campbell's soup cans, and the most popular personalities of American culture, Warhol gave them heroic scale and turned them into art.
Optical Art was born in the 1950’s. It is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and seeing. Op art is a perceptual experience related to how vision functions. It is a dynamic visual art, stemming from a discordant figure-ground relationship that causes the two planes to be in a tense and contradictory juxtaposition.
Minimalism - Not an organized movement, minimalism began in the 1960's, predominantly in the United States. Its main thesis is "less is more," a reaction against the highly emotional nature of Abstract Expressionism. Large sculptures and paintings consist of bare geometric forms - squares, cubes, sometimes in more complex arrangements and often limited in color.
Donald Judd – minimalist sculpture consists of large, heavy cube forms. Judd's cubes express a forceful finality and strength and are an expression of our times in terms of the lessening influence of the natural world and more influence from our industrial, geometric environment.
Site Works - Artists began creating works that are inseparable from the sites for which they were designed. In Site-specific works, the artist’s sensitivity to the location determines the composition, scale, medium, and even the content of each piece. Site works are environmental constructions frequently made of sculptural materials designed to interact with by not permanently alter the environment.
Christo - one of the best known environmental site artists. He creates temporary works that are a combination of natural and manmade, often involving large numbers of workers to construct the projects.
Claes Oldenburg – a sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions of everyday objects.
Installations - Made for a specific space, exploiting certain qualities of that space. Installations may be temporary or permanent. A work of art created for a specific location and designed to relate to that location. 3D use of constructing and assembling a work.
Earth Art - This international movement began in the 1970's, and used the natural world as its material and content, generally making large 'earthworks'. Environmental artists work as individuals, rather than as part of an organized art movement. Earthworks consist of natural materials, such as large rocks, arranged in patterns over a large and perhaps isolated area
Andy Goldsworthy - a brilliant British artist who collaborates with nature to make his creations. Goldsworthy regards all his creations as temporary. He photographs each piece once right after he makes it. His goal is to understand nature by directly participating in nature as intimately as he can. He generally works with whatever he notices: twigs, leaves, stones, snow and ice, reeds and thorns.
Giacometti - Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman, and printmaker. Giacometti was a key player in the Surrealist Movement, but his work resists easy categorization. He attempted to create renditions of his models the way he saw them and the way he thought they ought to be seen.
Henry Moore - Moore's signature form is a reclining figure. His explorations of Mayan figures lead him to increasing abstraction as he turned his thoughts towards experimentation with the elements of design. Moore's earlier reclining figures deal principally with mass, while his later ones contrast the solid elements of the sculpture with the space, not only round them but generally through them as he pierced the forms with openings.
Louise Nevelson - is known for her abstract expressionist “boxes” grouped together to form a new creation. She used found objects or everyday discarded things in her assemblages.
Alexander Calder - American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing the mobile. In addition to mobile and stabile sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry and designed carpets
Kinetic art – art that moves
Graffiti Art - Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is often regarded as unsightly damage or unwanted vandalism. Graffiti has existed since ancient times, with examples going back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. Graffiti can be anything from simple scratch marks to elaborate wall paintings. In modern times, spray paint and markers have become the most commonly used materials. In most countries, defacing property with graffiti without the property owner's consent is considered vandalism, which is punishable by law.
Jean-Micheal Basquiat – graffiti artist, started out tagging locations with his signature SAMO (Same Old Shit)
Keith Haring – graffiti art
Conceptual Art - An installation presents a visualization of 3-D, in real time and space. It can include 2-D mediums (painting, drawing, photography, etc), but a 3-D element is also necessary for the interaction of the viewer into the installation space. Video and electronic media are used frequently. Installation art is often conceptual in nature. That is, the emphasis is more on ideas than on the creation of unique objects. For this reason, installation art frequently incorporates an assembly of "ready made" (manufactured) objects instead of focusing on the craftsmanship of the artist. This is not, however, necessary for the definition of installation art, as many installation artists create every object in their installation.
Feminism - The feminist art movement refers to the efforts and accomplishments of feminists internationally to bring more visibility to women within art history and art practice. Corresponding with general developments within feminism, the movement began in the 1960s, flourished throughout the 1970s, and the effects of it continue to the present.
Judy Chicago - The Dinner Party - triangular in configuration created to honor and highlight important and forgotten women’s achievements in art and culture throughout history.
Guerrilla Girls - a group of women artists, writers, performers, film makers and arts professionals who fight discrimination. They wear gorilla masks to focus on the issues rather than their personalities. Using humor to convey information, they intend to expose sexism and racism in the art world.
Louise Bourgeois - Bourgeois’s early sculpture was composed of groupings of abstract and organic shapes often carved from wood. By the 1960s she began to execute her work in rubber, bronze, and stone and the pieces themselves became larger, more referential to what has become the dominant theme of her work—her childhood.
Performance - Sometimes, the artist is part of the installation, in which case the installation then becomes performance art. The term "Performance Art" got its start in the 1960s in the United States. It was originally used to describe any live artistic event that included poets, musicians, and film makers in addition to visual artists. It's worth noting that, even though we're referencing the 1960s, there were earlier precedents for Performance Art. The live performances of the Dadaists, in particular meshed poetry and the visual arts. The German Bauhaus, founded in 1919, included a theater workshop to explore relationships between space, sound and light - a good 20 years before the 1960s.
Abstract Expressionism - mainly American movement of artists, who came together informally, beginning in the 1940's, influenced by European abstraction and Surrealism. Major figures of Abstract Expressionism were Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. Common elements included a certain spiritual nature of the work, the elements of chance and the unconscious, and the absence or distortion of objective reality. The movement was at its height during the early 1950's
Jackson Pollock – known as Jack the Dripper created what was called "Action Painting“, large drip paintings
Mark Rothko – color field painting, large blocks of 2 – 3 colors. Rothko painted in oil only on large canvas with vertical formats. This considerably large proportion was utilized in order to overwhelm the viewer, or in Rothko’s words, to make the viewer feel enveloped within the painting
avant-garde – innovative or nontraditional artists who pave the way for new styles or movements
Pop Art - American non-organized movement, Pop Art is well-known as a late 1950's, early 1960's art movement. A reaction to Abstract Expressionism and the new consumer culture in the United States, Pop's early figures were Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol; Claes Oldenburg is a Pop Art sculptor. Pop artists generally wanted to make art that was 'cool' as opposed to the strong emotion of Abstract Expressionism; Images were generally taken from advertising and the contemporary world. Styles of Pop ranged from painterly to hard-edge
Andy Warhol - During the 1960s, at a time when popular culture became a dominant force in both society and the arts, Andy Warhol became the guru of Pop Art. Using the most ordinary objects, Coke bottles, Campbell's soup cans, and the most popular personalities of American culture, Warhol gave them heroic scale and turned them into art.
Optical Art was born in the 1950’s. It is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and seeing. Op art is a perceptual experience related to how vision functions. It is a dynamic visual art, stemming from a discordant figure-ground relationship that causes the two planes to be in a tense and contradictory juxtaposition.
Minimalism - Not an organized movement, minimalism began in the 1960's, predominantly in the United States. Its main thesis is "less is more," a reaction against the highly emotional nature of Abstract Expressionism. Large sculptures and paintings consist of bare geometric forms - squares, cubes, sometimes in more complex arrangements and often limited in color.
Donald Judd – minimalist sculpture consists of large, heavy cube forms. Judd's cubes express a forceful finality and strength and are an expression of our times in terms of the lessening influence of the natural world and more influence from our industrial, geometric environment.
Site Works - Artists began creating works that are inseparable from the sites for which they were designed. In Site-specific works, the artist’s sensitivity to the location determines the composition, scale, medium, and even the content of each piece. Site works are environmental constructions frequently made of sculptural materials designed to interact with by not permanently alter the environment.
Christo - one of the best known environmental site artists. He creates temporary works that are a combination of natural and manmade, often involving large numbers of workers to construct the projects.
Claes Oldenburg – a sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions of everyday objects.
Installations - Made for a specific space, exploiting certain qualities of that space. Installations may be temporary or permanent. A work of art created for a specific location and designed to relate to that location. 3D use of constructing and assembling a work.
Earth Art - This international movement began in the 1970's, and used the natural world as its material and content, generally making large 'earthworks'. Environmental artists work as individuals, rather than as part of an organized art movement. Earthworks consist of natural materials, such as large rocks, arranged in patterns over a large and perhaps isolated area
Andy Goldsworthy - a brilliant British artist who collaborates with nature to make his creations. Goldsworthy regards all his creations as temporary. He photographs each piece once right after he makes it. His goal is to understand nature by directly participating in nature as intimately as he can. He generally works with whatever he notices: twigs, leaves, stones, snow and ice, reeds and thorns.
Giacometti - Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman, and printmaker. Giacometti was a key player in the Surrealist Movement, but his work resists easy categorization. He attempted to create renditions of his models the way he saw them and the way he thought they ought to be seen.
Henry Moore - Moore's signature form is a reclining figure. His explorations of Mayan figures lead him to increasing abstraction as he turned his thoughts towards experimentation with the elements of design. Moore's earlier reclining figures deal principally with mass, while his later ones contrast the solid elements of the sculpture with the space, not only round them but generally through them as he pierced the forms with openings.
Louise Nevelson - is known for her abstract expressionist “boxes” grouped together to form a new creation. She used found objects or everyday discarded things in her assemblages.
Alexander Calder - American sculptor and artist most famous for inventing the mobile. In addition to mobile and stabile sculpture, Alexander Calder also created paintings, lithographs, toys, tapestry and designed carpets
Kinetic art – art that moves
Graffiti Art - Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is often regarded as unsightly damage or unwanted vandalism. Graffiti has existed since ancient times, with examples going back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. Graffiti can be anything from simple scratch marks to elaborate wall paintings. In modern times, spray paint and markers have become the most commonly used materials. In most countries, defacing property with graffiti without the property owner's consent is considered vandalism, which is punishable by law.
Jean-Micheal Basquiat – graffiti artist, started out tagging locations with his signature SAMO (Same Old Shit)
Keith Haring – graffiti art
Conceptual Art - An installation presents a visualization of 3-D, in real time and space. It can include 2-D mediums (painting, drawing, photography, etc), but a 3-D element is also necessary for the interaction of the viewer into the installation space. Video and electronic media are used frequently. Installation art is often conceptual in nature. That is, the emphasis is more on ideas than on the creation of unique objects. For this reason, installation art frequently incorporates an assembly of "ready made" (manufactured) objects instead of focusing on the craftsmanship of the artist. This is not, however, necessary for the definition of installation art, as many installation artists create every object in their installation.
Feminism - The feminist art movement refers to the efforts and accomplishments of feminists internationally to bring more visibility to women within art history and art practice. Corresponding with general developments within feminism, the movement began in the 1960s, flourished throughout the 1970s, and the effects of it continue to the present.
Judy Chicago - The Dinner Party - triangular in configuration created to honor and highlight important and forgotten women’s achievements in art and culture throughout history.
Guerrilla Girls - a group of women artists, writers, performers, film makers and arts professionals who fight discrimination. They wear gorilla masks to focus on the issues rather than their personalities. Using humor to convey information, they intend to expose sexism and racism in the art world.
Louise Bourgeois - Bourgeois’s early sculpture was composed of groupings of abstract and organic shapes often carved from wood. By the 1960s she began to execute her work in rubber, bronze, and stone and the pieces themselves became larger, more referential to what has become the dominant theme of her work—her childhood.
Performance - Sometimes, the artist is part of the installation, in which case the installation then becomes performance art. The term "Performance Art" got its start in the 1960s in the United States. It was originally used to describe any live artistic event that included poets, musicians, and film makers in addition to visual artists. It's worth noting that, even though we're referencing the 1960s, there were earlier precedents for Performance Art. The live performances of the Dadaists, in particular meshed poetry and the visual arts. The German Bauhaus, founded in 1919, included a theater workshop to explore relationships between space, sound and light - a good 20 years before the 1960s.
Chap 23 homework
5 pts
Chapter 23 - Read and respond in your own words to page 450 in your text book
Due at the beginning of the next class.
Chapter 23 - Read and respond in your own words to page 450 in your text book
Due at the beginning of the next class.
Chap 22 notes
Chapter 22 Between the Wars
Dadaism was a controversial and exciting movement. Dadaism grew out of the earlier Cubism movement and it used collage and photomontage techniques. Many Dada works were overtly political. Dada was a European precursor to Surrealism and included artist Marcel Duchamp. The Dadaist movement extended to both visual art and literature. It was an anti-movement born in the second decade of the 20th century and affected by the disillusionment after World War I. Dadaism was out to shock, to shake up conventions, to be anti-art, to question the very definitions of art.
Duchamp was way ahead of his time and is considered the first exponent of conceptual art, a movement of the late 20th century. The most famous example of dada is Duchamp's entry into the 1917 Society of Independent Artists exhibition in New York - a 'found' urinal, titled Fountain.
Surrealism began as an official movement shortly after the end of the First World War. Some of the members of Dada went on to create the Surrealistic movement of the 1920's. Surrealistic painters had wildly divergent styles, but some of the elements they had in common were: the effect of the subconscious and dreams in art; the importance of the element of chance in art; the idea of an absolute, or 'super-reality' in art.
Salvador Dali was the most famous exponent of Surrealism. Dali was very prolific throughout his life, creating hundreds of paintings, prints, and even sculptures. He also produced surrealist films, illustrated books, handcrafted jewelry, created theatrical sets and costumes.
The Persistence of Memory by Dali, almost stands alone as a symbol of the movement.
Other Surrealists were Joan Miro, Max Ernst, and Rene Magritte. The surrealists admired the artwork of the insane for its freedom of expression as well as artworks created by children.
Rene Magritte constantly challenged our preconceptions about reality. His works contain extraordinary juxtapositions of ordinary objects or an unusual context that gives new meaning to familiar things.
Max Ernst was one of the founding members of surrealism, who had previously been linked to the dada movement.
Women Surrealists –
Leonora Carrington paints surreal visions combining mythological stories and childhood fantasies.
Frida Kahlo's art looked inward, to intensely personal expressions.
Diego Rivera was influenced by post-impressionism and cubism. Married to Frida Kahlo, they had one of the most famous alliances in the art world. Diego loved to paint images about Mexico's history and revolution.
De Stijl – The Style, An Art movement advocating pure abstraction and simplicity — form reduced to the rectangle and other geometric shapes. Color reduced to the primary colors with black and white.
Piet Mondrian was the De Stijl group's leading figure.
Constructivism took a radical step from representational to non-representational sculpture.
African-American Modernists - movement became known as the Harlem Renaissance, it embraced all art-forms including music, dance, film, theatre and cabaret.
Aaron Douglas painted murals for public buildings and produced illustrations and cover designs for many black publications.
Jacob Lawrence was the first American artist of African descent to receive sustained mainstream recognition in the United States.
Romare Bearden can best be described as a "descendent" of the Harlem Renaissance, for the majority of his works were created a couple of decades after the movement had ended. His paintings, collages and prints celebrate black history, music (jazz primarily an invention of black musicians), and black lifestyles. Bright colors, unusual spatial compositions, and a jubilant attitude frequently occupy his works.
The American Scene - Throughout the 1930s and into the early 1950s, many American artists sought an indigenous style of realism that would embody the values of ordinary people in the everyday working world. In the wake of severe economic uncertainty, social upheaval, and the political shifts that followed the disastrous Great Depression, American artists maintained a commitment to projecting a very personal view.
American Artists of note –
Andrew Wyeth
Grant Wood
Thomas Hart Benton
Edward Hopper
Norman Rockwell
Charles Burchfield
Arthur Dove
Georgia O’Keefe
Dadaism was a controversial and exciting movement. Dadaism grew out of the earlier Cubism movement and it used collage and photomontage techniques. Many Dada works were overtly political. Dada was a European precursor to Surrealism and included artist Marcel Duchamp. The Dadaist movement extended to both visual art and literature. It was an anti-movement born in the second decade of the 20th century and affected by the disillusionment after World War I. Dadaism was out to shock, to shake up conventions, to be anti-art, to question the very definitions of art.
Duchamp was way ahead of his time and is considered the first exponent of conceptual art, a movement of the late 20th century. The most famous example of dada is Duchamp's entry into the 1917 Society of Independent Artists exhibition in New York - a 'found' urinal, titled Fountain.
Surrealism began as an official movement shortly after the end of the First World War. Some of the members of Dada went on to create the Surrealistic movement of the 1920's. Surrealistic painters had wildly divergent styles, but some of the elements they had in common were: the effect of the subconscious and dreams in art; the importance of the element of chance in art; the idea of an absolute, or 'super-reality' in art.
Salvador Dali was the most famous exponent of Surrealism. Dali was very prolific throughout his life, creating hundreds of paintings, prints, and even sculptures. He also produced surrealist films, illustrated books, handcrafted jewelry, created theatrical sets and costumes.
The Persistence of Memory by Dali, almost stands alone as a symbol of the movement.
Other Surrealists were Joan Miro, Max Ernst, and Rene Magritte. The surrealists admired the artwork of the insane for its freedom of expression as well as artworks created by children.
Rene Magritte constantly challenged our preconceptions about reality. His works contain extraordinary juxtapositions of ordinary objects or an unusual context that gives new meaning to familiar things.
Max Ernst was one of the founding members of surrealism, who had previously been linked to the dada movement.
Women Surrealists –
Leonora Carrington paints surreal visions combining mythological stories and childhood fantasies.
Frida Kahlo's art looked inward, to intensely personal expressions.
Diego Rivera was influenced by post-impressionism and cubism. Married to Frida Kahlo, they had one of the most famous alliances in the art world. Diego loved to paint images about Mexico's history and revolution.
De Stijl – The Style, An Art movement advocating pure abstraction and simplicity — form reduced to the rectangle and other geometric shapes. Color reduced to the primary colors with black and white.
Piet Mondrian was the De Stijl group's leading figure.
Constructivism took a radical step from representational to non-representational sculpture.
African-American Modernists - movement became known as the Harlem Renaissance, it embraced all art-forms including music, dance, film, theatre and cabaret.
Aaron Douglas painted murals for public buildings and produced illustrations and cover designs for many black publications.
Jacob Lawrence was the first American artist of African descent to receive sustained mainstream recognition in the United States.
Romare Bearden can best be described as a "descendent" of the Harlem Renaissance, for the majority of his works were created a couple of decades after the movement had ended. His paintings, collages and prints celebrate black history, music (jazz primarily an invention of black musicians), and black lifestyles. Bright colors, unusual spatial compositions, and a jubilant attitude frequently occupy his works.
The American Scene - Throughout the 1930s and into the early 1950s, many American artists sought an indigenous style of realism that would embody the values of ordinary people in the everyday working world. In the wake of severe economic uncertainty, social upheaval, and the political shifts that followed the disastrous Great Depression, American artists maintained a commitment to projecting a very personal view.
American Artists of note –
Andrew Wyeth
Grant Wood
Thomas Hart Benton
Edward Hopper
Norman Rockwell
Charles Burchfield
Arthur Dove
Georgia O’Keefe
Chap 21 notes
Chapter 21 Early Twentieth Century
Expressionism – a movement in art and considered a characteristic applied to any art that the primary focus is expression of emotion. Stylistic tendencies include bright or even garish color, sharply linear, or dark and brooding quality, and black and white woodcuts.
German Expression - felt that the art of the current establishment was too academic and refined to retain any degree of expression, so they instead found inspiration in medieval German art and primitive African sculpture. Since their primary concern was the expression of deeply felt emotions, they would also transform their negative feelings about the war onto canvas.
Kirchner - Die Brucke (meaning "the bridge"), led by Kirchner and the other artists sought to build a “bridge" between Germany's past and future.
degenerate art - a term adopted by the Nazi regime in Germany to describe virtually all Modern Art.
Franz Marc (German) – best known for his paintings of horses and deer
Gustav Klimt was the leader of a group called the Viennese Secession, which sought to separate itself from the naturalist movement which was popular in early 20th century
Fauvism – the most optimistic movement linked to expressionism, which included Matisse and Derain. The main emphasis in Fauvism was on color - bright, free use of arbitrary color, independent of objective reality. Fauvism was a brief but important art movement that followed and was inspired by the Post-Impressionism movement. Although the movement only lasted four years, it would have a profound effect on future artists especially in terms of their use of color. Fauvism is recognized for its influence on cubism and modern expressionism in its flattened space, disregard for natural forms, and its love of unbridled color.
Henri Matisse - used bright colors and bold compositions. The most evident change in his work is his increased interest in patterns and the continued flattening of pictorial space. Matisse is, along with Picasso, regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.
Cubism - The development of cubism can be attributed to two men, George Braque and Pablo Picasso. Cubism dealt mainly with space - the disintegration of traditional illusionistic space in art. In Cubism, the subject is reduced to planes and interlocking geometric forms which reflect the subtle shifts of time and multiple perspectives.
George Braque – developed Cubism with Picasso. Incorporated the Cubist aim of representing the world as seen from a number of different viewpoints, he wanted to convey a feeling of being able to move around within the painting.
Pablo Picasso – Spanish, prolific and influential artist of the 20th century, developed Cubism with Braque
Les Demoiselles de Avignon (1907) one of his first early Cubist works
Guernica 1937 – painting of the destruction of a small Spanish town
Abstract Sculpture - The general shift from naturalistic to abstract art begun in the late 20th century
Constantin Brancusi produced abstract sculpture. Early in his career he created sculpture similar to the romantic naturalism of Rodin. His later work simplifies the subject stripping it to the essential features.
Architecture in the 20th century - architects were designing houses in 1905 – 1910, while the traditional concepts of form were being challenged in art; they were also being challenged in architecture. Prairie homes by FL Wright were being built that had minimized or omitted walls in the interior and exterior spaces. Contemporary homes were now one continuous space often intermingling with the outdoors.
Futurists gained inspiration from Cubism adding a sense of speed, motion, and the celebration of the machine. The Futurists translated the speed of modern life into works of art that captured the dynamic energy of the new century. During this time, the experience of motion, time, and space was transformed by the development of the automobile, the airplane, and movies. Futurist imagery reflects this exciting period of change.
Expressionism – a movement in art and considered a characteristic applied to any art that the primary focus is expression of emotion. Stylistic tendencies include bright or even garish color, sharply linear, or dark and brooding quality, and black and white woodcuts.
German Expression - felt that the art of the current establishment was too academic and refined to retain any degree of expression, so they instead found inspiration in medieval German art and primitive African sculpture. Since their primary concern was the expression of deeply felt emotions, they would also transform their negative feelings about the war onto canvas.
Kirchner - Die Brucke (meaning "the bridge"), led by Kirchner and the other artists sought to build a “bridge" between Germany's past and future.
degenerate art - a term adopted by the Nazi regime in Germany to describe virtually all Modern Art.
Franz Marc (German) – best known for his paintings of horses and deer
Gustav Klimt was the leader of a group called the Viennese Secession, which sought to separate itself from the naturalist movement which was popular in early 20th century
Fauvism – the most optimistic movement linked to expressionism, which included Matisse and Derain. The main emphasis in Fauvism was on color - bright, free use of arbitrary color, independent of objective reality. Fauvism was a brief but important art movement that followed and was inspired by the Post-Impressionism movement. Although the movement only lasted four years, it would have a profound effect on future artists especially in terms of their use of color. Fauvism is recognized for its influence on cubism and modern expressionism in its flattened space, disregard for natural forms, and its love of unbridled color.
Henri Matisse - used bright colors and bold compositions. The most evident change in his work is his increased interest in patterns and the continued flattening of pictorial space. Matisse is, along with Picasso, regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.
Cubism - The development of cubism can be attributed to two men, George Braque and Pablo Picasso. Cubism dealt mainly with space - the disintegration of traditional illusionistic space in art. In Cubism, the subject is reduced to planes and interlocking geometric forms which reflect the subtle shifts of time and multiple perspectives.
George Braque – developed Cubism with Picasso. Incorporated the Cubist aim of representing the world as seen from a number of different viewpoints, he wanted to convey a feeling of being able to move around within the painting.
Pablo Picasso – Spanish, prolific and influential artist of the 20th century, developed Cubism with Braque
Les Demoiselles de Avignon (1907) one of his first early Cubist works
Guernica 1937 – painting of the destruction of a small Spanish town
Abstract Sculpture - The general shift from naturalistic to abstract art begun in the late 20th century
Constantin Brancusi produced abstract sculpture. Early in his career he created sculpture similar to the romantic naturalism of Rodin. His later work simplifies the subject stripping it to the essential features.
Architecture in the 20th century - architects were designing houses in 1905 – 1910, while the traditional concepts of form were being challenged in art; they were also being challenged in architecture. Prairie homes by FL Wright were being built that had minimized or omitted walls in the interior and exterior spaces. Contemporary homes were now one continuous space often intermingling with the outdoors.
Futurists gained inspiration from Cubism adding a sense of speed, motion, and the celebration of the machine. The Futurists translated the speed of modern life into works of art that captured the dynamic energy of the new century. During this time, the experience of motion, time, and space was transformed by the development of the automobile, the airplane, and movies. Futurist imagery reflects this exciting period of change.
Chap 20 notes
Chapter 20 Late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Three Revolutions – All 3 revolutions launched the period of great social and technological change that we call the Modern Age.
- Industrial revolution – began in Britain about 1760 brought about significant changes in the way people lived.
- American Revolution began in 1776
- French Revolution began in 1789
In art, the Enlightment was during the late 1700’s and held a more rational and scientific approach to religious, political, social and economic issues. Artists both embraced and impeded these changes. With artistic freedom from constraints by their traditional patrons (royalty, aristocracy, wealthy merchants, bankers and the church), artists were left to struggle financially until a new system of patronage emerged. Eventually, support came from galleries, collectors and museums.
There were three basic styles of art that held sway throughout the 19th century -
Neoclassicism - Led by Jacques Louis David, was a reaction to the frivolous style of the French Rococo.
Ingres - one of David's followers and his paintings have the clearly delineated forms of the classical style
Romanticism - Those who followed this trend felt that portrayal of emotion was more important than rationality. They generally preferred a more dramatic and painterly approach.
Goya – a Romantic painter and contemporary of David painted the well known “The Third of May 1808” a protest against the brutality of tyrannical governments.
Delacroix – leading French Romantic painter
Realism - The realists were opposed to the often mythological character of many Neoclassical and Romantic artworks. Their basic philosophy is that one should paint what one sees with their own eyes and leave any mythological or overly dramatic content out of the picture.
Courbet – French painter of the everyday life worked outdoors directly from nature as a realist painter.
Rosa Bonheur – French painter of rural scenes with animals. pg 358
Edouard Manet – controversial artist in Paris in the 1860s broke away from the traditional teaching masters and painted realism with a bit of influence from Japanese prints. Manet’s paintings were a precursor to Impressionism.
Two important American portrait painters were Sargent and Whistler.
Pre-Raphaelites. This style might be considered a variant of Romanticism, for it favors subjects of mythological and literary subjects. They preferred symbolic representations with a certain poetic appeal.
John William Waterhouse - often classified as a Pre-raphaelite for his style and themes, but he is truly a Neo-Classic painter.
Landscape painting is also very popular during the 19th century, and there are small schools of painters who work in specific regions. The Hudson River Painters are a group who concentrated on painting scenes west of the Hudson River. These are generally done on huge canvases. Though realistic in one sense, they also have a grandiose effect, and they preferred dramatic lighting conditions.
John James Audubon is probably the most famous illustrator of animals in America, especially known for his hundreds of representations of birds.
Henri Rousseau, a French painter - The psychological and fantastic nature of this Rousseau's "naively inspired" works will be of influence to a 20th century movement called Surrealism.
camera obscura had been in existence for at least four hundred years, but its use was limited to its purpose as an aid to drawing.
Photography - Most people embraced this new technology of the camera with great enthusiasm. A few religious zealots, however, claimed that it was the work of the devil. Many artists who had trained for years in the techniques of portrait painting also found it a threat to their livelihood. Some painters dubbed the new invention "the foe-to-graphic art." A number of artists turned to photography for their livelihood, while others cashed in on the fact that the images were in monochrome and began coloring them. Some painters also used photography to assist them in painting, some of these artists were Gauguin, Cezanne, Courbet, Lautrec, Delacroix and Degas. Photography would eventually change the purpose of painting from one which focused on outward facts of reality to more emphasis on personal vision.
Impressionism – about 1874, a group of painters had been denied the right to exhibit in the Salon of 1873 being rejected by critiques and the general public because of the nontraditional appearance of painting, they organized an independent exhibition of their work. These artists opposed academic doctrines and romantic ideals and instead painted contemporary life. They sought to paint “impressions” of what the eye actually sees rather than what the mind knows. Landscape and ordinary scenes painted outdoors in different atmospheric conditions, seasons and time of day were the main subjects of this style. From the perspective of our time, Impressionism was the most important artistic movement of the 19th century but in the 1870’s – 80’s, was frowned upon by the academy and critics. It is perhaps the most loved and reproduced style of painting of the past 300 years.
Claude Monet – leading Impressionist. Painted “en plein air” to capture the mood and qualities of light at different times of day and different seasons.
- en plein air – to paint outdoors capturing the changing light
Renoir – Impressionist more concerned with composition than with light contrasts
Degas – Impressionist that painted expression and contemporary life but often cut off figures at the edge of the canvas
Mary Cassatt – the most famous American female artist of her time. She was a painter and printmaker and was the only American to be accepted into the Impressionist group and exhibit with them. Edgar Degas was one of her early supporters and proved to be one of her biggest influences along with Japanese prints of simplicity and bold design. Cassatt produced many images of friends, family, and mothers with children partly because it was difficult for a woman to frequent the same theaters and night spots as her male counterparts.
Auguste Rodin – best know for his sculpture “The Thinker”, one in front of DIA. First sculptor since Bernini to return sculpture to the status of a major art form with emotional and spiritual depth. Considered an Impressionist sculptor.
Post-Impressionist – started about 1885 following Impressionism. Painters did not share a single style rather they built on or reacted to Impressionism in individual ways. Some Post-Impressionist painters were van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat, and Cezanne.
Gauguin and van Gogh were expressive, emotional painters that had a desire to make their thoughts and feelings visible with strong contrasts, clear contoured shapes, bold brushwork and texture. Their art vastly influenced expressionist styles.
Seurat and Cezanne were interested in formal structure to achieve clarity of design. Their paintings influenced formalist styles and were based on the observation of nature and using separate strokes of color to build the surface.
- Divisionism notably known as Pointillism – developed by Seurat was a scientific technique of applying paint in tiny dots of color based on optical mixing.
Seurat - most known for the painting “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” at the Art Institute of Chicago uses pointillism.
Cezanne –used color to show form and space using simplified forms on a flat surface building on and departing from Impressionism. Cezanne’s style of painting had the most lasting effect on painting in the 20th century.
Van Gogh – used open brushwork and pure color to express feelings. The textural brushwork gave a rhythmic movement to his work and the colors used clearly expressed emotions.
Gauguin –used many symbols to communicate in his art. The visual form carrying memory, feelings, and ideas lead to Symbolism that developed around 1885.
Symbolism – a trend rather than a style was an out growth of Romanticism leading to Surrealism.
Odilon Redon - was a Symbolist painter and printmaker. His work represents an exploration of his internal feelings and psyche
Edvard Munch – known for his painting of “The Scream” is an expressive image full of anxiety, isolation, fear and loneliness.
Three Revolutions – All 3 revolutions launched the period of great social and technological change that we call the Modern Age.
- Industrial revolution – began in Britain about 1760 brought about significant changes in the way people lived.
- American Revolution began in 1776
- French Revolution began in 1789
In art, the Enlightment was during the late 1700’s and held a more rational and scientific approach to religious, political, social and economic issues. Artists both embraced and impeded these changes. With artistic freedom from constraints by their traditional patrons (royalty, aristocracy, wealthy merchants, bankers and the church), artists were left to struggle financially until a new system of patronage emerged. Eventually, support came from galleries, collectors and museums.
There were three basic styles of art that held sway throughout the 19th century -
Neoclassicism - Led by Jacques Louis David, was a reaction to the frivolous style of the French Rococo.
Ingres - one of David's followers and his paintings have the clearly delineated forms of the classical style
Romanticism - Those who followed this trend felt that portrayal of emotion was more important than rationality. They generally preferred a more dramatic and painterly approach.
Goya – a Romantic painter and contemporary of David painted the well known “The Third of May 1808” a protest against the brutality of tyrannical governments.
Delacroix – leading French Romantic painter
Realism - The realists were opposed to the often mythological character of many Neoclassical and Romantic artworks. Their basic philosophy is that one should paint what one sees with their own eyes and leave any mythological or overly dramatic content out of the picture.
Courbet – French painter of the everyday life worked outdoors directly from nature as a realist painter.
Rosa Bonheur – French painter of rural scenes with animals. pg 358
Edouard Manet – controversial artist in Paris in the 1860s broke away from the traditional teaching masters and painted realism with a bit of influence from Japanese prints. Manet’s paintings were a precursor to Impressionism.
Two important American portrait painters were Sargent and Whistler.
Pre-Raphaelites. This style might be considered a variant of Romanticism, for it favors subjects of mythological and literary subjects. They preferred symbolic representations with a certain poetic appeal.
John William Waterhouse - often classified as a Pre-raphaelite for his style and themes, but he is truly a Neo-Classic painter.
Landscape painting is also very popular during the 19th century, and there are small schools of painters who work in specific regions. The Hudson River Painters are a group who concentrated on painting scenes west of the Hudson River. These are generally done on huge canvases. Though realistic in one sense, they also have a grandiose effect, and they preferred dramatic lighting conditions.
John James Audubon is probably the most famous illustrator of animals in America, especially known for his hundreds of representations of birds.
Henri Rousseau, a French painter - The psychological and fantastic nature of this Rousseau's "naively inspired" works will be of influence to a 20th century movement called Surrealism.
camera obscura had been in existence for at least four hundred years, but its use was limited to its purpose as an aid to drawing.
Photography - Most people embraced this new technology of the camera with great enthusiasm. A few religious zealots, however, claimed that it was the work of the devil. Many artists who had trained for years in the techniques of portrait painting also found it a threat to their livelihood. Some painters dubbed the new invention "the foe-to-graphic art." A number of artists turned to photography for their livelihood, while others cashed in on the fact that the images were in monochrome and began coloring them. Some painters also used photography to assist them in painting, some of these artists were Gauguin, Cezanne, Courbet, Lautrec, Delacroix and Degas. Photography would eventually change the purpose of painting from one which focused on outward facts of reality to more emphasis on personal vision.
Impressionism – about 1874, a group of painters had been denied the right to exhibit in the Salon of 1873 being rejected by critiques and the general public because of the nontraditional appearance of painting, they organized an independent exhibition of their work. These artists opposed academic doctrines and romantic ideals and instead painted contemporary life. They sought to paint “impressions” of what the eye actually sees rather than what the mind knows. Landscape and ordinary scenes painted outdoors in different atmospheric conditions, seasons and time of day were the main subjects of this style. From the perspective of our time, Impressionism was the most important artistic movement of the 19th century but in the 1870’s – 80’s, was frowned upon by the academy and critics. It is perhaps the most loved and reproduced style of painting of the past 300 years.
Claude Monet – leading Impressionist. Painted “en plein air” to capture the mood and qualities of light at different times of day and different seasons.
- en plein air – to paint outdoors capturing the changing light
Renoir – Impressionist more concerned with composition than with light contrasts
Degas – Impressionist that painted expression and contemporary life but often cut off figures at the edge of the canvas
Mary Cassatt – the most famous American female artist of her time. She was a painter and printmaker and was the only American to be accepted into the Impressionist group and exhibit with them. Edgar Degas was one of her early supporters and proved to be one of her biggest influences along with Japanese prints of simplicity and bold design. Cassatt produced many images of friends, family, and mothers with children partly because it was difficult for a woman to frequent the same theaters and night spots as her male counterparts.
Auguste Rodin – best know for his sculpture “The Thinker”, one in front of DIA. First sculptor since Bernini to return sculpture to the status of a major art form with emotional and spiritual depth. Considered an Impressionist sculptor.
Post-Impressionist – started about 1885 following Impressionism. Painters did not share a single style rather they built on or reacted to Impressionism in individual ways. Some Post-Impressionist painters were van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat, and Cezanne.
Gauguin and van Gogh were expressive, emotional painters that had a desire to make their thoughts and feelings visible with strong contrasts, clear contoured shapes, bold brushwork and texture. Their art vastly influenced expressionist styles.
Seurat and Cezanne were interested in formal structure to achieve clarity of design. Their paintings influenced formalist styles and were based on the observation of nature and using separate strokes of color to build the surface.
- Divisionism notably known as Pointillism – developed by Seurat was a scientific technique of applying paint in tiny dots of color based on optical mixing.
Seurat - most known for the painting “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” at the Art Institute of Chicago uses pointillism.
Cezanne –used color to show form and space using simplified forms on a flat surface building on and departing from Impressionism. Cezanne’s style of painting had the most lasting effect on painting in the 20th century.
Van Gogh – used open brushwork and pure color to express feelings. The textural brushwork gave a rhythmic movement to his work and the colors used clearly expressed emotions.
Gauguin –used many symbols to communicate in his art. The visual form carrying memory, feelings, and ideas lead to Symbolism that developed around 1885.
Symbolism – a trend rather than a style was an out growth of Romanticism leading to Surrealism.
Odilon Redon - was a Symbolist painter and printmaker. His work represents an exploration of his internal feelings and psyche
Edvard Munch – known for his painting of “The Scream” is an expressive image full of anxiety, isolation, fear and loneliness.
Chap 16 notes
Chapter 16 Renaissance and Baroque Europe
Renaissance in Italy -
Humanism – philosophical, literary and artistic movement that occurred in Europe as the religious fervor of the middle ages was challenged. This focus shifted from God to humankind and the here and now.
Renaissance – means rebirth, a period of achievement and world exploration starting in the 1300’s through the early 1600’s.
High Renaissance – between 1490 – 1530, Italian art had reached a peak in Florence, Rome, and Venice with the 3 most important artists of this time – Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael.
Da Vinci pg 270 – motivated by art and science culminating in knowledge. Painted the “Mona Lisa”
Sfumato – invented by da Vinci means “without lines or borders in the manner of smoke” is achieved by subtle value gradations
Chiaroscuro - use of graduations of light and shade, forms are revealed by subtle shifting from light to dark areas, no sharp outlines
Michelangelo – greatest sculptor since the Greeks, created “David” from marble, also known as an oil painter, painted the Sistine Chapel in Rome
Raphael – celebrated as the greatest painter in Europe. His paintings were warm and gentle compared to da Vinci’s solitary nature, and Michelangelo’s moodiness.
Renaissance in Northern Europe –
Jan van Eyck – Flemish oil painter that first used linseed oil as a paint medium making it possible to achieve brilliance and transparency of color. Today, his paintings remain in almost perfect condition. Most known for painting pg 275 “The Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami.”
Late Renaissance in Italy – The High Renaissance was followed by a period of turmoil, revolution and new expectations. In the early 1500’s, questions regarding faith brought about the Protestant Reformation bringing changes in art.
Andrea Palladio – famous architect of the “Villa Rotunda” pg 277. His designs were published in books that were circulated throughout the Western world. His designs have reappeared on Postmodern buildings in the last 25 years.
- Postmodern – an imaginative, eclectic approach in architecture from the 1970’s, - 1990’s moving away from the International Style
Mannerism – prevalent in southern Europe during the 1500’s used emotion and drama. Mannerism is characterized by distortions of perspective, scale, proportion, color, and increased value contrast creating a sense of mystery and heightened emotion. This style leads to Baroque art of the 1600’s.
Baroque – covers the 1600 – 1700’s. Baroque refers to a period but also a style of art in Italy and Europe. Baroque art is known to show great energy and feeling with a dramatic use of light, scale and balance. Baroque art depicts both religious and nonreligious subjects primarily because artists did not rely wholly on the church for their support.
Caravaggio – was a leading Baroque painter using realism and dramatic use of light influencing many painters. Caravaggio created the most vivid and dramatic paintings of his time using direct light and strong contrasts to guide the viewer’s eye and intensify the subject matter of the work of art. Caravaggio used night effects called tenebrism.
- Tenebrism – a theatrical use of light and emotion by Caravaggio in a dark chapel to create a heightened religious experience.
Bernini – influential sculptor in Rome who used emotion and physical expression in his work
Rembrandt and Vermeer along with many peers painted the middle class merchants and bankers along with an emphasis on daily life. Through Dutch painters art become accessible and understandable in everyday terms to everyone.
Rembrandt – one of the world’s most revered artists has influenced artists for many years. Throughout his life, Rembrandt created nearly 100 self portraits. These are some of his most expressive paintings and a great documentary of the changes in his psychological life. It is easy to see his life biography reflected in his countenance. Beginning in his youth, he appears brash and confident. You then see the bearing of his wealth and dignified status emerges. Towards the middle of his career, his worries begin to show in his face. At the end, a very sad, yet still dignified elderly man gazes out at the viewer. Rembrandt was known as an oil painter but he also created many etchings.
Vermeer – Dutch painter of the 1600’s used light for dramatic emphasis to reveal color, texture, and detail painting the domestic life of the Dutch. His body of work consists of only 35 known works, most of which were serene landscapes or carefully composed interior scenes of the domestic working class.
George de la Tour is a French Baroque painter. He seems to combine the best characteristics of Italian and Northern art of the period.
Rococo - The word rococo is a combination of the words "rocaille" (stones) and "coquille" (shell), elements which inspire the first designs. Its subject matter frequently dealt with the leisurely pastimes of the aristocracy.
Renaissance in Italy -
Humanism – philosophical, literary and artistic movement that occurred in Europe as the religious fervor of the middle ages was challenged. This focus shifted from God to humankind and the here and now.
Renaissance – means rebirth, a period of achievement and world exploration starting in the 1300’s through the early 1600’s.
High Renaissance – between 1490 – 1530, Italian art had reached a peak in Florence, Rome, and Venice with the 3 most important artists of this time – Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael.
Da Vinci pg 270 – motivated by art and science culminating in knowledge. Painted the “Mona Lisa”
Sfumato – invented by da Vinci means “without lines or borders in the manner of smoke” is achieved by subtle value gradations
Chiaroscuro - use of graduations of light and shade, forms are revealed by subtle shifting from light to dark areas, no sharp outlines
Michelangelo – greatest sculptor since the Greeks, created “David” from marble, also known as an oil painter, painted the Sistine Chapel in Rome
Raphael – celebrated as the greatest painter in Europe. His paintings were warm and gentle compared to da Vinci’s solitary nature, and Michelangelo’s moodiness.
Renaissance in Northern Europe –
Jan van Eyck – Flemish oil painter that first used linseed oil as a paint medium making it possible to achieve brilliance and transparency of color. Today, his paintings remain in almost perfect condition. Most known for painting pg 275 “The Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami.”
Late Renaissance in Italy – The High Renaissance was followed by a period of turmoil, revolution and new expectations. In the early 1500’s, questions regarding faith brought about the Protestant Reformation bringing changes in art.
Andrea Palladio – famous architect of the “Villa Rotunda” pg 277. His designs were published in books that were circulated throughout the Western world. His designs have reappeared on Postmodern buildings in the last 25 years.
- Postmodern – an imaginative, eclectic approach in architecture from the 1970’s, - 1990’s moving away from the International Style
Mannerism – prevalent in southern Europe during the 1500’s used emotion and drama. Mannerism is characterized by distortions of perspective, scale, proportion, color, and increased value contrast creating a sense of mystery and heightened emotion. This style leads to Baroque art of the 1600’s.
Baroque – covers the 1600 – 1700’s. Baroque refers to a period but also a style of art in Italy and Europe. Baroque art is known to show great energy and feeling with a dramatic use of light, scale and balance. Baroque art depicts both religious and nonreligious subjects primarily because artists did not rely wholly on the church for their support.
Caravaggio – was a leading Baroque painter using realism and dramatic use of light influencing many painters. Caravaggio created the most vivid and dramatic paintings of his time using direct light and strong contrasts to guide the viewer’s eye and intensify the subject matter of the work of art. Caravaggio used night effects called tenebrism.
- Tenebrism – a theatrical use of light and emotion by Caravaggio in a dark chapel to create a heightened religious experience.
Bernini – influential sculptor in Rome who used emotion and physical expression in his work
Rembrandt and Vermeer along with many peers painted the middle class merchants and bankers along with an emphasis on daily life. Through Dutch painters art become accessible and understandable in everyday terms to everyone.
Rembrandt – one of the world’s most revered artists has influenced artists for many years. Throughout his life, Rembrandt created nearly 100 self portraits. These are some of his most expressive paintings and a great documentary of the changes in his psychological life. It is easy to see his life biography reflected in his countenance. Beginning in his youth, he appears brash and confident. You then see the bearing of his wealth and dignified status emerges. Towards the middle of his career, his worries begin to show in his face. At the end, a very sad, yet still dignified elderly man gazes out at the viewer. Rembrandt was known as an oil painter but he also created many etchings.
Vermeer – Dutch painter of the 1600’s used light for dramatic emphasis to reveal color, texture, and detail painting the domestic life of the Dutch. His body of work consists of only 35 known works, most of which were serene landscapes or carefully composed interior scenes of the domestic working class.
George de la Tour is a French Baroque painter. He seems to combine the best characteristics of Italian and Northern art of the period.
Rococo - The word rococo is a combination of the words "rocaille" (stones) and "coquille" (shell), elements which inspire the first designs. Its subject matter frequently dealt with the leisurely pastimes of the aristocracy.
Chap 16 Donatello/David notes
Donatello David The statue of David, by Donatello, depicts a young David standing nude (it is the first large-scale bronze nude statue in the renaissance) and holding in his hand Goliath's sword, above the head of the dead Giant. As to its dating there is no agreement among the scholars, the most acceptable view suggest the statue to be from the 1440's [1]. It is the same subject as his earlier marble statue of the same scene from 1408-9, however it displays a very different David than the well dressed victorious king. It is also different in the moment depicted because at the marble statue David still holds his slingshot, and hasn't taken up yet the Giant's sword in order to slay him.
Donatello's statue depicts a nude, with some feminine features [2]. Having feminine body serves both as a possible explanation of Jonathan's love for him (because he was beautiful like a woman) as well as to show that his accomplishment in tossing the stone at Goliath was not a result of his feminine like physic but rather of God's will. As in Michelangelo's David , it could be demonstrated that the nudity of Donatello's David is a possible interpretation of the biblical text describing the biblical hero and future king in the time of the fight with Goliath (Follow the link to the article about Michelangelo's David for an explanation of David's nudity). David's nudity at the time of the battle is contrasted with Goliath's heavy armor, for the head, which is visible under the Hero's feet, is covered in the most part by an iron helmet.
However, Donatello's David unlike the later figure by Michelangelo, is not completely nude. David wears a hat, which has a laurel on top, and a pair of boots on his legs.
This might serve, as a kind of comic response to religious minded critics who might claim it is improper nudity of the Biblical hero and ancestor of Christ. For one could response: "he is not nude at all, he has his hat and boots on".
On the helmet of Goliath is depicted a scene of the ark of the covenant carried by angles [3], and above the ark are the priests Ophni and Pinnees given offerings from the angels of God. This scene is part of the battle in which the Israelites brought to the battle field with the Philistines their most holy object (the ark of the covenant), trusting that God would bring them victory, yet the Philistines were the victorious ones, and God did not help Israel (1 Samuel 4:3-22).
The hat David is wearing is a straw hat [4]. Peasants, shepherds and others working in the open air wore these hats. Not being of much value in cold weather, the straw hat is aimed mainly to protect from the sun (for example in paintings of summer time) [5]. Therefor it is appropriate to David who came to fight Goliath from the desert and therefor was wearing indeed clothes for hot weather. Being mainly a practical garment of the lower classes, rather than a fashion statement, the straw hat had many varieties and shapes according to different regions [6]. The laurel on top of the hat is the symbol for a victorious general in roman times [7].
It is uncertain at this time whether the boots David wears, are military gear [8], or a shepherd's boots. It would seem plausible that they are not metallic for David had rejected the hero's armor because it was not comfortable to maneuver with it, so there is no reason to assume he would have left on a metallic foot-wear. The fact that they are open-toed suggests (as does the straw hat) a warm weather, and perhaps the sculptor's wish to have the toes visible.
Donatello most likely received the idea of Ancient time warriors fighting in the nude with helmet and boots from Greek Vase paintings depicting such scenes [9]. However, at his time, it is unknown whether Donatello had available to him one of the Greek vases with such a depiction. Unlike, these ancient warriors, David has instead of a helmet (symbolizing the warrior) - the shepherd's hat, in order to identify him as a shepherd as well as a warrior.
Vasari relates a story by which a figure of Christ, Donatello made was said to look like a peasant by Brunelleschi. When Donatello saw a Christ made by Brunelleschi He said Brunelleschi will make Christs and he would make peasants [10]. And so he made indeed his symbolic Christ (which David symbolizes) a peasant like with his straw hat (on the connection between the nude David and Jesus see the section on Michelangelo's David in this work).
Donatello's statue depicts a nude, with some feminine features [2]. Having feminine body serves both as a possible explanation of Jonathan's love for him (because he was beautiful like a woman) as well as to show that his accomplishment in tossing the stone at Goliath was not a result of his feminine like physic but rather of God's will. As in Michelangelo's David , it could be demonstrated that the nudity of Donatello's David is a possible interpretation of the biblical text describing the biblical hero and future king in the time of the fight with Goliath (Follow the link to the article about Michelangelo's David for an explanation of David's nudity). David's nudity at the time of the battle is contrasted with Goliath's heavy armor, for the head, which is visible under the Hero's feet, is covered in the most part by an iron helmet.
However, Donatello's David unlike the later figure by Michelangelo, is not completely nude. David wears a hat, which has a laurel on top, and a pair of boots on his legs.
This might serve, as a kind of comic response to religious minded critics who might claim it is improper nudity of the Biblical hero and ancestor of Christ. For one could response: "he is not nude at all, he has his hat and boots on".
On the helmet of Goliath is depicted a scene of the ark of the covenant carried by angles [3], and above the ark are the priests Ophni and Pinnees given offerings from the angels of God. This scene is part of the battle in which the Israelites brought to the battle field with the Philistines their most holy object (the ark of the covenant), trusting that God would bring them victory, yet the Philistines were the victorious ones, and God did not help Israel (1 Samuel 4:3-22).
The hat David is wearing is a straw hat [4]. Peasants, shepherds and others working in the open air wore these hats. Not being of much value in cold weather, the straw hat is aimed mainly to protect from the sun (for example in paintings of summer time) [5]. Therefor it is appropriate to David who came to fight Goliath from the desert and therefor was wearing indeed clothes for hot weather. Being mainly a practical garment of the lower classes, rather than a fashion statement, the straw hat had many varieties and shapes according to different regions [6]. The laurel on top of the hat is the symbol for a victorious general in roman times [7].
It is uncertain at this time whether the boots David wears, are military gear [8], or a shepherd's boots. It would seem plausible that they are not metallic for David had rejected the hero's armor because it was not comfortable to maneuver with it, so there is no reason to assume he would have left on a metallic foot-wear. The fact that they are open-toed suggests (as does the straw hat) a warm weather, and perhaps the sculptor's wish to have the toes visible.
Donatello most likely received the idea of Ancient time warriors fighting in the nude with helmet and boots from Greek Vase paintings depicting such scenes [9]. However, at his time, it is unknown whether Donatello had available to him one of the Greek vases with such a depiction. Unlike, these ancient warriors, David has instead of a helmet (symbolizing the warrior) - the shepherd's hat, in order to identify him as a shepherd as well as a warrior.
Vasari relates a story by which a figure of Christ, Donatello made was said to look like a peasant by Brunelleschi. When Donatello saw a Christ made by Brunelleschi He said Brunelleschi will make Christs and he would make peasants [10]. And so he made indeed his symbolic Christ (which David symbolizes) a peasant like with his straw hat (on the connection between the nude David and Jesus see the section on Michelangelo's David in this work).
Chap 16 homework
5 pts
Chapter 16 - Read pages 289 and 290
1. Who was the first female artist of the Renaissance to achieve recognition throughout Europe?
2. Who was the better known Baroque woman artist at this time?
3. On page 290, please give me your opinion on this article.
due at the beginning of the next class.
Chapter 16 - Read pages 289 and 290
1. Who was the first female artist of the Renaissance to achieve recognition throughout Europe?
2. Who was the better known Baroque woman artist at this time?
3. On page 290, please give me your opinion on this article.
due at the beginning of the next class.
Chap 15 homework
5 pts
Chapter 15 - Read page 250 - Please give your opinion in a few brief paragraphs on this issue.
Due at the beginning of the next class.
Chapter 15 - Read page 250 - Please give your opinion in a few brief paragraphs on this issue.
Due at the beginning of the next class.
Chap 15 notes
Chapter 15 The Classical and Medieval West
Greek –
Archaic - more rigid in stance due to equal weight on both feet. The anatomy is abstracted or simplified, and there is no emotion apparent, the eyes generally stare forward.
Kouros – youthful boy
Kore – youthful girl
Classical - there is an increased interest in accurate human anatomy, the pose becomes more natural and relaxed as the weight is shifted from one leg to the other, in a and there is a sense of idealism, figures of this period are of their ideal physical types. Emotion is also restrained in the classical style.
Hellenistic - anatomy continues to be well observed and there is an increased interest in movement or action of the figures. In addition, there is less idealism and more stress on expression of emotions.
Architectural column orders - Doric, which came first is simple, geometric and sturdy.
Ionic is taller, more dynamic and feminine in nature.
Corinthian is complex and organic.
Many of the Greek sculptures were painted.
Roman –
Romans invented concrete.
Roman sculptures strove for complete realism, images of gods and goddesses were often idealized. They made great efforts to preserve the legacy of the Ancient Greeks by creating perfect copies of many of their broken sculptures.
The Pantheon, a Roman Temple, was the first temple to combine concrete construction with the decorative use of Greek classical orders.
Illuminated Manuscript - a hand-lettered religious book produced by monks representing Christianity
Basilica cross – a style of Christian church that eventually came to represent the image of the cross
Flying buttresses - a system for propping up the buildings with an exterior support
Romanesque architectural sculpture designs tend to be very flat, shallow reliefs of biblical stories and figures.
Gothic architectural sculpture tends to be much more three dimensional and the figures start to come to life the carved bodies are full-volumed. In addition, the features are much more naturalistic, more human and individualized. This trend will influence the beginnings of Renaissance sculpture as well as painting.
Hierarchic scale – most important figure in center and larger than everything else
Language of Time
B.C. (B.C.E./B.P.) - B.C. means "before Christ." B.C. dates start with the year 0 and move back in time. Less often used are B.C.E., "before the common era," and B.P., "before present."
A.D. (C.E.) - A.D. means "anno domini," or "year of our Lord." A.D. dates start with the year 0 and move forward in time. Less often used is C.E., "common era."
c. (circa) - means "about" or "around"; used when a specific date isn't known.
Parts of the Church –
Basilica – a roman town hall with three aisles and an apse at one or both ends. Christians appropriated this form for their churches.
Apse – semicircular end to an aisle in a Christian church usually placed at the eastern end of the central aisle
Transept – lateral arms of the church
Altar – elevated space where the religious ceremony is held
Nave – tall central space of a church or cathedral flanked by side aisles
Greek –
Archaic - more rigid in stance due to equal weight on both feet. The anatomy is abstracted or simplified, and there is no emotion apparent, the eyes generally stare forward.
Kouros – youthful boy
Kore – youthful girl
Classical - there is an increased interest in accurate human anatomy, the pose becomes more natural and relaxed as the weight is shifted from one leg to the other, in a and there is a sense of idealism, figures of this period are of their ideal physical types. Emotion is also restrained in the classical style.
Hellenistic - anatomy continues to be well observed and there is an increased interest in movement or action of the figures. In addition, there is less idealism and more stress on expression of emotions.
Architectural column orders - Doric, which came first is simple, geometric and sturdy.
Ionic is taller, more dynamic and feminine in nature.
Corinthian is complex and organic.
Many of the Greek sculptures were painted.
Roman –
Romans invented concrete.
Roman sculptures strove for complete realism, images of gods and goddesses were often idealized. They made great efforts to preserve the legacy of the Ancient Greeks by creating perfect copies of many of their broken sculptures.
The Pantheon, a Roman Temple, was the first temple to combine concrete construction with the decorative use of Greek classical orders.
Illuminated Manuscript - a hand-lettered religious book produced by monks representing Christianity
Basilica cross – a style of Christian church that eventually came to represent the image of the cross
Flying buttresses - a system for propping up the buildings with an exterior support
Romanesque architectural sculpture designs tend to be very flat, shallow reliefs of biblical stories and figures.
Gothic architectural sculpture tends to be much more three dimensional and the figures start to come to life the carved bodies are full-volumed. In addition, the features are much more naturalistic, more human and individualized. This trend will influence the beginnings of Renaissance sculpture as well as painting.
Hierarchic scale – most important figure in center and larger than everything else
Language of Time
B.C. (B.C.E./B.P.) - B.C. means "before Christ." B.C. dates start with the year 0 and move back in time. Less often used are B.C.E., "before the common era," and B.P., "before present."
A.D. (C.E.) - A.D. means "anno domini," or "year of our Lord." A.D. dates start with the year 0 and move forward in time. Less often used is C.E., "common era."
c. (circa) - means "about" or "around"; used when a specific date isn't known.
Parts of the Church –
Basilica – a roman town hall with three aisles and an apse at one or both ends. Christians appropriated this form for their churches.
Apse – semicircular end to an aisle in a Christian church usually placed at the eastern end of the central aisle
Transept – lateral arms of the church
Altar – elevated space where the religious ceremony is held
Nave – tall central space of a church or cathedral flanked by side aisles
Chap 11 Sculpture notes
Chapter 11 Sculpture – Installation art
Art 211 Art Appreciation
Installation art - Controversial Works
Public art is at times controversial. Both Tilted Arc and Vietnam Veterans Memorial aroused public opinion in the early 1980s.
With Tilted Arc, the main aspect of the controversy was that it bisected the Federal Plaza, forcing people to walk around the sculpture rather than directly to the building. Other criticisms were that it would be a target for graffiti, rats, and terrorists.
Richard Serra described the work as this: “The viewer becomes aware of himself and of his movement through the plaza. As he moves, the sculpture changes. Contraction and expansion of the sculpture result from the viewer's movement. Step by step the perception not only of the sculpture but the entire environment changes.”
A public hearing was held in 1985, and 122 people testified in favor of keeping the sculpture while only 58 spoke in favor of removing it. The sculpture was dismantled and removed in 1989.
With the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, much of the controversy arose due to the non-traditional format of the design.
The idea for a memorial came from a Vietnam veteran named Jan Scruggs. After watching the film "The Deer Hunter", he organized a group of veterans to petition the government to fund the first memorial to commemorate the soldiers who were lost in this unpopular war. Congress authorized the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1980, stating that it would be located prominently on the National Mall on two acres of Constitution Gardens. Following a contest involving over 1400 entries, a jury selected the design of Maya Ying Lin of Athens, Ohio, who at the time was a 21-year old architectural student at Yale University. The Wall was built in 1982 and immediately drew criticism from various veterans groups. Because of its minimalist design and its use of black granite stone which directly sliced into the landscape, the wall was dubbed by its critics "the black gash of shame" or a "giant tombstone."
In an attempt to appease those who wanted a more heroic and representational memorial, it was decided to add Frederick Hart's Statue of the Three Servicemen to the overall design .in 1984. Nine years later, in 1993, the Vietnam Women's Memorial was added to honor the women who served and sacrificed during the Vietnam War.
Despite the original controversy, The Wall is the most beloved of the memorials, and people who come to visit it rarely leave without being touched by it. Many leave mementos of letters, dog tags, flags, and personal possessions of those they knew who died in the Vietnam war. A museum was set up to collect and display these items.
It was described by some as being disrespectful and a disgrace: “I believe that the design selected for the memorial in an open competition is pointedly insulting to the sacrifices made for their country by all Vietnam veterans. By this will we be remembered: a black gash of shame and sorrow, hacked into the national visage that is the Mall.” —Tom Carhart, 1981
Maya Lin described the memorial: “Walking through this park-like area, the memorial appears as a rift in the earth—a long, polished black stone wall, emerging from and receding into the earth. Approaching the memorial, the ground slopes gently downward, and the low walls emerging on either side, growing out of the earth, extend and converge at a point below and ahead. Walking into the grassy site contained by the walls of this memorial, we can barely make out the carved names upon the memorial’s walls. These names, seemingly infinite in number, convey the sense of overwhelming numbers, while unifying these individuals into a whole...” —From Lin’s competition entry, 1981
This public art stands today, and it is the most visited monument in Washington, D.C., today.
Art 211 Art Appreciation
Installation art - Controversial Works
Public art is at times controversial. Both Tilted Arc and Vietnam Veterans Memorial aroused public opinion in the early 1980s.
With Tilted Arc, the main aspect of the controversy was that it bisected the Federal Plaza, forcing people to walk around the sculpture rather than directly to the building. Other criticisms were that it would be a target for graffiti, rats, and terrorists.
Richard Serra described the work as this: “The viewer becomes aware of himself and of his movement through the plaza. As he moves, the sculpture changes. Contraction and expansion of the sculpture result from the viewer's movement. Step by step the perception not only of the sculpture but the entire environment changes.”
A public hearing was held in 1985, and 122 people testified in favor of keeping the sculpture while only 58 spoke in favor of removing it. The sculpture was dismantled and removed in 1989.
With the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, much of the controversy arose due to the non-traditional format of the design.
The idea for a memorial came from a Vietnam veteran named Jan Scruggs. After watching the film "The Deer Hunter", he organized a group of veterans to petition the government to fund the first memorial to commemorate the soldiers who were lost in this unpopular war. Congress authorized the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1980, stating that it would be located prominently on the National Mall on two acres of Constitution Gardens. Following a contest involving over 1400 entries, a jury selected the design of Maya Ying Lin of Athens, Ohio, who at the time was a 21-year old architectural student at Yale University. The Wall was built in 1982 and immediately drew criticism from various veterans groups. Because of its minimalist design and its use of black granite stone which directly sliced into the landscape, the wall was dubbed by its critics "the black gash of shame" or a "giant tombstone."
In an attempt to appease those who wanted a more heroic and representational memorial, it was decided to add Frederick Hart's Statue of the Three Servicemen to the overall design .in 1984. Nine years later, in 1993, the Vietnam Women's Memorial was added to honor the women who served and sacrificed during the Vietnam War.
Despite the original controversy, The Wall is the most beloved of the memorials, and people who come to visit it rarely leave without being touched by it. Many leave mementos of letters, dog tags, flags, and personal possessions of those they knew who died in the Vietnam war. A museum was set up to collect and display these items.
It was described by some as being disrespectful and a disgrace: “I believe that the design selected for the memorial in an open competition is pointedly insulting to the sacrifices made for their country by all Vietnam veterans. By this will we be remembered: a black gash of shame and sorrow, hacked into the national visage that is the Mall.” —Tom Carhart, 1981
Maya Lin described the memorial: “Walking through this park-like area, the memorial appears as a rift in the earth—a long, polished black stone wall, emerging from and receding into the earth. Approaching the memorial, the ground slopes gently downward, and the low walls emerging on either side, growing out of the earth, extend and converge at a point below and ahead. Walking into the grassy site contained by the walls of this memorial, we can barely make out the carved names upon the memorial’s walls. These names, seemingly infinite in number, convey the sense of overwhelming numbers, while unifying these individuals into a whole...” —From Lin’s competition entry, 1981
This public art stands today, and it is the most visited monument in Washington, D.C., today.
Chap 11, 12, 13 notes
Chapter 11, 12, 13
Chapter 11 Sculpture
Some materials used in sculpture are wax, plaster, wood, marble, metals, concrete, and clay.
- Freestanding or in the round – to be seen from all sides
- Relief – a projection from a surrounding surface
- Low relief – slight projection from the surface such as a coin
- High relief – more than half of the projection is raised from the surface
Methods and Materials –
- Modeling – pliable materials such as clay, wax or plaster are built up, removed or pushed into the final form. Modeling is most often an additive process.
- Additive – to add materials to an armature, to build up the materials
- Subtraction – to take away material
- Armature – underlying rigid inner structure
- Casting – to execute a work then reproduce it in a more permanent material. Casting involves a substitution of one material for another making a substitution process. Generally clay is used as the base then a mold is made then cast with another material usually bronze.
- Carving – to take away unwanted material to form a sculpture is called a subtractive process. The most widely used carving material is marble but there are many other materials that are used such as wood, plaster, jade, basalt, etc.
- Void – an enclosed or defined negative space
- Constructing and Assembling – Assembling materials began popular in the early 20th century and were called constructions. Some popular types of constructions are -
- Kinetic Sculpture – sculpture that moves (mobiles and stabiles)
- Mixed media – to use a variety of media in a single work
- Installations – 3D use of constructing and assembling a work
- Readymades - generally incorporate everyday items in a different way than the intended use of the object.
- Land Art or Earthworks - Site specific using natural items
- Public Art – exhibited outdoors for public viewing
Two general types of sculptural form -
Tectonic – simple massive forms – (Kiss by Brancusi pg 31 or Qennefer pg 46)
Atectonic – spacious forms – (Man Pointing by Giacometti pg 46 or Dancing Krishna pg 57)
Chapter 12 Clay, Glass, Metal, Wood, Fiber
Clay -
Ceramics – making objects from clay
Firing – clay exposed to heat hardens in a process called firing
Potter – a person who works with clay
Earthenware – fired at a relatively low temperature and is porous after firing
Stoneware – fired at a high temperature and is not porous
Porcelain – fired at a high temperature, rare, non porous, first developed in China
Building methods –
- Slab – flat, sheet of clay
- Coil – hand rolled coils
- Modeling – to build on an armature
- Throwing – shaping clay on a moving wheel
- Kiln – a clay oven
- Slip – liquid clay used to secure pieces together. Can be colored for use in decoration of clay called underglazes.
- Glaze – liquid with a silica base that turns into a glass like substance when fired. Glaze creates a nonporous surface and can be glossy, matte, translucent or opaque depending on the chemical composition used.
Basic Building Methods
1. Pinch – involves starting with a ball of clay and thinning it with the pressure of the thumb and fingers. It looks easy but requires patience and dexterity with sensitivity to thickness and form. The sides should be no wider than ¼”.
2. Coil – is rolled into snakes joined one on top of each other or in other ways. The coils are either smoothed together or joins are secured by scoring and slipping.
3. Slab – clay is flattened by hand or with a roller and the resulting slab is then used around molds or cut to form pieces to build and join with scoring and slipping.
Three Stages of Working Material
1. Wet clay – moist clay is the most pliable when beginning and forming the basic project.
2. Leather hard clay – is still moist, but had dried enough so it will maintain its formed shape when handled. This stage is when to clean, trim, and add attachments with slip.
3. Bone dry clay - is completely dry at room temperature. Project will be extremely fragile at this point and no further attachments can be made.
Steps in the Firing Process
1. Greenware – a finished bone dry project before it is fired in a kiln. It is usually left uncolored at this point, but can be decorated with colored slips.
2. Bisque – is clay that has been fired in the kiln once to force moisture out, strengthen the form, and create a glaze ready surface.
3. Glazeware – a bisque ware piece is coated with glaze which forms a hard glass like surface when fired. Glazeware must be fired to a specific melting point for the glaze to create the glass-like surface.
Finishing
1. Burnishing – using a spoon or other smooth object to polish greenware giving it a smooth finish before firing.
2. Glazing – to use a clay based substance on bisque which is then fired to create a glass like finish.
Glass - has been used for at least 4 thousand years as a material for practical containers of all shapes and sizes. In the Middle Ages, stained glass was used for churches and blown-glass pieces have been made in Venice Italy since the Renaissance. Glass is a fine medium for decorative inlays in a variety of objects including jewelry.
Metal - primary characteristics are strength and formability. The various types of metal most often used for sculpture can be hammered, cut, drawn out, welded, joined with rivets or cast. Early metal smiths created tools, vessels, armor, and weapons
Wood - Growth characteristics if individual trees remain visible in the grain of the wood long after trees are cut, giving wood vitality not found in other materials.
Fiber art - includes such processes as weaving, stitching, basketmaking, surface design, wearable art and handmade papermaking. These fiber processes use natural and synthetic fibers in both traditional and innovative ways. Artists working with fiber draw on the heritage of traditional practices and also explore new avenues of expression.
Chapter 13 Architecture and Environmental Design
Post and lintel – most common structure - vertical posts or columns support horizontal beams and carry the weight of the entire structure to the ground
Round arch – semicircular arch of stone
- Barrel vault – is a round arch extended to create a tunnel like structure.
- Groin vault – formed by two intersecting barrel vaults creating 4 openings
- Vault – curving ceiling or roof structure made of bricks or stone tightly fitted together to form a shell
- Keystone – the final stone set in the top of the arch.
- Arcade – a series of arches supported by columns
Romans first introduced concrete.
Dome – arch rotated 180 degrees
Gothic Arch – pointed arch – allowed buildings to be wider and taller with larger windows.
- buttresses – outer walls built at right angles to the gothic arch support weight
- flying buttresses – stone half arch on the outside of the building
Trusses – triangular wood framework use to span, reinforce, or support
Steel and reinforced concrete – between 1890 and 1910 developed of high strength structural steel made way for skyscrapers
Louis Sullivan – pg 215 - first great modern architect used steel and concrete creating the skyscraper. His first skyscraper was the Wainwright Building in St Louis MO and was made possible by the invention of the elevator and steel used for structural skeletons of buildings. Sullivan’s philosophy
“form follows function.”
International Style – broke way from decorative ornamentation, and the idea of a building as a mass expressing the function of each building, its underlying structure and asymmetrical plan.
Le Corbusier, a French architect - designed the Domino construction system – steel column and reinforced concrete slab construction designed by the floors and roof are supported on load bearing columns instead of walls making it possible to vary the placement of interior walls
Walter Gropius – used the International Style for the BAUHAUS and art school in Germany. Because the walls were not load bearing they could be made from glass called curtain walls.
Mies van der Rohe – designed the Seagram Building in New York. It was a steel frame construction with non load bearing walls leaving large public areas open at the base.
Rohe’s famous quote “Less is more.”
Frank Lloyd Wright - pg 222 – influenced by Japanese architecture, he was the first to use open floor plans. Wright created natural spaces flowing into the outdoors making use of the cantilever. One of his most well known homes is called Falling Water. He has several homes in Grand Rapids also.
- Cantilever – when a beam or slab is extended a substantial distance beyond a supporting column, the overhanging part is the cantilever.
Chapter 11 Sculpture
Some materials used in sculpture are wax, plaster, wood, marble, metals, concrete, and clay.
- Freestanding or in the round – to be seen from all sides
- Relief – a projection from a surrounding surface
- Low relief – slight projection from the surface such as a coin
- High relief – more than half of the projection is raised from the surface
Methods and Materials –
- Modeling – pliable materials such as clay, wax or plaster are built up, removed or pushed into the final form. Modeling is most often an additive process.
- Additive – to add materials to an armature, to build up the materials
- Subtraction – to take away material
- Armature – underlying rigid inner structure
- Casting – to execute a work then reproduce it in a more permanent material. Casting involves a substitution of one material for another making a substitution process. Generally clay is used as the base then a mold is made then cast with another material usually bronze.
- Carving – to take away unwanted material to form a sculpture is called a subtractive process. The most widely used carving material is marble but there are many other materials that are used such as wood, plaster, jade, basalt, etc.
- Void – an enclosed or defined negative space
- Constructing and Assembling – Assembling materials began popular in the early 20th century and were called constructions. Some popular types of constructions are -
- Kinetic Sculpture – sculpture that moves (mobiles and stabiles)
- Mixed media – to use a variety of media in a single work
- Installations – 3D use of constructing and assembling a work
- Readymades - generally incorporate everyday items in a different way than the intended use of the object.
- Land Art or Earthworks - Site specific using natural items
- Public Art – exhibited outdoors for public viewing
Two general types of sculptural form -
Tectonic – simple massive forms – (Kiss by Brancusi pg 31 or Qennefer pg 46)
Atectonic – spacious forms – (Man Pointing by Giacometti pg 46 or Dancing Krishna pg 57)
Chapter 12 Clay, Glass, Metal, Wood, Fiber
Clay -
Ceramics – making objects from clay
Firing – clay exposed to heat hardens in a process called firing
Potter – a person who works with clay
Earthenware – fired at a relatively low temperature and is porous after firing
Stoneware – fired at a high temperature and is not porous
Porcelain – fired at a high temperature, rare, non porous, first developed in China
Building methods –
- Slab – flat, sheet of clay
- Coil – hand rolled coils
- Modeling – to build on an armature
- Throwing – shaping clay on a moving wheel
- Kiln – a clay oven
- Slip – liquid clay used to secure pieces together. Can be colored for use in decoration of clay called underglazes.
- Glaze – liquid with a silica base that turns into a glass like substance when fired. Glaze creates a nonporous surface and can be glossy, matte, translucent or opaque depending on the chemical composition used.
Basic Building Methods
1. Pinch – involves starting with a ball of clay and thinning it with the pressure of the thumb and fingers. It looks easy but requires patience and dexterity with sensitivity to thickness and form. The sides should be no wider than ¼”.
2. Coil – is rolled into snakes joined one on top of each other or in other ways. The coils are either smoothed together or joins are secured by scoring and slipping.
3. Slab – clay is flattened by hand or with a roller and the resulting slab is then used around molds or cut to form pieces to build and join with scoring and slipping.
Three Stages of Working Material
1. Wet clay – moist clay is the most pliable when beginning and forming the basic project.
2. Leather hard clay – is still moist, but had dried enough so it will maintain its formed shape when handled. This stage is when to clean, trim, and add attachments with slip.
3. Bone dry clay - is completely dry at room temperature. Project will be extremely fragile at this point and no further attachments can be made.
Steps in the Firing Process
1. Greenware – a finished bone dry project before it is fired in a kiln. It is usually left uncolored at this point, but can be decorated with colored slips.
2. Bisque – is clay that has been fired in the kiln once to force moisture out, strengthen the form, and create a glaze ready surface.
3. Glazeware – a bisque ware piece is coated with glaze which forms a hard glass like surface when fired. Glazeware must be fired to a specific melting point for the glaze to create the glass-like surface.
Finishing
1. Burnishing – using a spoon or other smooth object to polish greenware giving it a smooth finish before firing.
2. Glazing – to use a clay based substance on bisque which is then fired to create a glass like finish.
Glass - has been used for at least 4 thousand years as a material for practical containers of all shapes and sizes. In the Middle Ages, stained glass was used for churches and blown-glass pieces have been made in Venice Italy since the Renaissance. Glass is a fine medium for decorative inlays in a variety of objects including jewelry.
Metal - primary characteristics are strength and formability. The various types of metal most often used for sculpture can be hammered, cut, drawn out, welded, joined with rivets or cast. Early metal smiths created tools, vessels, armor, and weapons
Wood - Growth characteristics if individual trees remain visible in the grain of the wood long after trees are cut, giving wood vitality not found in other materials.
Fiber art - includes such processes as weaving, stitching, basketmaking, surface design, wearable art and handmade papermaking. These fiber processes use natural and synthetic fibers in both traditional and innovative ways. Artists working with fiber draw on the heritage of traditional practices and also explore new avenues of expression.
Chapter 13 Architecture and Environmental Design
Post and lintel – most common structure - vertical posts or columns support horizontal beams and carry the weight of the entire structure to the ground
Round arch – semicircular arch of stone
- Barrel vault – is a round arch extended to create a tunnel like structure.
- Groin vault – formed by two intersecting barrel vaults creating 4 openings
- Vault – curving ceiling or roof structure made of bricks or stone tightly fitted together to form a shell
- Keystone – the final stone set in the top of the arch.
- Arcade – a series of arches supported by columns
Romans first introduced concrete.
Dome – arch rotated 180 degrees
Gothic Arch – pointed arch – allowed buildings to be wider and taller with larger windows.
- buttresses – outer walls built at right angles to the gothic arch support weight
- flying buttresses – stone half arch on the outside of the building
Trusses – triangular wood framework use to span, reinforce, or support
Steel and reinforced concrete – between 1890 and 1910 developed of high strength structural steel made way for skyscrapers
Louis Sullivan – pg 215 - first great modern architect used steel and concrete creating the skyscraper. His first skyscraper was the Wainwright Building in St Louis MO and was made possible by the invention of the elevator and steel used for structural skeletons of buildings. Sullivan’s philosophy
“form follows function.”
International Style – broke way from decorative ornamentation, and the idea of a building as a mass expressing the function of each building, its underlying structure and asymmetrical plan.
Le Corbusier, a French architect - designed the Domino construction system – steel column and reinforced concrete slab construction designed by the floors and roof are supported on load bearing columns instead of walls making it possible to vary the placement of interior walls
Walter Gropius – used the International Style for the BAUHAUS and art school in Germany. Because the walls were not load bearing they could be made from glass called curtain walls.
Mies van der Rohe – designed the Seagram Building in New York. It was a steel frame construction with non load bearing walls leaving large public areas open at the base.
Rohe’s famous quote “Less is more.”
Frank Lloyd Wright - pg 222 – influenced by Japanese architecture, he was the first to use open floor plans. Wright created natural spaces flowing into the outdoors making use of the cantilever. One of his most well known homes is called Falling Water. He has several homes in Grand Rapids also.
- Cantilever – when a beam or slab is extended a substantial distance beyond a supporting column, the overhanging part is the cantilever.
Chap 8, 9, 10 notes - Printmaking,
Art 211 Art Appreciation
Chapter 8, 9 and 10
Instructor Kelly Parker
Chapter 8 Printmaking
Printmaking – a variety of techniques developed to create multiple copies of a single image.
Four basic printmaking methods – Relief, intaglio, lithography, screenprinting
Relief – inks lays on the surface. The printmaker cuts away all parts of the print surface not meant to carry ink, leaving the design to be printed “in relief”. Relief processes include woodcut or woodblock, wood engraving, or linocut or linoleum cut. Some examples of relief prints are fingerprints, rubber stamps, or tire marks.
- Woodcut – traditionally black and white designs cut into a soft wood along the grain. Color can be printed with single or multiple blocks and each color has its own block of wood and is registered to line up in the exact place on each print. Wood grain can be seen and it is difficult to work against the grain.
- Wood engravings are done on the “ends” of a block of wood. A block is glued together and then the ends are sanded and engraved for printmaking.
Chapter 8, 9 and 10
Instructor Kelly Parker
Chapter 8 Printmaking
Printmaking – a variety of techniques developed to create multiple copies of a single image.
Four basic printmaking methods – Relief, intaglio, lithography, screenprinting
Relief – inks lays on the surface. The printmaker cuts away all parts of the print surface not meant to carry ink, leaving the design to be printed “in relief”. Relief processes include woodcut or woodblock, wood engraving, or linocut or linoleum cut. Some examples of relief prints are fingerprints, rubber stamps, or tire marks.
- Woodcut – traditionally black and white designs cut into a soft wood along the grain. Color can be printed with single or multiple blocks and each color has its own block of wood and is registered to line up in the exact place on each print. Wood grain can be seen and it is difficult to work against the grain.
- Wood engravings are done on the “ends” of a block of wood. A block is glued together and then the ends are sanded and engraved for printmaking.
- Linoleum cuts – is modern in development and artists start with a rubbery, synthetic surface of linoleum and take out areas that are not intended to be inked. There is no grain on linoleum and it can be cut with ease in any direction.
Intaglio – is opposite of relief – areas below the surface hold the ink for printing. The image to be printed is cut or scratched into a metal surface with steel tools or etched into the surface by acid. Damp paper is then placed under a roller and a print is created from the pressure leaving a characteristic plate mark around the print. Cooper plates are traditionally used by zinc, steel, aluminum and plexi-glas are used.
-Engraving – lines are cut into a polished surface of the plate with burin or engraving tool. The burin is pushed into the metal to create a groove to hold the ink.
- Drypoint – using a thin pointed tool with a steel tip the artist digs lines into a soft cooper or zinc plate leaving a burr or rough edge. The burr catches the ink and leaves a slightly blurred line.
-Etching – begins with a metal plate with a ground. The ground is a protective coating of acid resistant material covering the plate. The artist then draws easily through the ground with a pointed tool exposing the metal. The plate is then immersed in acid making a groove for the ink.
Lithography – the artist draws the litho crayon, litho pencil or tusche (a greasy liquid) on a flat limestone surface. The image is then treated and fixed on the stone then dampened with water covered with paper and run through a press transferring the image to paper.
Screen printing – also known as stencil printing. For this process, the artist adheres a stencil to a screen made of silk stretched across a frame and with a rubber squeegee tool the ink is then pressed through the fabric onto the ground.
Monoprint - a one of a kind print achieved by applying colored inks to a smooth surface and then transferring that image to paper. The earliest monoprints date back to the 1600's. Many famous artists including Gaugin, Rembrandt, and Degas experimented with monoprint techniques.
What is the difference between a fine art print and a reproduction? A fine art print is a "multiple original." Usually within the confines of a limited edition, the artist conceives and executes his work specifically in the context of one or more hand-produced techniques such as etching, woodcut, silk screen, lino cut, etc. Each of the works are created either by the artist or under his direct supervision by a master printmaker. Each are considered "original" and signed by the artist. A "reproduction", on the other hand, is photo-mechanically reproduced, and not created by the artist. There is generally an unlimited production of these prints usually called posters, and they have little monetary value, in most cases.
Chapter 9 Camera Arts and Digital Imaging
History of Photography - We owe the name "Photography" to Sir John Herschel, who first used the term in 1839, the year the photographic process became public. The innovations which would lead to the development of photography existed long before the first photograph. The camera obscura had been in existence for at least four hundred years, but its use was limited to its purpose as an aid to drawing. It was discovered that if a room was completely darkened, with a single hole in one wall, an inverted image would be seen on the opposite wall. A person inside of the room could then trace this image, which was upside-down. The earliest record of the uses of a camera obscura is found in the writings of Leonardo da Vinci, who may have used it to understanding perspective. In the 17th and 18th centuries, a table-top model was developed. By adding a focused lens and a mirror, it was possible for a person outside of the box to trace the image which was reflected through it.
It was a French man, Nicephore Niepce (pronounced Nee-ps) who produced the first photograph in 1827. By using chemicals on a metal plate, placed inside of a camera obscura, he was able to record an obscure image of the view outside of his window. He called his process "heliography".
Photography –
Daguerre – a painter who perfected the camera. The camera was seen by landscape and portrait painters as a threat to their livelihood.
- Daguerreotype – early photographic process which required a metal plate exposed to light and chemical reaction to create a photo.
Drawbacks -
length of the exposure time ruled out portraiture
the image was laterally reversed
image was very fragile
was a "once only" system because it was fixed to metal
Photography as art –
Alfred Stieglitz, American crusader for art photography movement.
Camera is a vehicle for
- personal expression
- symbolic communication
- eye-catching compositions
Photography as a document of the times - Lewis Hine - photographed children working in factories, on railroads, and other dangerous working environments bringing greater awareness to the problem of child labor
Dorothea Lange - commissioned to create a portfolio of photographs documenting the migrant farm workers in California.
Margaret Bourke-White
Eadweard Muybridge - greatest pioneers of motion photography (the horse)
Chapter 10 Graphic Design and Illustration
The main function of graphic design is to communicate messages in printed and visual forms (television, product packaging, exhibitions, and computer graphics) that identify, inform, and persuade. To be most effective, graphic design must catch the attention of the viewer while communicating a specific message. It is an art form, but one with a commercial and mass marketing appeal, allowing the art to become highly accessible to a wide ranging audience. One of the main common forms of graphic design is advertising.
Intaglio – is opposite of relief – areas below the surface hold the ink for printing. The image to be printed is cut or scratched into a metal surface with steel tools or etched into the surface by acid. Damp paper is then placed under a roller and a print is created from the pressure leaving a characteristic plate mark around the print. Cooper plates are traditionally used by zinc, steel, aluminum and plexi-glas are used.
-Engraving – lines are cut into a polished surface of the plate with burin or engraving tool. The burin is pushed into the metal to create a groove to hold the ink.
- Drypoint – using a thin pointed tool with a steel tip the artist digs lines into a soft cooper or zinc plate leaving a burr or rough edge. The burr catches the ink and leaves a slightly blurred line.
-Etching – begins with a metal plate with a ground. The ground is a protective coating of acid resistant material covering the plate. The artist then draws easily through the ground with a pointed tool exposing the metal. The plate is then immersed in acid making a groove for the ink.
Lithography – the artist draws the litho crayon, litho pencil or tusche (a greasy liquid) on a flat limestone surface. The image is then treated and fixed on the stone then dampened with water covered with paper and run through a press transferring the image to paper.
Screen printing – also known as stencil printing. For this process, the artist adheres a stencil to a screen made of silk stretched across a frame and with a rubber squeegee tool the ink is then pressed through the fabric onto the ground.
Monoprint - a one of a kind print achieved by applying colored inks to a smooth surface and then transferring that image to paper. The earliest monoprints date back to the 1600's. Many famous artists including Gaugin, Rembrandt, and Degas experimented with monoprint techniques.
What is the difference between a fine art print and a reproduction? A fine art print is a "multiple original." Usually within the confines of a limited edition, the artist conceives and executes his work specifically in the context of one or more hand-produced techniques such as etching, woodcut, silk screen, lino cut, etc. Each of the works are created either by the artist or under his direct supervision by a master printmaker. Each are considered "original" and signed by the artist. A "reproduction", on the other hand, is photo-mechanically reproduced, and not created by the artist. There is generally an unlimited production of these prints usually called posters, and they have little monetary value, in most cases.
Chapter 9 Camera Arts and Digital Imaging
History of Photography - We owe the name "Photography" to Sir John Herschel, who first used the term in 1839, the year the photographic process became public. The innovations which would lead to the development of photography existed long before the first photograph. The camera obscura had been in existence for at least four hundred years, but its use was limited to its purpose as an aid to drawing. It was discovered that if a room was completely darkened, with a single hole in one wall, an inverted image would be seen on the opposite wall. A person inside of the room could then trace this image, which was upside-down. The earliest record of the uses of a camera obscura is found in the writings of Leonardo da Vinci, who may have used it to understanding perspective. In the 17th and 18th centuries, a table-top model was developed. By adding a focused lens and a mirror, it was possible for a person outside of the box to trace the image which was reflected through it.
It was a French man, Nicephore Niepce (pronounced Nee-ps) who produced the first photograph in 1827. By using chemicals on a metal plate, placed inside of a camera obscura, he was able to record an obscure image of the view outside of his window. He called his process "heliography".
Photography –
Daguerre – a painter who perfected the camera. The camera was seen by landscape and portrait painters as a threat to their livelihood.
- Daguerreotype – early photographic process which required a metal plate exposed to light and chemical reaction to create a photo.
Drawbacks -
length of the exposure time ruled out portraiture
the image was laterally reversed
image was very fragile
was a "once only" system because it was fixed to metal
Photography as art –
Alfred Stieglitz, American crusader for art photography movement.
Camera is a vehicle for
- personal expression
- symbolic communication
- eye-catching compositions
Photography as a document of the times - Lewis Hine - photographed children working in factories, on railroads, and other dangerous working environments bringing greater awareness to the problem of child labor
Dorothea Lange - commissioned to create a portfolio of photographs documenting the migrant farm workers in California.
Margaret Bourke-White
Eadweard Muybridge - greatest pioneers of motion photography (the horse)
Chapter 10 Graphic Design and Illustration
The main function of graphic design is to communicate messages in printed and visual forms (television, product packaging, exhibitions, and computer graphics) that identify, inform, and persuade. To be most effective, graphic design must catch the attention of the viewer while communicating a specific message. It is an art form, but one with a commercial and mass marketing appeal, allowing the art to become highly accessible to a wide ranging audience. One of the main common forms of graphic design is advertising.
Administration - From road signs to technical schematics, from interoffice memorandums to reference manuals, graphic design enhances transfer of knowledge. Readability is enhanced by improving the visual presentation of text. Intricate and clever pictures are used when words cannot suffice.
Advertising
Graphic designs have a unique ability to sell a product or idea through effective visual communications. It is applied to products as well as elements of company identity like logos, colors, and text, together defined as branding. Branding has increasingly become important in the range of services offered by many graphic designers, alongside corporate identity and the terms are often used interchangeably.
Entertainment
From decoration, to scenery, to visual story telling, graphic design is applied to entertainment. From cover to cover in novels and comic books, from opening credits to closing credits in film, from programs to props on stage, graphic design helps set the theme and the intended mood.
Education
Graphics are used in textbooks for subjects such as geography, science, and math to illustrate theories and diagrams. A common example of graphics in use to educate is diagrams of human anatomy. Graphic design is applied to layout and formatting of educational material to make the information more accessible and more readily understandable.
Journalism
From scientific journals to news reporting, the presentation of opinion and facts is often improved with graphics and thoughtful compositions of visual information - known as information design. Newspapers, magazines, blogs, television and film documentaries may use graphic design to inform and entertain. With the advent of the web, information designers with experience in interactive tools such as Adobe Flash are increasingly being used to illustrate the background to news stories.
Web
Graphic designers are often involved in web design. Combining visual communication skills with the interactive communication skills of user interaction and online branding, graphic designers often work with web developers to create both the look and feel of a web site and enhance the online experience of web site visitors.
Typography – Display typography encompasses: posters; book covers; typographic logos and word marks; billboards; packaging; on-product typography; calligraphy; graffiti; inscriptional and architectural lettering; poster design and other large scale lettering signage; business communications and promotional collateral; advertising; and kinetic typography in motion pictures and television; vending machine displays; online and computer screen displays.
Illustration – An illustration is a visualization such as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that stresses subject more than form. The aim of an illustration is to elucidate or decorate textual information such as a story, poem or newspaper article by providing a visual representation.
The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric cave paintings. Before the invention of the printing press, illuminated manuscripts were hand-illustrated. Illustration has been used in China and Japan since the 8th century, traditionally by creating woodcuts to accompany writing.
Illustrations can:
- give faces to characters in a story;
- display examples of an item described in an academic textbook
- visualize step-wise sets of instructions in a technical manual;
- communicate subtle thematic tone in a narrative;
- link brands to the ideas of human expression, individuality and creativity;
- inspire the viewer to feel emotion to expand on the linguistic aspects of the narrative.
Advertising
Graphic designs have a unique ability to sell a product or idea through effective visual communications. It is applied to products as well as elements of company identity like logos, colors, and text, together defined as branding. Branding has increasingly become important in the range of services offered by many graphic designers, alongside corporate identity and the terms are often used interchangeably.
Entertainment
From decoration, to scenery, to visual story telling, graphic design is applied to entertainment. From cover to cover in novels and comic books, from opening credits to closing credits in film, from programs to props on stage, graphic design helps set the theme and the intended mood.
Education
Graphics are used in textbooks for subjects such as geography, science, and math to illustrate theories and diagrams. A common example of graphics in use to educate is diagrams of human anatomy. Graphic design is applied to layout and formatting of educational material to make the information more accessible and more readily understandable.
Journalism
From scientific journals to news reporting, the presentation of opinion and facts is often improved with graphics and thoughtful compositions of visual information - known as information design. Newspapers, magazines, blogs, television and film documentaries may use graphic design to inform and entertain. With the advent of the web, information designers with experience in interactive tools such as Adobe Flash are increasingly being used to illustrate the background to news stories.
Web
Graphic designers are often involved in web design. Combining visual communication skills with the interactive communication skills of user interaction and online branding, graphic designers often work with web developers to create both the look and feel of a web site and enhance the online experience of web site visitors.
Typography – Display typography encompasses: posters; book covers; typographic logos and word marks; billboards; packaging; on-product typography; calligraphy; graffiti; inscriptional and architectural lettering; poster design and other large scale lettering signage; business communications and promotional collateral; advertising; and kinetic typography in motion pictures and television; vending machine displays; online and computer screen displays.
Illustration – An illustration is a visualization such as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that stresses subject more than form. The aim of an illustration is to elucidate or decorate textual information such as a story, poem or newspaper article by providing a visual representation.
The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric cave paintings. Before the invention of the printing press, illuminated manuscripts were hand-illustrated. Illustration has been used in China and Japan since the 8th century, traditionally by creating woodcuts to accompany writing.
Illustrations can:
- give faces to characters in a story;
- display examples of an item described in an academic textbook
- visualize step-wise sets of instructions in a technical manual;
- communicate subtle thematic tone in a narrative;
- link brands to the ideas of human expression, individuality and creativity;
- inspire the viewer to feel emotion to expand on the linguistic aspects of the narrative.
Chap 8, 9, and 10 homework
10 pts
Chapter 8, 9, and 10 -
1. Look at Heidi Cody’s American Alphabet installation (fig 235 on page 172). Can you identify where any of the letters came from? If yes, which ones and what point is Cody trying to make with this art work?
2. Do you have a favorite children’s book illustrator? Who is the author/illustrator, book title, and why it is your favorite?
3. Scavenger hunt – use a magazine, cut out examples and paste and label on a sheet of paper
a. an example of a logo
b. example of a corporate symbol
c. example of an illustration
Chapter 8, 9, and 10 -
1. Look at Heidi Cody’s American Alphabet installation (fig 235 on page 172). Can you identify where any of the letters came from? If yes, which ones and what point is Cody trying to make with this art work?
2. Do you have a favorite children’s book illustrator? Who is the author/illustrator, book title, and why it is your favorite?
3. Scavenger hunt – use a magazine, cut out examples and paste and label on a sheet of paper
a. an example of a logo
b. example of a corporate symbol
c. example of an illustration
Chap 6 Drawing and Chap 7 Painting notes
Art 211 Art Appreciation
Chapter 6 notes - Drawing
Purposes of Drawing – pg 105
- as a notation, sketch or record of something seen, remembered, or imagined
- as a study or preparation fir another usually larger and more complex work of art such as a sculpture, a building, a film, a painting or another drawing.
- as an end in itself as a completed drawing or work of art.
- Cartoon – a narrative drawing emphasizing humor or satire
Types of Hatching –
- Hatching – built up parallel lines
- Cross-hatching – lines going in two directions
- Contour hatching – parallel lines giving the feeling of sculptural mass
Contour drawing – surrounds the edge of a form, distinguishing one area from another while limiting the form, as the line appearing in a coloring book does. An outline defines a two-dimensional shape. Contour lines are interior and exterior boundaries (edges) of an implied three-dimensional form.
Blind contour drawing - a method of drawing, which presents itself as an effective training aid. The student, fixing their eyes on the outline of the model or object, draws the contour very slowly in a steady, continuous line without lifting the pencil or looking at the paper.
Gesture drawing - a way to "see", a technique of drawing, an exercise, a defined "scribble", and a finished style. Basically, it is a method of training hands to quickly sketch what the brain has already seen. Staying "focused" means sustained concentration.
Medium – the physical substance used by any visual artist such as marble, oil paint, ink, charcoal, etc
Dry Media –
- Pencil – graphic or colored pencils
Darkness and line quality are determined by both the hardness of the pencil and by the texture of the drawing surface. Paper that has tooth (surface grain) receives pencil marks more easily than paper that is smooth. Pencil lines can vary in width or length and be broad or fine.
- Charcoal – produces a wide range of light to dark values from soft grays to deep blacks. Charcoal is good for quick sketches and finished drawings but need to be sprayed with a fixative to help prevent smudges.
- Conte crayon – semi-hard chalk with an oil binder that adheres to smooth papers. It can produce many varied lines to broad strokes that are fairly resistant to smudging.
- Pastel – can be blended with fingers or a paper stump that produces a soft blur of color.
Liquid Media –
- Ink – most common drawing liquid used with a brush. Creates expressive flowing lines and is ideal for calligraphic lines.
- Markers – are used in traditional pen-and-ink media.
All drawing media are based on pigment, the powdered color material. The difference between chalk and crayon, or oil and chalk pastels, is the binder, the substance that holds the pigment together. One is greasy and adheres more easily, making blending more difficult. Pastels, using a nonfat binder, are considered borderline between painting & drawing, as they blend easily. Crayon usually refers to Conté crayon. Artists continue to develop new drawing materials, such as felt-tip markers, ballpoint pens, and a combination of mixed media.
Chapter 7 notes - Painting
Paints consist of 3 components –
- pigment - which is the color derived from plants, animals, and minerals and synthetics
- binder or medium - mixes with the pigment to hold the pigment together and to the painting surface. With oils, linseed oil is the binder
- vehicle – spreads the pigment. With oils turpentine or an equivalent is the vehicle.
Fresco or Buon Fresco – pigments are suspended in water and applied to a damp plaster surface.
Encaustic – a technique using melted beeswax as the vehicle for painting
Tempera –
- Egg tempera was used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans and was highly developed in the Middle Ages. The binder in egg tempera is egg yolk and has a luminous slightly matte surface when dry. Painted on a ground of white gesso the colors produced are clean and brilliant in quality. Dries quickly,
Oil paints – can be applied thickly or thinly, wet into wet, or wet onto dry. Increased opacity which covers better and when thinned is transparent are qualities of oil paint along with a slow drying time which can be use to the artists advantage when mixing or blending colors. Oil paint can be applied over acrylic, but acrylic cannot be applied over oil paint because of the drying time. Oil paint dries much slower than acrylic.
Acrylic – synthetic painting media are fast drying and flexible can be applied to almost any surface. Acrylic can be thinned with water but are water resistant. A synthetic paint that was developed in the middle of the twentieth century.
Watercolor –
- Pigments are suspended in water and gum arabic to absorbent cotton paper. Watercolor is basically a staining technique applied in thin translucent washes that allow light to pass through the layers of color reflecting back from the white of the paper.
Matte – not shiny
Gesso – chalk or plaster and glue that is applied to a support as a ground for tempera and oil paintings
Support – wood panels, canvas, linen, rag paper, etc
Glaze – thinned pigment
Impasto – thickly applied paint
Art in the World
Chapter 6 notes - Drawing
Purposes of Drawing – pg 105
- as a notation, sketch or record of something seen, remembered, or imagined
- as a study or preparation fir another usually larger and more complex work of art such as a sculpture, a building, a film, a painting or another drawing.
- as an end in itself as a completed drawing or work of art.
- Cartoon – a narrative drawing emphasizing humor or satire
Types of Hatching –
- Hatching – built up parallel lines
- Cross-hatching – lines going in two directions
- Contour hatching – parallel lines giving the feeling of sculptural mass
Contour drawing – surrounds the edge of a form, distinguishing one area from another while limiting the form, as the line appearing in a coloring book does. An outline defines a two-dimensional shape. Contour lines are interior and exterior boundaries (edges) of an implied three-dimensional form.
Blind contour drawing - a method of drawing, which presents itself as an effective training aid. The student, fixing their eyes on the outline of the model or object, draws the contour very slowly in a steady, continuous line without lifting the pencil or looking at the paper.
Gesture drawing - a way to "see", a technique of drawing, an exercise, a defined "scribble", and a finished style. Basically, it is a method of training hands to quickly sketch what the brain has already seen. Staying "focused" means sustained concentration.
Medium – the physical substance used by any visual artist such as marble, oil paint, ink, charcoal, etc
Dry Media –
- Pencil – graphic or colored pencils
Darkness and line quality are determined by both the hardness of the pencil and by the texture of the drawing surface. Paper that has tooth (surface grain) receives pencil marks more easily than paper that is smooth. Pencil lines can vary in width or length and be broad or fine.
- Charcoal – produces a wide range of light to dark values from soft grays to deep blacks. Charcoal is good for quick sketches and finished drawings but need to be sprayed with a fixative to help prevent smudges.
- Conte crayon – semi-hard chalk with an oil binder that adheres to smooth papers. It can produce many varied lines to broad strokes that are fairly resistant to smudging.
- Pastel – can be blended with fingers or a paper stump that produces a soft blur of color.
Liquid Media –
- Ink – most common drawing liquid used with a brush. Creates expressive flowing lines and is ideal for calligraphic lines.
- Markers – are used in traditional pen-and-ink media.
All drawing media are based on pigment, the powdered color material. The difference between chalk and crayon, or oil and chalk pastels, is the binder, the substance that holds the pigment together. One is greasy and adheres more easily, making blending more difficult. Pastels, using a nonfat binder, are considered borderline between painting & drawing, as they blend easily. Crayon usually refers to Conté crayon. Artists continue to develop new drawing materials, such as felt-tip markers, ballpoint pens, and a combination of mixed media.
Chapter 7 notes - Painting
Paints consist of 3 components –
- pigment - which is the color derived from plants, animals, and minerals and synthetics
- binder or medium - mixes with the pigment to hold the pigment together and to the painting surface. With oils, linseed oil is the binder
- vehicle – spreads the pigment. With oils turpentine or an equivalent is the vehicle.
Fresco or Buon Fresco – pigments are suspended in water and applied to a damp plaster surface.
Encaustic – a technique using melted beeswax as the vehicle for painting
Tempera –
- Egg tempera was used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans and was highly developed in the Middle Ages. The binder in egg tempera is egg yolk and has a luminous slightly matte surface when dry. Painted on a ground of white gesso the colors produced are clean and brilliant in quality. Dries quickly,
Oil paints – can be applied thickly or thinly, wet into wet, or wet onto dry. Increased opacity which covers better and when thinned is transparent are qualities of oil paint along with a slow drying time which can be use to the artists advantage when mixing or blending colors. Oil paint can be applied over acrylic, but acrylic cannot be applied over oil paint because of the drying time. Oil paint dries much slower than acrylic.
Acrylic – synthetic painting media are fast drying and flexible can be applied to almost any surface. Acrylic can be thinned with water but are water resistant. A synthetic paint that was developed in the middle of the twentieth century.
Watercolor –
- Pigments are suspended in water and gum arabic to absorbent cotton paper. Watercolor is basically a staining technique applied in thin translucent washes that allow light to pass through the layers of color reflecting back from the white of the paper.
Matte – not shiny
Gesso – chalk or plaster and glue that is applied to a support as a ground for tempera and oil paintings
Support – wood panels, canvas, linen, rag paper, etc
Glaze – thinned pigment
Impasto – thickly applied paint
Art in the World
Chap 6 and 7 homework
5 pts
Chapter 6 and 7 - Art in the World (page 129) From your textbook, answer these questions.
Where is the worlds’ longest painting located?
What is the overall theme and what specific scenes are included in this theme?
Who organized the entire project and what groups worked on it?
Due at the beginning of the next class.
Chapter 6 and 7 - Art in the World (page 129) From your textbook, answer these questions.
Where is the worlds’ longest painting located?
What is the overall theme and what specific scenes are included in this theme?
Who organized the entire project and what groups worked on it?
Due at the beginning of the next class.
Chap 5 notes - Evaluating Art
Art 211 Art Appreciation
Chapter 5 Evaluating Art
What is a critique? How do you evaluate art?
A critique is an oral or written discussion strategy used to analyze, describe, and interpret works of art.
Four major areas of art criticism: description, analysis, interpretation, and judgment.
Step 1 - Description - DESCRIBE the artwork in terms of its literal content and artistic elements. Describe it as though you are talking to a blind person. Be specific. Tell me what you see.
Design elements should be noted – LINE, TEXTURE, SHAPE, COLOR, VALUE, SPACE, PATTERN
Media, materials or techniques used for expression in the work need to be noted – paint, clay, metal, paper, oil on canvas, watercolor, photography, etc
What is the name of the artist who created the artwork? What are the title, date, and size of the art?
What kind of an artwork is it? What is the subject or theme? Is it a historical event, a portrait, a still life, a landscape, an animal, a medical illustration, architectural, fantasy, political commentary, a religious work etc? What is happening in the art work?
What is the most important idea or experience in this art work? What is the artist trying to say?
List the literal objects in the painting (trees, people, animals, mountains, rivers, etc.). Does the imagery such as the clothing, architecture, describe the time and place? What about the traditions or customs of the day or the type of people portrayed in the art work?
Does the work show emotions? Is it mysterious, tell a story, legend or myth? What is the mood of the artwork? Describe the technical qualities of the work (brushstrokes, controlled, spontaneous, etc). What materials were used (watercolor, clay, oils, etc)? What type of art work is the final product (drawing, painting, print, sculpture, ceramic, textile, collage, illustration, etc.)? How do the materials used convey the ideas or feelings the artist intended?
Descriptive, qualitative words should be used to describe what is going on in the work of art. Words such as explosive, jerky, fluid, massive etc are descriptive words used in observation of art. Description, along with analysis accomplishes several important functions encouraging a complete examination of the art work. Description helps to avoid the viewer’s tendency to jump to conclusions, builds observational skills and helps to establish a consensus for purposes of discussion.
Step 2 - Analysis - ANALYZE the artwork in terms of how the artist used the principles of design to manipulate the content to provoke meaning.
Describe how the work is organized as a complete composition.
Design Principles are noted - Consider the most significant art principles that were used in the artwork. The principles are – BALANCE, CONTRAST, EMPHASIS, HARMONY, VARIETY, UNITY, MOVEMENT, REPETITION/RHYTHM, PROPORTION, DEPTH, and COMPOSITION. Describe how the artist used them to organize the elements.
Identify some of the similarities throughout the work (i.e., repetition). Identify some of the points of emphasis in the work (i.e., specific scene, figure, movement). If the work has subjects or characters, what are the relationships between or among them? Balance – radial, symmetrical or asymmetrical? Lines – curved, straight, diagonal, etc? Shape – organic or inorganic? Are the colors bright, dull, warm, or cool? Do the shapes come forward or recede due to their color? How as the artist used color to create feelings or mood? What is the main color of the art? Are the values dark or light?
How is space achieved – foreground, middle ground, background? Overlapping? Perspective? Texture – implied, real, rough, smooth, soft, etc? Is there movement and how is it achieved? Variety of elements used? Focal point? Eye tracks – what do you see first, then next, etc?
Analysis is a continuation of description, but instead of talking about separate parts, the focus shifts to the way the part work together as a whole. A good way to begin an analysis is the look at the pervasive qualities of the work of art. The large, overall characteristics of feelings and moods projected by the work of art.
Step 3 - Interpretation - INTERPRET the work on the basis of what has already been discovered about the work in the first two steps. Consider not only the literal descriptions but also the emotional content and the use of symbols and allegories to arrive at the message or meaning in the work.
Based upon description and analysis, what is the artist communicating? Is the work a story, myth or legend? Based on what you have learned so far about the artwork, what do you think the artist was trying to say? Why did the artist create this artwork? What do you think it means?
What feelings do you have when looking at this artwork? Why? Do you think there are items in the artwork that represent other things or have other meaning or symbols? Describe how the work makes you think or feel.
Describe the expressive qualities you find in the work. What expressive language would you use to describe the qualities (i.e., tragic, ugly, funny, beautiful)? Is the art work timeless? Does the work remind you of other things you have experienced (i.e., analogy or metaphor)? How does the work relate to other ideas or events in the world and/or in your other studies? Does the title of this art reflect the work itself?
Interpretation is an effort to find meaning in the art work. It is one of the most important components of the art criticism process. It can be the most creative and thought provoking process. Ask yourself these questions – “What does the art work mean to me?” or “What is the message of the artwork?”. Remember, there is no “right” interpretation. Interpretations should be insightful, interesting, informative, and reasonable.
Step 4 - Judgment - JUDGMENT about the work's worth based on the information gathered about the work. Judgments must be supported by what was learned through the "reading" process.
The judgment is based upon the description, analysis, and interpretation from the previous steps.
Personal philosophies, background, and feelings are not taken into account.
Do you like this artwork? Why or why not? Be specific and use art terms. Merely stating, “I like it” or “I don’t like it” is not enough. Does the art work convincingly express the subject or idea it was based on? How original is the artwork? What degree of uniqueness and imagination has the artist displayed in the artwork? After forming a final judgment of the art, would you buy this art work? Would you keep it in your home or donate it to a museum?
Judgment is an act that involves you in deciding on the value and significance of the art work.
Justify your opinion. Explain why you feel the way you do about this artwork based on what you have learned about it.
Chapter 5 Evaluating Art
What is a critique? How do you evaluate art?
A critique is an oral or written discussion strategy used to analyze, describe, and interpret works of art.
Four major areas of art criticism: description, analysis, interpretation, and judgment.
Step 1 - Description - DESCRIBE the artwork in terms of its literal content and artistic elements. Describe it as though you are talking to a blind person. Be specific. Tell me what you see.
Design elements should be noted – LINE, TEXTURE, SHAPE, COLOR, VALUE, SPACE, PATTERN
Media, materials or techniques used for expression in the work need to be noted – paint, clay, metal, paper, oil on canvas, watercolor, photography, etc
What is the name of the artist who created the artwork? What are the title, date, and size of the art?
What kind of an artwork is it? What is the subject or theme? Is it a historical event, a portrait, a still life, a landscape, an animal, a medical illustration, architectural, fantasy, political commentary, a religious work etc? What is happening in the art work?
What is the most important idea or experience in this art work? What is the artist trying to say?
List the literal objects in the painting (trees, people, animals, mountains, rivers, etc.). Does the imagery such as the clothing, architecture, describe the time and place? What about the traditions or customs of the day or the type of people portrayed in the art work?
Does the work show emotions? Is it mysterious, tell a story, legend or myth? What is the mood of the artwork? Describe the technical qualities of the work (brushstrokes, controlled, spontaneous, etc). What materials were used (watercolor, clay, oils, etc)? What type of art work is the final product (drawing, painting, print, sculpture, ceramic, textile, collage, illustration, etc.)? How do the materials used convey the ideas or feelings the artist intended?
Descriptive, qualitative words should be used to describe what is going on in the work of art. Words such as explosive, jerky, fluid, massive etc are descriptive words used in observation of art. Description, along with analysis accomplishes several important functions encouraging a complete examination of the art work. Description helps to avoid the viewer’s tendency to jump to conclusions, builds observational skills and helps to establish a consensus for purposes of discussion.
Step 2 - Analysis - ANALYZE the artwork in terms of how the artist used the principles of design to manipulate the content to provoke meaning.
Describe how the work is organized as a complete composition.
Design Principles are noted - Consider the most significant art principles that were used in the artwork. The principles are – BALANCE, CONTRAST, EMPHASIS, HARMONY, VARIETY, UNITY, MOVEMENT, REPETITION/RHYTHM, PROPORTION, DEPTH, and COMPOSITION. Describe how the artist used them to organize the elements.
Identify some of the similarities throughout the work (i.e., repetition). Identify some of the points of emphasis in the work (i.e., specific scene, figure, movement). If the work has subjects or characters, what are the relationships between or among them? Balance – radial, symmetrical or asymmetrical? Lines – curved, straight, diagonal, etc? Shape – organic or inorganic? Are the colors bright, dull, warm, or cool? Do the shapes come forward or recede due to their color? How as the artist used color to create feelings or mood? What is the main color of the art? Are the values dark or light?
How is space achieved – foreground, middle ground, background? Overlapping? Perspective? Texture – implied, real, rough, smooth, soft, etc? Is there movement and how is it achieved? Variety of elements used? Focal point? Eye tracks – what do you see first, then next, etc?
Analysis is a continuation of description, but instead of talking about separate parts, the focus shifts to the way the part work together as a whole. A good way to begin an analysis is the look at the pervasive qualities of the work of art. The large, overall characteristics of feelings and moods projected by the work of art.
Step 3 - Interpretation - INTERPRET the work on the basis of what has already been discovered about the work in the first two steps. Consider not only the literal descriptions but also the emotional content and the use of symbols and allegories to arrive at the message or meaning in the work.
Based upon description and analysis, what is the artist communicating? Is the work a story, myth or legend? Based on what you have learned so far about the artwork, what do you think the artist was trying to say? Why did the artist create this artwork? What do you think it means?
What feelings do you have when looking at this artwork? Why? Do you think there are items in the artwork that represent other things or have other meaning or symbols? Describe how the work makes you think or feel.
Describe the expressive qualities you find in the work. What expressive language would you use to describe the qualities (i.e., tragic, ugly, funny, beautiful)? Is the art work timeless? Does the work remind you of other things you have experienced (i.e., analogy or metaphor)? How does the work relate to other ideas or events in the world and/or in your other studies? Does the title of this art reflect the work itself?
Interpretation is an effort to find meaning in the art work. It is one of the most important components of the art criticism process. It can be the most creative and thought provoking process. Ask yourself these questions – “What does the art work mean to me?” or “What is the message of the artwork?”. Remember, there is no “right” interpretation. Interpretations should be insightful, interesting, informative, and reasonable.
Step 4 - Judgment - JUDGMENT about the work's worth based on the information gathered about the work. Judgments must be supported by what was learned through the "reading" process.
The judgment is based upon the description, analysis, and interpretation from the previous steps.
Personal philosophies, background, and feelings are not taken into account.
Do you like this artwork? Why or why not? Be specific and use art terms. Merely stating, “I like it” or “I don’t like it” is not enough. Does the art work convincingly express the subject or idea it was based on? How original is the artwork? What degree of uniqueness and imagination has the artist displayed in the artwork? After forming a final judgment of the art, would you buy this art work? Would you keep it in your home or donate it to a museum?
Judgment is an act that involves you in deciding on the value and significance of the art work.
Justify your opinion. Explain why you feel the way you do about this artwork based on what you have learned about it.
Chap 4 notes
Chapter 4 – Principles of Design
7 key principles of design –
Unity/Harmony and Variety -
- Unity is the appearance or condition of oneness. The design has the feeling of working together, creating a whole.
- Variety provides diversity to counter unity. Unity can be boring and variety can be chaotic, so a balance between them creates life.
- Pattern refers to repetitive ordering of design elements.
Balance – equal
- Symmetrical balance – near or exact matching of left and right sides of a 3D form or 2D composition. Permanence and poise, motionless and stable, formal and rigid
- Asymmetrical balance – left and right sides are not the same.
- Visual weight
- Radial balance – overall design in a circle
Movement creates the look and feel of action to guide the viewer’s eyes through the work of art. This can either be actual motion or it can be implied — the arrangement of the parts of an image to create a sense of motion by using lines, shapes, forms, and textures that cause the eye to move over the work.
Pattern - A two-dimensional decorative effect achieved through the repetition of colors, lines, shapes, and/or textures. Pattern is created by a regular or expected repetition. Patterns tend to have a flattening effect, which makes the space hard to read. The patterns clamor for attention, and almost seem to blend together.
Emphasis –
- Emphasis is used to draw our attention to an area. if that area is a specific spot or figure it is call the focal point. Position, contrast, color intensity, and size can all be used to create emphasis.
Focal point – draws the eye into the work of art – the first thing you see
Directional emphasis - are paths that lead the eye around the work of art by actual or implied lines. Implied directional lines may be suggested by a form’s axis, by imagined connections between similar or adjacent forms, or by the implied continuation of actual lines.
- Horizontal, vertical, diagonal, circular
- Eye tracks
Contrast – the juxtaposition of strongly dissimilar elements. Dramatic effects can be produced when dark is set against light, large against small, bright against dull, rough against smooth.
Repetition and Rhythm –
- Repetition of visual elements gives a composition unity, continuity, flow and emphasis.
- Rhythm is created through a regular recurrence of elements with related variations.
Scale and Proportion –
- Scale is the size relative of one object to another.
- Proportion is the size relations of the parts to the whole.
Composition is the arrangement or organization of the visual elements; compositions can be symmetrical, pyramidal, heraldic, etc.
Two Dimensional – 2D
Painting
Drawing
Graphic Arts
Printmaking
Photography
Three Dimensional – 3D
Sculpture
Architecture
7 key principles of design –
Unity/Harmony and Variety -
- Unity is the appearance or condition of oneness. The design has the feeling of working together, creating a whole.
- Variety provides diversity to counter unity. Unity can be boring and variety can be chaotic, so a balance between them creates life.
- Pattern refers to repetitive ordering of design elements.
Balance – equal
- Symmetrical balance – near or exact matching of left and right sides of a 3D form or 2D composition. Permanence and poise, motionless and stable, formal and rigid
- Asymmetrical balance – left and right sides are not the same.
- Visual weight
- Radial balance – overall design in a circle
Movement creates the look and feel of action to guide the viewer’s eyes through the work of art. This can either be actual motion or it can be implied — the arrangement of the parts of an image to create a sense of motion by using lines, shapes, forms, and textures that cause the eye to move over the work.
Pattern - A two-dimensional decorative effect achieved through the repetition of colors, lines, shapes, and/or textures. Pattern is created by a regular or expected repetition. Patterns tend to have a flattening effect, which makes the space hard to read. The patterns clamor for attention, and almost seem to blend together.
Emphasis –
- Emphasis is used to draw our attention to an area. if that area is a specific spot or figure it is call the focal point. Position, contrast, color intensity, and size can all be used to create emphasis.
Focal point – draws the eye into the work of art – the first thing you see
Directional emphasis - are paths that lead the eye around the work of art by actual or implied lines. Implied directional lines may be suggested by a form’s axis, by imagined connections between similar or adjacent forms, or by the implied continuation of actual lines.
- Horizontal, vertical, diagonal, circular
- Eye tracks
Contrast – the juxtaposition of strongly dissimilar elements. Dramatic effects can be produced when dark is set against light, large against small, bright against dull, rough against smooth.
Repetition and Rhythm –
- Repetition of visual elements gives a composition unity, continuity, flow and emphasis.
- Rhythm is created through a regular recurrence of elements with related variations.
Scale and Proportion –
- Scale is the size relative of one object to another.
- Proportion is the size relations of the parts to the whole.
Composition is the arrangement or organization of the visual elements; compositions can be symmetrical, pyramidal, heraldic, etc.
Two Dimensional – 2D
Painting
Drawing
Graphic Arts
Printmaking
Photography
Three Dimensional – 3D
Sculpture
Architecture
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