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What is art?
What is art?
• Art and the Eye of the Beholder
Art and Audience
Art and Artist
Art and Intention
Unknown Dutch artist formerly thought to be Rembrandt,The Man with the Golden Helmet
17th Century, Oil on canvas
In both the sciences and the arts we strive to weave our experiences into coherent bodies of knowledge and to
communicate them.
The Meaning of the Word Art…
• …enhances daily experiences.
• …is linked to quality of life.
• …touches everyone.
• …is all around us.
Whatever the definition, it is important to know the vocabulary of art in order to understand it.
The philosophies about art:
Many philosophers have argues that art serves no function, that it exists for its own sake.
Some have asserted that the essence of art transcends the human occupation with usefulness.
Others have held that in trying to analyze art too closely, one loses sight of its beauty and wonderment.
Aesthetic Theories
• Aristotle- mimesis
• Plato- banished art from his ideal republic
• Yoruban- act with detachment and a balance between the real and the conceptual
Psychological Theories
• Right Brain Theory
• Perceptual
• Conceptual
Artist as Outsider Theory
• Avante Garde
• Folk art
Henry Darger
Popular Theories
• Realism
• Prettiness
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, whether in Western civilizations or non-Western
civilizations
Figure 1.1, p. 3: LEONARDO DA VINCI. Mona Lisa (c. 1503–1505). Oil on wood panel. 30 1/4” x 21”.
Figure 1.2, p. 3: Kenyan woman, Masai tribe. Standards for beauty can differ from culture to culture.
“A Closer Look”
A Portrait in the Flesh
Sometimes artists try to improve on nature – thereby
creating an alternative standard
Figure 1-3, p. 4: French performance artist Orlan, who has dedicated herself to embodying Western classicbeauty as found in the works of Leonardo, Botticelli, and Boucher through multiple plastic surgeries. Here
Orlan is being “prepped” for one in a series of operations.
Figure 1-4, p. 4: SANDRO BOTTICELLI. The Birth of Venus (1486). Detail. Tempera on canvas. 5’8 7⁄8” x 9’1 1⁄7”.
Tumbling Woman, bronze, 2000-2001, Eric Fischl
© David Rakoff 2002
Reprinted from the New York Times
Eric Fischl: I wouldn't have made the sculpture differently at all. I even regret caving in to Rockefeller Center so fast and saying: "Yeah, take it away. I don't want to hurt anybody." I'm sorry I didn't raise a stink over it. … It's not necessarily about witnessing firsthand that makes the experience. Picasso wasn't at Guernica when it happened; Goya wasn't there on the firing line. This is what a culture looks to art for, to put image, or voice, or context to a way of rethinking, reseeing, re-experiencing.
Terminal Velocity, digital print, Carolee Schneeman
Leap into the Void, 1960Yves Klein (French, 1928–1962); Harry Shunk (German, 1924–2006); Janos Kender (Hungarian, 1937–1983)Gelatin silver print
Falling, Sharon Paz
Falling (Detail)
The public reaction to the work brings out questions about art's role in our society; I think it is a strong piece, but I didn't mean in any way for it to be offensive or insensitive, people react different, this was my way to confront the event.I believe fear will not disappear if you will close your eyes.
Sharon Paz, September 2002
Falling Man, gum, Maurizio Savini
Theories Based on Comparison Between the Arts
• Fine vs. Applied Arts
• Synaesthesia
Symbolic Communication Theory
• Semiotics
• Symbolic Theory
• Institutional Theory
Categories of Iconography
• Religious Art
• Narrative Arts
Religion, Myth, Literature or History
• Art as the Mirror of Everyday Life
Genre, Landscape, Still Life
• Personification and Allegory
• Imagination and Fantasy
Art in the Service of Religion Magic and Survival
Hall of Bulls, ca. 13000 BCE, Lascaux, France)
Figure 1.13, p.9: JESSIE OONARK. A Shaman’s Helping Spirits (1971). Stonecut and stencil. 37 1⁄6” x 25 1⁄6”.
Art in the Service of ReligionTo make tangible the unknown
Figure 1.15, p.10: ANTHEMIUS OF TRALLES AND ISIDORUS OF MILETUS. Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), Turkey (532–537 CE). Interior view.
Art in the Service of ReligionTo inspire
NARRATIVE ARTSART AND GLORY
• Art immortalizes people and events throughout the ages.
• Art histories wealthiest patrons commissioned artists to create works that glorified their reigns and accomplishments.
Fig. 1-11, p 8. Column of Trajan, Forum of Trajan, Rome, dedicated 112. 128 feet high
NARRATIVE ARTSART AND GLORY
Narrative ArtsPride and Politics
The GrossClinic,Oil on canvas, 1875, Thomas Eakins
Art as the Mirror of Everyday LifeGenre Painting
He Takes Posession,The Rake’s Progress, Engraving, 1697-1764, William Hogarth.
Art as the Mirror of Everyday Life
Figure 1.28, p. 18: EDWARD HOPPER. Nighthawks (1942). Oil on canvas. 30” x 60”.
Figure 1-7, p. 6: FRIDA KAHLO. Diego in My Thoughts (Diego y yo) (1949). Oil on canvas, mounted on Masonite. 24” x 36”.
Art as the Mirror of Everyday Life
Figure 1-9, p. 7: ANDY WARHOL. Four Marilyns (1962). Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas. 30" × 23⅞".
Art as the Mirror of Everyday Life
Art as the Mirror of Everyday Life
Art, Experience, and Memory
• Art has served to record and communicate experiences and events.
• Art also conveys the personal experience of an artist.
Figure 1.26, p.17: ALFRED STIEGLITZ. The Steerage (1907). Photograph.
Art as the Mirror of Everyday Life
Figure 1.27, p.17: FAITH RINGGOLD. Tar Beach (1988). Acrylic paint on canvas and pieced fabric. 74” x 68 1⁄2”.
Art as the Mirror of Everyday Life
Figure 1.29, p.19: RICHARD HAMILTON. Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? (1956). Collage. 10 1⁄4” x 9 3⁄4”.
Art as the Mirror of Everyday Life
ART AND SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Artists have taken on bitter struggles against the injustices of their times and have tried to persuade others to join them in their causes, …by using their (art) skills.
Figure 1.31, p.20: EUGÈNE DELACROIX. Liberty Leading the People (1830). Oil on canvas. 8’6” x 10’10”.
Figure 1.36, p. 23: JOSÉ CLEMENTE OROZCO. Epic of American Civilization: Hispano-America (c1932–1934). Fresco. 10” x 9’11”.
Figure 1.32, p.21: SUZANNE LACY AND LESLIE LABOWITZ. In Mourning and in Rage (1977). Performance at Los Angeles City Hall.
Figure 1.33, p.21: BETYE SAAR. The Liberation of Aunt Jemima (1972). Mixed media. 11 3⁄4” x 8” x 2 3⁄4”.
Vocabulary
• Readymade - objects elevated from the commonplace to the position of art.
• Assemblage - art made and assembled from found objects.
• Pop Art - art that utilizes the commonplace objects and visual clichés to make the viewer thing twice about the symbols and objects that surround us.
Figure 1.34, p. 22:MIRIAM SCHAPIRO. Wonderland (1983). Acrylic and fabric collage on canvas. 90” x 144” (framed)
Fig. 1-35 p.22 MARCEL DUCHAMP. Fountain (1917). 1951 version after lost original. Porcelain urinal. H: 24".
• Artists and scientists try to find the underlying order of nature.
• Zen - A Buddhist sect that seeks inner harmony through introspection and meditation.
Art and Nature
Art and Nature
Water-Lilies, oil on canvas, 1916-1923, Claude Monet.
Figure 1.20, p.14: Ryoanji Zen Temple, Japanese sand garden, Kyoto, Japan.
Art and Nature
Personification and Allegory
1-16 p. 11 SUZANNE VALADON. Adam and Eve (1909). Oil on canvas. 63¾ × 51⅝.
Personification and Allegory
Imagination and Fantasy
The Temptation of St. Anthony, oil on canvas, 90x120cm 35x47" , 1946, Salvador Dali.
Insert Fig 1-17, p. 12 Marc Chagall I and the Village
Imagination and Fantasy
Insert Fig 1-18, p. 12 Max Beckman The Dream
Imagination and Fantasy
The Visual Elements
When looking at works of art, you see different colors, values, lines, textures and shapes. You see countless ways artists combine and organize these elements so their ideas
and feelings can be communicated and understood by viewers. Looking at works of art, however, doesn’t mean
you “see” them. To fully understand a painting, a sculpture, or a building, you need to understand a visual
vocabulary and recognize how it is used to produce successful works of art.
The Visual Elements of Art:
• Color• Shape• Line• Light• Value• Texture • Space• Time• Motion
Types of Line
• Contour Lines - Created by the edge of things.• Actual lines - Are connected and continuous.• Implied lines - completed by the viewer. • Psychological lines - A line created by a mental or
perceptual connection. (Ex: When a character of figure points or looks at another.)
Line
• Functions of Line
-Outline and Form
Kara Walker
Figure 2.8, p.31: RIMMA GERLOVINA AND VALERIY GERLOVIN. Madonna and Child (1992). Chromogenic print.
To Give Outline and Shape
Figure 2.11, p.32: SANDRO BOTTICELLI. The Birth of Venus (c. 1482). Oil on canvas. 5’8 7⁄8” x 9’1 7⁄8”.
To Suggest Direction and Movement
Line
• Functions of Line -Pattern and Texture
Piet Mondrian
• Functions of Line -Shading and Modeling
Rembrandt
Types of Line
• Actual Lines
Types of Line
• Implied Lines
gestalt theory
Types of Line
• Lines formed by an edge
Types of Line
• Static Lines
Types of Line
• Active Lines contrapposto
Types of Line
• Contour lines
-Convention
Henri Matisse
Characteristics of Line
• Direction
-line of sight
-compositional lines
Shape and Mass/Form
• Shape • Form
Figure 2.14, p.34: HELENE BRANDT. Mondrian Variations, Construction No. 3B with Four Red Squares and Two Planes (1996). Welded steel, wood, paint. 22” x 19” x 17”.
The word FORM - is often used to speak about shapes in sculpture and architecture -
3D works of art.
Mass - In 3D art, the mass of an object refers to its bulk.
Fig. 2-16 RACHEL WHITEREAD. Holocaust Memorial, Vienna (2000).
Actual Mass versus Implied Mass
• Actual mass occupies three-dimensional space and has measurable volume and weight
• Implied mass creates the illusion of possessing volume, having weight and occupying three-dimensional space
Fig. 2-17 MARK TANSEY. Landscape (1994). Oil on Canvas. 181.6cm x 365.8 cm.
Types of Shapes and Forms
• Geometric (Hard-edge)
Types of Shapes and Forms
• Organic (biomorphic)
Paul Klee
Positive and Negative Shapes
• Positive shapes - the objects or figure that the viewer focuses on.
• Negative shapes - the empty space (or the space filled with other imagery) left over in the piece.
Figure-Ground Terminology
• Figure - ground relationship - the relationship between the positive and negative shapes in a piece.
• Figure - ground reversals - when the positive and negative shapes in a piece can be reversed or are ambiguous.
• “We tend to perceive things in context.”
Fig. 26 A Rubin Vase.
Compare and Contrast
Picasso and Colescott
Rectilinear forms versus curvilinear forms presented by two artists
Figure 2.20, p.38: PABLO PICASSO. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907). Oil on canvas. 8’ x 7’8”.
Figure 2.21: ROBERT COLESCOTT. Les Demoiselles d’Alabama: Vestidas (1985). Acrylic on canvas. 96” x 92”.
Light, Value, and Color
Light
• Illusion of Light
-Chiaroscuro -Tenebrism
Georges de La Tour
Figure 2.35, PIERRE-PAUL PRUD’HON. La Source (c. 1801). Black and white chalk on gray paper. 21 3/16 x 15 5/18 in .
Value
Value
• The value of a color of a surface is its lightness or darkness.
• Value contrast - the degrees f difference between shades of gray.
• Drawing objects or figures with a high value contrast makes them easy to see.
• Value pattern describes the variation in light and dark within a composition.
Fig. 2-33 Value contrast.
Color
• The spectrum and Sir Isaac Newton
• Reflected white light
Color Wheel
Primary Colors
Secondary Colors
Intensity
• Value
-Tint
-Shade
Color is relative
It is effected by the colors around it
So that a green next to blue looks more yellow than the same green next to yellow (which looks more blue)
The Psychology of Color
• Warm Colors • Cool Colors
The Psychology of Color
• statistics
The Psychology of Color
• Red Light -shown to increase
heartbeats
• Blue Light
-shown to decrease heatbeats
The Psychology of Color
• Local Color
• Optical Color
Local versus Optical Color
• Local Color - the hue of an object as created by the colors its surface reflects under normal lighting condition.
• Optical color - our perceptions of color, which can vary with lighting conditions.
Surface and Space
Texture
• Actual -bronze, stone, wood, glass, etc.
• Visual -trompe l’oeil
• Pattern
Figure 2.49, p.53: LEON KOSSOFF. Portrait of Father, No. 2 (1972). Oil on board. 60” x 36”.
Space
• 3D Space
• 2D Space
Illusions of Depth
• Overlapping
• Placement
• Scale
• Converging Lines
• Color
Principles of Art
• Unity
• Variety
• Balance
• Emphasis
• Proportion and Scale
• Rhythm and Movement
Unity
Figure 3.2, p.69: ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY JR. Saturday Night (1935). Oil on canvas. 81.3 cm x 101.6 cm.
Variety
Ways to Achieve Unity and Variety with Unity
• Grid
• Color harmony
• Keeping one or more aspects of the work constant
• Continuity
Fig. 3-1 p.68 ANDY WARHOL. Ethel Scull Thirty -Six Times (1963). Synthetic polymer paint silkscreen on canvas. 79 3/4” x 143 1/4”.
Balance
• Symmetrical
• Asymmetrical
• Radial
Emphasis
• Focal Point
-Golden Section
-Rule of Thirds
How to create a focal point:
• Accentuating certain shapes
• Intensifying color
• Using directional line
• Strategically placing objects and images.
• By isolating an object or subject
Composition with the Golden Section
Figure 3.36, p.89: The east facade of the Parthenon, superimposed with a root five rectangle. When we do not consider the gable (which is absent in this photograph), the facade of the Parthenon is a root five rectangle.
Figure 3.32, p.87: ALICE NEEL. The Family (John Gruen, Jane Wilson and Julia) (1970). Oil on canvas. 4’11 7⁄8” x 5’.
Violating the Cannon for Expressive Purposes
Proportion and Scale
• Golden Section
5:8
• Hieratic representation
Rhythm and Movement