what is art and the visual elements

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”.


Figure 1-9, p. 7: ANDY WARHOL. Four Marilyns (1962). Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas. 30" × 23⅞".



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.


Figure 1.27, p.17: FAITH RINGGOLD. Tar Beach (1988). Acrylic paint on canvas and pieced fabric. 74” x 68 1⁄2”.


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 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


Insert Fig 1-18, p. 12 Max Beckman The Dream


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

• 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


• statistics


• Red Light -shown to increase

heartbeats

• Blue Light

-shown to decrease heatbeats


• 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

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

what is art and the visual elements

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