Introduction: The Subjects and Vocabulary of Art History

1. Advanced Placement History of Art Dr. Schiller Introduction: The Subjects and Vocabulary of Art History

2. What is Art?

3. What is Art? An object or experience created by humans to communicate a message* *Author of the quote: T.B. Garth

4. What is Art? Form and content* *Author of the quote: Shelley Esaak

5. What is Art History?

6. What is Art History? Art history is the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts. Moreover, art history generally includes research of artists and their cultural and social contributions. [In other words, analyzing an artwork for form and content!]

7. What is Art History? Different from “art appreciation”.

8. What is Art History? Different from “art appreciation”. For “art appreciation” you do not need to know the historical context,

9. What is Art History? Different from “art appreciation”. For “art appreciation” you do not need to know the historical context, but you do for art history

10. Purpose of Art History: • A central aim of art historians is to determine the original context of artworks. • Not only why the artwork looks the way it does, but also why the artistic object even happened at all. • Artworks can shed light on the peoples who made them and on the times of their creation. • Artists and architects can affect history by reinforcing or challenging cultural values and practices through the objects they create and the structures they build.

11. How to write about an object and place it on context: Art historians make 2 kinds of observations: (1) formal (visual) analysis, and (2) contextual (historical/cultural) analysis

12. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis • Formal analysis is all about DESIGN

13. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis • DESIGN is composed of the Parts and the Plan, • which we call the • Elements of Design • and the • Principles of Design Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis

14. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis DESIGN • Elements of Design • are • the visual components that comprise an artwork ELEMENTS OF DESIGN PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN

15. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis • Elements of Design: • 1. medium • 2. line • 3. shape (2-D) and/or form (3-D) • 4. color • 5. mass • 6. texture • 7. space • 8. light Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis

16. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design • 1. Medium • The material an artist uses to create a work • of art, the substance the artist uses to create • his or her artwork. • For example, the medium Michelangelo • used to create “David” was marble,

17. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design • 1. Medium • The medium of Da Vinci’s “Mona • Lisa” is oil paint on wood panel

18. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design • 1. Medium • Duchamp's infamous “Fountain” • had porcelain (and a little black • paint) as its medium.

19. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design • 2. Line • One of the most important elements defining an artwork’s shape or form • Line can be: the path of a point moving in space an invisible line of sight or a visual axis. • It can define a space or create an outline or • pattern

20. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design • 2. Line • It can imply movement or texture and allude to mass or volume.

21. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design • 2. Line • It can imply movement or texture and allude to mass or volume.

22. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design • 3.Shape or Form • In art, shape is a 2-dimensional object • There are THREE basic shapes: • TRIANGLE SQUARE CIRCLE

23. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design • 3.Shape or Form • In art, form is a 3-dimentional object’s shape and structure, either in: • an actual 3-D form -or- an illusionary 3-D • (such as a statue): form (such as some- • painted on a 2-D surface)

24. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design • 3.Shape or Form • In art, form is a 3-dimensional object • There are FOUR basic forms: • CONE SQUARE SPHERE • CYLINDER CUBE

25. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design • 4. Color • Color is the element of art that is produced when light, striking an object, is reflected back to the eye. • Three primary colors (can’t make them, have to find them): RED, BLUE, YELLOW • Three secondary colors (when two primary colors are mixed): PURPLE, GREEN, ORANGE • Warm colors (think fire): YELLOW, ORANGE, RED • Cool colors (think water): BLUE, GREEN, PURPLE

26. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design 4. Color

27. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design • 5. Mass • How heavy (we don’t use “weight”) or dense items appear is called mass • Dark colors appear to have more mass--because they remind you of things like stone, rocks, metal • Light colors appear to have less mass--because they remind you of things like cotton, clouds

28. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design • 6. Texture • Texture is the quality of a surface (rough, smooth, hard, soft, shiny, dull) as revealed by light.

29. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design • 6. Texture • In “represented texture”, a painter depicts an object as having a certain texture even through the paint is the actual texture.

30. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design • 7. Space • Unfilled space is referred to as negative space; solids are referred to as positive space • Usually artists use positive and negative space to help create unity • Faces: Goblet: • positive space positive space • negative spacenegative • space

31. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design • 7. Space • Usually artists use positive space and negative space to help create unity • Positive space: the shapes and masses in the artwork--in the picture below on the left, the two faces are positive space; in the picture on the right, the positive space is the goblet • Negative space: the area around and between the positive spaces--in the picture on the left, the negative space is the goblet; in the picture on the right, the negative space is the two faces

32. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design • 8. Light • White light comes from the sun and hits an object, which then absorbs all the colors except the one that gets reflected to our eye. • So the red of an apple is absorbing all colors except red.

33. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Elements of Design • 8. Light • When you put the white light through a prism, you find out it is made up of the following colors • The absence of light is shadow

34. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis DESIGN Principles of Design “the compositional means by which artists arrange elements of artifacts for effective visual expressions” in other words, the principles of design are the blueprints for how all of the elements are put together visual components that comprise an artwork ELEMENTS OF DESIGN PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN

35. Principles of Design: • 1. Contrast/Harmony • 2. Unity • 3. Balance • 4. Emphasis • 5. Variety • 6. Movement • 7. Pattern • 8. Proportion/Scale Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis

36. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Principles of Design • 1. Contrast/Harmony • Contrast has to do with opposites • examples: • physical contrast

37. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Principles of Design • 1. Contrast/Harmony • Contrasthas to do with opposites • examples: • color contrast

38. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Principles of Design • 1. Contrast • Contrast has to do with opposites • examples: • directional contrast

39. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Principles of Design • 2. Unity • Artists create unity to hold the composition together • Ways that artists do this: use of repetition of any of the elements of design throughout the composition use of positive and negative space the color palette can be a strong unifying element line and shape can be the unifying elements linking elements in some way

40. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Principles of Design • 3. Balance • Symmetrical balance (symmetry):based on an axis in the center of the composition with equal amount of positive and negative space on either side of the axis • Asymmetrical balance (asymmetry):more sophisticated and relies on the viewer sensing a balance between forms of different size and visual weight • Balance can also be achieved with an all over pattern or even amounts on each side

41. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Principles of Design • 4. Emphasis • Making one thing stand out above all the rest • Notice what your eye wants to look at in the artwork-- that is usually the emphasis. • Artists use emphasis to communicate what is of primary importance in the work • examples: a color that stands out something looks different grouping pointing artists often use perspective and/or foreshortening to lead the eye to the focal point [we’ll talk about these at a future time]

42. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Principles of Design 4. Emphasis If the artwork were an essay, think of the emphasis and the largest objects in the composition as the topic sentence All the other pieces of the composition support that topic

43. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Principles of Design • 5. Variety • Variety means differences, everything is not the same

44. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Principles of Design • 6. Movement • Actual movement: someone or things is supposed to be actually moving • Suggested movement: such as a bunch of triangles all pointing in one direction; or the way our eyes move looking at a particular artwork

45. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Principles of Design • 7. Pattern • natural pattern (such as is found in nature, like leaves on a tree) and unpredicatble pattern • versus • predictable pattern and mechanical) pattern: like a solved Rubic’s cube

46. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Principles of Design • 8. Proportion/Scale • Proportion describes the size, location or amount of one element to another (or to the whole) in a work. It has a great deal to do with the overall harmony of an individual piece. • Scale is how large an item is in relation to its usual size or to the size of other objects • These help viewers perceive distance in a composition as well as the importance of a particular object in the composition

47. Topic: Formal (Visual) Analysis The Principles of Design • 8. Proportion/Scale • Scale and proportion often have a lot to do with emphasis [and perspective, which we’ll discuss later] • A larger object in the foreground is • generally more important than a • smaller object in the background. • In many cases, larger looks closer; • smaller looks further away

48. Formal AnalysisThe Principles of Design If the artwork were an essay, think of the focal point and the largest objects in the composition as the topic sentence All the other pieces of the composition support that topic

49. Let’s look at “The Raft of the Medusa” by Gericault on Stokstad plate 27-6 to see how the artist used the elements of design: 1. medium: oil (paint) on canvas 2. line 3. shape/form 4. color 5. mass 6. texture 7. space 8. light

50. Using the 8 elements for formal analysis: Look at the Gardner page 869: 1. medium: oil (paint) on canvas 2. line 3. shape/form 4. color 5. mass 6. texture 7. space 8. light