Art appreciation

Casting

the process of making a sculpture or or some other object by pouring liquid into a mold, letting it harden, then releasing it

Assembling

the technique of creating a sculpture by grouping or piecing together distinct elements

Neoclassicism

"New Classicism." Art movement of 18th and 19th Centuries looking to civilizations of Greece and Rome for inspiration.

Pop Art

1960s art movement deriving imagery from popular, mass-produced culture.

Romanticism

19th Century Western art movement marked by intense colors, turbulent emotions, complex composition, soft outlines, and heroic and exotic subject matter.

Installation

A space is presented as a work of art that can be entered, explored, experienced, and reflected upon

-Much of the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s stemmed from 3 experiences: -Rich African heritage, ugly legacy of slavery in America, and realities of urban life.

Aaron Douglas, Aspects of Negro Life: From Slavery Through Reconstruction

Why is Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory an example of surrealism?

All the pieces in this work are recognizable items but you wouldn't actually see them like they are in the art work. For example the melted clocks.

-Pop Art depicting Campbell's soup cans. -Possible criticism or celebration of mass production, consumerism, and conformity

Andy Warhol, 100 Cans

Post-Impressionism

Art movement between 1885-1905 stressing a highly personal style. Rejected absence of solidity and form used by Impressionists. Often inspired by the exotic or "untamed, unspoiled" civilizations.

Dada

Art movement emerging after World War I producing "anti-art." Art stressed absurdity, chance, whimsy, and irony.

Impressionism

Art movement of 1860s in France in which artists recorded the fleeting effects of light with bold, often unmixed dabs of paint.

-Depicts Biblical story of Judith, an Israelite widow who sneaks into the Assyrian enemy camp at night and kills -Holofernes, their leader. Judith makes a gesture of silence while her servant bags the decapitated head. -Gentileschi frequently painted strong, assertive women as a means of therapy and psychological revenge against a man who raped her when she was a young woman. -Admired by future Feminist artists.

Artemesia Gentileschi, Judith and Maidservant with Head of Holofernes

-Made of gold in the image of the deceased King Tut. (Gold shone like the sun and was therefore referred to as the "flesh of the gods"). -The King Tut mask was used to cover the face of the mummy of the pharaoh and ensure that his spirit would be able to recognize the body in the afterlife.

Burial Mask of Tutankhaman, Egypt

-Gothic style: ornate, linear and vertical elements direct eye upward. -Detail: flying buttresses, or permanent scaffolding which supported the cathedrals' extremely thin walls.

Chartes Cathedral, Frances

-An installation piece. -Made by husband and wife team Christo and Jeanne-Claude. -Placed in Central Park to help revitalize New York City after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. -Spanned 23 of miles of the park, like a majestic ceremonial walkway, offering a new way of looking at Central Park.

Christo and Jeanne Claude - The Gates

-It was the Romans' largest arena for gladiatorial combats, other spectacles, and for the private entertainment of Emperor Vespasian. -Couldn't have been built without concrete. -Its substructure includes waiting rooms for gladiators, animal cages, and machinery for lowering stage sets, people, and animals.

Colosseum, Rome, Italy

What separates crafts from sculpture?

Craft can include tangible things such as jewelry pottery and glassworks whereas sculpture does not. They are both tangible art forms craft just has more variety.

Why is Marcel Duchamp, The Fountain an example of DaDa art?

DaDa art is nonsense art, things you wouldn't consider to be artistic but are used as art. This piece is an image of a urinal. I wouldn't ever consider a urinal to be a piece of art, but it's presented in a way that it is.

-Used theatrical spotlighting to organize space. -Is a picture of Velazquez painting a portrait of Spanish king and queen, their children, and attendants. -Velasquez played with ideas of space in a manner unheard of in its time: the viewer doesn't recognize at first that the painting is a reflection; the viewer is standing where the king and queen would be (we see their reflection in the mirror in the back). Thus the viewer becomes a part of the picture.

Diego Velasquez, Las Meninas

Lithography

Differs from all other printing processes in that the surface does not depend on relief or depressions to print, but was developed on the principle that oil and water do not mix

Abstract

Distorts, exaggerates, or simplifies the natural world to provide essence or universality

Metalpoint

Dry media which uses a thin metal wire to make marks on a specially coated ground.

Pencil

Dry medium in which pigment is lead based

Pastel

Dry medium using a nonfat binder, and is a borderline medium between drawing and painting, as it can be blended.

Cubism

Early 20th century art movement which abstracted forms into fragments portrayed from multiple points of view

-This painting scandalized France in 1863, and was rejected from the state-sponsored art exhibit, the Salon, because the subject matter was considered too risqué. -Only Goddesses or muses were acceptable as nudes in art, but Manet depicted a woman recognizable as his mistress having a naked picnic in the park. -Resulted in the formation of The Salon des Refusés, French for "exhibition of rejects," for artists rejected from Salon. -Manet's style paved way for Impressionists.

Edouard Manet, Le Dejeuner Sur L'herbe Luncheon on the Grass

-An example of Wright's "organic" school of architecture: -A house should blend in with environment -House's interior and exterior should be integrated.

Frank Lloyd Wright - Fallingwater

Fauvre; Fauvism

French for "wild beasts." Movement stressed bold, arbitrary, expressive color.

-Located in chapel of hospital that treated illnesses afflicting the skin, including syphilis. -Christ is depicted with pock marks, bleeding wounds, and greenish skin to mimic gangrene to help patients identify with Christ's suffering and increase their faith.

Grunewald, Isenheim Altarpiece

-With the development of color lithography in the 19th century, posters came into their own as the most eye-catching form of advertising. -Toulouse-Lautrec created this image of a woman, "La Goulue," dancing the cancan and similar images as ads for dance halls and cabarets. -Flattened, simplified form, dramatically cropped composition show influence of Japanese prints.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, La Goulou at the Moulin Rouge

When compared to da Vinci's Last Supper, what characteristics define Tintoretto's Last Supper as Baroque in style?

His version of the Last Supper is very extravagant and has a lot of movement to it which makes it baroque in style.

-Depicts Marat, a friend of the artist David who was murdered in the bathtub while treating a painful skin condition. -Marat pursued the goal of eliminating the corrupt aristocracy in France and sending them to the guillotine, and was killed by a political enemy. -David makes Marat resemble Christ being placed in the tomb, thus making Marat a martyr figure for the French Revolution.

Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Marat

Example of an assemblage, artwork of art made from mixture of handmade or found 2-D or 3-D materials.

Jaspers Johns, Target With Four Faces

-Framed in cast iron and sheathed in glass, a style that paved the way for 20th Century architecture. (Demonstrated that if building's skeleton held firm, its skin could be light and non-load-bearing). -Because of prefabrication, was assembled in 16 weeks.

Joseph Paxton - Crystal Palace

-"Maman," French for "mom," references the artist's own mother-- tall, protective, patient, and skilled. -It is an example of an "in the round," or freestanding sculpture.

Louise Bourgeois- Maman

-A "ready-made:" found object not made by artist, but placed in a new artistic context. -Duchamp turned an object with no aesthetic value-- a urinal-- into a work of art.

Marcel Duchamp, The Fountain

-One of the scenes of Genesis from the Bible, it depicts God giving life to Adam. -Shows moment of potential, not consummation of creation. -Painted in Sistine Chapel ceiling in Rome, Italy.

Michaelangelo - Creation of Adam

Realism

Mid-19th Century art movement portraying forms in the natural world in a highly faithful manner. Fostered idea that everyday people and events are fit subjects for art

Abstract Expressionism

Mid-20th Century art movement characterized by large scale, nonrepresentational imagery and brushstrokes that traced the actions of the artist.

-Depicts women of Avignon Street in Barcelona, Spain, a district notorious for prostitution. -The sharp angles, shallow background space, geometric shapes, and multiple perspectives helped launch new style "Cubism."

Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

watercolor

Pigment in a vehicle of water and gum Arabic. Known for translucency

Representational (realism, naturalistic)

Resembles forms in the natural world; "window on the world"

-Depicts birth of Roman goddess of love and beauty, born from the sea. -Venus was identified with Eve and Virgin Mary. -Water may be related to baptism of Christ by John the Baptist.

Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus

Charcoal

Soft medium allowing bold, spontaneous lines.

Acrylic

Synthetic polymer paint perfected in the 1950s. Medium is acrylic resins and water

-Constructed entirely out of white marble, it appears like a shimmering mirage to visitors. -Made by Muslim emperor of India, Shah Jahan, for his wife who died in childbirth after 14 children. -Dome construction

Taj Mahal, India

Explain the symbolism of "The Dinner Party." How does The Dinner Party fit in with the Feminist movement in art during the 1960s and 1970s?

The 13 places on each side symbolize the seating arrangement of the last supper. Each place setting is created in honor of an influential woman.

Woodcut

The artist first draws the desired image on a block of wood, then all areas that are not meant to print are gouged away so that the images stands out in relief. The block is then inked after which paper is applied to the surface and with pressure applied, the image is transferred.

What important moments in African-American history are depicted in Aspects of Negro Life: From Slavery Through Reconstruction painting, depicted in Douglas's own style called "geometric symbolism"?

The emancipation proclamation, the Ku Klux Klan, and African Americans gaining voting rights.

Consider cave paintings and the art from Egyptian tombs. What stylistic traits do they share? How are they different? How is Egyptian art more "advanced"?

They share similar traits in that many of these paintings depict animals. They are different because Egyptian art depicts gods, goddesses and Pharaos. Egyptian art is more advanced because it has symbolism to it. It shows how order was established in ancient Egypt.

-Is titled "Venus" after the Greek goddess of love because scholars believe Venus of Willendorf was a fertility figure, or a "good-luck charm" carried by a woman in order to conceive. -Is the emblem (or icon!) of art history's beginnings. -Made by carving.

Venus of Willendorf

Pen and ink

Wet medium allowing the artist to create thick to thin variations in lines.

Carving

a subtractive technique in which a mass of material such as stone or wood is shaped by cutting and/or abrasion

Craft Materials

clay, glass, metal, wood, fiber, ivory, jade, and lacquer

nonrepresentational

contains no reference to the natural world

Modeling

manipulating a plastic material such as clay or wax to create a form

Oil

pigment compounded with oil. Slow-drying jewel like colors

Earthwork

work constructed outdoors from natural materials