Module 1

The student Toolkit

Why study the World of Art?

It is among the highest expressions of culture, embodying its ideals

and aspirations, challenging its assumptions and beliefs, and creating
new visions and possibilities for it to pursue.
Culture is itself a complex phenomenon, constantly changing and
vastly diverse.
It was not until the Renaissance, that the concept of fine art, as we
think of it today, arose.
African art or Aboriginal art, normally objects used in their
respecting cultures as something practical but now individual artists in
these cultures have begun to produce these works intended for sale
and for practical use.
We study this kinds of objects to learn more about the culture that it
produced it.

The critical process

Art is the result of both hard work and a process of critical thinking that
involves questioning, exploration, trial and error, revision, and
discovery.
Art teaches you to think critically.

Seven steps thinking critically

1. Identify the artists decisions and choices. you can be sure that
what you are seeing in a work of art is an intentional effect. (color,
lines, realistically or not)
2. Ask questions. Be curious Consider work title, where a sculpture
is located, context, about the artist.
3. Describe the object both its subject matter and how its subject
matter is formally realized. Observe how one part of the work relates to
the others.
4. Question your assumption particularly any dislike of an artwork.
Ask yourself why somebody likes it, and examine the work itself to see
if it contains any biases or prejudices.
5. Avoid an emotional response determine what about the work set
them off, and ask yourself if this wasnt the artists very intention.
6. Dont oversimplify or misrepresent the art object Art objects
are complex by their nature. You need to look beyond the obvious.
7. Tolerate uncertainty the process of critical thinning is to uncover
possibilities not certain truths. Asking questions is often more
important, there might be no right answers.

A Quick-Reference Guide to the Elements of art

Basic Terms

Three basic principles define all works of art:

o Form the overall structure of the work
o Subject matterwhat it is literally depicted
When recognizable then representational ( when this works
attempt to depict objects as they are in actual reality then
called realistic)
When not recognizable then nonrepresentational/
nonobjective (Abstract art reduces de world to its essential
qualities.)
o Content what it means

The formal elements

Form refers to the visual aspects of art and architecture.

Elements that contribute to a works form:
o Line: The most fundamental formal element. Can be implied,
some are free and gestural or precise, controlled.
o Space: The sense of deep. 3D space on a 2D surface, the system
known as linear perspective.
1 point linear perspectiveparallel lines receding to a
single point on the viewers horizon (vanishing point).
Frontal: when in the middle
Diagonal: When on the side
2 point linear perspective more than 1 vanishing point
(when looking at the corner of a building)
o Light and dark: employed by the artist to create the illusion of
deep sapace on a 2D surface.
Atmospheric perspective/ aerial perspective: objects
farther away appear less distinct(darker)
Artists depict the gradual transition from light to dark
around curved surface by means of modeling.
Value: relative degree of lightness or darkness in the range
from white to black (gray scale) created by the amount of
light reflected from an objects surface.
o Color: Color processes value.
Hue: the color itself
Adding white to the hue = lightening = tint
Adding black to the hue = darkening = shade
The purer or brighter, the greater intensity
Red to orange to yellow = warm hues
Green, blue and violet = cool hues

Primary colors : red, blue and yellow. (#1 on color

wheel)
Secondary colors : green, violet, orange (#2 on color
wheel)
Intermediate colors: combination of primary and
neighboring secondary.
Analogous color schemes: hues that neighbor each
other on the color wheel.
Complimentary color schemes: hues that lie opposite
each other on the color wheel.
Polychromatic: when the entire range of hues is used
o Texture: the tactile quality of a surface.
Actual surface quality: e.g. as marble is smooth
Visual quality: representational illusion e.g. marble nude
sculpture is not soft likeskin

Visiting Museums

Primary function of museums is to provide a context for works of art

o Works grouped together in such a way that they inform one
another.
By artist, school or group, national and historical period,
critival theory or theme
Curators: people who organize museum collections and exhibits.
o Also take care of the # of star works in any given room, draw
attention by positioning and lighting.

Chapter 1: The World as We Perceive It

Discovering a World of Art

Cai Guo-Qiang: gunpowder in Beijing Olympics, considers it art.

o Interested in it because it seemed to him to have both
destructive and constructive properties.
o Project to Extend the Great Wall of China by 10,000 Meters:
Project for Extraterrestrials No. 10
Best to be viewed from high above Earth
o Gunpowder originally a force for destruction now it was a thing of
beauty.
o In Beijing Olympics the original show (Footprints of History) was
63 seconds but the broadcast was only 55 s because of smog
visibility, Cai agreed and considered it a second work of art.
Artwork that exists in the material realm: the ephemeral
sculpture
Creative digital rendering of the artwork in the medium of
video

o A contemporary expression of the most ancient of Chinese

traditions.

The Process of Seeing

Seeing is both a physical and psychological process.

o Physical: Reception ExtractionInterference
Inherently creative process
o Represents the world for you by editing out info.
Painter Richard Haas known for trompe-loeil (fooling the eye into
thinking the 2D is actually 3D) architectural murals.
o Proves how the eye can be easily deceived.
Everyone perceives differently and remembers different details.
o The eye mirrors each individuals complex perceptions of the
world.

Active Seeing

Everything we see is filtered through a long history of fears, prejudices,

desires, emotions, customs, and beliefs.
Jasper Johns Flag
o Painted at a time when the nation was obsessed with patriotism,
spawned by Senator McCarthys anti-Communist hearings in
1954, by President Eisenhowers affirmation of all things
American and by the Soviet Unions challenge of American
supremacy through the space race.
o The Work asks us to consider what the flag represents
o At another level to consider it as a painting.
Faith Ringgolds God Bless America
o Civil Rights Movement
o American flag as a prison cell
o Painted at a time when white prejudice against African Americans
was enforced by the legal system, the star of the flag becomes a
sheriffs badge, and its red and white stripes are transformed
into the black bars of jail.
o The woman is the image of contradiction: patriot pledging
allegiance to the flag and racist, denying blacks the right to vote.
prisoner of her own bigotry