Developing Visual Literacy

• Relationship among words, images, objects in the real world

• Idea of representation

• Conventions in art

• Iconography

Relationship among words, images, objects in the real world

René Magritte. The Treason of Images. 1929.21 1/2 x 28 1/2 in.

Lorna Simpson. She. 1992.29 x 85 1/4 in.

Lorna Simpson. Necklines. 1989.68 1/2 x 70 in.

Shirin Neshat. Rebellious Silence, from the Women of

Allah series. 1994.11 x 14 in.

Andres SerranoPiss Christ

Idea of Representation

• Representational – art that portrays natural objects in recognizable form

• Nonrepresentational – art that does not reference the natural or objective world at all.

Representational

Realistic – more representative of what the eye sees

Stylize - to design in or cause to conform to a particular style,  as of representation or treatment in art; conventionalize.

Abstract – the less a work resembles real thing in the real world.Of or pertaining to the formal aspect of art, emphasizing lines, colors, generalized or geometrical forms, etc., especially with reference to their relationship to one another.

Albert Bierstadt. The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak. 1863.73 1/2 x 120 3/4 in.

Paul Cezanne. Mont Sainte-Victoire.

Sesshu Toyo. Haboku Landscape for Soen (detail). Muromachi period, 1495.

total height 58 1/4 in.

Apollo Belvedere (detail). Roman copy after a fourth-century BCE Greek original.

Height of entire sculpture 7 ft. 4 in.

African mask, Sang tribe.

Naturalistic – where the artist retains apparently realistic elements, but present the visual world from a distinctly personal or subjective view.

Albert Bierstadt. The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak. 1863.73 1/2 x 120 3/4 in.