CLASS 5 UNDERSTANDING FORM

I. “It’s personal.”

Finding out more is a great thing to do.

But NO amount of information will answer all your questions.

II.

There are as many flavors of art as there are people who make it.

New flavors are being created all the time.

You get to pick your favorites.

III.

The point is to give it a try and see which kinds you think are especially great. Then experience to the fullest and enjoy.

Hint: You might like them all.

Morris Louis, Tet, 1958, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 95 x 153 in, WMAA

Olafur Eliasson, Your strange certainty still kept, 1996Water, strobelight, plexiglass, recirculating pump, foil and woodBase 20 x 204 3/4 x 10 inchesTop 173 1/4 inches long

Bruce Nauman, Self-Portrait as Fountain, 1970, c-print, 20 x 24 inches

Nam June Paik, Magnet TV, 1965, 17-inch black-and-white television set with magnet, 28 3/8 × 19 1/4 × 24 1/2 in.

Duane Hanson, Woman with Dog, 1977. Cast polyvinyl polychromed in synthetic polymer, with cloth and hair46 × 48 × 51 ½ in

Charles RayPuzzle Bottle1995painted wood, glass, cork, 13 3/8 x 3 3/4 dia

Joseph Kosuth, Five Words in Green Neon, 1965, neon tubing, 62 x 80 x 6 in

Jack Pierson, Desire/Despairmetal, glass, plexiglas and wood, 117 1/2 x 56 1/4

Willem de Kooning, Door to the River, 1960 Oil on canvas, 80 × 70 in

Brice Marden, Summer Table, 1972–73. Oil and wax on canvas in three parts, 60 × 105 5/16 in.

Doug Aitken, Untitled (Shopping Cart), 2000. Chromogenic print mounted on plexiglass, 48 5/8 × 56 5/8 in

Jean-Michel Basquiat, “LNAPRK”, 1982. Synthetic polymer and oil stick on canvas, 73 1/2 × 72 1/4 in

Catherine Opie, Self-Portrait, 1993chromogenic print, 39 5/8 × 29 15/16 in

I.

You’re allowed to—supposed to!—respond personally to artwork.

The artist wants you to have an experience—an emotional, physical, spiritual, intellectual, moral (some combination of these or all of them) experience of the work.

If you like a work of art, you’ll often want to find out more about it.

II.

That’s great, find out more, it will enrich your experience of the work, no doubt about it. But there is no “final correct answer” to the meaning of a given work. There are more and less satisfying interpretations, more and less sensitive readings, but no single reading is ultimately correct.

Like your parents probably told you, “How do you know you don’t like it if you won’t even try it?

III.

This class gives you a chance to try out different kinds of art.

There’s no obligation to like the things that I, or your classmates, like.

Pick your own likes and dislikes.

However, you can learn from—even come to appreciate—works you don’t particularly care for.

SO, HOW DO WE EXPERIENCE ART TO THE FULLEST?

One way we try to experience art more fully is by understanding how it creates the effects it has on us.

experiencing art

experiencing art

Experience, with your eyes, mind, feelings, memories, body. What does this piece do to me? Examples: Does it make me happy?

Uncomfortable? Sad? Upset? Does it turn my stomach? Does it make me shiver? Worry? Sweat?

experiencing the effects

1. Experience comes first. What do you SEE and how does it make you FEEL in your bones.

At this point, it doesn’t matter who made it, when, or why. The point is to try to figure out, as completely as possible, the effect the work is having on you.

So let’s sum this up as “experiencing the effects” of the work. This process can take a while. It is not necessarily simple. In fact, one definition of art could be work that takes the viewer some time and trouble to experience.

accounting for the effectsNow that you have a handle on what you’ve experienced, you want to know how the piece made you feel that way. Cf. driving a car to learning how it actually works.

This is where formal analysis can be helpful.

How did this piece make me feel (x, y, and z) way? How is it structured to achieve those specific effects?

This is where purely personal, idiosyncratic responses can be weeded out if you are writing to share with an audience.

Wayne Thiebaud, Cakes, 1963

Effects 1

Bruce Nauman Hanging Heads #2, 1989, wax and wire two heads, the first is 10 3/4 x 9 1/2 x 7 ¾, the second is slightly smaller, both suspended approx 6' above the floor

John Singer Sargent

The Daughters of EdwardDarley Boit

1882

87 3/8 x 87 3/8 inches

formal analysis

What will happen in this movie?

How do you know?

http://prezi.com/sazemrmsx16b/what-is-a-genre/

Advertisers work hard to create visual messages that can be decoded in a rapid glance.

“This is a romanticcomedy with two young stars.”

Edgar DEGASEdmondo & Thérèse Morbillicirca 1867Oil on canvas45 7/8 x 34 ¾ inches

What is going to happen to these two people?What is their relationship like?

We aren’t sure. We’re not sureat first, and even after longobservation, we may not be ableto answer these questions definitively.

Art is much slower and typically cannot be understood at a glance. Learning to “read” the formal vocabulary of art will go a long way toward helping you understand it better.

To help us, we can make a distinction between subject matter and form.

Arnold GENTHE

Portrait of Helen Cooke in a Field of Poppies

1907

Paula Modersohn-BeckerOld Woman with Poppies1906

Paula Modersohn-BeckerOld Woman with Poppies1906

Georgia O’Keeffe, Oriental Poppies, 1928

Claude MonetFields of Oats and Poppies, 1890Oil on canvas, 25 x 36 inches

Stuart Franklin (Magnum photo)

Peter Melchett’s organic farm in Ringstead, with poppies and cornflowers growing alongside organic wheat

2008

What is Formal Analysis?

Breaking a work down into component parts for purposes of systematic observation and understanding.

When the parts are put back together, you do so with a richer understanding of each part and how they fit together.

TO BEGIN a formal analysis

IDENTIFY the materials and medium.

What is the work physically made of: oil on canvas, charcoal on paper? Be sure you know.

MATERIALS

EXAMPLE: art made of paper will have a different resonance than art made of steel

Materials can have a strong expressive content.

Even similar materials can be handled quite differently, resulting in different nuances of meaning.

David SmithCubi XVIII1965

Polished steel will have a very different feeling fromCor-Ten steel, which weathersnaturally (see next slide).

Richard Serra, Mozarabe, 1971, Cor-Ten steel

What is the MEDIUM of the work?

1. What is the medium of the work? Is it 2-dimensional?

drawing—charcoal on paperpainting—pigment on a prepared

surfaceprint—lithograph, silkscreen, etchingphotograph

Rackstraw Downes, Under the Off-Ramp from the George Washington Bridge, 2009. Graphite on light blue paper with blue threads, 17 x 36 3/4 in.

PAUL NOBLEVolume 6, 2007Pencil on paper39 3/8 x 27 5/8 inches

Rembrandt van Rijn, A Bend in the Amstel at Kostverloren, undated drawing

Carlo CrivelliMadonna with ChildTempera on panelc. 1470

Vincent van Gogh, Irises, 1889, oil on canvas

Diego RiveraFlower Seller1941

Robert RymanUntitled 1964

Henri MatisseLa GerbeCut paper1953

Henri MatisseBlue Nudepaper cutout1952

Robert AdamsColorado Springs, Colorado1968Gelatin-silver print14 x 14 inches

BILL BRANDT Hands on the beach, 1959 Gelatin silver print, 9 x 7¾ in.

What is the MEDIUM of the work?Is it three-dimensional=existing in space?

Sculpture Relief (bas-relief or low-relief) Sculpture in the round Installation

Architecture and landscape architecture (4th Dimension—time)

Film Video

Brief Nod to Subject Matter

DESCRIBE the subject. What subject is depicted? (Major features only, at this point it does not need to be too detailed.)Include the genre if applicable and if you know it.

history paintingportraiturelandscapestill lifeare some examples of artistic genres.

COMPOSITION

composition: how the various elements of the work are arranged in relationship to each otherthings to look for:spatial relationships:

foreground middle ground background

where is the viewer positioned?how are the objects or elements ordered?

LINE

The literal lines that the artist uses to create shape, suggest depth, etc. These lines can have a variety of characteristics, for example; line can be fine and delicate, or bold and chunky, it can be fluid or halting, precise or sketchy.

How would you characterize line in this work?

What about in this work?

Bridget RileyFall1963polyvinyl acetate painton hardboard55 x 55 inches

What is the roleof line in this work?

COLOR

1. Ask yourself, how important is color in this work?2. In some works, color is quite significant; in others, far less so.

Otto DixPortrait of the Journalist Sylvia van Harden1926

Color is one strong element thatcontributes to the sense of disharmony,confusion and conflict in this picture.It is not the only element Dix uses to create that sensation, but it is a significant one.

Otto DixSmall Self-Portrait1913

By contrast, color has a lesssignificant role in this earlierpainting by the same artist.It is not that color is absent—of course it isn’t—and it’s not thatcolor isn’t skillfully handled—actually, the color here is quitesubtle and fascinating. And perhapsit is symbolically significant as well:those burning cheeks in tandemwith all those frosty blues and silversseem to indicate a passionatepersonality in a cool, even cold environment.

Quick Historical Interlude: LINE and COLOR

Long history of talking about these two properties

Disegno versus colore (in Italy) Dessin vs. couleur (in France)

Are considered the two most basic elements of two-dimensional art

LINE

Line/design can mean several things:

(It’s clearer if we use a more direct translation: design)

Design could mean: A drawing A plan to make something

Ingres,Apotheosis of Homer, c. 1827, brush, gouache, and gray wash on paper, Louvre

This is both a “drawing” and a “plan’ for how to make the finished painting. It is made first.

The finished painting is essentially the drawing “colored in.”

Color was thought to be secondary; line primary.

But artists hate rules. As soon as you give them one they will try to break it.

This academic rule “design has priority; it is the first thing, and the most important thing” was closely associated with the city of Florence.

So the artists of Venice tried to disprove it.

Michelangelo,Doni Tondo,1504

Florentine painting

Michelangelo Buonarroti, CumaeanSibyl, detail, Sistine Ceiling, 1508-12

Florentine painting

“Flesh was the reason oil painting was invented.”—20th c. artist Willem de Kooning

Giorgione, Sleeping Venus, c. 1510Venetian painting

SHAPE

Can be geometric (e.g., cube, cylinder, cone, pyramid, circle, square, triangle)

Or “biomorphic” (sometimes called organic); wiggly, blob-like shapes with irregular outlines.

El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, 1919

Vasily Kandinsky, Composition VIII, 1923Oil on canvas, (55 1/8 x 79 1/8 in), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Sonia DelaunayRhyme1938oil on canvas

Tina ModottiWorkers’ Demonstration, Mexico City 1926Platinum print

Arshile Gorky, Garden in Sochi, 1943

Frank Stella, Jasper’s Dilemma, 1962-3, oil on canvas

Joan Miro, Flight of the Dragonfly in Front of the Sun, 1968

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970, mud, salt, rocks, water, 15 ft x 1500 ft, Rozel Point, Utah

SIZE

Donald Rodney, In the House of My Father, 1996-7

ORIENTATION

Carl Andre, Breda, 1986, blue Belgian granite

Robert Rauschenberg, Monogram, 1955

Xu BingA Book from the Sky1987-1991

E.V. Day, Bride Fight, 2006

TEXTURE

Jean DubuffetGrand Master of the Outsider1947

Paul KleeHighway and Byways1929oil on canvas32 5/8 x 26 3/8 inches

Cy TwomblyLeda and the Swan1962oil, pencil and crayon on canvas6' 3" x 6' 6 3/4"

Texture can be also achieved through literal means, as in Yayoi Kusama’s Narcissus Garden, 2013

Try this at home!

Following are some examples you can use to review. Here are the guidelines: medium/materials (what is it made of?) subject matter/genre (keep very brief for now) composition line color shape texture size orientationREMEMBER, not all of these categories will be applicable to every work of art. Choose the categories that are most relevant to the work you are considering.

John Frederick Peto, Still Life with Cake, Lemon, Strawberries and Glass, 1890.

Some artists have characteristic subject matter, which you can use to help identify them, along with their style.

IN MATTERS OF STYLE…

…nuance is key. You are training your eyes to detect subtle differences, rather than blatant ones.

The more fine-grained the differences you can observe, the better you will have understood the artist’s style.

“God is in the details.”