UVCSp15Module4.2
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Transcript of UVCSp15Module4.2
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
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).
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.
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.
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
So color was thought to be secondary.
Except that some artists defied this rule.
They said, actually paint is what paintings are made of, and paint is pigment (a color) suspended in a medium (some sort of binder).
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.
“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.
Vasily Kandinsky, Composition VIII, 1923Oil on canvas, (55 1/8 x 79 1/8 in), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
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.
Some artists have characteristic subject matter, which you can use to help identify them, along with their style.