Imported Deck

• Why do we study art?

  • Encourages self-expression and creativity
  • Develops critical thinking and the ability to appreciate the world around us
  • Provides opportunity to acquire new skills
• Visual Literacy


  A set of abilities that enables an individual to effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and visual media
• Reading Visual Arts


  The ability to read, analyze, and critique works of visual arts
• Reading


  The process of forming a perception based on the imagery, form, and language of the text, translated through the experience of the reader
• How to read and Understand Visual Arts

  • Theme - meaning of painting, rather than the subject
  • Mood - the feeling expressed by the artwork
  • Tone - refers to the lightness or darkness of colored used
• Aesthetics


  The philosophical study of beauty and taste
• Intuitive


  Based on what one feels to be true even without conscious reasoning
• Fine arts


  Creative art, especially visual art whose products are to be appreciated primarily or solely for their imaginative, aesthetic, or intellectual content
• Form


  Refers to the physical nature of at work
• Formalism


  The study of art by analyzing and comparing form and style
• Human condition


  Refers to the characteristics and key events that compose the essentials of human existence, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, conflict, and death
• Mimesis


  A Greek word meaning "imitation". It is the process of imitation or mimicry through which artists portray and interpret the world
• Muses


  Sources of inspiration for a creative artist
• Focus of Arts on different eras


  • Pre-modern/pre-aesthetic (ancient Greece and Rome) - Focused on capturing ideal ideas of beauty and the human form; Romans were interested in realistically portraying individuals
  • Modern/Aesthetic (1700s to mid 1900s) - More on producing art that was beautiful rather than having a deeper meaning
  • Modern Art/Modernism - Was viewed as both an art and philosophical movement at the time of its emergence. This movement reflected the immense longing of artists to produce new forms of art, philosophy, and social structures that precisely reflected the newly developing world
  • Postmodernism/Post aesthetic (mid 1900s up to present) - Focused on ideology in the maintenance of economic and political power; Described a form of art in which artists were able to truly express what they thought and felt, with pieces from this period typically characterized by complete freedom from politics and other societal influences
• Key points about different art eras

  • Renaissance emphasized skill level and beauty
  • Art works were commissioned by religious leaders/ church or by aristocats for hundred years
  • There was no artistic freedom (Renaissance)
  • Different movements (isms) emerged with varied intentions, purpose, and reasons for creating the artwork
  • According to Plato, art is mimesis, an imitation. He criticized them for not being able to put ideal realities that he referred to as "forms" or "ideas". It was just a simple and poor copy of perfect ideal forms
  • Aristotle, for him, art was not a mere copying. Art idealizes nature and completes its faults seeking to grasp the universal type in the individual phenomenon
• Visual Art


  Art forms that created primarily for visual perception, as drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, photography, video, film making, and architecture. It has significant cultural component and aim at communicating ideas, entertaining, awakening emotions in us, and much more
• What is art?


  The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power
• Andy Warhol: 'Art is what you can get away with'
• Gauguin: 'Art as either plagiarism or revolution'
• Defining Visual Literacy


  The ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image, extending the meaning of literacy, which commonly signifies interpretation of a written or printed text. Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be "read" and that meaning can be through a process of reading. The ability to construct meaning from everything we see
• Gillian Mclver: 'The most important mechanism for interpreting visual art is your own eyes and your ability to really see and to really look...Go, stand in front of the work of art, literally, physically, look at it. Walk around it, look at its texture, look at its colour...'
• Reading Visual Arts is

  • Context dependent (activate your experiences or general knowledge)
  • An active process
  • Cultural trajectory
  • Applying selection and omission
  • Focus on one element first, then try to link them into the other elements to create a meaningful interpretation that will lead to evaluation
• Analyzing Artwork (Art Criticism)

  • Description - what do you see?
  • Analyze - how did the artist do it?
  • Interpretation - what is the artist trying to say?
  • Evaluation - what do I think about this artwork?
• Why Visual arts important?

  • Cultural preservation
  • Inspiration and expression
  • Social and political activism
  • Historical Interpretation
• Classification of Arts


  • Visual Arts - forms perceived by the eye (e.g. painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, designs, video, advertisements, commercial prints)
  • Performing Arts - forms in which the artist used his/her own body, face, and presence as a medium
  • Literary Arts - centered on creative writing and other composition: intended for reading
• Line


  The path left by moving a point. For example, a pencil, or a brush dipped in paint. A line can take many forms
• Color


  Red, yellow & blue are primary colors which means they can't be mixed by using other colors. In theory, all other colors can be made from these 3 colors
• Tone


  Refers to the lightness or darkness of something. Tone and shading can be used to make 2D look 3D form
• Pattern


  A design that is created by repeating lines, shapes tones and colors. A design which keeps occurring is called motif
• Texture


  Describes the surface quality of something. Actual texture really exists. Visual texture is created using marks to represent texture
• Shape


  An area enclosed by a line. Shapes can be either geometric like circle square or rectangle or irregular
• Formal Qualities of Line


  • Has weight: thin, heavy, bold, delicate, varied etc.
  • Has action: dynamic, static, restful
  • Has character: straight, curved, organic
  • It can construct, render, describe, divide, be implied
  • May imply direction or movement, define figures, measure, fill, shade etc.
• Shape


  A two-dimensional figure displaying only height and width. Two major types of shape in art: geometric and organic
• Texture


  Appeals to our sense of touch, which can evoke feelings of pleasure, discomfort, or familiarity. Three-dimensional artwork (sculpture and pottery) relies on the material used like marble, bronze, clay, metal, or wood. Two-dimensional medium texture may either be real or implied. It can be enhanced or downplay through the manipulation of light and angle. It could be smooth, rough, matte, glossy, etc.
• Color


  • Primary color: red, blue, and yellow; secondary: orange, violet, and green; combining primary and secondary you form tertiary color
  • Used to portray mood, light, depth, and point of view in a work of art
  • Hue - basically any color on the color wheel. When you are using a color wheel or a color picker, you can adjust the saturation and luminance of a hue
  • Saturation - is the intensity or purity of the color
  • Luminance - is the amount of brightness or lightness in a color
• Pattern


  A principle of art and the universe itself, a pattern is an element (or set of elements) that is repeated in a piece of work or an associated set of works. Artists use patterns as decoration, as a technique of composition, or as an entire piece of artwork. They are diverse and useful as a tool that grabs a viewer's attention, whether it be subtle or very apparent
• Tone


  Can be an important tool to produce contrast within an artwork, creating a sense of opposition and tension between different elements or placing focus on particular parts of the composition. Dark tones can be used to create a sense of drama or darkness. Light tones are effective at drawing the viewer's attention to a certain point, especially when contrasted against a dark background. Global tone is the overall impression of colour that you get
• Hue


  The color or shade of a color
• Saturation


  The intensity or purity of the color
• Luminance


  The amount of brightness or lightness in a color