I. Visual Arts Review

The term concepts has several meanings in the arts. For the Greek period, antiquity, the middle ages, and the beginning of the Renaissance, the concept of art revolved around skill. Skill was defined as knowledge of a set of rules that varied according to the method (painting, sculpture, and so on). Overall, the concept of art included not making distinctions among art, craft, and science (thus, Leonardo daVinci’s Notebooks in which he explored art, craft, and science, were to him all the same areas of concern). Around 1750, with the Industrial, French and American Revolutions, the concept of art evolved to encompass not only the art itself, but the social and theoretical system surrounding it. The basic methods did not change, but the way art was considered did, reflecting a modified view of the role of art in society. Art produced by individual artists was recognized, and the meaning of the art object and the communication it lent further defined art’s prior role. Although, today, society’s conception of art revolves around the individual artist, most art schools still base their teaching on developing a specific level of skill sets.

The concepts of art can also be considered as the things that artists value as important to the communication of meaning independent of how society might appreciate their art. Some of the concepts that artists use are the following:

• time;

• constants and variables;

• nature of creativity;

• creation of new forces and forms that cause change;

• order and disorder;

• reality;

• presence of the past;

• signs and symbols;

• dealing with reality.

The concept of time involves trying to capture a moment in time in a continually changing world. The constants of life involve the continuing nature of man while man is continually inventing, thus creating a set of continuing variables. The concept of creativity involves making new forms and deciding how these forms effect change. Order and disorder is a similar concept in which the artist chooses his own order and creates disorder out of the order by choosing the elements of his art.

BASIC ELEMENTS OF ART. PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN

Visual art includes paintings, photographs, prints, carvings, sculpture, and architecture. Representational art presents a recognizable representation of real people, places, or things. Abstract art presents nonrecognizable representations of real things or thoughts, perhaps using geometric shapes or designs. Nonrepresentational art is unrelated to real things or thoughts and represents only itself. Visual arts are built around certain visual elements: points, lines, texture, shapes, space, form, color. Points are represented by dots and are the simplest visual element. Lines are created when points move and may be horizontal, vertical, diagonal, straight, jagged, or wavy. Lines come in many thicknesses and lengths. Lines in a painting or drawing may suggest three-dimensional images or outline a shape. The quality of the surface of the art object, whether it is smooth, rough, striated, or a combination of tactile feelings. Shapes are bounded forms in two-dimensional art. The boundary of a shape is usually a line, but it may also be created by color, shading, and texture. A shape may be geometric or fluid.

Space refers to the area occupied by the art. Paintings occupy two-dimensional space, while sculpture occupies three-dimensional space. Sculptors manipulate three-dimensional space and forms to create the desired effect, while painters often manipulate two-dimensional space to create the illusion of three-dimensional space. The types of descriptors used in an art work. Form involves the use of circles, squares, spheres, columns, and amorphous shapes.

The colors of the spectrum are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. White is actually the combination of all the spectral colors, and black is an absence of color. Colors communicate mood (blue is cold, yellow is warm). Warm colors appear to expand a work’s size while cold colors appear to contract its size. Color has three properties:

1. Hue is the color itself. It describes a color’s placement in the color spectrum;

2. Value refers to the amount of lightness or darkness in a color; the range of light to dark of the color of the object. Low value shades are dark, while high value shades are light. You can raise the value of a color by adding white, and lower the value by adding black. Tint involves the amount of white in the color, and shade is the amount of black mixed with the color;

3. Saturation (also called chroma or intensity) describes the brightness or dullness of a color.

Perspective refers to methods of manipulating two-dimensional space to create the illusion of three-dimensional space. Foreshortening means exaggerating linear perspective by drawing the near parts of an object in close proximity to the far parts of the same object. Linear per­spective means drawing objects smaller as they get further away. Still photographs naturally employ linear perspective. These principles of design are frequently used to analyze and describe an artwork.

Unity in design involves creating a design or composition in which the elements reflect a wholeness and an appearance of belonging together in harmony. Variety involves using elements that are different to add an element of surprise and change to the composition. Balance refers to the equilibrium of elements that create a work. Balance can be achieved through both symmetrical and asymmetrical arrangements.

Artists use emphasis to draw the eye to certain areas of a composition. Subordination is the area around the emphasis points in a composition or sculpture; these areas provide transi­tion rest for the eyes to the next emphasis area.

Directional forces in a drawing or painting show the way for the eyes to follow the movement in a work of art. Artists use a combination of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines to direct us to the important parts, also using light and dark to aid the composition. Contrast is the use of light and dark areas opposing each other to accentuate areas.

Repetition, the use of repeating elements of similar or the exact size and dimension to reinforce the strength of the composition. Rhythm can be thought of as a repeating pattern of similar designs with slight variations, similar to the rhythmic feeling of music. Rhythm refers to the repetition of elements in an artwork. Effective repetition of design elements tends to create a more dynamic work.

Scale and proportion often go hand in hand. Scale is the size of one object in relationship to another. We think of the size of a painting in terms of its scale: Is it large or very small in relation to other paintings or other objects? Proportion is the size of the objects in relation to the other objects in the whole. Paintings reproduced in books are often reduced in proportion to the original size to fit within the size (the whole) of the printed page. Although the whole painting stays in its original whole, its overall size has been reduced to correspond to the size of the printed page.

Symmetry is achieved when one half of an artwork more or less reflects the other half. Symmetrical works tend to create a sense of formality. Asymmetry is achieved when color and the lightness of different parts of a work create a sense of balance. For example, a lighter area may balance a darker area. Asymmetrical works tend to create a sense of informality. Dominance means to use color or positioning to draw the attention of the viewer to the most important element or elements in a work.

Artists use the basic elements of art and design singly or in combination with each other to communicate ideas in their art works. Typically, the modern understanding of art begins with defining the elements of art and design and learning how to apply them to create works of art. The use of design helps artists to create works of art that can communicate ideas, emotions, time, and feelings. By asking what is real, artists are trying to ask us to consider the meaning of reality: Is what we see real? How is reality composed?

The presence of the past affects artists in the media and methods they use to make their art works. All the processes available to artists allow them to pursue new combinations and create new combinations of methods and art. For example, signs and symbols were used by primitive societies to interpret their worlds; when modern artists discover these methods, they incorporate them into their art works.

The composition (how the elements are combined and displayed) can be successful when the end result achieves the result the artists intended. Artists learn to combine elements to stress their ideas. If the idea needs a strong center, then using an element that occupies a central or large space will dominate the composition. Using the object in the center will create a balanced composition and send the message successfully.

ANALYZING ART WORKS

Art historians study the careers of artists and their art and develop theories about that art. Artists form into groups to reflect similar goals of communication through their art. In school, artists are taught a range of skills, techniques, methods, and theories; they then use the skills they learned to create their own forms of art. Drawn by their own interests into certain areas, not all artists study the same set of skills and art history. Artists learn how to look at works of art and understand, by a structured breakdown, the methods, materials, and the history of the artist who made the art and how that artist or group of artists came to value the various elements and design used in their art works. With a natural inclination in the arts, artists can learn to extract the meaning from works and learn to realize elements, design, compositions, color, ideas, and theories that will apply to their own development of art. Analyzing works of visual art assists artists in determining their own artistic paths and the role they see themselves playing in the history of art.

Analyzing works of art involves studying a work of art from all of its aspects-a physical description (how big is it, what is it made of). Going into detail on the physical description makes the observer aware of all of the elements of the work. Next, describe the colors and shapes that are used and talk about the subject of the object: Is it representational? Abstract? Is it historical? The observer can speak of how the work was made, what process went into its making, its rhythm, balance, and so on. The observer also can analyze the work by going through all of the elements and design aspects. If the work is representative of a different culture, learning about the influence of that culture and its history will be helpful. If the work is old or ancient, learning about the peoples and history of the time will yield insight into why the piece reflects both the artist and the time in which it was made. Art critics study art history, visit art openings, and tour galleries and museums to write articles on art works. Often they work for a newspaper or magazine, serve as curators in museums, or write art history books or current criticism books.

Critiquing and analyzing art works by using all the elements of visual art and the elements of design; physically describing the work; listing and talking about the specific elements in a work; and describing the realistic, abstract, or nonrepresentational aspects of the work help the curator, critic, art historian, or gallery viewer understand the meaning the artist is trying to communicate. Studying other artists that the artist admires and the skills he or she has acquired aids in understanding how the artist makes decisions and choices in materials, arranges a composition or separate parts of a sculpture, and successfully or unsuccessfully conveys the meaning implied.

Art appears in many incarnations, including paintings, photographs, prints, carvings, sculpture, and architecture. When asked to analyze any work of art, you can comment on the content, the form, the style, and the method used by the artist.

The content is what actually appears in a work of art. It is the subject matter of the art. Don’t take the obvious subject matter for granted when considering your analysis. Choose descriptive words as you search for ways to capture the content of the image in front of you. For example, a landscape may contain peaceful blue skies, a raging river, cows and horses grazing, or seemingly endless grassy fields. A portrait may show a happy person or someone filled with concern or worry. A sculpture may show a smoothly muscled athlete. A building may have cascading stairs or a series of columns that thrust upward to the ceiling.

The form of a work of art is the order imposed by the artist. Form is the design of the work regardless of the content. A painting or photograph may show strong horizontal or vertical orientation. Perhaps the work is symmetrical, with one part a mirror image of the other. Some works may be tilted or asymmetrical.

The style refers to the artist’s way of expressing ideas including formal styles such as gothic, high renaissance, baroque, or impressionist. In a painting or picture you can notice how the artist uses color. The colors may blend or clash. There may be an overall dark tone to the picture, or it may be light and airy. Perhaps the artist used dots of paint to produce the image.

The method is the medium used by the artist to create the work. It may be an oil painting or a watercolor. Perhaps the artist created prints or an etching. A three-dimensional work of art may have been sculpted, cast, carved, molded, or turned on a potter’s wheel.

Keep these elements of content, form, style, and method in mind as you respond to the questions on the LAST.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ART MEDIA

Both artists who have attended art school and self-taught artists teach themselves skills that they need in order to accomplish the communication they wish to seek and promote. Knowing a set of skills, how the materials work, and the types of ideas they can express give artists ways to select materials and processes that are appropriate for their art. Artists see works made in various ways and see that certain methods and materials work better to communicate certain ideas. With the advent of technology, artists can use computers, digital cameras, and printers to project how an art work can be made. Various methods can be worked out on a computer, and trial and error (not necessarily the expending of materials) can assist the artist in finding the most appropriate means and methods for his or her art.

The techniques and materials of the visual arts have varied greatly as artists seek to combine old techniques and create new techniques borrowed from the other sciences. The traditional techniques of the visual arts include drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography and film, and ceramics. Present-day techniques draw upon the new resources and technologies available to artists including computer, digital imaging, film, and video.

Drawing techniques involve sketching, freehand, outline, blind outline, long sketch, timed drawing, portrait, rendering, and automatic drawing, to name a few of the choices. In drawing, an implement that leaves a trace is used to push the medium of the implement into the surface (usually paper) to create an image. Typically, drawings are done with the following implements:

• pencil;

• conte crayon;

• pen and ink;

• roller ball pen;

• felt tip pen;

• paint brash;

• charcoal;

• mechanical pencil;

• mechanical pen;

• drawing pencils.

Drawing pencils range in darkness from 6H (H designating hardness and therefore a light line) through HB (the halfway point in the scale) to 8B (B designating blackness and the softest grade and, therefore, the darkest type). Drawings can be considered as finished works of art or as a means of working out a problem to create a finished work of art in another medium. For example, painters often sketch a work on canvas before painting over the sketch; sculp­tors often sketch a sculpture on paper and use that sketch as a guide when working in the final medium. In the past, artists also used solid silver to create silverpoint drawings. The silver left a range of light marks on the paper coated with gesso or China white paint to create a “tooth” or a textured surface on the paper that could receive the particles of silver. As the silver tarnished, the drawing would move to a darker image. Charcoal from fires, created from burning sticks and twigs, were used in the cave drawings to create carbon drawings on surfaces.

Painting (after drawing) has long been a preferred method of communicating ideas in art. Painting techniques include oil, watercolor, gouache, and fresco. The paint for all of these techniques consists of a pigment (color), binder (e. g., egg, oil, wax), which holds the pigment together, and solvents (water, turpentine), which permit the paint to spread on a surface. Oil is the primary painting form. The oil can be applied as thinly or thickly as desired and dries slowly so that the artist can rework it until the desired result is obtained.

Watercolor presents a thin wispy appearance and is widely used for landscape painting. Gouache is an opaque watercolor that is often applied to a board. Acrylic paints combine most of the advantages of oil paint with easy clean up. Acrylics are often applied with an airbrush. Painting techniques include the following:

• washes;

• layer over layer oil painting;

• fresco;

• egg tempera and fine line tempera painting;

• portrait painting;

• abstract painting;

• nonrepresentational painting;

• collages;

• combines;

• paintings including the newer techniques.

Washes are defined as a thin layer of paint (thinned with water, turpentine, mineral spirits, and so on) and applied to the surface with a brash or knife. Often washes are layered over each other to create a depth of color. In watercolor painting, washes are done quickly and show the background white of the paper. Washes can be combined with resist, a removable substance applied to an area of a painting that will resist or not absorb the pigment of the paint that passes in the wash. The resist is then removed (often by rubbing) and the clean area can be painted or left white. Acrylic paintings use washes and a geometric grid method to create areas of color with depth. Artists tape off an area with masking tape where they want to isolate color and then lightly paint in the area with a clear acrylic coat. They then pent the area with the wash or washes and when dry, remove the tape, leaving a crisp edge. Washes can be done with conte crayon by marking strongly on the paper and then applying a wet brush to spread the particles of pigment.

Layer over layer oil painting (fat over lean) refers to the tendency of oil to take a long time to dry completely. Since layers that are thinly painted dry more quickly, the artist paints thicker layers of paint as he progresses through the pirating. Thinned with turpentine, the lean layers can dry in a week. Eventually artists experimented with using commercial paints (enamels, house paints) to be able to paint less expen­sively and enlarge scale. Commercial artists moving into the fine arts field expanded the range of types of paint used tat also increased dramatically the scale of paintings created. Artists used to creating billboards adapted an outsize scale for their gallery works.

Fresco painting evolved as a way to paint the interiors of large architectural structures, specifically churches. Plaster was used on the walls, and it was found that small sections could be painted while the plaster was still drying. Drawings for these large-scale works had to be modified and broken into small paintable sections because the paint needed to be applied only once and not blended. Prior to the age of copies and projection machines, artists made cartoons (drawings to scale) for each area and then punctured the edges of the drawing areas with holes.

Egg tempera and tempera (casein or milk paint also) has been used as a very durable paint medium. The fresh egg (either white only or yolk) is combined with pigment and water and painted on the surface. The egg acts as a binder holding the pigment together and sealing it onto the surface. Without the binder, the pigment would not stay in place, wench is the same reason that chalk drawings need to be sprayed when finished (the chalk particles simply rest on the surface, and a varnish spray binds them to the surface). Paintings made with tempera have a fine texture and unique sheen. Because tempera dries rapidly, overpainting can be accomplished quickly. Artists usually combine different shades of colors and strokes in many directions to create optical effects.

Portrait painting developed as rich patrons and royal families sought to have paintings made to remember their likeness and to portray themselves in specific roles of importance and stature. Portrait painting involved finding a painter whose style you admired and then commissioning the artist to paint a painting along your chosen parameters. Artists in high demand were paid large sums.

Abstract and nonrepresentational paintings are often described the same way although they began with different meanings. Abstract originally was used to refer to a painting created with recognizable shapes and forms but changed in quality. Nonrepresentational paintings refer to paintings in which there are no recognizable subjects or objects. Nonrepresentational art mostly indicates art from the 1930s and 1940s in which the objective was to communicate an idea without using literal objects. Automatic paintings and drawings evolved as a source of communication to the world from the subconscious mind. Later the term abstract came to embody both of these terms, and today abstract refers to илу painting that is not strictly representational in appearance. Abstract works tend to relate to artists’ feeling and emotions and the desire to convey these in an art form, such as painting, sculpture, or printmaking.

Collage was developed as a means to layer and include objects (usually made of paper, but also found objects, cloth, newspaper, and so on) into an overall art work. Collage is usually placed in the painting category if it also involves the application of paint or varnish.

Combines are an offshoot of collage in which the artist combines found objects, household objects, and objects not necessarily defined as art objects into a work of art.

Painting using new techniques includes combining old techniques with new; for example, combining types of oil painting with acrylic or using oil techniques with acrylic paint, including print materials, using shaped canvases, painting with no stretcher frame. Other examples include paintings that hang in space and paintings that conceive и space in a new form, with holes or appendages attached to them. Often objects such as mannequins have been or painted objects have been split and recombined to make a new painting. New technologies involving digital printing now enable artists to project images onto canvases and create photographically correct images or to use multiple imaging capabilities to place multiple images on canvases. Technology has been used literally to assist disabled painters; Chuck Close, whose outsized canvasses require lifting and turning automated mechanisms to move the sections of a painting within his reach. Technologies also enable him to chart off all the sections of a painting and to project images from which to work.

Printmaking techniques and materials have also evolved over hundreds of years. Printmaking involves creating an image on one surface and transferring that image to another surface with the use of ink or paint. In so doing, the image naturally reversed. In order to transfer an image, the artist needs to take into consideration a number of issues: Mating a set of prints is an economical way to reproduce images for a mass market (as opposed to a single painting); images и prints need to be reversed if the image is to be viewed in an original work; or if the print is to be the original, then a decision must be made in which direction the image looks right to the artist. If writing or numbers are used, they need to be reversed. Printing has been transferred to computers now and uses either carbon or laser printing of images. Digital images can be printed, and the use of stone and plates has by and large been replaced except for their use in college art departments to help students acquire printing skills.

Sculpture techniques and materials are more various than those used in drawing, painting, and printing. Since sculpture uses a wider source of materials; the field is continually evolving to include new materials from which to create new works of art. Sculpture made with metal requires the use of harder tools to bend and shape the metal. Often the metal must be heated to cause it to bend; metal can be heated and hammered into almost any shape. Sometimes metal is turned into a molten state and poured into a ready cast. It can be pierced and joined by welding, soldering, or with rivets and hammering. Metal can be shaped using a combination of techniques in a sequence, and its surface can be changed by etching, hammering, embossing, or indenting to create new shapes.

Sculpture with glass requires heat and heavy equipment to handle. Objects made of glass are then allowed to cool in a kiln that slowly cools the piece and prevents cracking and breaking. Initially the glass is melted in a glory hole heated by gas burners underneath the glass containers. Because the glass is so hot, artists wear leather clothing and cover up to prevent burning their skin. Artists dip a rod in the melted glass and blow a small hole. They then form the outer shape of the glass using tools made of wood continually soaked in water and metal tools. The glass can be rolled smooth on a steel plate. As the piece progresses, the artist adds more layers of glass and then blows the form to put more air space inside. Sitting in a chair, the artist rolls the piece back and forth to shape the globe; then cuts off the rod and places the globe on another rod, so the inside can be worked. Artists can roll bits of glass and chemical elements into their pieces. Glass artists also work with forms, pouring the molten glass into a form and pressing the glass into the shape. The piece must also be cooled slowly like the formed pieces.

Sculpture made with plastic can be formed, molded, cut, sawed, and glued into forms. Sheet plastic can be cut or sawed and glued together with other pieces and then sanded to smooth out rough edges and make the seams nearly invisible. Cast plastic is popular but toxic, and must usually be done in a very ventilated area. The plastic is combined with a cata­lyst to make it form into a mold until it hardens. The plastic is removed from the cast and joined with other pieces and then sanded to a smooth finish. Color can be added to the acrylic when the catalyst is added, and the colored acrylic can be cast in layers.

Photography/film techniques and materials date back to the early 1800s with the discovery of a method to capture images on film. The camera obscura (a focusing box) was used by Vermeer to view his compositions. In the early years of photography, the length of time needed to expose the film limited the number and types of photographs that could be taken. Film was developed in a similar fashion, which led to silent movies, then talkies, and finally color movies. For a period of time, photography was not considered an art form because it was viewed as merely capturing mages. During the progress of the history of the camera and film, different methods of developing and processing were invented. In art schools, students have studied methods and experimented with techniques. Film and photography now allow for the exploration of ideas in an easy-to-use and quick medium.