The Elements of Art Abstraction

-how the artist has created the forms we see Abstract art usually begins with a recognizable
object that the artist then simplifies to show some
Two-dimensional arts purer underlying form.
-color, line, shape, texture, and shading
Nonobjective art goes a step further and removes
Composition any references to recognizable objects.
-the arrangement of elements in a work of art.
All works of art have an order of some sort Expression
determined by the artist. Clashing colors or rough brushstrokes often
We can describe some compositions by referring convey violent emotions.
to a geometric figure. Gentle curves and subdued colors can elicit
quieter emotions.
Three-dimensional arts The artist chooses an expressive styleappropriate
-mass, solids and voids, balance, and scale for the subject matter, genre, or setting of the
piece.
Illusionism
-the illusion of three-dimensional space on a two- Style
dimensional surface The artists personal style
-The works produced by an individual
Techniques artist usually have in common distinctive and
-overlapping shapes, use of light-to-dark shading identifiable visual qualities.
that models or rounds out a shape, use of full The Style of a Period
linear perspective
Perspective: a system by which three-dimensional Subject Matter
space can be convincingly portrayed on a two- -Even when we recognize a works subject matter,
dimensional surface -creates the illusion of further interpretation by experts often reveals
three-dimensionality through lines that seem to additional messages about the work or the artists
extend back in space and meet at a single point time.
known as the vanishing point
-based on elementary laws of optics Medium: comes from the Latin word medium(the
means by which an artist communicates his idea)
Realism, Naturalism, and Idealism -the materials used by an artist to
Realism and naturalism interpret his feelings or thoughts
describe how closely objects seen in a work of art
resemble those we experience in everyday life Classifications of arts
>Visual arts: mediums can be seen and which
Realism: suggests a precise copying of the actual occupy space
appearance of objects, warts and all two-dimensional arts: painting,
drawing, printmaking, and
Naturalism: a way of depicting objects as they photography
might exist three-dimensional arts: sculpture,
-implies a certain amount of improvement architecture, landscape, community
of the actual appearance planning, industrial designs, and crafts like
ceramics and furniture
Idealism >Auditory arts: mediums can be heard and which
-refers to a perfected, or idealized, view of nature are expressed in time
-shows the subjects in flattering ways -music and literature
>Combined arts: mediums can be both seen and Stained Glass
heard and which exist in both space and time - windows composed of small panels of dyed and
-dance, opera, drama, and film painted glass, held in strips of cast lead and
mounted in a metal framework; achieved its zenith
Technique: the manner in which the artist controls in Gothic building
his medium to achieve the desired effect > small pieces of colored glass
-the ability with which the artist fulfils the
technical requirements of his work of art Tapestry
-the way the artist manipulates his medium to -a hand woven textile or cloth weave, typically
express his ideas in the artwork decorated with figures, and used as a wall hanging,
curtain, carpet, or furniture covering
Mediums of the Visual Arts > colored threads upon a warp
Painting
-the art of creating meaningful effects on a flat Drawing
surface by the use of pigments - delineation of form upon a surface, usually a
> watercolor: provides simple and clear plane, by means of lines and tints or shading; the
spontaneity; uses the painting technique gouache most fundamental
fresco: a painting method done on a moist plaster of all skills necessary in arts; considered a very
surface with colors ground in water or a limewater good training for artists
mixture > pencil: the most common medium for drawing;
tempera: a method of painting in which the leads (graphite) are graded in different degrees of
pigment is carried in an egg, casein, gum, or hardness or softness
glycerine solution in water; has luminous tone ink: colored liquid
pastel: a stick of dried paste made of pigment charcoal: a black or dark gray form of carbon,
ground with chalk and compounded with gum produced by heating wood or another organic
water substance in an enclosed space without air; used
encaustic: done by having pigments mixed with in representing broad masses of light and shadow;
wax applied to a surface by heat soft charcoal produces the darkest value while the
oil: the heaviest of painting mediums; pigments hardest charcoal produces the lightest tone
are mixed with linseed oil and applied to the bistre: a brown pigment extracted from the soot
canvas; one good quality is its flexibility; applies of wood and often used in pen and wash drawings
paint in glazes, washes, blobs, trickles, spray, or crayons: pigments bound by wax and compressed
impasto into painted sticks; adhere better on paper
acrylic: synthetic paint mixed with acrylic emulsion surface; the trois crayons technique
as binder for coating the surface of the artwork; silverpoint: a drawing instrument, consisting of
mostly soluble in water, dry quicker than oil paint, silver wire encased in a holder, used on paper that
are waterproof when dry, and remain slightly is prepared with opaque white
flexible, but lack the translucency of natural Printmaking
substances - print: anything printed on a surface that is a
direct result from the duplication process; multiple
Mosaic copies of the original Drawing can be produced
- work of art of surface decorations; most > reproduced through printing
frequently found on floors and wall and ceiling
surfaces; may also be applied to sculptures, Lithography
panels, and other objects; an important feature of - a printing process using a plate on which only the
Byzantine churches image to be printed takes up ink ---the area that is
> colored small pieces of glass, stone, ceramics, or not to be printed is treated to repel ink
other materials; uses tesserae to create an image
>drawing of design using a greasy crayon or pencil Architecture
on a slab of special limestone or a zinc plate fixed - the art of designing a building and supervising its
with an acid solution construction; the procedure assisted with the
conception of an idea and its realization in terms
Sculpture of building materials
- the creation of a three-dimensional work of art, > materials in nature
especially by carving, modeling, or casting stone: oneof the oldest and perhaps the most
>stone: the hard and brittle substance formed permanent building material; includes limestone,
from mineral and earth material; the finished granite, marble, and sandstone
product is granular and dull in appearance; wood: popular for its abundance, relative
includes sandstone, granite, basalt, marble, and durability, and high tensile and compression
limestone strength
jade: a fine stone, usually colored green, and used materials manufacturedby man
widely in ancient China; an ornamental stone for ceramics: bricks,tiles, terra-cotta, and glass
carving and fashion jewelry metals: bronze, wrought iron, copper, chrome-
ivory: a hard cream-colored substance dentine nickel steel, aluminum, monel metal, and
that forms the tusks of animals such as the nickelsilvers
elephant, walrus, and sperm whale and was concrete materials: smooth, hard, permanent,
formerly used to carve small decorative objects light, and durable
metal: a chemical element that is malleable and plastics: may be sowed, cut, bent, drilled, treaded,
ductile, usually solid, has a characteristic luster, molded, cast, extruded, and laminated
and is a good conductor of heat and electricity; can indigenous materials
be shaped or deformed under great pressure sawali: from the outer covering of bamboo poles,
without breaking; includes gold, silver, copper, woven into mats and ideal for cement backing
bronze, brass, lead, and aluminum coco coir: a by-product of coconut used to
plaster: a mixture of lime, sand, and water that is minimize the use of cement and as sandwich
applied as a liquid paste to the ceilings and panels for insulation
internal walls of a building and dries to a hard bagasse: a sugarcane waste used for insulation or
surface; used in making manikins, models, molds, cement backing
architectural decorations, and other indoor abaca: a fiber material from the leafstalk of a
sculpture banana plant
clay: a fine-grained material consisting mainly of bamboo: has low degree of elasticity, low concrete
hydrated aluminum silicates that occurs naturally adhesion, and wide variable moisture content;
in soil and sedimentary rock; used for making used as reinforcement to concrete
bricks and ceramics; the terra-cotta is fired palm frond stems: used for non-structural panels,
earthenware of a gray, buff, or reddish color walls, screens, and bases of houses
glass: hard, brittle, non-crystalline, more or less mud bricks: brittle, have less strength, cannot
transparent substances produced by fusion, stand up well to tension, and have low thermal
usually consisting of mutually dissolved silica and conductivity
silicates and contains soda and lime; used to make
beautiful but fragile figurines Mediums of the Performing Arts
wood: a hard fibrous substance that chiefly
composes trees and bushes and is found beneath Music
their bark; includes dapdap, white lauan, oak, -sounds, usually produced by instruments or
walnut, mahogany, narra, and dao; selected for voices, that are arranged or played in order to
aesthetic purposes and permanence create an effect
> vocal music: the oldest and most natural form of
music
correct posture abstract: refers to images that have been
correct breathing abstracted or derived from nature, but which in
correctplacement of the voice the process have been considerably altered or
correct diction have been simplified to their basic geometric or
correct interpretation biomorphic forms
instrumental music Abstract subjectscan be presented through:
string instruments or chordophones: musical Distortion: the subject is in misshapen condition
instruments in which bowing or plucking causes or the regular shape is twisted
the vibration of a sting or strings tightly Elongation: the lengthening of a subject
stretched across a soundboard; guitar, violin, viola, (protraction or extension)
cello, string bass Mangling: subjects or objects are cut, lacerated,
wind instruments: musical instruments that are mutilated, or hacked with repeated blows
sounded by an airflow (the performer's breath) to Cubism: creates an ambiguous sense of space
make a column of air vibrate within a vented tube through geometric shapes that flatten and simplify
that resonates (intensifies and prolongs sound); form, spatial planes that are broken into
brasses: trumpet, French horn, trombone, tuba; fragments, and forms that overlap and penetrate
woodwinds: piccolo, flute, clarinet, saxophone, one another through the use of a cone, cylinder, or
oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, bassoon, sphere at the expense of other pictorial elements;
contrabassoon shows forms in their basic geometrical shapes
percussion instruments: musical instruments that Abstract expressionism: primarily concerned with
are hit to produce sound; snare drum, bass drum, the spontaneous assertion of the individual
cymbals, triangle through the act of painting contains a variety of
styles and is characterized more by the concepts
Methods of Art Production behind the art than by a specific look without
and Presentation recognizable images and does not adhere to the
limits of conventional form characterized by great
Realism verve, the use of large canvases, and a deliberate
-an attempt to describe human behavior and lack of refinement in the application of the paint
surroundings or to represent figures and objects
exactly as they act or appear in life of human life Symbolism
-concerned directly with what is absorbed by the -an international ideological trend that served as a
senses catalyst in the development away from
-ugly objects or figures are represented representation in art and toward abstraction
-exactly as they act or appear in life -encourages artists to express their ideas, feelings,
-frequently used to describe scenes of humble life and values by means of symbols or suggestions
-implies a criticism of social conditions rather than by direct statements
-goal: the faithful rendering of the objective -imagination: the true interpreter of reality
reality of human life -the use of certain pictorial conventions (pose,
gesture, or a repertoire of attributes) to express a
Abstraction latent allegorical meaning in a work of art
-uses forms having no direct reference to external
or perceived reality; usually synonymous with Fauvism
various types of 20thcentury avant-garde art -a relatively short-lived movement in French
-nonrepresentational: not aiming to depict an painting (from about 1898 to about 1908) that
object but composed with the focus on internal revolutionized the concept of color in modern art
structure and form -rejected the impressionist palette of soft,
shimmering tones in favor of the violent colors
used by the postimpressionists for expressive
emphasis achieved a poetic energy through -influenced by the Freudian psychology that
vigorous line, simplified yet dramatic surface emphasizes the activities of the subconscious state
pattern, and intense color of mind
Fauves: known for their use of distorted -subjects: show what is inside mans mind and the
perspectives, vivid colors, and unrestrained appearance of his outside world
brushwork
Dadaism Expressionism
-Early 20th century art movement whose members -a movement or tendency that strives to express
sought to ridicule the culture of their time subjective feelings and emotions rather than to
through deliberately absurd performances, poetry, depict reality or nature objectively
and visual art -a reaction against the academic standards that
-embraced the extraordinary, the irrational, and had prevailed in Europe since the Renaissance
the contradictory largely in reaction to the (1300-1600)
unprecedented and incomprehensible brutality of -artist: tries to present an emotional experience in
World War I (1914-1918) its most compelling form
-driven in part by a belief that deep-seated not concerned with reality as it appears but with
European values were implicated in the horrors of its inner nature and with the emotions aroused by
the war the subject
-Political motivation: to ridicule culture, reason, -subject: frequently caricatured, exaggerated,
technology, even art poetry, and visual art distorted, or otherwise altered in order to stress
-often described as nihilistic the emotional experience in its most intense and
-considered an affirmation of life in the face of concentrated form
death --------------------------------------
Realism
Futurism - began in the mid-19thcentury
-early 20th century movement in art that pointedly > Gustave Courbet
rejected all traditions and attempted instead to Honor Daumier
glorify contemporary life, mainly by emphasizing Jean Franois Millet
its two dominant themes, the machine and Gustave Flaubert
motion Guy de Maupassant
-captured the speed and force of modern Anton Chekhov
industrial society George Eliot
-futurist worship of the machine: survived as a Mark Twain
fundamental part of Fascist doctrine William Dean Howells
-subjects: automobiles, motorcycles, and railroad Henry James
trains ---express the explosive vitality of a modern
city The Gleaners (1857)
by Jean Franois Millet
Surrealism -a member of the Barbizon School of landscape
- Artistic and literary movement that explored and artists
celebrated the realm of dreams and the -captured the poverty and dignity of rural French
unconscious mind through the creation of visual life
art, poetry, and motion pictures -The human side of art is what touches me most.
-the invention of new artistic techniques that
tapped into the artists unconscious mind The Gross Clinic (1875)
-art: weapon against evil and restrictions that by Thomas Eakins
surrealists see in society -represented the experience of American life
-Dr. Samuel D. Gross
-from Jefferson Medical College -used figures from the circus and the theater
-The Emperor of American Surgery -features two characters from Italian Commedia
with Dr. James M. Barton, Dr. Charles S. Briggs, Dr. Dellartetheater
Daniel M. Appel, Dr. W. Joseph Hearn, and Dr. -Harlequinin the diamond-patterned costume and
Franklin West Pierrot in white

Mark Twain (1835-1910) Symbolism

Samuel Langhorne Clemens - late 19thcentury in France
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The > Edgar Allan Poe
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Grardde Nerval
Charles Baudelaire
-known for realism of place and language, StphaneMallarm
memorable characters, and hatred of hypocrisy Paul Verlaine
and oppression Arthur Rimbaud
Vincent van Gogh
Abstraction
-20thcentury Les fleursdu mal (1857)
>Pablo Picasso by Charles Baudelaire
Georges Braque -a master of the sonnet form and a brilliant literary
Wassily Kandinsky critic
Max Ernst -a collection of erotic and decadent poems
Marcel Duchamp
Marc Chagall The Torture of Prometheus (1868)
Yves Tanguy by Gustave Moreau
Arshile Gorky -painted many literary and mythological subjects
Hans Hofmann in a highly imaginative manner
Jackson Pollock -used rich Oriental color harmonies
-the Greek god Prometheus chained to a rock
Black and White (1948) while a vulture preys on him
by Jackson Pollock
-developed a technique for applying paint by The Raven (1845)
pouring or dripping it onto canvases laid on the by Edgar Allan Poe
floor -the first master of the short storyform
-as abstract expressionist: emphasized the -the originator of the modern detective story
spontaneous gestures of the artist -poetry: captured the imagination with their dark
imagery and fascination with the macabre
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) -a pioneer in the field of mystery writing
by Pablo Picasso -the raven as a symbol of death
-the greatest artist of the 20thcentury
-pioneered the modern art movement called Fauvism
cubism - from about 1898 to about 1908 in France
-invented collage as an artistic technique > Paul Gauguin
-developed assemblage in sculpture Vincent van Gogh
-a composition of fragmented planes and jagged Andr Derain
forms Maurice de Vlaminck
Raoul Dufy
The Three Musicians (1921) Georges Braque
by Pablo Picasso Henri Manguin
Albert Marquet Futurism
Jean Puy -Early 2oth century
Emile Othon Friesz > Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Henri Matisse Giacomo Balla
Umberto Boccioni
Red Room (Harmony in Red) Carlo Carr
(1908-1909) Luigi Russolo
by Henri Matisse Gino Severini
-one of the great formative figures in 20thcentury
art Unique Forms of Continuity in Space
-a master of the use of color and form to convey (1913)
emotional expression by Umberto Boccioni
-process of creation: constantly checking his own -wrote the Technical Manifesto of Futuristic
reactions to the piece unfolding before him as he Painting(1910)
worked -sculpture: illustrated the interaction of a moving
object with the space that surrounded it
London Bridge (1906) -shows how a human body interacts with its
by Andr Derain environment as it moves
-created simplified yet dramatic designs using
unnaturally brilliant colors to convey a sense of Surrealism
emotion - launched in Paris, France in 1924
> Andr Breton
Dadaism Louis Aragon
- early 20thcentury Paul luard
> Marcel Duchamp Salvador Dal
Francis Picabia
Tristan Tzara The Persistence of Memory (1931)
Man Ray by Salvador Dal
-his enormous talent for self-publicity made him
Parade Amoureuse (1917) an international celebrity
by Francis Picabia -imagery: often came directly from his own
-best works: witty portraits resembling drawings dreams
of machinery -hand-painted dream photographs
-displays Picabias fascination with mechanical -based on an image from Hieronymus Boschs The
objects Garden of Earthly Delights
-suggests a somewhat mysterious coupling of two
machines The Uncertainty of the Poet (1913)
by Giorgio de Chirico
Bicycle Wheel (1913) -founder of the metaphysical school
by Marcel Duchamp -filled with dreamlike imagery
-changed the course of modern art
-a bicycle wheel turned upside down and mounted Expressionism
on a kitchen stool - late 19thand early 20thcenturies
-ready-mades: ordinary objects that are turned > Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
into objects of art by changing their context and Erich Heckel
exhibiting them as sculpture Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
Emil Nolde
Max Pechstein
Otto Mller
Mark Rothko
Willem de Kooning
Franz Kline
Jackson Pollock
Auguste Rodin

Berlin Street Scene (1913)

by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
-a founding member of the expressionist group Die
Brcke
-one of a series of street scenesdone by Kirchner
(1912-1913)
-with vivid colors and emotional content
-with distinctive brushwork and flattened space
The Scream (1893)
by EdvardMunch
-known for brooding, anguished paintings and
graphic works
-portrayed the inner turmoil of his subjects
-with sinuous forms, violent colors, and screaming
subject
Still Life, Tulips (1930)
by Emil Nolde
-a member of Die Brcke
-known for his brilliant colors both in oil paintings
and in watercolors