THE VISUAL WORLD Important terms & ideas from

Sayre, Chapters 1-3

Roles of the Artist

 Artists help us see the world in new or innovative ways

 Artists make a visual record of the people, places, and events of their time and place

 Artists make functional objects and structures (buildings) more pleasurable and elevate them or imbue them with meaning.

 Artists give form to immaterial—hidden or universal truths, spiritual forces, personal feelings.

Seeing & Visual Literacy

 “Seeing is believing” is a common assumption.

  Seeing is both physical and psychological.

Visual conclusions are influenced by an individual’s complex perception of the world: filtered through history, fears, emotions, customs, desires.

Concepts of Visual Literacy: The relationships among words, images, and objects in the world

The idea of representation

The distinctions among form and content in art

Conventions in art

Iconography

Words & Images

Rene Magritte, The Treason of Images, 1929 Oil on Canvas 21 ½ x 28 ½ in.

Words & Images

What is this?

Representational portrays natural objects in recognizable form

Realism attempts to be photo-realistic

Abstraction is representational, but less realistic

Nonrepresentational (or non-objective) does not refer to the natural or objective world at all

Andy Warhol, Race Riot, 1963, Acrylic & silkscreen on canvas, four panels each 20 x 30 inches.

Albert Bierstadt, The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak, 1863, oil on canvas, 73 ½” x 120 ¾”

Naturalism: realistic elements, but presented in a biased or subjective way

Albert Bierstadt, The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak, 1863, oil on canvas, 73 ½” x 120 ¾”

Kasimir Malevich, Suprematist Painting, Black Rectangle, Blue Triangle, 1915, oil on canvas, 26 1/8” x 22 ½”

Kasimir Malevich, Suprematist Painting, Black Rectangle, Blue Triangle, 1915, oil on canvas, 26 1/8” x 22 ½”

Form & Content in Non-Objective art

In this example, the art is about form. So its content has to do with form.

Malevich is demonstrating how purely formal relationships can transform otherwise static forms into a visually dynamic composition.

Iconography: a system of visual images the meaning of which is widely understood by a given cultural group.

Symbols: visual images that represent something more than their literal meaning

Iconography and Cultural Context

Amitabha Buddha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, Kamakura period, Japan, 13th century

Mudra: symbolic hand gestures

Raised right hand: symbolizes Buddha’s fearlessness

Lowered left hand: symbolizes the granting of protection

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Charles the First, 1982, Acrylic & oil paintstick on canvas, 78 x 62 in.

Basquiat employs symbols of his own & other’s making to create a coded visual language

“S”: Superman, and SAMO (Basquiat’s graffiti pen name)

Crown: Basquiat’s symbol for African American hero

“X”: OK, All right. Basquiat discovered this in a book section “Hobo Signs.” But we also associate X with a negative-crossing out.

What other symbols do you see?