Exploring Art: A Global, Thematic Approach

Chapter 2The Language of Art and

Architecture

Formal elements• Just as words are the basic elements of

oral/written languages• Formal elements are the basic units of

visual arts– Line– Light and value– Color– Texture and pattern– Shape and volume– Space– Time and motion

Line…a moving point having length/width.

In art, a line usually has length and width, but length is more important.

• Actual line—they physically exist and can be broad, thin, straight, jagged

• Implied lines—do not physically exist, yet they seem quite real to viewers—dotted line, unconnected parts

The Creation of Adam (Detail)

Note the line quality:Thick strokes—bottom of hemWispy lines—beardCrisp lines—sword blade

Utagawa Kunishada, Shoki the Demon Queller, c. 1849-1853. Woodblock print

Line quality can express a range of emotions.

Contrast the thick, angular lines of Shoki with the thin,

playful lines of Klee.

Also the arrangement of lines can seem organized or disorderly. Klee’s lines

seem arranged whimsically.

Paul Klee. They’re Biting, 1920. Drawing and oil on paper

Line that depict three-dimensional objects:

• Outline—follows the outer edges of the silhouette of a three-dimensional for with uniform line thickness. Outlines flatten a three-dimensional form into a two-dimensional shape.

• Contour lines—mark the outer edges of a three-dimensional object—with varying line thickness and some internal detail.

• Cross-contours—repeated lines that go around an object and express its three-dimensionality

• Hatching—lines that product tones or values (different areas of gray)

• Cross-hatching—parallel Lines in superimposed layers

Durer, Artist drawing a model in foreshortening through a frame using a grid system, woodcut (crosshatching)

Foreshortened: the size of an object's dimensions along the line of sight are relatively shorter than dimensions across the line of sight

Light and value

• In art and architecture, light might be an actual element. In buildings, the control of light is an essential design element.

Bruce Nauman. (American, born 1941). Human/Need/Desire. 1983. Neon tubing and wire with glass tubing suspension frames,

7' 10 3/8" x 70 1/2" x 25 3/4"

Nauman believes that language is "a very powerful tool"; he was inspired to use neon tubing because of the convincing messages and hypnotic aura of neon advertisements. Ironicly, he uses this flashing commercial medium—with all its wires exposed—to address fundamental elements of human experience.

Light and Value

• Most art does not emit or manipulate light but relects ambient light (the light all around us)

• In two-dimensional art artist use value to represent the various levels of light that reflect off of objects.

• Value (or tone) is one step on a gradation from light and dark

• Achromatic value scale—the extremes are white and black (grey in between)

• Chromatic value scale—different values of color

• Shading (modeling) manipulate gradations in values to create the appearance of natural light on objects

• Chiaroscuro—light-dark gradation that can depict objects in space

Achromatic value scale, showing only black, white, and gray tones. Chromatic value scale, showing various values of red. Values can create the illusion of volume.

Light and Value

Rosso Fiorentino, Recumbent Female Nude Figure Asleep, 1530

Chiaroscuro—use of various tones (black, white, grays) to create the illusion of volume

A range of values can express emotion.

Kunishada’s print carries a strong emotional charge.

While Fiorentino’s nude may lull the viewer.

Utagawa Kunishada, Shoki the Demon Queller, c. 1849-1853. Woodblock print

Louise Nevelson, Mirror-Shadow VII, 1985, wood painted black, 9' 9" x 11' 7" x 1' 9"

Sculpture and architecture have value difference because of the many angles at which light hits and refects off their three-dimensional surfaces.Nevelson’s sculpture is painted black, but the light bouncing off of various surfaces appears as gray or as black.

Examining Color

• Consider the various concepts and properties of color—hue, value and intensity

• Hue it the pure state of color in the spectrum an is that color’s name, such as red, blue, yellow, green violet and orange.

Hue: This is what we usually mean when we ask "what color is that?" The property of color that we are actually asking about is "hue". For example, when we talk about colors that are red, yellow, green, and blue, we are talking about hue. Different hues are caused by different wavelengths of light. Therefore, this aspect of color is usually easy to recognize.

Hue Contrast - strikingly different hues

Hue Constancy - different colors, same hue (blue)Value in color is the lightness and darkness within a hue

Value: When we describe a color as "light" or "dark", we are discussing its value or "brightness". This property of color tells us how light or dark a color is based on how close it is to white. For instance, canary yellow would be considered lighter than navy blue which in turn is lighter than black. Therefore, the value of canary yellow is higher than navy blue and black.

Low value—same brightness level

Contrast of value—grayscale, no chroma

Contrast of value—stark differences in brightness

Tints, Tones and Shades:

• These terms are often used inappropriately but they describe fairly simple color concepts. The important thing to remember is how the color varies from its original hue. If white is added to a color, the lighter version is called a "tint". If the color is made darker by adding black, the result is called a "shade". And if gray is added, each gradation gives you a different "tone."

• Tints (adding white to a pure hue)

• Shades (adding black to a pure hue)

• Tones (adding gray to a pure hue)

• Intensity/Saturation—tells us how a color looks under certain lighting conditions. For instance, a room painted a solid color will appear different at night than in daylight. Over the course of the day, although the color is the same, the saturation changes.

• Be careful not to think about SATURATION in terms of light and dark but rather in terms of pale or weak and pure or strong.

Gainsborough, M/M Andrews

Most saturated color—blue satin dress, modified with tints and shades

Warm—foreground greens

Cool—distant blue-grey greens

Local colors—the colors we normally find in the objects around us.

RED, YELLOW, BLUE:Thought of as the “original” colors since they are the starting point for all other colors and cannot be recreated by the mixing of any others. They are thought to be exuberant, decorative and decisive.

For light-emitting media, the primary colors are red, blue, green

Primary Colors (R/Y/B): For paints and pigments, the primary colors are red, yellow and blue

It is from the blending of the primary colors that secondary colors are born.There are three secondary colors.

Red + yellow = orangeBlue + yellow = greenBlue + red = purple

SECONDARY COLORS

TERTIARY COLORS

Tertiary colors come to life when primary and secondary combine.

There are six:Red-orangeYellow-orangeYellow-greenBlue-greenBlue-violetViolet-red

If we are working on a computer, the colors we see on the screen are created with light using the additive color method.

Additive color mixing begins with black and ends with white; as more color is added, the result is lighter and tends to white

ADDITIVE COLOR SYSTEM—applies to light-emitting media, the primary colors are red, blue, green

When we mix colors using paint we are using the subtractive color method. Subtractive color mixing means that one begins with white and ends with black; as one adds color, the result gets darker.

Complementary colors are opposites of each other and, when mixed, give a dull result. Red and green are complementary colors.

COMPLEMENTARY VERSUS ANALOGOUS COLORS

• complementary colors are opposite each other on the color wheel and dramatically different in wavelength

• Analogous colors are next to each other on the color wheel and similar in appearance

•

A good example of the use of color complements is in this 15th Century painting. The rich reds and greens of the bed canopy and Cenami’s dress contrast with the dark robes of Arnolfini.

Light, entering from a side window provides brightness which contrasts with areas left in shadow.

Colors are subtly blended, creating great depth.

The work is well balanced, with the two figures framing the mirror Contrast is given on each side, with the dark clothed Arnolfini standing next to the bright clear light of the window, and green robed Cenami set against red.

"The Arnolfini Wedding" by Jan Van Eyck

primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) are those that cannot be produced by mixing two other

colors together

secondary colors (violet, orange, and green) are those that are produced when two primaries

are mixed

analogous colors are those that are next to each other on the color wheel and share similar

wavelenghts

LOCAL VERSUS OPTICAL COLOR

• local color is the color that an object has in normal light

• optical color is color produced through our visual perception

Haystack at Sunset Near GivernyClause Monet. oil on canvas, 1891 (Impressionism)

a great example of optical color

The Night Cafeby Vincent Van Gogh,

oil on canvas1888 (Post

Impressionism)

• Expressive use of color (non-realistic)• Harsh palette (a place where one can ruin oneself)• Red (walls) green (ceiling) clash• Billiard table and floor (contain red and green) marry the two• Lamp light—agitated swirls of local color—psychological

brillance/agitation.

Sensory overload—installation immerses viewer in cool and highly saturated BLUENESSLED—points, lines, and grids—used as a medium for sensory stimulation.

Erwin Redl. Installation view of Matrix IV 30/5/01 at Creative Time’s “Massless Medium: Exploration in Sensory Immersion.” Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage, Bklyn. NY

Color Properties in Various Media

Paint Light-Emitting Media

Commercial Printing or Computer Printer

Color System subtractive additive subtractive

Effects of Environmental Light Levels

more room light, the brighter the colors

less room light, the brighter the colors

more room light, the brighter the colors

Primary Colors blue, red, yellow red, green, blue CMYK

Secondary Colors

purple, green, orange

yellow, cyan, magenta

red, blue, green

Complementaries

blue – orangered – greenyellow – purple

red – cyangreen – magentablue – yellow

cyan – redmagenta – greenyellow – blue

Mixture of all Primaries

gray or dull neutral

white black

The Relativity of Color Perception

Explore Texture and Pattern

• Texture refers to the surface characteristics, and may be tactile or visual.

• Pattern is the regular repetition of a visual form.

• Describe both the texture and pattern displayed in the 6th century mosaic below.

Texture

• ACTUAL TEXTURE is tactile it is more than visual information

• VISUAL TEXTURE is the illusion of texture – trompe l'oeil is a method of art that is

intended to create a realistic illusion of texture and depth in a work of art. The term means "fool the eye" in French.

Tactile texture

• Lion Capital from Asoka pillar

• Sarnath, India• ca. 250 BCE• Culture:

Buddhist/Indian

Detail of Deesis Mosaic in Hagia Sophia. Believed to be

1185-1204. Mosaic tile.

Each mosaic piece reflects ambient light in a slightly

different direction.

Visual texture is illusionary.

James RosenquistGift Wrapped Doll IV

1992VISUAL TEXTURE

• Simulates texture of cellophane• Transparent wrap reflect light, tearing across the

innocent face like white-hot rods• Doll—haunting and sinister• Commentary—ideal of beauty—blue eyed blonde

SUBVERSIVE TEXTURE contradicts our past visual experience by using texture in ways that are unexpected.

Birth of Venus, by Ralph Larmann—good examples of this.

Considering Shape and Volume

• Shape refers to two-dimensional art, and volume refers to three-dimensional works.

• Shape and volume may have simulated reality, may be abstracted or invented.

Examining Space• Space refers to the actual space in which

a work of art exists, or an illusion of space created.

• An illusion of space (depth) may be created by shading, overlapping, and atmospheric or linear perspective.

• Artists may also use isometric, oblique, and mid-point perspective.

• Compare the different illusions of space between Piranesi’s Prisons and the detail of a Muromachi period screen.

One-point perspective

Two-point perspective

Three-point perspective

• 1. Turn your paper horizontal ("landscape" orientation)

•

1. Turn your paper horizontal ("landscape" orientation)

                            

• 2. Line the end of your ruler up with the side of your page.

• Be sure the ruler is straight and flush with the edge of the page or everything will be crooked!

                                   

• 3. Draw a horizontal line one or two inches down from top of the page. This is your horizon line.

•

• 4. Draw a dot in the middle of your horizon line. This is your vanishing point.

• 5. Now draw a square or rectangle in the right or left bottom area of your page.

• 6. Now connect three corners of your rectangle or square to the vanishing point. These are orthogonals.

• 7. Draw a horizontal line between the top two orthogonals where you want your form to end.

• 8. Draw a vertical line down from the horizontal line to complete the side.

• 9. Erase the remaining orthogonals.

                            

10. Add details and experiment!

                              

                              

                              

                       

                              

                       

Albrecht Durer, The Adoration of the Magi (1511) woodcut

• Follow converging parallel lines to vanishing point

• This woodcut is an exercise in one-point perspective

linear perspective is a mathematical

system for organizing space in a convincing way.

It is used in Piranesi's

Drawbridge drawing

• ATMOSPHERIC (AERIAL) PERSPECTIVE

• is a convention of art that was invented by Leonardo da Vinci for creating an illusion of depth by incorporating the natural effects of atmosphere.

Multipoint perspective

Time and Motion

• ACTUAL MOTION is live movement. A work of kinetic art like Alexander Calder's Untitled mobile in the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. displays actual motion when we see it in person.

THE ILLUSION OF MOTION

• is what we experience when we see a movie or series of shapes that note a passage of time. A movie is a series of still frames that do not contain actual motion, but when shown in a time sequence, create an illusion of motion.

Apollo and Daphne. Gianlorenzo Bernini, marble sculpture, 1622-24 (Baroque)

IMPLIED MOTION AND TIME is a non-moving image that shows movement through the attributes present in the image. Good examples of this are found in Bernini's Apollo and Daphne

Examining Time and Motion

• Consider how time and motion may be incorporated in visual art, usually understood as static, by examining issues of Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase.

Marcel Duchamp. Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2), 1912. Oil on canvas, 57 7/8” X 35 1/8”. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.

Boccioni, Umberto. Dynamism of a Cyclist. 1913

Chance/Improvisation/Spontaneity

• Strongly affects visual organization of an artwork

• Opportunity for uniqueness• Uncontrolled outcomes

Cai Guo-Qiang. Black Rainbow: Explosion Project for Valencia, Spain. 2005.

Omens for international unease—frightening—but also attract with their power and beauty.

Principles of Composition

• Balance• Rhythm• Proportion and scale• Empasis• Unity and variety

POLYKLEITOSDoryphoros (Spearbearer)

ca. 450-40 B.C.[actual balance]

Leonardo da Vinci , Vitruvian Man, c.1490 [symmetrical balance]

Lindisfarne Gospels, Carpet Page

[bilateral symmetry]

The U.S. Capital Building[Symmetrical balance—bilateral symmetry]

Arnold Newman, Georgia O’Keeffe,

Ghost Ranch, NM (1968)[approximate symmetry]

Asymmetrical Balance

Your eyes tell you the elements are skewed

Your brain registers balance

Miro, Birth of the World (1925) MoMA

[asymmetrical and balanced]

Helen M. Turner (1858-1958), Morning News, 1915[well-placed touches of color …overall visual balance]

Horizontal, Vertical,

and Radial Balance

Gertrude KasebierBlessed Art Thou Among Women[horizontal balance…elements on left and ritght seem to be equal in number or visual emphasis]

[vertical balance…top and bottom are in

balance]

[radial balance...design elements radiate from a center point]

Barbara Morgan, Martha Graham (GSP)

Angkor Wat. Central Temple Complex. C. 1113-1150 CE. Cambodia.

The temple is laid out in a modified radial plan.

IMBALANCE

Balance…comfort/aesthetically pleasingImbalance…discomfort/shock

Robert Capa. Death of a Loyalist Soldier (9/5/1936)

imbalance..intensified drama

Niki de Saint-Phalle. Black Venus,1967 [precarious balance suggest weightlessness]

Proportion and Scale

• Proportion refers to size of one part in relaton to another within a work of art.

• Scale is the size of something in reation to what we assume to be normal

Count of Montizon. Obaysch, London Zoo's first hippopotamus, 1852 The hippopatamus named Obaysch arrived at the London Zoo in May

1850

René Magritte, Personal Values. 1952

The AnnunciationFrom the Lectionary of Henry

II1002 - 1014, approximately

17" x 13”

Hieratic scaling

Pannini. Interior of the Pantheon, Rome (c.1734)

Jan Van Eyck. Madonna in the Church

c. 1425Oil on wood, 32 x 14 cm

Marisol. Baby Girl. 1963

Claes Oldenburg, Coosje van Bruggen, and Frank O. Gehry. The Binocular Entrance to the Chiat Building, Venice, California.

Claes Oldenburg. Clothespin (1976) Corten steel with stainless steel base. 45’ H

Emphasis, Unity and Variety

• Emphasis is the creation of focal points.• Unity is the quality of overall cohesion

within a work of art.• Variety is the element of difference in a

work of art. • Examine how the principles of emphasis,

unity and variety are used in works of art.

Claes Oldenburg, Coosje van Bruggen, and Frank O. Gehry. The Binocular Entrance to the Chiat Building, Venice, California.

The Binocular Entrance is the focal point!

PROPORTION

Everything is relative

POLYKLEITOSDoryphoros (Spearbearer)

ca. 450-40 B.C.“The Canon of Proportions…

ideal beauty”

Alice Neel. The Family (John Gruen,

Jane Wilson, and Julia). 1970

• What is not idealized?

Structural Systems in Architecture

• Traditional building methods– Load-bearing construction– Post and lintel construction– Wood frame construction– Arches, Vaulting, Domes

• Recent Methods and Materials– Steel Frame construction– Reinforced concrete– Suspension and tensile

construction

Compare load-bearing with post and lintel construction:

El Castillo, Chichen Itza, Mexico. See the elevated view in the textbook.

Mnesicles. The Temple of Athena Nike and the Proplylaea. 437-432 BCE. Athens.

Post and lintel construction at Stonehenge.

arcade: A series of arches supported by columns or piers.

colonnade: A row of columns which support horizontal members, called an architrave, rather than arches

Diagram of the Greek and Roman Orders

Parthenon

Temple of Athena

Vault systems

Barrel vault

Groin vault

to suggest direction and movement:

• horizontal lines tend to communicate suggest stability and calm, vertical lines suggest strength and authority (architecture), and diagonal lines tend to represent movement. These characteristics can all be seen in Botticelli's Birth of Venus.

Lines—firm carve out figures (from rigid horizontal and vertical trees)Lines—zephyrs—straight breath—curved drapery (imply movement)

Lines—implied—compositional (overall triangle)

Jacob Lawrence, Harriet Tubman Series. 1939–40 . Panel #4On a hot summer day about 1820, a group of slave children were

tumbling in the sandy soil in the state of Maryland - and among them was one, Harriet Tubman

• Lines—horizontal (like horizon) suggest stability• Lines—vertical (skyscrapers) defy gravity, suggest

assertiveness• Lines—diagonal—movement/directionality (i.e. zephyr)