Two-Dimensional Art

Chapter 1
Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, and
Photography
 Formal and Technical Qualities
• Two-dimensional art adorn personal spaces via pictures of family,
friends, music & sports stars, copies of artistic masterpieces, and
original paintings & prints
oDorm rooms, bedrooms, & living rooms - coldly empty without
pictures of some kind
• People who lived in caves 20,000 years ago drew pictures on their
walls
• Drawings, paintings, photographs, & prints differ in the technique of
their execution
Media
 Drawing
• Foundation of two-dimensional art
• Materials divided into 2 groups:
oDry media: chalk, charcoal, pastel, and graphite
oWet media: pen and ink, wash and brush, experimental & innovative
• Dry Media
oChalk developed middle of 16th century
 First used in natural state from ocher hematite, white soapstone,
or black carbonaceous shale – placing in a holder – sharpening it
to a point
 Flexible medium
 Wide variety of tonal areas created with subtle transitions
 Applied with heavy or light pressure
 Can be worked with fingers once on paper
 Cherubino Alberti, Prudence, c. 1601 – Red chalk on paper
oCharcoal – burnt wood product
 Requires paper with rough surface – “tooth” – for the medium
to adhere
 Tendency to smudge easily
 Found wide use as means of drawing details on walls, and for
murals that were eventually painted or frescoed
 Today, resin fixatives sprayed over charcoal drawings eliminate
smudging
 Today: popular medium because extremely expressive
 Can achieve variety of tonalities
 George Bellows, Study for “Nude with Hexagonal Quilt,” 1924
– Charcoal and black crayon on paper
oPastel – essentially a chalk medium
 Combines colored pigment and non-greasy binder
 Comes in sticks about diameter of a finger and in degrees of
hardness: soft, medium, hard
Harder the stick, the less intense its color
 “Pastel” implies pale colors
 Intense colors require soft pastels but difficult to work with
 Special ribbed paper helps to grab the powdery pastel
 Sprayed fixative holds powder in place permanently on the
paper
 Beverly Buchanan, Monroe County House with Yellow Datura,
1994 – Oil pastel on paper
oGraphite – form of carbon (like coal)
 Common use in pencil leads
 Various degrees of hardness
Harder the lead = lighter & more delicate
its mark
 Oscar F. Bluemner, Study for a Painting,
probably 1928 – Graphite on tracing paper
• Wet Media
oPen and ink
 Flexible medium
 Linear but gives artist variation in line and texture
 Shading achieved by diluting ink
 Overall qualities are fluidity and expressiveness
 Rembrandt van Rijn, Lot and His Family Leaving Sodom, c.
1655 – Pen and light brown ink
oWash and brush – diluting ink with water and applying
it with a brush
 Difficult to control but creates effects nearly
impossible to achieve in any other medium
 Must be worked quickly & freely
 Spontaneous and appealing quality
 Chu Ta (Zhu Da), Lotus, 1705
oExperimental and innovative nature
 Use of wax crayon, graphite, and watercolor
 American artist, Martin Ramirez, Untitled (Madonna), 1953 –
Colored pencil, crayon, and collage on paper
Ramirez severely troubled by mental illness
 Other possibilities include computer when used as electronic
sketchpad
 Painting
• 5 painting medias:
oOils
oWatercolor
oTempera
oAcrylics
oFresco
• Oils – most popular painting media
oBeginning of 15th century (middle ages or medieval)
oFirst experimented with vegetable oils but Flemish artists
developed linseed oil pressed from flax plant and applied it to
wood panels prepared with smooth layers of gesso – mixture of
glue and chalk or plaster of Paris
oOils offer:
 Tremendous range of color possibilities
 Can be reworked
 Can be thinned to translucence
 Applied wet into wet or wet into dry
oToday – influence of digital arts and animation with slick surfaces
and subtle variations of tone
oOptions for textural manipulation (rough-smooth)
oDurable
oVincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889 – Oil on canvas
• Watercolor – transparent paint usually applied to paper - any color
medium that uses water as a thinner
oBecause watercolors are transparent, artist must be very careful to
control them
 If one color area overlaps another, the overlap shows as a third
area combining the previous hues
oWell-suited to spontaneity or careful planning; does not easily
allow for changes or corrections
oWatercolor’s translucence provides excellent medium for capturing
atmospheric light and qualities of shimmering water
oLos Carpinteros, Derrame, 2007 – Watercolor on paper
• Tempera – opaque watercolor medium
oUsed by ancient Egyptians and still used today
oGround pigments & their color binders
 Example: gum or glue but best in egg tempera form
oFast-drying medium
oEliminates brushstroke and gives extremely sharp detail
oColors appear almost gemlike in clarity & brilliance
oPopular medium in early Renaissance where artists applied it very
carefully with point of fine red sable brush
oTo use tempera, artists needed very smooth painting surface –
usually a wood panel
oAntonio Pisanello, Portrait of Ginevra d’Este, 1434 – Tempera on
wood
oAndrew Wyeth, Christina’s World, 1948 – Tempera & gesso on
panel
• Acrylics – modern, synthetic products
oMost dissolved in water (but water-impermeable when dry)
oBinding agent for pigment – acrylic polymer
oOffer artists wide range of possibilities in color and technique
oCan be opaque or transparent, depending on dilution
oDries fast and thin
oResistant to cracking under extreme temperature & humidity
oLess permanent than other media, it adheres to a wide variety of
surfaces
oDoes not darken or yellow with age
oDavid Hockney, Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy, 1971 – Acrylic
oBonnie Hamlin, Reflections, 2009 - Acrylic
• Fresco - wall-painting technique – pigments suspended in water
applied to fresh wet plaster
oLong lifespan
oExtremely difficult process
oOnce pigments applied, no changes can be made without
replastering entire section of wall
oDiego Rivera, Sugar Cane, 1931 – Fresco
oMichelangelo, Sistine Chapel Ceiling, 1508-1512 including Creation of
Adam - Fresco
 Mixed Media
• Combination of various media in order to create works that allow the
artist to transcend limits of a single medium
oExample: oils and acrylics; drawing and painting; or painting,
sculpture and film
• Since early 20th century, artists pushed even wider parameters of
mixed media to free themselves from the canvas
oHenri Matisse, Large Composition with Masks, 1950 – Mixed
media (painted paper collage)
 Printmaking
• 3 categories based on nature of printing surface
oRelief printing
 Woodcut, wood engraving, and linoleum cut
oIntaglio
 Line engraving, etching, drypoint, and aquatint
oPlanographic process
 Lithography, silkscreen (serigraphy), other forms of stenciling,
and monoprinting
• What is a print?
oHand-produced picture transferred from a printing surface to piece
of paper
oArtist prepares the surface and directs the process
oArtist usually destroys the block or surface after making the desired
number of prints
• In contrast, reproduction is not an original but a copy of original
painting or other artwork, reproduced by a photographic process
oAs a copy, reproduction does not bear the handiwork of an artist
oEvery print has a number
 On some, number may appear as a fraction – example: 36/100
called the issue number or edition number
Denominator (Bottom number of the fraction) = how many
prints produced from the plate or block
Numerator (Top number of the fraction) = where in series
the individual print was produced
50/156 means you have the 50th individual print in the series
and there were 156 prints produced in total from the plate or
block
If only a single number such as 500 appears = edition
number and indicates total number of prints in the series
Issue number does not solely determine value of a print
Quality and reputation of the artist are important
considerations
• Relief Printing
oArtist transfers image to paper by cutting away non-image areas &
inking surface that remains
oImage protrudes in relief from the block/plate, and produces picture
reversed from image carved by the artist – This reversal
characterizes all printmaking media
oAlbrecht Dürer (1471-1528) from Germany – Lamentation, c.
1497-1500 – Woodcut example on next slide
• Intaglio – opposite of relief printing
oArtist transfers ink to paper not from raised areas, but from grooves
cut into metal plate
oMethods of intaglio:
 Line engraving
 Etching
 Drypoint
 Aquatint
oLine engraving – cutting grooves into metal plate with special
sharp tools
 Requires muscular control because pressure must be continuous
& constant if grooves are to produce desired image
 Very precise images
 Most difficult and demanding of the
intaglio processes
 Gustave Doré, Don Quijote, 1860s,
Line engraving
oEtching
 Artist covers plate with thin, waxlike, acid-resistant substance
called a ground
 Scratches away parts of the ground to produce desired lines then
immerses the plate in acid bath that burns away exposed areas
 Longer plate stays in acid = deeper the resulting etches
 Deeper the etch = darker the final image
 Artists wishing to produce lines or areas of differing darkness
must cover lines they do not want to be more deeply cut before
further immersions in acid
 Repetition of process creates a plate producing a print with
desired differences in light and dark lines
 Reginald Marsh, The Breadline, 1933 – Etching
Mostly individual lines – either single or in combination
Lighter shades required less time in acid than darker ones
oDrypoint
 Printmaker scratches surface of metal plate with a needle
 This technique leaves a ridge (burr) on either side of the groove
= somewhat fuzzy line
 Lesser Ury, Woman in Café, 1919-1921,
Drypoint
oAquatint
 Creates range of values from lightest gray to black; useful for
shading
 Cutting lines into metal plate however, artist may wish to create
large shadowy areas of subdued tonality, which can’t be
produced with lines effectively; aquatint is good method for
such images
 Artist dusts plate with resin substance and heats it, which
affixed resin and puts it into an acid bath
 Rough surface, like sandpaper, results, and print has tonal areas
that reflect this texture, making aquatint very recognizable
 Francisco Goya, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, 1799
– Aquatint and etching
 David Hockney, The Blue Guitar, 1977 – Aquatint
• Whether line engraving, etching, drypoint, aquatint, or a combination
of methods, plate goes into a press along with special dampened paper.
• Padding placed on the paper & a roller forces plate and paper together
with great pressure
• The carefully applied ink, remaining only in grooves, transfers as
paper is forced into the grooves by the press roller
• Even if no ink has been applied to plate, the paper would still be
marked with an image by the plate pressure
• This embossing effect or platemark marks an intaglio process
• Planographic processes
oArtist prints from a plane surface – neither relief nor intaglio
oLithography (“stone writing”) – principle that water & grease do
not mix
 Artist begins with porous stone (commonly limestone) and
grind one side until entirely smooth
 Next draw an image on stone with a greasy substance with
darkness controlled by varying amount of grease used; the
more grease = darker the image
 Next artist treats the stone with gum arabic and nitric acid &
then rinses it with a petrol product that removes the image
 Water, gum, and acid has impressed grease on the stone
 When wetted, it absorbs water only in ungreased areas
 Finally, a grease-based ink is applied to the stone which will not
adhere to water-soaked areas and only where the artists has
drawn
 Then the stone can be placed in a press and image will be
transferred to the waiting paper
 In the lithograph on next slide, we see a crayon-drawing
appearance because the lithographer usually draws with crayon-
like material on stone
 Elaine de Kooning, Lascaux #4, 1984 – Lithograph
oSilkscreening – most common of stenciling processes
 Finely meshed silk fabric mounted on wooden frame is used
 Non-image areas blocked out by variety of methods – glue or
cut paper
 Stencil goes into frame and ink applied
 Rubber instrument (squeegee) forces ink through openings of
stencil, through screen, & onto paper below which allows
printmaker to achieve large, flat, uniform areas
 Will Barnet, Woman Reading, 20th century - Silkscreen
oMonotype or monoprint
 Artist applies ink to flat surface and transfers it to paper but it
excludes multiple copies of a single image
 Creates a one-time image only
 Appeals to many artists because it requires no presses or studio
equipment
 Prints reflect recognizable differences in technique
 Edgar Degas, Heads of a Man and a Woman, 1877 – Monoprint
 Photography
• Photographic images + images of its developments – cinema and video
– provide us with information
• Cameras record the world; through editing, photographer takes the
camera’s image and changes the reality of life as we see it to a reality
of imagination
• Art Photography
oPhotographer, Ansel Adams (1902-1984) viewed photographer as
an interpretive artist
 Likened photographic negative to musical score and the print to
a performance
oAnsel Adams – Photographer
oAnsel Adams, Bridal Veil Fall in Yosemite National Park, 1927 –
Photograph
oEarly photography used darkroom techniques, tricks, &
manipulation that created works that seemed staged
oThen a new generation of photographers moved toward a more
direct, unmanipulated, and sharply focused approach - straight
photography
 Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) – recognition for clarity of image
and his reality shots, especially of clouds & New York City
architecture
Driving force behind recognition of
photography as a fine art
oAlfred Stieglitz, Equivilant, 1930 – Straight Photography
oAnsel Adams – America’s most famous photographer became
leader of modern photography through his poetic landscape images
of American West
 Did much to elevate photography to the level of art – pioneer in
the movement to preserve the wilderness
 This straight photographer stressed sharp focus and subtle
variety in light & texture with rich detail & brilliant tonal
differences
 1941 – photomurals for the U.S. Department of the Interior
where he developed the Zone System: means for determining
the final tone of each part of the landscape
oPhotography also presents the abstract and non-objective
 In photograms of Man Ray (1890-1976), process of making
pictures instead of taking them
 Photogram – artist places objects directly onto photographic
paper and exposes them to light
 Figure 1.19 on page 49
• Documentary Photography
oLarge-scale program began during Great Depression of 1930s
oDorothea Lange (1895-1965)
 Her work detailed erosion of the land and people of rural
America during this period
 Dorothea Lange, Dust Bowl Farm in Texas, 1938 –
Documentary Photography
• Photographic Techniques
oCamera = “room” in Latin
o16th century – artists used a darkened room called camera obscura
to copy nature accurately – Figure 1.21 on page 51
 Used by today’s cameras
 Small hole on 2 walls of light-free room admitted a light ray
that projected the scene outside onto a semi-transparent scrim
cloth
 Portable
 Could not preserve the image it projected
oPhotography technology began in England 1839 by William Henry
Fox Talbot (1800-1877)
 Achieved process for fixing negative images on paper coated
with light-sensitive chemicals - photogenic drawing
 Realized negative image of the photogenic drawing could be
reversed by covering it with sensitized paper & exposing the 2
papers to sunlight; image on the 2nd paper was developed by
dipping paper in gallic acid – process called calotype
oTalbot’s developments enhanced in 1850 by Englishman, Frederick
Archer (1813-1857)
 While in darkened room, he poured chemical solution, liquid
collodion, over glass plate bathed in silver nitrate
  Archer’s process required preparing, exposing, & developing
plate within span of 15 minutes – accepted within the next 5
years and became standard
o1950s and 1960s – Color photography emerged
 Invention of Polaroid camera popularized it
oEarly 21st century – Digital photography made film obsolete and
changed photography into a tremendously plastic (shapeable)
medium
oPhotographers can “print” images in excess of 15 feet wide and
create & control their images
Composition
 Elements
• Line – basic building block of a visual design
o3 physical characteristics of “line” in two-dimensional art:
 Linear form in which length dominates over width
 Color edge
 Implication of continued direction
oExample of length dominate over width
 Joan Miró (1893-1983), Composition, 1933 – thin
outlines represent length over width
 Another example: Pablo Picasso, Girl Before a Mirror, 1932 –
diamond shapes in background along the back of girl’s head and
down her back
oExample of line as an edge (or as the place where one object or
plane stops and another begins)
 Joan Miró, Composition, 1933: edges where white, black, and
red color areas stop and gray and gold backgrounds begin
oExample of implication of continued direction
 Figure 1.24 on page 54 where 3 rectangles create a horizontal
“line” that extends across the design
No physical line between the tops of the forms but their
spatial arrangement creates one by implication
 Van Gogh’s The Starry Night - page 32
Linear movement from upper left border through series of
swirls to the right border
 Another example of implied line plus color edge and outline
Hung Liu, Relic 12, 2005 – surrounds central figure of a
courtesan with symbols borrowed from classical Chinese
painting
oArtist uses line to:
 Control our vision
 To create unity and emotional value
 To develop meaning
oLine has one of 2 simple characteristics
 Curved
 Straight
oWhether expressed as outline, as boundary, or by
implication and whether simple or in combination, line =
straightness or curvedness
• Words to use to describe line in two-dimensional art:
straight, horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curved, crooked or
jagged
oThere are 3 classes of crooked or jagged lines:
 Lines which follow or repeat one another
 Lines which contrast with one another
 Transitional lines which modify or soften the effect of
others
oAdditional words to describe line: flowing, delicate,
angular, simple, bold, thick, thin
• Form – shape of an object within the composition
o“Shape” often appears as synonym for form
oForm = space described by line
oForm cannot be separated from line in two-dimensional design
• Color – in visual arts, the appearance of surfaces are identified in terms of:
1. Hue, 2. Value or key, and 3. Intensity or chroma, or saturation
oHue – spectrum notation of color; measurable wavelength of a specific
color – Hue = name of the color
 Figure 1.26 on page 55 – Left side (Violet to red)
6 hues:
3 primary hues: red, blue, yellow
3 secondary hues: violet, green, orange
In all – 10 to 24 different hues depending on the color theory one
follows
 Figure 1.27 – Color spectrum including composite hues on page
55
 Figure 1.28 - page 55 – Color wheel
Artist can mix primary hues creating other hues – Example:
red and yellow equally = orange (secondary)
Adding more red or yellow = yellow-orange or red-orange –
Tertiary hues means mixing secondary hues equally
Yellow and blue = green and also blue-green and yellow-
green
Red and blue = violet, blue-violet, and red-violet
Hues opposite each other on the color wheel are called
complementary
When mixed together equally, complementary hues
produce gray
oValue, or key – relationship of blacks to whites and grays or the
lightness and darkness of colors
 Figure 1.29 on page 56 – Value scale: white and black on each
end with gray in middle
Lighter, or whiter a color = high value
Darker, or blacker a color = low value
Example: light pink has high value while dark red has low
value, even though they have primary red as their base
Adding white to a hue creates a tint of that hue
Adding black creates a shade
 Some hues are brighter than others
 Brightness/brilliance may involve surface reflectance –
important to visual artists
 Highly reflective surface = brighter color
Example: Difference between high-gloss, semi-gloss, and flat
paints
oIntensity or chroma or saturation – quality of brightness and purity of
a hue; every hue has its own value as shown in Figure 1.30/page 56
 Low intensity = pale or dull color
 High intensity = bright and strong color
 Movements across the color wheel alter the intensity
Example: adding green to red grays the red
 Intensity and value are used interchangeably sometimes
 Graying a hue by using its complement differs from graying a hue by
adding black
 Gray derived from complementaries because it has hue, is far livelier
than a gray derived from black and white (no hue)
 Palette – overall use of color by the artist
Can be broad, restricted, or somewhere in between
depending on artist utilizing full range of color spectrum
and/or whether he/she explores full range of tonalities –
bright and dulls, lights and darks
oMass or Space – physical volume and density of an object
 In drawing, painting, printmaking, and photography,
mass must be implied
 Example: Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), The
Disembarkation of Marie de’ Medici at the Port of
Marseilles on November 3, 1600, 1626 on page 63 - use
of light and shade, texture, and perspective to give
appearance of fully rounded, solid mass
He creates depth of space and draws attention away
from the fact that the picture exists in only two
dimensions
oTexture – picture’s apparent roughness or smoothness
 May range from shine of a glossy photo to three-dimensionality
of impasto – painting technique where artist applies pigment
thickly with a palette knife
 Texture may be illusory ( where surface of a picture may be
absolutely flat but image gives impression of three-
dimensionality)
 Tactile – we want to touch but we cannot so we believe what
we would feel if we did touch the piece of art
 Principles
• 4 basic Principles of Design:
oRepetition
oUnity
oBalance
oFocal Areas
• Repetition – way artists repeat or alternate items
oImportant role in composition
o3 parts of repetition:
 Rhythm
 Harmony
 Variation
oRhythm – recurrence of elements in a composition;
repetition of lines, shapes, and objects in a picture
 “Regular” rhythm – repeated elements have same size
or importance
Example: Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror on page 52
 “Irregular” rhythm – repeated elements have differing
size and/or importance
Example: Erna Motna, Bushfire and Corroboree
Dreaming, 1988 – see next slide
oHarmony – logic of the repetition
 Consonance (stable/harmonious) relationships – components
that join up naturally and comfortably
 Dissonance (unstable) – illogical or incongruous (not in
harmony) components
oVariation – relationship of repeated items to each other; variation
in shapes or forms, colors, sizes, lines, textures, etc.
 Example: Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror - page 52
2 geometric forms (diamond and oval) - Variation occurs in
the color given to these shapes
Oval of mirror repeats with variations
Circular motif repeated with variations in color and size
oBalance – achievement of equilibrium in a work of art
 Many factors combine to affect a picture’s balance – line, form,
and color all play a role
 2 types of balance: symmetry (formal) and asymmetrical
(informal or psychological)
 Symmetry – most mechanical method of achieving balance and
involves balancing of like forms, mass, and colors on opposite
sides of the vertical axis – Figure 1.32 on page 58
Stability and stolidity (unemotional)
  Asymmetrical or psychological – arranges unlike items – Figure
1.33 on page 58
Every painting in this chapter is asymmetrical
 Often color can balance line and form
Some hues, like yellow, have great eye attraction and used to
counterbalance tremendous mass and activity
oUnity – combination of the parts of a work of art that creates a
sense of completeness or undivided total effect
 Critical analysis of elements of a painting should lead us to a
judgment about whether the total statement comprises a unified
one
  Closed composition – line and form always directs the eye into
the painting as unified – Figure 1.32 on page 58
 Open composition – eye can wander off the canvas, or escape
the frame as disunified – Figure 1.33 on page 58
oFocal Areas – when we look at a picture for the 1st time, our eye
moves around it, pausing briefly at those areas of greatest visual
appeal
 Artists achieve focal areas in a number of ways:
Through confluence of line
By encirclement
By color
 Example of focal areas: Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, c.
1495-98
Architectural element: a disciple’s gesture, a disciple’s gaze
Confluence of line: focus on the face of Christ
Encirclement: placed in the center of a ring of objects
Focus by color – using a color that demands our attention
more than the other colors in the picture
Example: Kerry James Marshall, Den Mother, 1996 –
bright yellows attract our eye more than dark blues
Other Factors
 Perspective
• Indicates spatial relationships
• Rests on phenomenon that distant objects appear smaller and
less distinct than objects situated in the foreground
• 3 types of perspectives:
oLinear
oAtmospheric
oShifting
• Linear perspective – creation of the illusion of distance through the
convention of line and foreshortening – illusion that parallel lines come
together in the distance
oFigure 1.35 on page 60 – phenomenon of standing on railroad tracks and
watching two rails come together at the horizon (known as the vanishing
point)
oAlso called scientific, mathematical one-point, or Renaissance
perspective – developed in 15th century Italy
• Atmospheric perspective – distance through the use of light and atmosphere
oExample: mountains in background of a picture appear distant through
less detail
oExample: Figure 1.36 on page 61 – Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the
“Medusa,” 1819 – Ship appears at a great distance because it’s smaller
and indistinct
• Shifting perspective –found in Chinese landscapes and affected by
additional factors of culture and convention
oFigure 1.37 on page 62 – Chū-jan, Buddhist Monastery by Stream
and Mountains, c. 960-85 C.E. Ink on silk
 Picture divided into 2 basic units: foreground and background
Foreground – details reaching back toward the middle
ground – represents the nearby – artist’s use of brushstroke
in creating foliage, rocks, and water
Break appears and background seems to be suspended
Artist reveals each part as if the viewer were walking
through the landscape
oAllows for a personal journey and can lead to a strong personal,
spiritual impact on the viewer
 Chiaroscuro
• Italian for “light and shade”
• Suggests three-dimensional forms via light and shade without the use
of outline across the whole picture
• Artists use this to make forms appear plastic – three-dimensional
• Depends on artists ability to highlight and shadow effectively
• Figure 1.36 on page 61 – Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the
“Medusa,” 1819
oThis process gives the picture much of its character
oDynamic and dramatic treatment of light and shade
 Content
• Ranging from naturalism to stylization
• Concepts included are:
oAbstract
 Uses shape, form, color and line
oRepresentational
 Objects or events in the real world
oNonobjective
 Lacks any reference to the natural world
oVerisimilitude (“likeness” or “nearness to truth”)
 Resemblance to reality; realism
 Sense Stimuli

Visual stimuli that change into mental images of

touch, taste, and sound
 Contrasts
• Reds, oranges, and yellows – warm colors (colors of sun) while blues,
violets & greens are cool colors (imply shade)
• Tonality & color contrast affect senses
oFigure 0.11 (page 31) – monochromatic black, white, and gray
comments on tragic bombing of Guernica (northern Spain in 1937):
famous anti-war painting by Picasso
oFigure 1.37 (page 62) – even though monochromatic, it gives less
stark sensation, with soft tonal contrasts, warm color, & muted
textures
• Chiaroscuro – also effect in its application to the treatment of flesh
oSome flesh appears like stone; other appears soft & true to life
 Our response is tactile – we want to touch, or we believe we
know what we would feel if we did touch
oExample: Figure 1.38 on page 63 – Peter Paul Rubens, The
Disembarkation of Marie de’ Medici at the Port of Marseilles on
November 3, 1600, c. 1626 – flesh comes from color and
chiaroscuro
 Highlight and shadow create contrasts
 Red and gold hues warm the artwork
 Dynamics
• Pictures stimulate sense of movement and activity and create stability
• Artist uses certain conventional devices to achieve this
• Vertical composition can express dignity & grandeur
• Horizontality can draw out sense of stability & peacefulness
• Triangle – interesting possibilities because of its structure
oIn art, significant psychological qualities
oFigure 1.39 on page 64: sense of solidity and immovability
oFigure 1.40 on page 64: sense of instability and action results
• Basic compositional devices do influence our response and
affect our perceptions
• Use of line affects sense response
oStraight line = lack of softness and flexibility
oHorizontal line = serenity
oVertical line = action; suggests poise and balance
oDiagonal line = action, life, and movement
oCurved line = sense of relaxation, grace, direction,
instability, movement, flexibility – Figure 1.41 on page 64
oCrooked or jagged line = energy, violence, conflict,
struggle
oBroken line = dynamic, violent sensation – See Figure
1.42 on page 64
oPrecision of line = sharply defined forms (precise) or soft,
fuzzy images (not precise)
 Trompe L’oeil
• Means “trick the eye”
• Form of illusionistic painting that tries to represent object as existing
in three-dimensions at the surface of the painting
• Example: Pere Borrell del Caso, Escaping Criticism, 1874
 Juxtaposition
• When two things being seen or placed close together with
contrasting effect
• Linear dissonance (unstable) or consonance (stable)
• Figure 1.43 on page 65 – example of instablitiy
• Figure 0.11 on page 31 – Picasso’s Guernica
 Focus
• Artists use focus, focal points, or emphasis to control
physical attention and sense response
• Any figure in this chapter – your eye moves from one point to
another
• Foci – areas that draw your attention
• Example: Anna Vallayer-Coster, Still Life with Lobster, 1781
– focuses attention on lobster in artist’s still life by painting
nearly everything else a shade of green
Pablo Picasso
1881-1973
• Born in Málaga – Mediterranean coast of Spain
• Studied at Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelona
oAlready mastered realistic technique
oLittle use for school
• Own studio at age 16 in Barcelona
• 1900: visited Paris
• 1901-1904: Blue Period – use of blue tones
• 1904: moved to Paris
• 1905-1907: Rose Period – use of terracotta color (deep pinkish red)
oSubject matter less melancholy and included dancers, acrobats, and
harlequins (mute character in pantomime)
• Played important part in sequence of different artistic movements in
20th century
• Primarily a painter but also a fine sculptor, engraver, and ceramicist
• 1917: to Rome to design costumes and scenery for Sergei Diaghilev’s
Ballets Russes
• 1918-1925: Classic Period
• Girl Before a Mirror, 1932 on page 52: chose red and green
(complementary colors)
oGreen spot in middle of mirror’s image – symbol of girl’s psyche
(inner self) which she confronts with anguish
• Guernica, 1937 on page 31: moving vision of tragedies of Spanish
Civil War; use of curved forms
 oIn Guernica, forms intended to be fundamental due to no color
oPicasso’s response to 1937 bombing by Fascist forces of the small
Basque (northeast part of Spain) town of Guernica
oDistortions of form – approach of Surrealism but he never called
himself a Surrealist
• Worked in many genres with great speed and versatility into his 90s
The Raft of the “Medusa,” 1819
Theódore Géricault
• Tells story of governmental incompetence that resulted in tragedy
• 1816 – French government let unseaworthy ship, the Medusa, leave
port and it wrecked
• Aboard makeshift raft, survivors endured tremendous suffering; driven
to cannibalism
• Géricault interviewed survivors, read newspaper accounts & even
painted corpses and heads of guillotined criminals
• Painting captures ordeal of event in Romantic style with Classical and
even High Renaissance influences
• Creates firmly modeled flesh, lifelike figures, and precise use of light
and shade (chiaroscuro)
• Contrasted other paintings of the time – Classical, two-dimensionality,
and order
• Géricault used complex and fragmented compositional structure
• Based design on 2 triangles rather than on one strong central one
• Left triangle’s apex – makeshift mast which points back toward
despair and death
• Other triangle moves up to the right to the figure waving fabric,
pointing toward hope and life as a rescue ship appears in distance
• Artist captures moment a potential rescue ship is sighted and sails on
by
• Play of light and shade heightens dramatic effect
• Composition builds upward from bodies of dead and dying in
foreground to dynamic groups whose final energies are toward the
figure waving to the ship – Hope followed by despair