Arts 1301 Keever / Exam 3 Study Guide
Chapters 11, 13 and Independent Lecture on Museums
Chapter 11 Sculpture and Installation
I. How does experiencing sculpture or 3-dimensional media differ from other art forms?
Think about the formal properties of sculpture; for example: materials; scale; mass;
how they relate to space; depth. “Scale” in sculpture: How does scale or size effect our
interpretation of a sculpture. How does the human body relate to something very large versus
very small?
II. Methods of sculpture include modeling; casting; carving and assembling.
Modeling: In sculpture manipulating a plastic material such as clay or wax to create a form.
Fired: Heated at high heat in a kiln or oven.
Terra cotta: Italian for “baked earth.” A ceramic ware, usually reddish fired in the low
temperature ranges, and somewhat porous and fragile; earthenware.
Casting: the process of making sculpture or some other object by pouring a liquid into a
mold, letting inn harden and then releasing it. Common materials used in casting bronze,
plaster, clay and synthetic resins.
Gilded: Covered thinly with gold leaf or gold paint.
Lost-wax casting: Read about this in your text, p. 249, 12th edition. (I also posted a video
demonstration.) It is a casting technique in sculpture using metal. Wax is used and when
heated, melts and molten metal is poured into area where it once was, creating form with
empty center and hard shell. (Sort of like a chocolate bunny – but with bronze usually.)
Carving: In a sculpture, a subtractive technique in which a mass of material such as wood or
stone is shaped by cutting and/or abrasion. Or a work made by this method.
Basalt: Is a hard dark, fine-grained volcanic rock used in some sculptures from antiquity and
in the Olmec Colossal Head.
Assembling: Method of creating a sculpture by grouping or piecing together distinct
elements, as opposed to casting, modeling or carving. An assembled sculpture ay be called an
assemblage, which is like 3-D collage, and uses found objects.
Relief: that projects from a background “high relief” vs. “low relief” (also “bas relief” I
French; think coin) versus “in the round, which suggest one can walk around the entire work
and the sculpture is independent of any backdrop/slab.
Additive process vs. subtractive process: In sculpture refers to adding material to create a
sculptural form vs. taking away material to reveal a form.
Kinetic Art: Refers to art that moves. Broadly defined may include film, video, and
Performance Art. However, term is most often applied to sculpture that is set in motion by
motors or air currents (think: Alexander Calder).
Mobiles/Stabiles: Refers to Alexander Calder’s work that move (mobile) and stand still
(stabile).
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III. The Human Figure
A. What qualities define the Egyptian figure (Menkaure and Khamerernebty) vs. Greek
figure (Apoxyomenos). Egyptian example is formal and rigid. Also connected to ideas
concerning the afterlife and the soul’s ability to inhabit the figure. Greek example is relaxed
and moves in space. Also connected to Greek value placed on athleticism, humanism and
perfection in nature.
Contrapposto: A pose that suggests the potential for movement, and thus life (naturalism),
in a standing human figure. Developed by sculptors in ancient Greece, contrapposto place’s
the figure’s weight on one foot, setting off a series of adjustments to the hips and shoulders
that produce a subtle S-curve. (Seen in Apoxyomenos or Scraper from Ancient Greece.)
B. Auguste Rodin: Famous and influential 19th c. French sculptor known for deeply pocked
surfaces and expressive figures Such as Burghers of Calais depicting imagined medieval
subjects surrendering in resignation.
IV. Other Forms of Sculpture relating to Installation
Installation Art: Term started being used as a term in the 1970s and 1980s. Sometimes
referred to as “site-specific”, uses qualities of that space. Is often indoors than out; Can be
temporary or permanent. Often documented/photographed to preserve and is hard to put a
price on and sell.
Public Art: Refers to artwork that has been planned and executed with the specific intention
of being sited or staged in the public domain, usually outside and accessible to all.
Term is especially significant within the art world, amongst curators, commissioning bodies
and practitioners of public art, to whom it signifies a particular working practice, often with
implications of site specificity community involvement and collaboration. Example:
Richard Serra.
Earth Art or Land Art: Generally large in scale, made in landscape from natural elements
found there, such as rocks and dirt. Land art arose during the 1960s as a way to bypass
conventional urban exhibition spaces and to make art that could not be sold as a commodity.
Sometimes referred to as Earthwork. Example: Andy Goldsworthy. Known for works
material found in nature such as leaves and ice. Works are ephemeral (impermanent) and
address time and the cyclical quality of life.
Minimalism: A broad tendency during the 1960s and 1970s toward simple, primary forms.
Minimalist artists often favored industrial materials (sheet metal, bricks, plywood,
fluorescent lights) and their sculptures (which they preferred to be called objects) often set on
the floor or attached to the wall rather than placed on a pedestal. Example: Dan Flavin.
Whitfield Lovell, Whispers from the Walls, 1999-2005. Good example of installation art.
Includes elements of sound, smell; tangible items and public vs. private space. Invokes
memory and African American history.
Christo and Jean Claude: Famous artist known for “wrapping things” and large-scale
public installations. The Gates is on your image list. Work is up 2 weeks. Is documented in
film. Uses no outside funding. Involves extensive planning and permitting. Make us
reconsider or reinterpret our surroundings; refocus energies and increase dialogues about art
and community.
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Chapter 13 Architecture
I. Architecture
Architecture is the art or practice of designing buildings and refers to the buildings
themselves. S On a basic level it shelters us from the elements. (Usually) We move in and
out of architecture all day long, homes, schools, churches, shops, transportation related
structures like stations and ports. What is critical to “good” architecture?” strength,
functionality and beauty? Or also, things like affordability? sustainability? longevity?
Can a building send a message?
II. Structural Systems include
A. Shell System, in which one building material provides both structural support and
sheathing (outside covering). Example: Log Cabin.
B. Skeleton and skin system: Like the human body, a rigid (bony) skeleton supports a basic
frame and more fragile material/skin makes up for sheathing. Example: Skyscraper, Steel
frame is skeleton, skin is glass.
Weight: In architecture, a structural concern. Walls must support weight of roof and lower
stories must support upper stories.
Tensile strength: In architecture, the ability of a material to span horizontal distances, with a
minimum of support from underneath.
Load-Bearing Construction: Another term for this is “stacking and piling,” the simplest
method of building. Can be done in a variety of materials, is stable because the widest part of
the wall is at the base and they gradually get thinner towards the top. An example is the
Great Friday Mosque of Djenné in adobe (sun-dried brick).
III. Post-and-Lintel Construction
In architecture, a structural system based on two or more uprights (posts) supporting a
horizontal crosspiece (lintel or beam). Lintel spans two posts.
Hypostyle: An example of post and lintel construction from Ancient Egypt. The interior
space, or hall of the temple is filled with rows of columns that serve to support the roof.
(hypo=under and style=columns)
Doric / Ionic / Corinthian: Greek Architectural orders. Know parts. See video posted.
Example of Ionic order seen in Temple of Athena Nike (from Acropolis), designed by
Kallikrates.
Entablature: In Classical architecture, the horizontal structure supported by capitals and
supporting in turn the pediment or roof. An entablature consists of 3 horizontal bands:
architrave, frieze and cornice.
Architrave: In Classical architecture, the lowest band of the entablature.
Frieze: Generally, any horizontal band with relief or decoration. In Classical architecture, the
middle band of an entablature, between the architrave and the cornice, often decorated with
relief sculpture.
Cornice: In Classical architecture, the uppermost element of an entablature; a raking cornice
frames the upper slanting edges of a pediment. More generally a horizontal projecting
element usually molded and usually at the top of a wall.
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Pediment: In architecture, the triangular element supported by the columns of a portico.
More generally any similar element over a door or a window.
East Asian temples also feature post and lintel construction, but have very heavy
superstructures (tops, including roof) and slender columns, implement extensive bracketing
system. Also feature curved trusses – roofline extends out dramatically and curves upwards.
IV. Arches Vaults and Domes
Romans moved away from strict adherence to post and lintel and used the Roman arch and
vault to shape spaces. Example: Pont du Gard aqueduct and its arcades (rows of rounded
arches).
Romans also used the Barrel vault: A half round arch extended into depth. And the Groin
Vault: Formed by the intersection of two-barrel vaults of equal size at right angles.
As did the much later medieval style Romanesque.
Round Arch vs. Pointed Arch: The rounded arch was used extensively by the Romans and
opens up spaces, instead of just dividing them. They require less material and allow for more
light in interiors. Rounded arch thrust must be contained (in large heavy rectangular piers
usually). Rounded arches and barrel vaults (Barrel vaults are like an extended deep round
arch; think tunnel vault.) are made of wedge-shaped stones that meet at the topmost stone, the
keystone. Pointed arches offer many advantages to the rounded arch. Weight is channeled
to the ground at a steeper angle. Flying buttresses are used in combination with pointed
arches and pointed vaulting, like an exoskeleton to channel thrust outward into ground.
Romanesque style versus Gothic style: Know the basic differences. Romanesque uses
rounded arches; is generally heavier and darker. Gothic uses pointed arch; Is slighter and
brighter. Implements stained glass windows. Also pointed arch, ribs in vaulting and flying
buttresses.
Buttress: In architecture, an exterior support that counteracts the outward thrust of an arch,
dome or wall. Flying Buttress: Consists of a strut or arch segment running from a
freestanding pier to an outer wall. Pier: Vertical support often square or rectangular; used to
bear the heaviest loads in an arched or vaulted structure. A pier may be styled to resemble a
bundle of columns.
Famous domed buildings: Hagia Sophia, Pantheon and Taj Mahal.
Dome: In architecture a convex, evenly curved roof; technically an arch rotated 360 degrees
on its vertical axis. May be rounded or pointed.
Pantheon: Famous ancient Roman building with a coffered dome resting on a rotunda.
Building fronted by a pedimental facade with portico. Means “temple to all gods.”
Pantheon also features: Coffers: A recessed, geometrical panel in a ceiling, often used in
multiples as a decorative element. (known for lightening weight of Pantheon) an Oculus:
Circular “eye” or window in a dome or wall. A Portico: A projecting porch with a rood
supported by columns, often marking the entrance to a building. And a Rotunda: An open
cylindrical space, usually covered by a dome (Think Pantheon or Texas State Capitol).
Hagia Sophia and Taj Mahal have Minarets: In Islamic architecture, tall slim towers of
mosques where he faithful are called into pray. (Hagia Sophia’s not original.) Hagia Sophia
(Istanbul, Turkey) has 40 windows at base of dome looking like halo of light. And
Pendentives: In architecture curved triangular sections that transition a square or rectangular
base to a circular or octagonal dome.
Corbeling: Another way to create a vaulted dome. In architecture, a construction technique
in which each course of stone projects slightly beyond the one below. Corbelling can be used
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to create space-spanning forms that resemble the arch, the vault, and the dome, though they
do not bear weight in the same way.
V. Other types of Construction
Cast-Iron construction can be seen in Eiffel Tower: Designed by Gustave Eiffel. Nearly a
thousand feet tall, unveiled at Paris’ World Fair (1889). Very experimental, expensive, and
not well liked in the beginning.
And Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace.
Impact of Industrial Revolution on Architecture: Ability to mass-produce building parts;
invention of the nail; invention of the elevator
Balloon-Frame Construction: An architectural construction type invented around 1833 in
Chicago. Used milling lumber as skeletal forms (support) and mass-produced nails. Consists
of wooden frame and something lighter as sheathing like shingles, stucco, or even glass for
windows. Most houses today are balloon frame construction. Drawback is you can’t have too
many stories. Need a sturdier frame for that – like steel used in skyscrapers.
Suspension: In architecture, a structural system in which a horizontal element is supported
form above by means of slender vertical cables attached to a thick main cable that describes a
curve between two towers.
Concrete: Used and perfected by Roman. Mixture of cement, gravel and water. Can be
poured and molded, enveloping spaces. Revolutionized building because of its flexibility and
durability.
Ferroconcrete: Aka reinforced concrete; concrete containing steel bars, strands, mesh, etc.,
to absorb tensile and shearing stresses. Example is Sydney Opera House.
Geodesic Dome: Patented by R. Buckminster Fuller, a structure made of tetrahedrons:
In geometry, a tetrahedron is a polyhedron composed of four triangular faces, three of which
meet at each corner or vertex. It has six edges and four vertices. Shapes used to create
Geodesic Domes.
VI. Architectural Styles
A. Art Deco Style: An art style of the 1920s and 1930s based on modern materials (steel,
chrome, glass) and repetitive geometric forms. Example: Chrysler Building.
B. Modern and International
Louis Sullivan: American architect that coined phrase "Form follows function." (18561924) Considered father of modernism in architecture and creator of skyscraper. Influenced
Frank Lloyd Wright and Prairie School.
Skyscrapers: Use Steel-Frame Construction. Steel makes up skeleton; glass is skin. Can
build many stories and be very tall. Urban. See Lever House.
Frank Lloyd Wright: Designed Fallingwater. (See video link online.)
Cantilever: In architecture, a horizontal structural element supported at one end only, with
the other end projecting into space. Seen in Fallingwater.
International Style: A style that prevailed after WWII as the aesthetic of early Modernist
movements such as de Stijl and the Bauhaus spread throughout the West and beyond.
International style buildings are generally characterized by clean lines, geometric shapes,
minimal ornamentation, and steel-and-glass construction. Feature curtain wall: a wall
that encloses the space within a building but does not support the roof, typically on a modern
high-rise, often glass. See Lever House. (Video posted on this topic too.)
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C. Prairie Style: Belongs to late 19th and early 20th century; common in Midwestern U.S;
noted for horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows
grouped in horizontal bands, integration with the landscape, solid construction,
craftsmanship, and little ornament. (Example, Robie House, Frank Lloyd Wright.)
D. Postmodern style in architecture is pluralistic, complex, eclectic, expansive, and
inclusive. Often uses past architectural elements or references and juxtaposed them to
contemporary elements or fashioned them of high-tech materials.
VII. New Technologies
A. Frank Gehry: Designed the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum using digital design,
specifically CATIA. Known for curving organic titanium shapes and shifting playful
perspectives (Deconstructivist). (See link to Frank Gehry movie trailer.)
B. Read about Zaha Hadid on p. 317, 12th edition. See her Burnham Pavilion, an example of
fabric architecture. Key to this type of construction is tension.
VIII. Socially Responsible Architecture
A. Dwellings (Homes): What are the concerns?
Know about Rural Studio founded by Samuel Mockbee. What are the fundamental goals
of the program? (See link to trailer to “Citizen Architect” about Mockbee, Rural Studio)
B. What is a “tiny house?”
C. Green Building: Practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings use resources
- energy, water and materials, while reducing building impacts on human health and the
environment, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and
removal.
Lecture on Museums
I. Library and Museum prototypes
A. First “picture gallery” may have been the pinacotheca from antiquity, specifically, the
Acropolis at Athens, Greece.
B. Royal Library of Alexandria: Once largest library in the world; founded by the
Ptolemies (Greeks who ruled in Egypt); first part of Library complex was Temple of the
Muses or Museion (from which English word museum is derived); was a home of music or
poetry, a philosophical school and library, also a gallery of sacred texts. Place to preserve
and study culture.
C. First major art collection in Western Europe:
Medici Place: Housed 15th century Renaissance collection of art. Could be considered art
museum precursor.
D. Other forms of displaying collections: Curiosity Cabinet or Chamber: Encyclopedic
collections of types of objects whose categorical boundaries were in Renaissance Europe yet
to be defined. Modern science would categorize the objects included as belonging to natural
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history (sometimes faked), geology, ethnology, archaeology, religious or historical relics,
works of art and antiquities. For private use.
II. Art Museums as nationalistic temples and sources of national power and pride
A. Louvre (Napoleon's role): During Napoleon’s conquests throughout Europe, The Louvre
(Paris) added to its collection through assimilation of war booty and through other
contributions. Building was redecorated and inaugurated in 1800 and renamed the "Musée
Napoléon" in 1803.
III. What do museum's do?
A. Acquire, preserve, research, communicate and exhibit collections are for study, enjoyment
and appreciation by the general public and scholars.
B. Museum acquisition terms: Accession: A process of increasing by addition (as to a
collection or group); "the art collection grew through accession” Deaccession: The process of
removing an artifact or object from the collection.
C. Museums also track Provenance refers to any source or origin, but it is used particularly
to refer to the history of ownership of a work of art or other valued object, which may be
necessary to prove authenticity.
D. And provide conservation: Action taken to minimize past and future deterioration so that
artifacts and objects can be preserved for the future.
IV. Connoisseurship
Connoisseurs evaluate works of art on the basis of aesthetic conclusions
Judgment informed by intuition is essential, but it must be grounded in a thorough
understanding of the work itself. On the basis of empirical evidence, refinement of perception
about technique and form, and a disciplined method of analysis, the responsibility of the
connoisseur is to attribute authorship; validate authenticity and appraise quality.
Connoisseurs have a thorough understanding of an artist’s oeuvre (an artist entire body of
work, every type and style and its entire evolution).
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