* Art History *
 Why do artist do art?
o Say a message
o express their emotions (newest reason)
o Record history (landscapes, people, etc.)
o religious (oldest reason)
o Teach – awareness! (political and social statements)
 Careers as an artist – (some)
o Interior design
o Art education
o Graphic design
o Owning your own studio
ARTWORK
“The Gates” New York City, Central Park
Artist: Christo and Jeanne-Claude Date: 1979-2005
 Earth Art (involves terrain)
 Christo drew a picture of “the gates” in 2003
“The Rocky Mountains. Lander’s Peak”
Artist: Albert Bierstadt
Date:1863
Median: Oil on canvas
 Has hidden messages in the artwork
“Spiral Jetty”
Artist: Robert Smithton
Date: 1970
Medium: mud, crystals, rocks, water, coil
 Sank after a while
 The spiral has a meaning
“Bushfire and Corroboree Dreaming”
Artist: Erin Motna
Date: 1988
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
 Dream Art
 They would dream about it and then draw it
 Aboriginal art is so-called dreaming
“Three Flags”
Artist: Jasper Jones Date: 1958
Medium: Encaustic on canvas
 Encaustic – bee’s wax
 3 canvas on top of one another, bolted together
 48 stars on flag instead of 50 (date)
 Stripes on flag – white on outside instead of red
TERMS:
1. Reception- what you see and receive
2. Extraction- look at it and “read” it
3. Inference- break it down to figure it out
4. Earth work- involves terrain
Visual Literacy
 Form: what it is made of
 Content: what it really means
o Representational: realism- anything that looks real
o Abstract: realism that is distorted
o Non Objective: does not relate to the real world
 We are in a post modern period.
 Ethnocentric- don’t put your own thoughts into the artwork. Should not look at it with
this.
 Iconography- symbolism (cultural language)
ARTWORK
“The Treason of Images”
Artist: Rene Magrite Date: 1929
Medium: oil on canvas
 Believed drugs would help with being creative
 “this in not a pipe” – words written
 Says this because it’s a painting of a pipe, not a actual pipe
“Triumphal Entry”
Artist: N/A
Date: 1562-1583
Medium: opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper
 Calligraphy- art made of beautiful handwriting
“Pat”
Artist: John Aheam and Rigoberto Torres Date: 1982
Medium: Painted cast of plaster
 Her actually body was cast out of plaster
“Baby Girl”
Artist: Marisol
 Abstract art
Date: 1963
Medium: wood and mixed media
“Silueta Works in Mexico”
Artist: Ana Mendieta
Date: 1973-1977
Medium: color photography
 Her figure in sand- represents a sword
 Red paint splattered
 Multicultural- heart is in Cuba, but has to live in the US
“Pasadena Lifesavers Red Series #3”
Artist: Judy Chicago
Date: 1969-1970
Medium: sprayed acrylic lacquer on sheet acrylic
 Wants all art to have a statement
 Feminist statements
 15 painting in this series
 Square in middle represents Judy
“Suprematist Painting, Black Rectangle, Blue Triangle”
Artist: Kasimir Malevich
Date: 1915
Medium: oil on canvas
 Non objective
 Very modern
“Grainstack (show effect)”
Artist: Claude Monet
Date: 1891
Medium: oil on canvas
 Used the colors of the atmosphere
 Paint scene over and over just to get it right
“The Marriage of Giovanni Armolfini & his wife Giovanna Cenami (The Armolfini Marriage)”
Artist: Jan Van Eyuk
Date: 1422-1441
Medium: oil on oak panel
 Dog represents companionship
 He has no shoes on – closer to earth, closer to God
 Her dress – green= marriage (calm, peaceful, fertility)
 Her hand – expected to get pregnant
 Mirror – marriage contract (signed artwork above)
 One candle – presence of God
Conventions and Art
 Ethnocentric- it imposes upon the art of another culture, the meanings and prejudices
of our own.
 Conventions- a traditional, habitual, or widely accepted method of representation
ARTWORK
African Mask, Sang tribe
Gadon, West Africa
Medium: wood
 Used for rituals or something symbolic
Mask (Bo Nun Amuin), Helmet
Africa, Baule peoples, Ivory Coast, 19th – 20th Century
Medium: wood, pigment, egg shell (?)
 Ivory cannot be brought over any more
Critical Process of Looking at a Work
Pg. 34 – shows two pictures that mean the same thing but one is realistic and the other is
abstract.
Themes of Art
 Impressionism- mode of painting that dominated late 19th century art in western world,
especially in France
 Genre paintings- depictions of everyday life
Chapter 3 terms:
 Genre – everyday life
 Impressionism – late 19th century art movement.
 Vanitas – on look of life and death, reminder of death
 Surrealism – early 20th century art movement
 Objective art – free of personal feeling
 Subjective art – pertains to personal feeling and emotions
People say that art is “dead” because there is nothing else left to study.
ARTWORK
Thomas Cole
 Shows how man and nature work together.
 Shows how humans and materials come together.
 Shows how nature takes everything back.
Albert Durr
 Studied nature
 Painting is a native plant from Germany
Jan Van Eyck
 His image of God
 Subjective art
N/A (Hawaii)
 Subjective art
Pablo Picasso
 Went through stages of art more than anyone else
 Born in Spain
 Thought by father how to do art
 Lady was very close friends to Picasso
 She came to studio over 80 hours so he could paint her
 Face of woman was influenced by African mask
Salvador Dali
 Wanted to paint stuff from his dreams
 White figure in middle is a portrait of him.
Robert Motherwell
 Surrealism art
 Emotions from within
 Show his political beliefs
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
 Genre
 Black dress- fiancée
 Man behind her – owner of restaurant
Kane Kwei
 Coffin shaped as a bean
 Made unique coffins
 High art- can’t be used in everyday life
Renzo Piano
 Creates creative buildings
 Studied environment to help create the building
 Outside is naturally friendly and the inside is very technological
Pablo Picasso
 5 women figures
 Sailor and a medical student (black suits)
 Prostitution
Mathies Gruewald
 Alter piece
 Belonged to hospital for the sick
 Did it gruesome because he wanted to left the sick people know that your pains will
eventually go away
Robert Mapplethrope
 Art work is very dirty
 The use of children is very wrong
 I don’t consider this artwork.
Value in Art
People make art pleasing so that people will purchase it. They also make it to remind the
buyers of something special to them so that they will buy it.
ARTWORK
“The Holy Virgin”
Artist: Chris Ofifi
Date: 1996
Medium: paper collage, oil paint, glitter, polyester resin, map pins, and elephant dung on linen
 Figures flying around are like little “butts” of angels
 People found it offensive when her used push pins and elephant poo on the painting
 He grow up in a catholic school
*Many artists want to push people’s buttons when it comes to viewing and interpreting
artwork.
“Spectrum of artist’s roles”
Artist: Suzanne Lacy
Date: 1995
Medium: N/A
 Artist as an activist- trying to make a difference
“Luncheon on the Grass”
Artist: Edward Manet
Date: 1863
Medium: oil on canvas
 Some of the canvas was shown through
 Face of woman was recognized as a prostitute
 The higher class was upset that that the prostitute was looking forward. They believed
that she should not be looking at them.
“Nude Descending Staircase #2”
Artist: Marcel Duchmap
Date: 1912
Medium: oil on canvas
 There was a contest held to find the nude in the picture
 Studied the movement books
“Vietnam Memorial, Washington DC”
Artist: Maya Ying Lin
Date: 1982
Medium: Polish black granite
 58,000 names written on there
 Public thought it was an anti-monument because it went into the ground. Public thinks
it should be more in the “air” than in the ground.
“La Grand Vitesse”
Artist: Alexander Calder
Date: 1967
Medium: painted steal plate
 Busy people were not able to go see art museums, so artist said that we should bring art
to them instead.
 Called “public art”
 First work that was put out in the public
“Tilted Arc”
Artist: Richard Serra Date: 1981
Medium: cor-ten steal
 Everyone hated it…they made a petition to get it removed, some enjoyed it though
 Moved the artwork into storage, then eventually they destroyed it.
 He said it was a political statement
“David”
Artist: Michelangelo
Date: 1501-1504
Medium: marble
 Placed in front of an important building where they would sign important documents.
 He is looking away from Florence
Chapter 5- Line: Moving dot/ moving point
ARTWORK
“Basket of Apples”
 Has the name: Father of modern art
 Made table distorted and wine bottle