Visual Arts Guide : A Basic and Cyber Sourcebook

by Sporre, Dennis J.

• ISBN13: 9780130416131
• ISBN10: 0130416134
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-01-01
• Publisher: Pearson College Div

Summary

Buildings, paintings, sculptures, photographs, and films confront us at every turn and give our lives richness and diversity. They call on us to use both halves of our brains in order to meet the challenges and opportunities of life. Enjoying and getting the most from relationships with works of visual art depend on knowing what to see in them and how they occurred throughout history. The more we understand about cathedrals, paintings, prints, photographs, sculptures, and works of architecture, the more exciting and interesting our experiences become. This concise volume offers readers a foundation for understanding the details of art and architecture by introducing terminology and concepts as well as a basic outline of the history of visual art in the Western tradition. In addition to the kinds of illustrations that might be expected in a book about art, Visual Artsguide also provides connections to examples on the internet. In this edition: bull; bull;Profile boxes featuring selected artists bull;Cyber Examples connecting the reader to additional artists and works of art relevant to the current chapter bull;Cyber Sources for additional materials for further study bull;Timelines beginning the history chapters bull;Inset features to draw attention to important concepts and applications relevant to the actual text bull;Building a Basic Analysis outlines in each chapter to assist the reader in critical application of the material studied to actual works of art bull;Glossary to assist understanding of basic concepts and terminology

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
Introduction: Where Are We Going?	1	(1)
How Do I Use This Book and Learn about Art?	1	(1)
What Happens When We Connect to the World Wide Web?	1	(1)
How Do I Pronounce All the Names and Terms?	2	(1)
How Do We Put This Study in Context?	2	(4)
What Does Art Do?	6	(18)
What's in This Chapter?	6	(1)
What Concerns Art?	6	(4)
Creativity	7	(1)
Aesthetic Communication	8	(1)
Symbols	9	(1)
Fine and Applied Art	10	(1)
To What Purposes and Functions?	10	(4)
Enjoyment	11	(1)
Political and Social Commentary	11	(2)
Artifact	13	(1)
How Should We Perceive and Respond?	14	(1)
Can We Figure Out Style?	15	(4)
How Do We Live with Art?	19	(5)
How Is Art Put Together?	24	(20)
What's in This Chapter?	24	(1)
How Does Composition Work?	24	(11)
Elements of Composition	24	(7)
Principles of Composition	31	(4)
What Other Factors Affect Us?	35	(9)
Perspective	36	(2)
Content	38	(1)
Articulation	39	(1)
Chiaroscuro	39	(1)
Dynamics	40	(2)
Trompe l'oeil	42	(1)
Juxtaposition	43	(1)
Can We See in Two Dimensions? Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking	44	(18)
What's in This Chapter?	44	(1)
Drawing Is the Basis	45	(3)
Dry Media	45	(1)
Liquid Media	46	(2)
Painting Is the Dominant Form	48	(3)
Oils	48	(1)
Watercolor	48	(1)
Tempera	49	(1)
Acrylics	50	(1)
Fresco	50	(1)
Prints Offer Multiple Opportunities	51	(9)
Relief Printing	54	(2)
Intaglio	56	(2)
Planographic Processes	58	(2)
Building a Basic Analysis	60	(2)
Can We Handle Three Dimensions? Sculpture and Decorative Arts and Crafts	62	(18)
What's in This Chapter?	62	(1)
Sculpture---What's in a Form?	62	(14)
Dimensionality	63	(2)
Methods of Execution	65	(6)
Factors Influencing Response	71	(5)
What Are Decorative Arts and Crafts?	76	(3)
Building a Basic Analysis	79	(1)
Getting Next to Structures: Architecture	80	(23)
What's in This Chapter?	80	(1)
How Is Architecture Put Together?	81	(16)
Structure Systems	82	(5)
Building Materials	87	(3)
Line, Repetition, and Balance	90	(4)
Scale and Proportion	94	(1)
Context	95	(1)
Space	96	(1)
Climate	96	(1)
How Can We Respond to Architecture?	97	(3)
Controlled Vision and Symbolism	97	(1)
Style	98	(1)
Apparent Function	98	(1)
Dynamics	99	(1)
Building a Basic Analysis	100	(3)
The Flicker of Camera Art: Photography and Cinema	103	(13)
What's in This Chapter?	103	(1)
Photography---Capturing Images through a Lens	103	(4)
Photography as Art	103	(2)
Photography as Documentary	105	(1)
Photographic Techniques	106	(1)
Cinematography---Like Life in a Can	107	(7)
Basic Cinema Types	109	(1)
Basic Cinema Techniques	110	(3)
Other Factors	113	(1)
Building a Basic Analysis	114	(2)
From Order and Restraint to Spirituality: Greek Classical, Hellenistic, Roman Classical, Byzantine, Islamic, Romanesque, and Gothic Art, c. 500 B.C.E.-c. 1400 C.E.	116	(19)
What's in This Chapter?	116	(1)
Greek Classicism---A Predominance of Form over Feeling	117	(4)
Classical Painting	117	(1)
Classical Sculpture	117	(2)
Architecture	119	(2)
Hellenistic Style---The Emergence of Feeling	121	(1)
Sculpture	121	(1)
Architecture	121	(1)
Imperial Roman Classicism---Emulation of the Greeks	121	(5)
Sculpture	123	(1)
Architecture	123	(3)
Byzantine Styles---Infusing Spirituality into Art	126	(2)
Mosaics	126	(1)
Architecture	127	(1)
Islamic Tradition---Art as a Holy Place	128	(1)
Romanesque Style---Art in Service to the Christian Church	129	(2)
Gothic Style---Letting in the Light	131	(4)
Painting	131	(1)
Architecture	132	(1)
Sculpture	133	(2)
From Rebirth to Rationalism: Renaissance to Enlightenment, c. 1400-c. 1800	135	(21)
What's in This Chapter?	135	(1)
The Renaissance---The Individual Reborn	135	(9)
Renaissance Painting in Florence	136	(1)
Renaissance Sculpture in Florence	137	(2)
Architecture	139	(1)
The High Renaissance in Rome	139	(3)
Mannerism	142	(2)
The Baroque---Ornateness and Emotion	144	(6)
Painting	144	(3)
Sculpture	147	(1)
Architecture	147	(3)
The Enlightenment---Confidence in the Power of Reason	150	(6)
Rococo Style	151	(2)
Neoclassicism	153	(3)
Fragmenting Images, Emotions, and Individualism: Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, Postimpressionism, and Art Nouveau, c. 1800-c. 1900	156	(15)
What's in This Chapter?	156	(1)
Romanticism---The Maximum in Anticlassicism	156	(5)
Painting	157	(3)
Sculpture	160	(1)
Architecture	160	(1)
Realism---Objective Observations of Objective Reality	161	(3)
Courbet	162	(1)
Manet	162	(2)
Impressionism---Common Passions in Pursuit of Spontaneity	164	(1)
Monet	164	(1)
Renoir	164	(1)
Morisot	165	(1)
Postimpressionism---A Diversity of Personalism	165	(5)
Cezanne	167	(1)
Seurat	167	(1)
Gauguin	167	(1)
Van Gogh	168	(2)
Art Nouveau---Popular Art in Whiplash	170	(1)
Viva Innovation and Experimentation: An Explosion of Art in the Early to Mid-Twentieth Century, c. 1900-c. 1960	171	(22)
What's in This Chapter?	171	(1)
Expressionism---Joint Reactions	172	(1)
Cubism---Visual Fragmentation	173	(2)
Mechanism and Futurism---Dynamic Machines	175	(1)
Abstraction---The Dissolving Image	176	(2)
Dada---Antiart Art?	178	(1)
Surrealism---The Unconscious Mind	178	(2)
The Harlem Renaissance	180	(1)
American Painting---A Wealth of Diversity	181	(1)
Abstract Expressionism---From Brushwork to Content	182	(1)
Pop Art---From Where We Live	183	(1)
Minimalism---Reductio Ad Infinitum	184	(1)
Architecture---Experiments in Modernism	185	(5)
Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright	185	(1)
Le Corbusier	186	(1)
Bauhaus	187	(2)
After World War II	189	(1)
Cinema and Neorealism	190	(3)
Pluralism in a Postmodern World: c. 1960-Present	193
What's in This Chapter?	193	(1)
Painting and Sculpture	194	(1)
Neo-Expressionism	195
Feminism	195	(3)
Environments, Earthworks, and Installations	198	(2)
Video Art	200

Excerpts

The purpose of a textbook is to provide information that meets its intended audience where they are. Visual Artsguide seeks a specific niche as a basic, concise, and inexpensive compendium for courses that introduce art to general students. ( Its length and illustration program are dictated by its purpose.) Visual Artsguide also attempts to stimulate an active pursuit of new experiences in a familiar venue: the Internet. This book will not serve every circumstance nor meet every expectation. It is for those who wish a skeletal compendium of basic information. It provides an outline that allows instructors room to fill in the spaces according to their own predilections and the specific needs of their courses and students. Visual Artsguide accepts the challenge that most artistic terms and concepts are complex and subject to change. Definitions and concepts in this text are treated at a basic and general level. If a course demands greater sophistication, an instructor easily can add those layers. Knowing what to look at in a work of art is one step toward developing discriminating perception and getting the most from a relationship with art. Introducing the aesthetic experience through terminology may be arguable, but this approach gains credence from the College Board's statement on Academic Preparation for College, where use of "the appropriate vocabulary" is emphasized as fundamental. Vocabulary isolates characteristics of what to see in individual works of art and focuses perceptions and responses. We cannot understand or recognize how art works nor communicate our discoveries with others without the command of an appropriate vocabulary. This step, however, is only the beginning. When we develop confidence in approaching works of art by knowing certain basic terms and concepts, then we want more, and that leads to making study and involvement with the arts a lifetime venture. That lifetime involvement (as a consumer of and respondent to rather than a maker of art) ought to be the goal of every general art introduction course. I humbly bring to this project nearly half a century of studying, practicing, teaching, and experiencing the arts. Even that, however, does not make every piece of information in this book a reflection of my own general knowledge. With regard for readability and the general nature of the text, I have tried to avoid footnotes. In that regard, the bibliography at the end of the text (under the heading "Further Reading") provides a reference list of the works used in preparation of this text. I hope this method of presenting and documenting the works of others meets the requirements of both responsibility and practicality. I wish to acknowledge the following Prentice Hall reviewers: Stephen Smithers, Indiana State University; Alberto Meza, Miami-Dade Community College; Sarah McCormick, Kapiolani Community College; Herbert R. Hartel, Jr., John Jay College, City University of New York; Gene Hood, University of Wisconsin Eau Claire; Michael R. Kapetan, University of Michigan; Dennis Dykema, Buena Vista University; and Mary Francey, University of Utah. I am grateful, as always, to Bud Therien at Prentice Hall, who, for more than twenty years, has been my editor, publisher, and guide, for the idea for this book. I am even more grateful to my wife, Hilda, for her patience, editorial and critical assistance, and love. DENNIS J. SPORRE