Art Concepts PDF

Explanation: 1.1 Concepts in Art Since the beginning of time, artists have been trying to portrait the way they observe the reality. Sometimes, what they do is a mere reflection of what they see (Aristotle called this mimesis, that is, the imitation of life form in art) in which their work portrai...

Explanation: 1.1 Concepts in Art Since the beginning of time, artists have been trying to portrait the way they observe the reality. Sometimes, what they do is a mere reflection of what they see (Aristotle called this mimesis, that is, the imitation of life form in art) in which their work portraits something as it is in real life. In this case, the artist function is being a mirror that wants to show you a moment, like in a photography. Portraits and landscapes normally use this technique. They also can change the forms and figures that we are used to and transform them into something different or challenging. A great example can be Pablo Picasso, which used all kind of geometrical figures to portrait the characters of the paintings. Another example is the Colombian artist Fernando Botero, who normally uses people of exaggerated body weight to send a message to the viewer. On the other hand, many painters tend to focus on feelings and expressions, either from themselves or from the characters in their work of art. Jackson Pollock, as an example, used to make abstract art by dripping paint and making lines in their paintings that does not have any logic sense, but shows in a metaphorical way the feelings or thoughts of the artist. So, how is it possible for these artists to express such different things? Well, they have a specific set of concepts that, being combined, can create different elements of art. Now, let’s talk about some of these elements, so you can understand the basic vocabulary of art. Line If we deconstruct the elements of art, the simplest one is the line. It can be defined as “the element of art that is a continuous mark made on some surface by a moving point” (Mittler & Ragans, 2005). To create an image, the artist rely on the line. The way the line is drawn will make a different impact on the viewer. Lines can be vertical, horizontal, curved, diagonal, zigzag, and irregular, among others. As noted by Fichner-Rathus (2007), line can be used to outline and make the shape of something, to show the depth and texture of whatever is inside a painting or to make the illusion of movement inside the work of art. Color The color used in a work of art can set the tone or the general mood. Does it make you feel sad? Does it make you feel happy? Probably, the feeling is caused by the color used. Color have three properties (Mittler & Ragans, 2005): The color schemes are used to know the different ways a color can be combined. For example, monochromatic (from “mono” one, and “chroma” color) color scheme refers to a one single color, used with different kinds of value. Maybe we can be looking a painting that is all red, but some red can be dark and another a little bit lighter. Analogous color scheme are the colors that are next to each other in the color wheel. For example, red is analogous with the red-orange and the red-violet. Complementary colors are the opposite ones in the color wheel, meaning that putting them together, in a painting for example, while create an effect of contrast and difference. How do you think you would look with a yellow shirt and purple pants? Click here to see an example. Colors can be divided in primary (red, yellow and blue), secondary (the combination of two primary colors) and tertiary (mixing a primary color with a secondary color). Also, colors can be warm (those that refers to warm things, like the red, yellow and orange) or cool (those that make us feel cool, like blue, green and violet). Click to see an example. Primary, secondary and tertiary colors. Warm and cool colors. Shape and Forms Shapes are objects in two dimensions (height and weight), used mostly in paintings. Now, a form is “an object with three dimensions” (Mittler & Ragans, 2005), that is height, weight and width. This forms can be found in sculpture or architecture. Shape Form Space The space is defined as “an element of art that refers to the real or implied distance between, around, above, below, and within objects” (Mittler & Ragans, 2005). Space also helps us to differentiate things that are in front or things that are in the background, using smaller sizes if the things are far away (like in real life). The use of the space can tell you a lot about the work of art: Why does the artist choose this set and not another one? Why did he choose to use that perspective? Did the space is balanced? Does it have any equilibrium? Texture You can feel the texture of the objects using your hands: the silk of a blouse is soft, the wall of your room is hard or a teddy bear can be fluffy. How is this translated to the art? Combining the different elements of art, the artist can create an image that make us believe that, for its appearance, it would feel like it have a texture, even if it is only an image. As we can intuit here, our eyes have a lot to do with this: if something looks like a rock, it should feel like it. To create this effect, the artist would use carefully shadows, lights, different colors and spaces. Now that we have seen this elements and concepts in art, try to analyze some artwork. What kind of colors does it use? What feelings do the lines transmit? Is there any texture in the image? Try to reflect about the use of the elements and ask yourself why you think the artist made those choices. Remember that in a work of art every element has a raison d'être (a reason of existence), it means that the things portrayed are not there by chance, the artist put them there for a reason. What effect is the artist trying to achieve? Did he make it? How would you have done it differently? 1.2 Iconography and iconology In the previous subtopic, you learned all about the elements that conforms a piece of art. Not all of the elements are always present in a work of art and not all of them have the same importance. It varies a lot depending on what we are analyzing. For some works, it can be more important to show a very bright and appealing color than to focus on texture, or an artist can choose to create strange and bizarre forms but ignore the space around them. The artist doesn’t have a special formula to achieve an effect in the viewer, so he can mix the elements to its convenience. Now that we have some tools to analyze, let’s talk about two different lines that, through observation and interconnection, confronts a piece of art and tries to decode its meaning. One is the iconography and the other one is the iconology. Both are related and you cannot talk of one without the other. Before reading the explanation, ask yourself this question: how do you interpret a work of art? What elements do you see? Do you think that there is something hidden? Is there a subtle message in there? Try to imagine how things were different 100 years ago and how they are going to be 100 years in the future. Is there any difference of thought? As you can imagine, works of art are a product of their context. Even if the artist doesn’t acknowledge it, they are making a statement of their time (maybe in an unconscious way). So, to fully understand the work of art, we need to look at its symbols. That is what iconography does. Iconography look at what is behind the work of art. It “implies that a written text underlies an image” (Schneider, 2008). For that, we need to unravel the symbols. A symbol is something with a different meaning beyond its appearance. For example, if we look at a cross, the literal object is just two lines, horizontal and vertical, superimposed. In Christianity, the cross means the death and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. An inverted cross is a direct reference to St. Peter, who didn’t want to die in the same way of Jesus. In math, if we look at a cross we now is a symbol for a sum. Do you see how the same thing may be perceived in different ways? In religious art, there is a lot of symbolism. Some of it is used to differentiate the paintings of the saints. For example, John the Evangelist is shown as a young man, Joan of Arc with an armor, and Saint Augustine with a burning heart. The painting is not telling you directly whom these people are, but if you know the context and the symbols, you can know it. It’s like the image of the death: a human skeleton dressed in black, carrying a sickle. We know that’s the death not because of its literal meaning, but because all the elements symbolize the ending of life. Iconology is about the origin and interpretation of an image (González, 1989). In order to understand a work of art at an iconological level, you must know the context in where it was born. Investigate and do some research: Where is it from? What was happening in the world at that moment? What artists made an influence in the painter? Then, you can create an interpretation that will be more accurate and reliable. Why do we need the iconological level? If we look at a painting like The death of Marat, by French artist Jacques-Louis David, we see only a dead man in a bathtub. Is there anything else there? If we ignore the context, the painting can be a very simple one. However if we do a little research, we can find who this Marat was and his importance in the development of the French Revolution. Then, the painting is going to acquire a whole new meaning and our interpretation will be more close to the truth. The more we know about the context and art, the more accurate our interpretation will be. Click here to see the painting. This also can be a little bit tricky sometimes. If we did a lot into the context, we can attribute things to the painting that are not there. We should be careful and not to try to overanalyze things. That’s why, when we are talking about art, we need to have a lot of references to backup what we are saying. Image retrieved from http://goo.gl/ChKohK For educational purposes only. Understanding the symbols, the “text” behind an image, means that our knowledge of the piece of art is going to be more close to the actual intentions of the artist. However, the piece of art can also say things that the artist never imagined, because the context and the times also influences the way we look at it. It is not the same if we analyze the same piece now and then in 10 years, because our points of view are going to change on those years, even if we are the same person. So, again, we don’t have a magic formula to make a universal interpretation. 1.3 Methodologies to analyze art As you have seen, art is composed from many different elements that interact and influence. Those aspects shape our mind and make us look things in a different light. Our own perception and knowledge is going to be a very important part when we try to analyze a work of art. We know that, in order to make a good approach, we should look at some elements such as line, color, shape, form, space and texture. Also, it is necessary to look carefully to the symbols and the context in which the piece was made (iconography and iconology). But even if we know that, there are a lot of ways and theories that we can use in order to analyze an artwork. Not every theory will fit, so we should see, according to their characteristics, which one is more appropriate. Let’s talk about some of the most known methodologies of art history, according to Schneider (2008). Semiology Semiology is the study of the signs. According to a Swiss linguistic called Ferdinand de Saussure, every signs have two parts: the signifier and the signified. The signifier is a reference of how is the word written and how does it sound. For example, the signifier in the word “dog” are the letters “d”, “o” and “g” and the sound dog. This can change from language to language, of course. The signified is the mental idea that we have about that word. For example, we can imagine a cocker spaniel dog or a bulldog. This changes from person to person, because everybody has a different conception and idea of the same word, even if it is something concrete as a dog. Saussure poses some interesting questions with the signified and the signifier. Is there any word that can reflect the “soul” of the thing it represents? Is the relation between both things just arbitrary? Has a universal language ever existed? In art, the question is could be what is the relation between the signifier (the work of art) and the signified (the real world)? An artwork can provide a new meaning just by showing something in a different perspective. Study of the lives of the artists The study of the biography, or autobiography, of the authors is a very old method that can have some dangers. In a way, we can learn a lot of the motivations, objectives and illusions of an artist and how his art was affected by their context. But, in another way, we can fall in the trap of thinking that everything that he does reflects somehow his life. Knowing the lives of the authors is helpful, but we also need to draw some limits: not because somebody draw the union between men and God, like Michelangelo, means that he is a religious person. Giorgio Vasari, famous for have written a lot about artists, is an example of somebody that writes in a subjective way in a biography, creating a doubt in his accuracy. About Leonardo da Vinci, Vasari wrote: “his every action is so divine, that, surpassing all other men, it makes itself clearly known as a thing bestowed by God (as it is), and not acquired by human art” (1996). In this case, is obvious we should not take everything literal. Psychoanalysis Originated by Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysis deals with issues from the past and tries to reconstruct them in the present, creating a new way of seeing your own life. The unconscious, which is what’s inside your mind but sometimes is not perceived or it is “buried”, needs to be revealed in order to understand ourselves, our fears and desires. In order to unravel this, Freud thinks that we need to analyze our dreams, among other things. Art can reflect a lot of the person behind the work of art: “Because art is expressive, it reveals aspects of the artist who creates it, of the patron who funds it, and of the culture in which it is produced” (Schneider, 2008). Have you ever said something unintentionally? Maybe like expressing a feeling that you have not intended to say? This, according to some psychologies, is our inner desires searching for a way to be expressed.