written discussion

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VISUAL ARTS: Painting

Exhibition of Paintings by Nancy Jay (see Bishop, Ch 1.) 2

VISUAL ARTS: Painting 1. Picture as Magic 2. Some Concepts 3. How to Talk in Pictures 4. World of Painting 5. Abstraction 6. Formal Elements, Composition 7. How to Look 8. Styles: Types and Traditions3

What is a Picture?

• An Image • With two dimensions:

– Height + width, but no (or little) depth

• An Icon* • It’s about depiction and truth, as an

artist or other people may see it.

Byzantine Icon:

A Sacred Picture

* Icon: Sacred picture; or a small image or symbol that represents something A modern icon 4

What are SYMBOLS?

Signs point to things that exist

but cannot be seen.

Symbols point to ideas.

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What is a Style?

Why do we have STYLEs?

Why do Styles Change?

6 stylus

Some CONTEXTUAL factors STYLE: distinctive artistic way a subject is handled:

– Individual. Like van Gogh, Monet, or Picasso (who was known for more styles than most well-known artists)

– Group. Impressionists, Romantics, Abstract Expressionists – Period of time: Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Modern,

Mogul Dynasty, New Kingdom (Egypt) . . .

AUDIENCE to whom the work is addressed, such as: nobility, middle class, cultural group, self-reflection, etc.

PATRON (client) who commissions (or just buys) art works: Religious, state, commercial institution . . . individual

Artworks can function, or express responses to cultural values, beliefs, philosophies, or historical events. 7

Paintings An alternate way

of seeing . . .

Peche Merle, France 25,000 – 16,000 year old paintings. Visualization, invocation, expression.

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Prehistoric Cave Paintings,

Painting: Media, Materials, and Techniques

MEDIUM: vehicle for Pigments suspended in: • Oil paint • Acrylic • Egg Tempera • Watercolor • Pastel • Fresco • Mixed media

– ex.: collage

MATERIALS • Wall • Scroll • Canvas • Panel • Paper • Mural Techniques-how you handle media + materials.

9* Pigment: dry, ground up, insoluble substance when suspended in a liquid vehicle (medium) becomes paint.

SURFACES: cave walls: Lascaux Cave, France. 15,000 BCE. pigments on stone

Scroll Painting. Pigments on paper.

India

Portrait Painting. Pablo Picasso. oil on canvas 1901.

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Fresco : a type of wall painting or �mural.� 2 kinds:

“Dry” fresco (Egypt) �True� fresco: pigments chemically bind with plaster

Giotto, The Lamentation, e. 1300s, CE

Pigments painted on dry plaster. Artist: anonymous (unknown)

11 Fresco: origins and use

Painting Tool Kit: Imagery

3 Types of Pictorial Imagery: – Representational (also called Figurative) – Abstract, Abstraction – Non-Objective (also Non-Figurative)

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- Representational - Abstract - Non-objective

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Why make pictures? Popular answer: to depict the world. A picture

mimics seeing. Mimesis, Aristotle called it. But there’s more, such as to:

Honor / Revere Remember

Imagine Control

Document Alter / Express

Or, Just paint for itself: Art for art�s sake14

Popular Types of Subjects:

• Portrait • Genre (slice of

everyday life) • Narrative:

– Religious/Mythic/ – Literary/Historical

• Landscape

• Still Life • Symbolic • The Nude • Fantasy • Abstract • Protest

15The Skill of Describing

(sfumato)

Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa (Lisa Gherardini) 1503-05.

Portrait. Portraits portray an individual, not a type.

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Genre and Still Life In Holland, in the 1600s

Jan Vermeer-- Interior Willem Kalf -- Still Life

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Expression. Goya. Third of May. 1808.

Protest Art. Style of protest--Representational / Abstract--in tune with the times?

Francisco Goya, Third of May, 1808, 1814 (oil on canvas, easel painting)

Pablo Picasso, Guernica 1936. Mural painting

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Contemporary Protest: Outdoor wall MURAL-Judy Baca

Los Angeles, 1983

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Related Pictorial Arts

Artist: Romare Bearden. Mississippi Monday Medium: Collage

Anonymous Byzantine artisans Queen Theodora (detail) Medium: Mosaic (tiles or tessera)

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Painting: Form (visual elements)

Form’s parts are called: Formal or visual elements • Dot • Line • Shape • Mass • Chiaroscuro ->

– (light-dark) • Color • Texture 21

Line can create chiaroscuro

Peter Rubens. Anatomical Study. 1601-1605.

�Hatching� technique

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Michelangelo. God & Adam. Ceiling Fresco. Sistine Chapel, Rome.

Forms suggest Lines: “Implied” Lines & Shapes: Silhouettes. “23

Color and Light • Hue: (color frequency)

• Value (tone, tint)

• Intensity (saturated)

• Palette (color range)

• Light and Dark - chiaroscuro

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Color ORGANIZATION - Primary

- Complementary

- Analogous

- Chiaroscuro

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COMPOSITION Arrangement / organization. Major approaches:

Symmetry/asymmetry Suggested Movement Fore-Middle-Background Contrast & Focus

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Composition: Static Symmetry, Asymmetry (=>dynamic),

and Movement

See-saw

Static/still

Diagonals suggest: imbalance, Movement

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Composition - Spatial organization: Foreground, Middle ground, Background

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Modernist, Paul Cezanne, fooled around with picture planes in this still life.

Andrew Wyeth, Christina’s World

COMPOSITION: Perspective

Four kinds: • Linear (geometric) • Atmospheric (aerial) • Overlapping forms • Multiple views

Atmospheric Perspective ê

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Linear é perspective

THE RENAISSANCE

�Linear Perspective�

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Ancient Egyptians identified things.é Multiple Perspectives.

M.C. Escher: confused reality. ê

Linear Perspective . . . . developed from visual depth cues.

31 Appearance of things near and far.

Artist: Leonardo da Vinci.

Title: The Last Supper. Dates: painted between

1495-1498.

Below: Figure Study. ê Medium: pen + ink on paper. Composition: not really.

ñABOVE: The final wall painting today. Subject: Biblical Narrative. Medium: wall mural with tempera + oil on plaster (Not in good shape). But the COMPOSITION, the organization of the final image, is beautifully worked out.

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PATTERN Tibetan mandala FIELD

Intricate patterns, Fantastic figures, Emphasis on idea, flat forms, frontalism, split representation Symbolic proportions . . .

Ireland, 7-8th c. Manuscript illumination

Jackson Pollock, Cathedral, 1947

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C. Monet (1890s) + J. Pollock (1947)

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Claude Monet (French) 8 of 30 paintings of Rouen Cathedral, France.

Jackson Pollock (American) Rouen Cathedral, 1947

Details: Pollock + Monet

Photo of Rouen Cath.

Jackson Pollock (American). Autumn Rhythm. ca. 1950

Story: When artist Hans Hofmann first visited Pollock's studio he was startled by the absence of any models or sketches. "Do you work from nature?" he asked. Pollock replied, "I am nature."

FIELD ABSTRACTION. ORGANIC version. Gestural rhythms instead of geometric patterns.

35 detail ->

Pollock at Work.

The process of painting . . . Action painting. . .

Jackson Pollock made a big impression with his large "drip" paintings, which he made by flinging, splashing, and dripping paint onto large canvases placed on the floor. "New needs demand new techniques," he said, explaining his disregard for the brush and easel. He used to create his art by moving

around the canvas in a sort of dance: thus came the term Action Painting: "What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event.� Jackson Pollock led an intensely fiery

life, filled with bar-room brawls, and other violence. His life ended abruptly in a drunk driving crash at the age of 44.

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�THE GOLDEN SECTION� This ratio (relationship): “The small relates to the larger, as the larger relates to the whole,” is found in geometry and nature . . . . .

A formula developed by the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, to define the idea of natural harmony.

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COMPOSITION: PROPORTION. For example:

Golden Section examples:

Paintings and Photographs often follow the Rule of Thirds which is a rough estimation of Golden Section

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More you can discover . . . starting with The Golden Section to . . .

http://www.constructingtheuniverse.com/Grace.html See also discussion of Grace Cathedral, San Francisco

. . . Fibonacci spirals In nature and art.

Stained glass window design

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ILLUSIONS and IDEAS Illusions in painting

Suggest ways we understand the physical world: Space Mass/solids Textures

Popular IDEAS about art: •Realism, likeness: �mimesis� (Aristotle) •Idealism: --> perfection (ex., beauty) •Alteration: change from likeness

– Picture -- Expression -- Painting – Art for Art�s Sake

•Issue: Uses of art. Ex. Icon -- Iconoclasm 40

Many people demand beauty. It’s an idea. Not everyone agrees on what beautiful is, but we can develop and enrich �the eye of the beholder� What are those views of beauty?

Halle Berry, publicity photo.

Plato�s �inspiration� was the divine muse. àWhat’s the Inspiration for movie star beauty?

More than one kind of Beauty can be appreciated in traditional Japan: Kitagawa Utamaro, A Beauty. 17531806

(Delicate lines, flat, details, accessories)

<- and also “Wabi Sabi” (Irregular, natural shapes, contrasts,

qqq interesting imperfections, character). 41

American artist Mary Cassatt found beauty in style elements of Japanese prints.

The Bath, 1863 -> Subject: Genre.

Notice the Bold shapes, color contrasts, flattened space, high point of view.

Unlike Utamaro: FOCUS / DOMINANCE, blurry and sharp areas. 42

Utamaro. Midnight: Mother w Sleepy Child (print. late 1700s)

Next: Visual Perceptions . . .

What do you see?

Perception.

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Going West. Oil on canvas. Jackson Pollock Can you find hidden images? Mythical symbolism?

STYLE: Western history of Types and Traditions

• Prehistoric • Early

Cultures/Civilizations • Classical • Medieval • Illumination/

– illustration • Byzantine • Renaissance

• Baroque • Landscape • Romanticism • Realism • Impressionism • Modernism • PostModern/

Contemporary 45

Modernist Movements 20th – 21st Centuries

• Primitivism • Photography as art • Cubism • Expressionism • Futurism and Dada • Surrealism

• American Scene • Harlem

Renaissance • Abstract

Expressionism • Post-Modernism

(our era)

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Post-Modernist Movements

• Pop Art • Super Realism • Environmental art • Installation art • Computer art

Secular icon: one of Andy Warhol�s Pop portraits of Marilyn Monroe, 1960s

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Chris Ofili, b. 1968 British.

Princess of the Posse, 1999

Post-Modern Style (playful, challenges authority, patchwork/ eclectic)

Medium + Materials: Mixed Media: Acrylic, collage, glitter, resin, map pins, and elephant dung on canvas. 96 in. x 72 in. Collection SFMOMA

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How to Look at a Picture

• Get up close • Take a step back • Then think. Try another

angle. Do this process for a while.

Perception/Conception: - Hemispheric Asymmetry, �gestalt�

- Imitate (mimesis) perceptual, psychological

- Idealize (perfect): conceptual, symbolic

• First, respond with your own observations, ideas, and feelings AND then, for a critical perspective, it helps to Learn about the Context (the bigger picture) - Read the label, to start expanding beyond your perceptions and conceptions, by discovering and using evidence and reason to come to your conclusions / evaluation of art works. - Do some research to help answer your questions, but mainly use your own words to observe, analyze, define, and comment on others’.49

Getting to know Your Tendencies and Develop

Your Own “Aesthetic”

This is Your philosophy of values in the arts, and in living --

Traditionally, involves such ideas as the good, the true, the beautiful, the just, and the sublime (experience beyond everyday emotions) . . . 50

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An Experiment.

Take a quick look at the next slide.

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Draw what you remember seeing. Don’t go back to check. Hemispheric asymmetry. Gestalt. 54

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M.C. Escher. A painter's original function may have been to record reality faithfully.

M.C. Escher.

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Value and Meaning: Cave paintings--Graffiti tags.

Differences?

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Now: SUBWAY drawings?

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Art and Ideas:

SEMIOTICS: THEORY OF SIGNS

Keith Haring 1958-1990

Organic Pigments

59Iris Amaryllis